Go Global Eastern Europe Best 2 Weeks Ever

So here's my trip in roughly 2 min and 15 sec. This is part of my marketing class and needs to help promote these Go Global trips, namely the Eastern Europe one. 

I had a ton of fun on my trip and really want people to be able to experience what I was able to do. It was great learning and growing. 

So I hope you like it. 

Bartering is a MUST!!!

So one of my most favorite parts of shopping in Russia and Turkey was the bartering. Walking away from a shop feeling you were able to talk the shop keeper down to a lower price, was the greatest feeling I had.

We went to two great places for bartering in Russia we went to a little souvenir shop it was way cute and full of lots of great presents, from matryoshka dolls, to music boxes, to Faberge Eggs. It was great we went so many times we actually made friends with some of the shop keepers. We all helped each other out with the bartering. We found that some of us were much better at it than others.

The other great place we got to go barter was at the Grand Bazaar in Turkey. It was a shopaholics paradise. There were over 4,000 shops and the place was filled with so many people. The shops even extended out onto the street, and down through the tourist areas. It was a little bit more difficult to barter at the Grand Bazaar because the shop keepers would only focus on you and there didn't really seem to be a winner in the bartering game there.

One of the biggest differences that I saw between bartering in Turkey and Russia was the gratification. You could tell that the shop owners in Turkey really didn't like getting a price much lower than what they asked for. however it was more gratifying in Russia because their currency was so weak compared to the USD. It was a $1 to 33 ruble ratio. So it made all of us much more excited when the shop keeper agreed to drop from 1500 rubles to 800. But in Turkey it took much longer to get the shop keeper to drop from 25 to 15 Lyra. While we were there $1 was worth 1.8 Lyra.

The other interesting shopping difference between Russia and Turkey was how willing the shop keepers were to take your money. While we were in Russia if I said that I was "Just looking" the owner/seller just moved on to another more willing customer. But while in Turkey the "Just looking" comment returned with a rebuttal of "I'm just selling". It was crazy because in Russia they were willing to let your money go but in Turkey they really wanted to take your money, in any way shape or form. 

Different Environments Different Marketing

So here comes a topic I find interesting. Since we didn't get to spend too much time in each country I had a hard time finding out what many of the major US company's (IE: Coca Cola, Pepsi, McDonald's, Burger King, etc...) marketing strategy's were. However I did notice a huge change in the delivery of the preferred marketing of the different areas in which we visited.

While in Russia it was interesting to find that many people had and drove frequently their own vehicle. It was fun because the marketing strategy's followed this, the ads were large enough and simple enough to look at while driving by. This was really different from Turkey because theirs was more geared to the pedestrian, there were lots of little billboards just on the street that you could look at and read from the street. In Taksim square there were even very large shopping bags placed out as an advertisement for a huge shopping event going on.

It also surprised me that there were very few ads on the public transportation in Turkey. In Russia they had them all over the Metro system having at least 24 to 48 ads in one train car, but Turkey's tram system was very clean and didn't have much advertising. From personal experience if I wanted to promote my product anywhere it'd be on the Turkish tram system, the trains were so full that you could barely breathe.

I guess this just goes to show that there is great use in the placement, and considering I just got a topical glance at many of these ads and didn't get to see every aspect of the delivery methods I can't really judge  how or where they advertise and promote their products. 

Died and Gone to Female Heaven

So sadly this one comes with out many/any pictures. But I have to admit that when we were shopping in Turkey we found this amazing haven that every woman needs to see. Well that's the preface so on to the story. While shopping in Istanbul some of the girls found some really cute earrings and I was determined to find some for myself. So we started walking home from the Grand Bazaar looking for the best place to find these earrings. We were walking down the street looking at all of the places that had similar earrings. We were walking down the street and found some nice ones. That's when the shop owner walked up to us and asked us if we wanted to see more, he claimed that he had thousands more at his shop.

So carefully we decided we'd follow him we walked into this side shop and down some stairs and even from the top of the stairs we realized that we were going to a really chill place. There were necklaces and bracelets everywhere. We got to what we were looking for, the earrings, and there were literally thousands of every shape style and color that we were looking for. Here's one pair we found. Well to say the least I walked out of there with 11 pair of earrings and they were cheaper than the ones that were purchased by our friends.

Well... looking back and looking at all the stuff in the store you could tell that some of the stuff there was very old some older than others everything covered in a fairly slight layer of dust, some more than others. But you could see that some of the stuff was older than others, the styles changed. You could tell the shop owner had things that met every one's personality style and preferences, the owner also made stuff for every time. He only displayed outside a very small portion of his selection but he also provided a great selection in his store. He knew his market and he knew how the pricing worked and offered better prices (1 for 1.5 vs 3 for 5). He was so excited to see us and had such a great price we didn't even care to barter with him.

I really wish I had a pic of the shop for ya'll it was amazing

Marketing support in Turkey

While on business visits in Turkey we visited a company called Starcom Media Vest Group. This business focused on marketing placement in Turkey. Starcom did a lot of marketing research and even a little bit of design for a few of those customers not quite prepared for the marketing section they want to enter. The research they presented to us showed how the Turkish people like to spend their time, and the best places to present their ads. This company also ensured the quality of the placement in the market.

It actually never occurred to me that placing the ads is just as important as the the design of the ad as well as the product. This group really seemed focused on the online advertising for their clients. With turkey as one of the main user groups on Facebook and Twitter. Their research also showed that online advertising was increasing and becoming a greater platform for promoting goods to the younger population. They didn't share much about how they market themselves to the businesses that use their services but it was interesting to see how they work with their customers to place their ads in the most reliable, best place for the market group that they are looking for.

Popeye's in Turkey not in Utah... What???

There were many surprises on this trip. One of which was how many American franchises there were in Russia but mostly in Turkey. My favorite one had to have been Popeye's. My family lived on the East coast for a while and one of our favorite places to eat had to be Popeye's. And now when ever we go back east we always make it a tradition to go to Popeye's and get Cajun fires and fried chicken. It surprised me that most of the food courts that we went to had a Popeye's, along with at least a dozen other American franchises.

There were also many other franchises there were countless McDonald's, Burger King's, Sbarro, Starbucks, Popeye's, Dunkin Donuts, and even Papa John's. This was very interesting because while there were many American franchises there were not many other similar types of franchises there. It was crazy because where ever we went I never found the same Turkish resturants. It appeared to me that there were no Turkish franchises. It was very similar in Russia. All of the resturants that were the same were American franchises. It was hard for me to think that the there were no foregin resturants that were franchised.

The thing that surprised me the most was that the only one of these American franchises that I saw advertise hard core was McDonalds, (remember the Golden Escelator) now we really didn't get newspapers or watch too much TV but the most advertising I saw for these other franchises were all on the windows of the shops, not much else.

55 Locations??? and I thought Americans loved fast food

Turkey's advertisements were very different from Russia. My favorite one had to be the crazy amount of advertising. In Turkey I felt like I was constantly bombarded with ads, and promotions. Some of these bombardments included, but not limited to, promoted security checks at the mall, sponsored turnstiles on the metro, and last but not least promoted escalators.

The best promoted escalator had to have been the McDonald's escalators, and there was no way you could miss them. Mostly because you had to walk under the golden arches to ride up the escalator or continue off the down escalator. It was completely breath taking but it was funny because the only people who seemed to notice were the tourists, namely us, partly because Vijay pointed it out... but considering the grander of this arch it was hard to miss.

It was crazy how much more McDonald's promoted themselves in Europe versus in the US. To add to the amazingness of McDonald's in Europe, with around 55 locations on the European side of Turkey alone. This is interesting because even in the US there isn't as many in one city. It amazes me that such a large US company can be able to build, market and sustain that many locations in one city. However there were a few issues while at the McDonald's in Taksim we had real issues, with getting our food and the timeliness of the ordering process. So what would have been a quick 7 min trip to McDonald's ended up being a 20 min endeavour racing the clock to not miss our bus.

Sex Appeal???

So aside from the internet, and the restaurant ads I also noticed a lot of other interesting marketing tactics, and a majority of them seemed to focus on the sex appeal. The car ads had the car looking as seductive and sleek as possible, and many of them sported very attractive looking supermodel esque women laying all over the cars. 

Martini at the Airport

The other adds that really hit the sex appeal had to be the martini/alcohol advertisements. There was one, sadly no picture, for a bar that had a really sleek female front that had only two pints of bear hiding what needed to be covered. But Martini had some great ones in the airport with really attractive men and women leaning in very seductive poses and say things like "Are you ready?" and "are you?".

The thing was these didn't fall too far away from the market, with the Russian people wanting to be something more than what they were. They didn't really seem to care about money or how much it cost they just wanted to be up to date and seem as high class and wealthy as possible. the sex appeal also plays back to the market with the fact being that's what some of the people are looking for. We rode in many different coaches in Russia and most every driver had their own personal collection of only partially dressed women. (some even less dressed than Victoria Secrets Angels). But considering where we were and the ads we saw, and the way people dressed I could tell that they cared about how attractive a product would make them look. 

Look at how sexy that phone looks. 

Glancing Back

So I got home from my trip yesterday... and it was a long fun trip. But today was a little crazy however I did notice something that I found interesting from a Marketing perspective. My mom and I went to a big grocery store, Win Co, to get some groceries for my family. It was crazy I was surprised how large things were after shopping at little grocery stores in Russia for a little over a week.

It honestly surprised me. The people in Russia, and even in Turkey, although I didn't have the privilege of going into a grocery store there, it seemed that they valued the freshness of the food, and the people shopped for just a few days at a time unlike the US idea of buying for a month at one period of time.

You could really tell this value when you walked in the stores, you could smell the ripe fresh fruits and veggies, unlike the smell of the "fresh" fruits and veggies in our stores. Oddly enough it was one of the most tantalizing smells when you walked in the store, it made the store feel truly like a grocery store.

The other thing that really surprised me was how small the stores were, seeing as many of them bought only for a few days at a time. This value of freshness came through while we were also in the Bread Factory #1 in Obmnisk. They said that they bake bread all day every day, save a few special holidays. They were packaging their bread while it was still warm and the presenter said that they deliver fresh to many stores from 1 to 3 times per day.

I was amazed of the freshness of the food. Especially in the fruit juices, (side note, I love love love apple juice and when we were on the plane we had apple juice that tasted just like a granny smith apple, my favorite flavor of apple.)

Scientific Resturant

So... the hardest part of being in Russia had to be the language barrier, in spoken word, text and different understandings. All of these difficult understandings came together to create one of the oddest ad's that I saw the whole trip.

Here is the picture of the ad in Russian. This was taken at our hotel,The Holiday Inn,  in St. Petersburg. This advertisement was in most of the elevators, and most of the ones we rode in had it in Russian, and to be honest we were wondering what they were trying to say the whole entire time. From the picture alone we thought it was for some big tech conference or something along those lines.


However because this was a big US chain hotel there was a bit more information available, like a list/translation of where all the restaurants and bars were in our hotel. From there we discovered it was a restaurant. This assumption was reassured when we found this little piece of work.

The thing that I found really odd was the fact that it didn't express the true idea of a restaurant ad. When I'm looking at restaurants to go to I look for what the food looks like, I like to see the types of presentation, and their main dishes on an advertisement. However this one seemed to focus on the scientific side of what a good meal is.

The part that interested me the most about this ad was the fact that it focused on the idea, or a slight process of bodily signs of being aroused. It was entertaining because it was really about the desirableness or the food instead of the quality. 

Wait... I left the country???

Dear faithful readers...

(sadly I’m not as faithful at posting as you are at reading) So update, the long and the short of it is I’m in Russia, the mystical land of long lost princesses, and thousands of palaces. That’s right I’m in St Petersburg, and while I'm here I get the amazing opportunity to ride the metro. 


So for all who don’t know I don’t actually know how to read, write, or even read Russian but the ads are great. So I was riding the metro... and without being able to read anything I was able to decipher a sign. It was way cool there were 4 people in silver suits riding on white segways, and two of them were carrying boxes which said things like “2.4GB Movie” (that part was in english) and other downloadable things.


So on the 7 min train ride I was able to observe and conclude that this poster was an ad for high speed internet. How did I get the High Speed from this, you ask. there are a few reasons 1. all their hair was blown back. 2. two of the main people in the poster were flying off their segways. and 3. the outfits and background looked very high tech and futuristic. And truth be told it really looked like a Utopia add, which was really weird. 


Anyways Russia is great and I have so much to tell you, maybe when I get back i’ll type up my journal entries and tell you more about the cool stuff I saw. But for now I’ll just leave it at the cool ads.

Wellp, till next time.

A short while

Sorry it's been a short while with the food challenge I suddenly got really busy. But that hasn't stopped me from reaching my goal. Over the past few days I have made home made chicken nuggets, and sweet potato fries (Not the best fries... but I'll give them another try). I also made some delicious Alfredo sauce to go with my leftover polenta which was nice... but not as good as the tomato sauce.


Tonight I actually made something I was looking forward to for a while. I made ramen stir fry. I took ramen some onion slices some chopped up carrots and peas and tossed them in a pan with the ramen seasoning... Delicious. Today I'm also making some home made french bread... last time it didn't turn out too hot so we'll see how this goes.

So that's what's up for the time food wise... only two more weeks to go which should be fairly easy considering there are great opportunities for free food the last week of classes in a college town.

Till later.

Popular demand

It has been brought to my attention that people are concerned for me due to my recent self imposed challenge. I assure you that I am fine. And I am using this challenge to prove to myself that I can cook great meals without a fully stocked pantry and that I can do hard things. So please don't worry.

On another note I found out yesterday that I'll be graduating from institute. I know crazy right. It was one of those moments in my life when I was surprised,genuinely surprised, because I had no clue that I met all the requirements. Pretty sweet if I do say so myself.

Speaking about being surprised I'm all regestered for fall classes a day earlier than what my advisor told me. Now I just need to take that cursed math placement exam.

As for the meal challenge I did good yesterday I fed myself and 3 friends. We had crepes with lots of crazy toppings, we had jam, bananas, powdered sugar,cinnamon, lemon juice, and butter along with a homemade peanut butter chocolate spread. That were very delicious.

So that is most everything today I can't wait to see what adventure dinner tonight will be.

Day 1 mind vs food

So today was the first full day of the Mind Vs Food Challenge. I didn't eat much... but that's not because I wasn't hungry it was just a lazy day. But when I go hungry it was way good. I took some of those popcorn kernals and made my self some cornmeal, I know homemade cornmeal... so I took that cornmeal and made myself some polenta... and it was delicious. Just look at it.

I added some parsley flakes and a touch of chicken bullion. Then I topped it off with some tomato sauce and some parmesan cheese. 

Just look at it in the bowl. 

Don't those colors just look great. 

 So afterwords... My sweet tooth was hitting me hard. So I made some cupcakes, but I didn't want too many cupcakes so I decided to make half of the cupcakes into cake balls. Just look at them.

And to top everything all off I learned how to drizzle chocolate much better than before... Yes it's not perfectly perfect yet but I'm still working on it. So the score for today is Food 3, Pocket book not busted yet.

Mind vs Stomach... So it begins

Being a college student a common wondering is whether or not we'll have enough food to eat dinner, and if we'll have enough money for groceries this week/month (depending on who you are). So after looking at my ever decreasing food supplies and then looking at my bank account I realized these last few weeks are going to be fun. Lucky for me some of the grocery stores near me were having case lot sales. And that means that everyone's favorite things are dirt dirt dirt cheap. So as I was consulting my pocket book and the local adds I decided why not challenge myself.... Well that challenge came after I got home and unloaded my groceries. That challenge being "can I make the food I have at the moment last me till after finals." So I took inventory of all of my food I have roughly 62 ingredients, with a total of 66 meals that I'll be eating. So I don't know if ya'll want the whole list but here it is, in pretty picture fun format.

I forgot I also have a bulb of garlic, and some homemade carrot sticks. No food stash is complete with out fresh garlic. 

So there is the list... roughly 62 items all of which are roughly spelled correctly. So here's how it's going to go I'm going to keep track of what genius delicious foods I can create from this limited stash of food. And then I'll share with ya'll what I was able to come up with.

Oh and if you dear readers have a great idea of something that I could make with this hodgepodge of ingredents let me know and I may just try making it.

As for the report for today... I had cereal for breakfast, and grilled PB&J for lunch (Like a grilled cheese sandwich but with a PB&J... It was a Junction discovery oh so many years ago), and for dinner I intend on finishing off that Mac&Cheese with some peas and a hot dog.

Any ways, we'll see how this challenge goes. I'm way excited to figure out what I can make with out having to get more groceries. All though if I can do it I may have some friends over for dinner before finals, which would include just a little trip back to the grocery store.

Anyways, share your ideas... and I'll keep you posted.

New Favorite

So it's February... Finally, the shortest and at times the longest month of the year. It's also the month that commercial businesses make bank. 


Now in the past I haven't been much of a fan of Valentine's Day, but since graduating high school, and going off to college I've learned how great of a holiday it really is. It gives lonely people the opportunity to spend a whole night with a box of chocolates and cheesy chick flicks. But it also gives those people with someone a chance to express how they truly feel about each other. And this year I've recently gone from the first example to the latter, which is amazing I must say. So because of my special someone (Colton) I've been really looking forward to this Valentines Day. I've been secretly thinking about this since January. 


So I started working on this.

52 Things I love about you

These are secrets

The pictures are blurry for a reason.

 And in the process of making that list of things I love about Colton I decided that I needed to make another list. I needed to make a list of the things I love about my life and everything in general. So the first four have to be.

Things I love

1. Things I love
   1.       I love Colton
   2.       I love Cole (the cute dog in the picture below)
   3.       I love Personalized chocolate hearts
   4.       I love Red roses

   

   My Valentines Day presents from Colton... He's so sweet, that's how the first 4 came about

   5.       I love the Lord
   6.       I love the Scriptures
   7.       I love my family
   8.       I love the Temple
   9.       I love Sundays
   10.   I love Cooking
   11.   I love Baking
   12.   I love feeding people
   13.   I love books
   14.   I love singing
   15.   I love music (especially Piano music)
   16.   I love Learning
   17.   I love the Mountains
   18.   I love long car rides
   19.   I love seeing and making people happy
   20.   I love playing games
   21.    I love laughing
   22.   I love the fall
   23.   I love serving others
   24.   I love listening to others problems
   25.   I love the water
   26.    I love watching the sun rise and set
   27.   I love writing and getting letters
   28.   I love hearing the birds sing
   29.   I love napping on the grass
   30.   I love the beach
   31.   I love traveling
   32.   I love my friends
   33.    I love food
   34.   I love freshly fallen snow
   35.   I love making lists
   36.   I love having fun
   37.   I love going on adventures
   38.   I love old people
   39.   I love having good days
   40.   I love sharing my love
   41.   I love flowers
   42.   I love knowing I’m loved
   43.   I love loving others
   44.   I love writing in cursive
   45.   I love the prophets
   46.   I love trying new things
   47.   I love the atonement
   48.   I love the hymns
   49.   I love having bad days
   50.   I love the priesthood
   51.   I love reading
   52.   I love telling stories
   53.   I love doing things with my hands
   54.   I love hearing stories
   55.   I love fuzzy blankets
   56.   I love being barefoot
   57.   I love watching plays
   58.   I love children
   59.   I love camp fires
   60.   I love antiques, old things
   61.   I love museums
   62.   I love American history
   63.   I love being happy
   64.   I love watching live sports
   65.   I love feeling the spirit
   66.   I love Disney
   67.   I love 90’s TV shows
   68.   I love summer rain storms
   69.   I love desserts
   70.   I love animals
   71.   I love the east coast
   72.   I love the gospel
   73.   I love teaching people
   74.   I love rainbows
   75.   I love getting dressed up
   76.   I love coloring
   77.   I love plain things
   78.   I love sunshine
   79.   I love going on walks
   80.   I love church
   81.   I love family gatherings
   82.   I love watching dance
   83.   I love spending time with people I love
   84.   I love being surprised
   85.   I love crime shows
   86.   I love prayer
   87.   I love learning about family history
   88.   I love the outdoors
   89.   I love scripture stories
   90.   I love watching the leaves change color
   91.   I love cuddling
   92.   I love people watching
   93.   I love going to the dentist
   94.   I love planning surprises
   95.   I love asking questions
   96.   I love long hot showers
   97.   I love sharply dressed men
   98.   I love aviator Jackets
   99.   I love talking on the phone
   100.                        I love blogging
   101.                        I love stuffed animals
   102.                        I love cheesy seminary videos
   103.                        I love the smell of clean laundry
   104.                        I love looking at the stars
   105.                        I love having soft smooth lips
   106.                        I love kissing
   107.                        I love bear hugs
   108.                        I love giving hugs
   109.                        I love sweats
   110.                        I love chocolate
   111.                        I love a good pair of jeans
   112.                        I love happy endings
   113.                        I love fairy tales
   114.                        I love giving gifts
   115.                        I love planning parties
   116.                        I love talking in funny accents
   117.                        I love helping people
   118.                        I love the color blue
   
   
   
   
   So that's 118 things that I love... the funny thing is I keep coming up with more each day... It's just sometimes I can't remember them. Well till next time readers. 

5.  

I maybe could have possibly died today almost

So... The most terrorizing thing happened today... and no Paige wasn't randomly waiting for me right outside of the bathroom... but that's another story.

So I was sitting in my institute class minding my own business. Enjoying a great lesson on the Proclamation to the World on the Family. When all of the sudden there is this weird almost pleasant noise starts to fill the room. Then the fire alarm starts going off. And all though it was very transitional and calm it scared the crap out of me. For some reason being woken up at haneous hours of the morning by fire alarms, has brought a reoccurring fear of them.

So our institute in all his brilliance tells all of us to leave. So we go outside and stand around... and I must say what a good day to be forced outside.


Okay so I tried to find the actual temp today but I couldn't find it but considering it's like 32F right now I'd have to say that it was about 45F outside, which may be a complete exaggeration but you get my point perfect day.

The institute... and locations

But any ways we were sanding out side and I moved from my location on Darwin side of the institute over to the LLC side. While standing over there I saw one of the institute teachers walk out of the building with a student. Both of which were carrying fire extinguishers... and I was like "Oh crap... there must have been a real live dangerous fire with like flames and everything." So I wander around and find my good friend from freshman year Andrea and we get talking and we discover that there was actually a fire so... we walk over to where all the other students are standing and gazing at the institute. And come to find out there was smoke billowing out of one of the windows right by the kitchen.

Okay... I found a better map.

Soon the fire department shows and they go running into the institute and one of the poor teachers walks by with this look of sheer horror on his face. and I look at him and say "Brother Hopkins don't worry everything will be fine." Then he explains how the fire is in the oldest part of the institute and that it easily could go up in smokes any second. Then I reassured him that Heavenly Father wouldn't let his institute burn, nor would Brother Salmond... but that's another can of worms.

But in the end the Institute is fine... but classes were canceled all day today and they'll be canceled tomorrow too. So I don't have my 8:00 AM class which I'm a little disappointed about.





Oh... I bet you were wondering what the source of the fire was... well they were serving the institute students apples in the foyer to encourage them to register... and mostly because they like feeding the students. But apparently one of the burners on the stove was accidentally bumped on and a teacher had set a box on that burner and it caught fire.

But in my honest opinion I think one of the teachers was preaching a little too much hell fire and damnation (*Cough Brother Salmond Cough Cough*)...


And as an asside I only pick on Brother Salmond because I know him fairly well and I'm just teasing. I have to say that Brother Salmond is one of my favorite and one of the funniest teachers in the institute. Oh... and the two men who saved the day were Elder Cherington and good old reliable Fred... I may tell you stories about him later because if anyone is a can of worms... he would be one... deep fried and covered in chocolate...

Anyways... that was my day. I think it was the most exciting day of my semester. Weird. It takes almost possibly maybe dying to have an exciting day.

Dang... I feel like I should possibly maybe almost die every day.





NAAH

Oh and PS... Be so excited for what's to come in Feb... I'm really excited to show all you what I made...

New Compound word

So I have recently added a new compound word to my vocabulary...

I know what you're thinking... BoyFriend... while there is a boy friend that's not the word I was thinking of.

The new word is up-cycling

It's like recycling but you make the things look better.
Recently I went through a bunch of my old tee shirts and decided to get rid of a few of them. Some of the ones I wanted to get rid of were not really in a condition to donate. So I decided instead of throwing them away I would make something relatively useful out of them.

So three old tee shirts and an old undershirt suddenly became. ..... Ta da.

A rug... that I can use for my  Wet boots and shoes Like... THIS

The best part of all this is not all that I've done I've also discovered a great website called Pinterest... and Oh My Gosh it is the greatest place for great ideas for crafting and cleaning. My favorite thing it took all the hard water build up on the shower head. Now instead of having a shower that was barely working now works perfectly... and who knew that all it took was a bag, vinegar and about an hour... no scrubbing necessary.

Well till next time dear readers.