Marketing is a challenging subject that I had in my undergraduate due to the complicated and confusing concepts. In my imagination, this one will bring me the same feeling that I will never be able to comprehend how marketing works in the real world. Fortunately, it turns out to be one of the most interesting class I have ever had. All the lectures Dr. Corie Martin emphasized in basic marketing concepts and advanced marketing related to brand, social medias (websites, Ads, and Google Business) , and analytics. I have gotten a chance to enhance my knowledge in marketing in different perspectives. It is really helpful, realistic, and efficient. I really like the idea using data to determine what to post and when. Dr. Corie did an excellent jobs explaining marketing strategy to get audience’s attentions based on Google Analytics. I am so impressed by how effectively data help enhance marketing.

The Marketing project is the most challenging project that brings me a lot of surprises. I and Brennan, who do not have marketing background, think we are not going to make it as we expected. In other words, I feel so panic and worried at the first time when I saw the project’s requirement. I am not confident with my marketing knowledge as well as ability to work on the project. Thus, I think I cannot make it. It turns out to be a meaningful experience. I got a hard time catching up with my client’s expectation and coming up any innovative ideas to help them market. Brennan helped me explain what our client needs and concerns. Based on our experience, I and Brennan had incredible experiences when we started working on this project despite of the challenge learning how to use new software like OU Campus.

The marketing strategic plan and Analytics sparks my interest. It challenges me to think critically and comprehensively. I come to notice it is not easy to create an effective marketing strategic plan. Based on marketing project, I learned how to create landing page, design website content, link the necessary information to official page, recording video, editing, and making it more appealing to the target audience. I go through this long process and gain more experiences. At this point, I truly understand how marketing works in the real world. It takes a lot of time coming up with new ideas, creating ads, webpage, doing social posts, and using the analytics. It was not that easy, but when you can market successfully. This feeling was so wonderful that no words can describe.

This is one of the most interesting marketing class that I have ever had. It incredibly changes my experience in marketing. The more challenging the project was, the more profound experience I had. Thus, I can apply all class materials as well as what I have learned from my marketing project to any future marketing projects. It truly helps me prepared myself well in marketing world. I am confident that I understand marketing and can do marketing.

The OAS Academic Scholarship Program grants scholarships every year for the pursuit of Master’s Degree, Doctoral Degrees and Graduate Research leading to a university degree. The OAS Special Caribbean Scholarship Program (SPECAF) grants scholarships for the last two years of undergraduate studies to citizens and residents of the English-speaking Caribbean OAS Member State and Suriname.

In addition to these programs the OAS, through its Partnerships Program for Education and Training (PAEC), offer other attractive scholarship opportunities for academic studies with the support of its partner institutions in the Americas and around the world.

The Professional Development Scholarships Program (PDSP) offers scholarship opportunities for short-term training courses in any of the OAS member states and OAS Permanent Observers, with the exception of the applicant’s country of citizenship or permanent residency (sponsoring country).

The OAS Scholarships are offered to all International Students whose countries fall within the 35 OAS member states. This is a great opportunity for international students who want to pursue the provided degrees in the U.S.

OAS mission: …”an order of peace and justice, to promote their solidarity, to strengthen their collaboration, and to defend their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their independence.”

WKU mission: Western Kentucky University (WKU) prepares students of all backgrounds to be productive, engaged, and socially responsible citizen-leaders of a global society. The University provides research, service and lifelong learning opportunities for its students, faculty, and other constituents. WKU enriches the quality of life for those within its reach.

Relevant link: http://www.oas.org/en/scholarships/PAEC/2018/2018_OAS-WKU_ScholarshipAnnouncement.pdf

Persona: A 18-30 year old male or female with a high school diploma that lives in one of the 35 member states. This person is looking to earn a college degree outside of their country. They are single with no children and in a supportive family that can afford to partially support their decision to study abroad. The student is above average academically and is looking to achieve an enhancing higher education experience to take that knowledge to improve either their country or stay in the U.S. and improve our economy. The main challenges this student faces are maintaining academic excellence, cultural differences between countries, and full financial support to pursue higher education.

Three benefits the OAS Scholarships at WKU offer that International Students cannot get anywhere else:

• The OAS Scholarships at WKU cover a large portion of tuition fees (onsite programs) and cover one-time subsistence allowance to the top ranked candidates in the first year. Alternatively, this scholarship offers the same one-time subsistence allowance even for Online Programs. This makes studying abroad for higher education less expensive than many other options.

• The OAS Scholarships at WKU contain minimum requirements to apply for scholarship, however, it is not hard to apply and many international students are eligible for these scholarships.

• The OAS Scholarships at WKU also give international students (especially Latin America, the Caribbean, and recipients of Bahamian citizenships) a chance to apply for the Rowe Fund and additional funds for their education.

Pain ratio: The problems lie under the unawareness of this scholarship and the incomplete applications. In other words, OAS Scholarships at WKU offer 10 spots every year; however, all 10 are not being filled. Our group is striving to increase scholarship awareness and application completion by suggesting that the ISO (International Student Office) use social media, print, brochures, ad buys, testimonial, and PR to make the OAS Scholarships well-known to all international students. Another option can be ISO should have a representative talk to international students about how OAS Scholarships benefits their future. Finally, having frequent connections and smooth interactions with the international students’ countries about these available scholarships can be considered helpful. Therefore, the international students’ pain ratio is currently too high due to these issues.

Value proposition: The OAS Scholarships give international students the opportunities to enhance their knowledge and future career success with a U.S college education. This brings a variety of future career opportunities in the U.S, and an incredible experience for transformative contribution to their countries if they decide to return back their home countries.

 Spotify is a music streaming platform which is established and developed by Swedish company Spotify AB. Spotify is well-known by all audiences around the world due to its global marketing strategies.

Spotify starts to use marketing to make the business more efficient, effective and successful. Setting its main focus on the need of potential buyers in other countries, Spotify comes up with a global marketing strategy. At first, Spotify does new market research by identifying countries where its business’s product might be successful. Then, Spotify localizes its brand to reflect the needs of those community. In other words, Spotify really cares about its audience. Knowing who needs its product, in what form to deliver the product to the audience, and how to do it in a way that strengthens its brand are the core ingredients included in the marketing strategy that Spotify applies to its business.

       Spotify concentrates on developing its business model which allows the audiences find something new. Concentrating on the audience’s preferences, Spotify classifies music based on users’ genre of music, mood, workout, or sleep’s preferences. By changing how audience describe their content. Spotify gets users to listen to music that go beyond their favorite genres, and instead satisfies habits and lifestyles that people share all over the world. This allows international artists to access their listeners from other countries easily because their product is being categorized a different way. It is extremely incredible that all audiences around the world can enjoy and learn more about other countries’ music. Spotify now has offices in 17 countries around the world, and we can find all locations on their website. Spotify’s brand is recognizable with its innovative websites, authentic contents, preferable advertising, excellent customer services, and beneficial apps providing to users.

Spotify is a typical example of a possible and successful business whose attention aims to creative marketing strategy and a deep understanding of world market. This brand is easily recognized in Googles when everyone search for music.

Relevant Link:

https://spotifyforbrands.com/en-US/audiences/

https://www.spotify.com/us/

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton