Endoh’s Dungeon

How many of you have received a Courts Guest Club card? Mysteriously, I received it today even though I haven’t been shopping in Courts for a very long time. Not in the last five years at least, so I do not know if they really keep information of customers for that long even without a single purchase.

I have this habit of scrutinizing going through the details and fine prints whenever I receive such marketing collaterals. There are always mistakes things that others commit and I can remind myself that I should not make these same mistakes. It is also something that I remind myself that I should always check, recheck & ensure whenever I assist clients in running marketing and branding activities.

Customer loyalty is a very good way of bringing back customers. It make customers feel appreciated and the likelihood of returning to shop at your premises are higher. Of course, this has to go hand-in-hand with acceptable standards of services and products. Everything works in a chain that brings about the effects of returning or referral customers. Mistakes are always there, but there are mistakes that should never have been overlooked. These mistakes can kill your entire campaign. Here’s why… with the entire package in front of me now.

The letter was dated 31st May 2007. The date today is 14th July 2007. I can’t seem to find a logical explanation to the delay of more than a month in sending out a letter. The last that I remembered, sending a letter locally requires at most 2 days - depending on the time you slot your envelope into the mailbox. A more acceptable delay to me personally, would be between one week to two weeks maximum. This is extremely critical because Courts is running this campaign within a specific time-frame! Timing is the factor… but still how does this kill a reasonable part of the campaign?

For those who received the same, there are three sets of promotion listed within. Here are the three promo;

1. Valid from 1st to 30th June 2007, $10 Welcome Voucher on the page where the Guest Card is affixed.

2. Valid from 13th to 30th June 2007, Double Your GST Supplement promotion which urges customers to grab the savings when they buy on Courts Easy Access Credit.

3. Valid from 16th to 29th June 2007, three separate coupons with either percentile discounts or free gift when they have a minimum purchase in three separate departments.

Before anything else, assuming I am a customer whom have been considering of buying something before GST is raised, I would have gone sighzzzzzzz! Why!? By the time I received this letter from them, all the coupons or vouchers have since expired. How can this happen? Well, I see it as a severe mistake on the part of whoever came up with this loyalty programme. To embark on such mass mailing gimmick, you have to make sure all these arrive on time to the affected customers. In the position of a customer, how do you think I will feel? Let’s just say… ALREADY OVER! SEND TO ME WASTE MY TIME FOR WHAT??? A delay which stretches more than a month for such a simple thing, it is simply not acceptable.

A tragic delay also place a black mark over their royalty programme. When a company sets out to send expired coupons, it reflects very badly on the company. Are they truly appreciative and sincere about their customers? What the receiver is left with, is to utilize the Guest Card. If the Guest Card is their primary motive, it is still better to just send out these cards without further promotions - worse of all, expired promotions. Is this an appreciative approach? Or is this just another marketing gimmick?

I said once before, in any typical appreciation programme, clients or customers don’t really care how much you spend on them. The point is, the efforts have been made and they feel appreciated as valued customers. For a period of 3 months, I sent out Coffeebean vouchers to clients irregardless of their project’s nett earnings. In return, I received numerous calls from clients with “Thanks so much, I used it for a meeting and redeemed coffee for my staffs” or “Thanks, now I can bring my wife for coffee.” One marketing girl even called up to say her subordinates don’t really drink coffee, which I cheekily replied she can always date me out for coffee with that. We eventually had our coffee… one month later. *blush* The wonders of simple customer appreciation…

Courts has made a very critical mistake in time management and distribution of this particular campaign. However, customers will feel the comfort that they will still be able to utilize the Guest Card, but without the rest of the vouchers. This is a very simple (all the more why it is silly) mistake for any marketer to commit.

Another lesson learnt, I’m not letting this happen in my work.

Well I’m back from my Bintan Show and back from my disappearance. Did alot of thinking alone in the cabin when the rest of the peeps went ashore. The yatch wasn’t setting sail until 6pm that evening anyway.

All the DJs had a cabin to ourselves, so with the TV and satellite receiver on-ship, we could get some television feeds from Singapore even if it wasn’t really that fantastic. For a while I was watching the much acclaimed Live Earth concerts, guess what? It’s nothing but just bullshit to me. Stupidly, Mediacorp tagged along with that “Wear Green” campaign. I didn’t want to write anything previously because I wanted to see how “well” they can pull this off. Their propoganda that is… Here’s why…

1. Live Earth? or Die Earth?
So what if they had the huge amount of artistes backing them up? Are their songs green? In what way does their performances relate to Earth’s conservation? Is energy saving lightbulbs all about it?

I was shocked at the lightning effects that were used in that 2 hours that I watched Live Earth on Channel 5. It’s countless lightbulbs. Not to mention, it was a 24 hours concert over 7 continents. Do you know how much electrical power is being used in all concerts and television transmission? Just a single World Cup Final match had sent several nuclear/hydro power stations on the edge. What about a 24-hours concert? It will not be as much as World Cup but surely, it is going to be more than the average 2-hours concert we get.

How much more money has gone to conservation works? How has Live Earth changed the living habits of people? It’s obvious that most people are there to catch their idols and the music, not because of what Live Earth is all about. Oh, Linkin’ Park “conveniently” promoted their concert tours as a way of pledging to go green with their concerts (reading from a note in Japanese). But how? Sorry Linkin’ Park fans… their live singing suck big time. He sounded really cool when screaming, but when he started to sing it was an absolute turn off. He can’t sing for shit… he can only scream. Period!

What’s more? Who the hell is “陈晓明”? He can’t hold a pitch stable for more than 3 seconds, and a cheesy dance track on the second. How can a person’s vocals remain THE SAME when he moved his mouth away from the mic? Go figure it out and tell me. Any participants from Idol shows can beat him hands down, I swear my life upon it.

Oh yea, dancers who are not energetic and their face expressions looked like they’re involved in some top-secret scientific experiments. If you are dancing half-hearted, knowing the purpose of this concert, DON’T DANCE! This was the last segment I watched. This entire Live Earth turned me off so much that I switched off the TV and smoked my time away in the bar.

2. Wear green - so?
How does wearing green equates to Earth’s conservation? I think Mediacorp has alot of work to do when designing a concept (or when tapping…) and the underlying relevance to a campaign. A campaign is only successful when it feeds the purposes it sets out to do. Does wearing a green shirt means anything? Absolutely nothing at all.

Want to wear green? Go join the army.

It is just plain silly by the two campaigns above. Look, everyone knows conservation, everyone knows how much industrial activities and personal habits have damaged the Earth. What we need is not preachers… we need DO-ers. Live Earth looks nothing more than just a mere congregation of major pop artistes who can’t wait to publicize themselves. Other than that… what significant contribution have these concerts done?

We have alot of campaigns to preach Earth’s conservation, and we do not need another one. What we need are people who can put their money where their mouths are. Imagine if the costs of these concerts are put through to proper agencies, how many whales can be save? How many tigers can be re-home? How many pandas can we pro-create? How many chimps can we released back into the wild?

They should be thankful there is no Live Earth concert in Singapore. If there is, I will definitely be there. Not because of the concert but I will be there to take photographs of the garbage they leave behind and waste generated from the staging. Throw these in their faces and tell me that is going GREEN!

…and E for Emo… especially when Ed starts listening to Mandarin songs, something is very wrong up in his brains.

I will be away for an indefinite period. See you fellow friends and blogger soon.

Following an “exchange of words” between 3 bloggers… Defector, Uglyfatchick & Sicarii. I will refrain from quoting any lines written by them because I want this post to be individually mine, nothing but the brutal facts of life in Singapore.

A mere post about how soldiers should wear their uniform can be read in several ways. However, the purpose of National Service can only be one! To protect and safeguard Singapore against external threat. Sounds very impressive, isn’t it? Good, you have just agreed with me that certain words are only meant to sound good and nothing more than that. Let me just run you down with a few things (facts we conveniently ignored or turn a blind eye to intentionally) from my point of view. Having served in both green and blue, and now back to green… my points will be generalised between the two.

Just like how you would check your attire when you go to work, you should check your military uniform too. Putting on a uniform represents an agency or department that you belong to, just like how your personal dress style represents you and your taste in fashion. If one can do so for their working attire, why not for a set of military uniform?

As working adults will know, being tidy and neat gives a good impression of professionalism on top of other things. Taking care of the slightest trivial detail tells your clients how meticulous you are in your work. If you show yourself in a sloppy uniform, what signals do you send out? Just like working in the private sector, be it you like it or not, you keep yourself nice and trimmed so as to pass on a good image. Likewise for our military uniforms, it’s also telling people about our personal (lousy) habits. People who don’t bother to iron their clothes, people who don’t bother to check their shoes or people who don’t check their colors etc. All these little bits of information tells us something about this person.

For girls (or even men) who can’t see the big deal about dressing neat and tidy, I don’t know what to say. Bear in mind, being a rugged and brave soldier need not necessary means you have to look rundown like what we see in Black Hawk Down or SWAT. Are we at war now? Is there a jungle in Orchard? Does a soldier goes shopping straight after 4 days of intense outfield exercise? It’s only reasonable to know that no decent soldier will do that. If that’s the case, why shouldn’t this soldier be neat?

Singapore started NS for the sole purpose of defending our land upon independence. Since our fathers’ days, many men have gone through shit (and I seriously mean SHIT!) to eventually finish their NS as Operationally Ready.

Many Singapore girls still cannot understand the amount of hardship in NS until today. Complaining about NS, is just like how girls would complain about the least trivial thing like as if the world is going to end. While some girls are quick to call a man “sissy” when men complain about NS, they could be happily resting their feet in a pedicure bar. Why? Well, women just don’t get it. It’s as simple as that.

Alot of times, we don’t understand what other people are going through, UNTIL they are put through the same torture. Now my dear ladies, picture this. For training purpose, you had to dig your hands into wet soil covering your poo from the previous night, and you are not allowed to wash your hands at lunchtime. For training purpose, you have to leopard-crawl through puddles of urine and mud. For training purpose, you get a dustbin emptied over your bedsheet and told to sleep on it. How do these sound to the ladies?

Need we say more? The last time I wrote about SPGs I had insults mailed to me, of which some were even “dedicated” to my family. I am still undaunted.

It’s of little surprise that some Singapore women would used NS related matters to justify their love for foreign men. I have seen it far too many times. If the materialism in a woman drives her to date a foreign man, then keep it as that and not try to find some other reasons to “cover your backside”. Singapore men have seen it all in NS, how individuals would get into trouble and sacrifice another “beloved colleague” to shoulder the blame. This makes it all the easier for Singapore men to spot these excuses from ladies. Usually, it comes from top-down - and this is perfectly the reason why many young NSFs are complaining. At age 18, what would they know? Do they dare to fight back at the risk of weekend confinement or even worse, detention barracks?

Well, this is what your foreign men do not go through in Singapore, while happily boozing and making merry in your bed. We fuck a whole lot too… but we fuck our M16S1. Get the idea now?

Like I mentioned above, some things are only meant to sound good. For the men whom have gone through NS, we know the truth all the more. It’s undeniable that serving NS protects Singapore in a certain way, but again, many Singapore girls failed to see the other side of the coin. Just like any story, there’s always two sides of the coin.

If called upon to defend this land for Singaporeans, yes I would put my life down. If at any point, I am called upon to defend this land for people who does not belong here - sorry that’s one of the main reasons why I eventually resigned from public service. I don’t believe in defending this land for the benefit of people, other than for Singaporeans. Many expats sing praises of Singapore’s safety and stability, but right down the tube who is doing the job? We - the Singaporeans. However, who’s reaping the most benefits out of this safety and stability? Sadly, it’s not Singaporeans.

If your foreign man is THAT great, why is he not defending this land that you embrace? Why do Singapore men have to defend this land while you snuggle up to your foreign bf under the moonlight? Ever spare a thought for that? Our eyes are trained to look through rifle scopes while some women eyes are trained to peek through wallets for cards. Doesn’t that makes your “manly foreign man” even more “sissy”? Like I mentioned in earlier posts, a war is meant to be fought with guns and bullets, not pens and plastic cards. We are not filming a kungfu show here.

I don’t know if this is too offensive, but one sentence my buddies and I used to share with each other… “Serving NS nowadays is just like defending this land for foreign men to fuck our local women for free.” If you are a girl reduced to this, too bad for you.

When one starts to see the truth behind the term NS, we will no longer take pride in what we do anymore. I shall not even go into the topic whether have Singapore men been exploited. Having been screamed at for the entire week in camp by our superiors, the last thing we want is get home to face a screaming woman pestering to go for shopping trips. Yes we can, bring you for shopping trips in Iraq that is. Would you like to have 5.56 for lunch? Or 9mm for dinner? Or perhaps 120mm for supper thereafter?

For women who are still complaining about Singapore men complaining about NS issues… serve your term, we will talk later. And please, Singapore men are not gutless when approaching girls… some of us can’t be bothered to waste our time on you that’s all.

Gosh, I woke up at 5am again. Yea, that little chirpy friend woke me up when I heard him sing, how cool?!?!

I didn’t write anything yesterday because my mind was in a blank. So there I was doing my work quietly for the whole day. Okie, not exactly quietly since I had the speakers blasted pretty loud. That’s how I enjoy doing my music.

Just the night before, Ling suddenly mentioned I have this “anti-thesis” syndrome. Is that what you guys call it? We were supposedly joking about the way I named my songs, with two words opposing each other. One of the songs I’ve composed in the genre of Easy Listening or Chill Out was Peaceful Turmoil. Yesterday, I started work on the concept of my next song in the usual dance genre and conveniently I named it Smooth Riot. I didn’t know how I ended up with all these but it’s just how I felt when I go through my works.

Anyway, I’ll let you guys have a preview of Peaceful Turmoil since I do not have plans to do commercial licensing for this track. It was merely a song I did suddenly one day when I was lazing in my couch, a little dreamy of life on a private island in New York. If you hear carefully even my birdie at home gave me a little inspiration and help to add a chirp in. Hahaha… (Intellectual Property Rights & Copyright still apply - ET 2006) The track is not polished yet, everything’s pre-mix & pre-master. Let’s just say… I would like a little more texture to it.

And of course, I finished my 30 days of CDS… here’s the last few days. Too lazy to tabulate it previously. From more than 20 sticks to an average of 15, I think that’s pretty fair enough for 30 days of action. Keeping fingers crossed it stays this way… I think will lah hor. LOL!