Cite for Sore Eyes

According to Techvibes, Canada is a good place for budding entrepreneurs. It is true that Canada has a great social safety net which benefits not only startups but individuals, as well. In fact, I was just discussing this with my teammates on the car ride home from the National Film Board (NFB) yesterday.

While at the office yesterday, we had a meeting with the Marketing Manager to discuss the first draft of our marketing plan. Though she explained why some recommendations would not be feasible for the project, she was happy to see that we had developed several innovative ideas that the NFB has not yet used. Based on her feedback, we further refined our recommendations to make them more suitable for the film. But all in all, we got positive feedback, which we were happy to have received.

I have recently had many flashbacks to C2-MTL as a result of the news about Jonah Lehrer's Bob Dylan quote falsification. At C2-MTL, the fellow speaker was "called out" by Dr. Rex Jung due to his "scientific" ideas. But now that Lehrer has been accused of making up Bob Dylan quotes, his career might never be the same. Now my team can see why I insist on proper citations in our marketing plan!

Page Break

My teammates call me "chief editor" due to my ability and interest in placing proper punctuation marks and grammar in our report to the National Film Board (NFB). It is no surprise, then, that I empathized with the writer of the HBR article "I Won't Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here's Why." Like the article's author CEO Kyle Wiens, I am a grammar "stickler."

On Friday, I had to deal with a technical glitch whereby my edited version of our report did not save properly on Dropbox. However, there is one great advantage of P8:  weekends. After re-editing our document, I was able to unplug and enjoy the two-day break. This is something which is truly different than all other semesters at school and I really value this newfound freedom.

Besides, Montreal definitely comes alive during the summer. With a gamut of festivals here, it is a wonderful time to be out and about. On Saturday night, I saw the Just for Laughs Festival Joel McHale Gala at Place des Arts. Even just walking around the Quartier des Spectacles is a lot of fun - the street food at the souk is worth a visit!

On the Right Path

For any of my readers who are thinking about going to b-school, I have some good news. Aringo, a top MBA admission consulting firm, has agreed to offer a 20% discount to anyone who mentions that they heard about Aringo's services through my blog. I hope that helps you to start your MBA journey!

Today, my group sent the first draft of our marketing plan to our professor. Though we met with her this afternoon, she will not be able to send us feedback until she has had time to review it. I am anxiously awaiting her comments! In the meantime, she mentioned that she always gets nervous about our team because we are consistently quiet during our meetings with her. It's mostly because we haven't had too many questions for her, and we have not yet hit any major roadblocks. I hope she agrees that we are on the right path!

Nostalgia

I am so excited to share a movie trailer for a film called The Oranges that is based in my hometown of West Orange, New Jersey! The star-studded film premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Enjoy the trailer below!

Last night, I was reading through my most recent issue of the McGill News, our alumni magazine. I was shocked to learn that several people who I admire are McGill alumni, such as Julie Payette (Canadian astronaut), Katrina Onstad (journalist and writer), and Moshe Safdie (architect of Habitat 67). I am truly honoured to share an alma mater with these individuals. I can't wait to learn what my fellow HEC Montreal classmates and alumni will do!

Driving Progress

July 24, 2012 would have been Amelia Earhart's 115th birthday, which is why she has been all over the news today. I was happy to catch an article entitled "Amelia Earhart:  Better feminist than pilot?" especially due to its relatedness to the film my team is working on for the National Film Board (NFB). Just like the women in the NFB film we are marketing, Earhart sought gender equality.

For our consulting project with the NFB, my team has divided the tasks to be done for this week's deliverable. This meant that I was researching and writing about infographics, photo campaigns, and other marketing tools today, while my teammates worked on other sections. Fortunately, we are able to use Skype, so we can work from home sometimes, but still stay updated on everyone's progress.

Marketing Plan Development

As a team, I think we are all feeling more confident in the development of our marketing plan for the National Film Board (NFB). Now that we are in the third week of our project, it is the first time we will have deliverables, both to the NFB and our supervising professor Johanne Brunet.

During our time at the office today, we worked on refining our positioning statement for the NFB's film about Canadian women. In doing so, we have tried to apply the KISS principle ("Keep It Simple, Stupid!"). We also developed our tables for the channels of dissemination and ways to engage our proposed segments, alongside the appropriate messages for our segments.

Throughout our work, we are keeping in mind the need for innovation. For this element of our project, I have found Fast Company's article "How Innovation is More Poetry Than Science" particularly helpful.

A Woman's Work is Never Done

This morning, my team started off the day with meetings. We sat with representatives from the National Film Board's (NFB) Consumer Programs and Distribution departments. By using the Type With Me tool, my group was able to share our notes and ideas from the meetings, to aid in the development of our marketing plan for the upcoming film launch.

My team then worked to determine the appropriate marketing mix for the film by using the four Ps (price, product, promotion, and place). With promotion being the most in-depth and challenging element for us, we were only able to create a preliminary document, but will continue the rest tomorrow.

With my constant focus on women's issues, especially due to the film's content, I noted Fast Company's recent article "Meet the League of Extraordinary Women:  60 Influencers Who Are Changing The World." While the article highlights that North American women can certainly help to fight for the international rights of girls and women, the film my team is working on demonstrates that Canadian women still have a long way to go on our own soil.