Life Rocks

What other better ways to spend a Sunday at a cafe chilling out and finishing up some of your loose-ends?

An Alto Vanilla Latte

Strawberry Cheesecake

And some Reading Up

Back from Burberry

Hey guys,

I'm back from my trip down to the Burberry Sale at Expo.

The queue was extremely long but fortunately, I was there early at around 930am.

So, I was one of the first 20 people to get into that place.

When I enter, I was flabbergasted because it was so small, and the majority of the stuff were women's stuff.

The price range was pretty high as expected of Burberry.

The original prices for polo shirts and normal short sleeve shirts ranges from $365 to $895.

Crazy shit right?

But thank god for the discount.

There's a variety of discount ranging from 30% all the way to 80%

But this is how warehouse sales work.

They go by this concept called "Price skimming."

On the first day, they will stick with a mere 30-50% discount as they know that people on the first day are entitled to the widest selection they can possibly get.

Therefore, all the great stuff are there for them to choose from.

If you want the great stuff, you will have to pay the price I guess. There is no way you will get something great at a low price in a warehouse sale.

Then, on the 2nd day, they increase the discount to 60%.

Here, the goods are still not bad, passable.

Then on the 3rd day, they jacked it up to 70% discount but all the good stuff are more or less evanescent.

And finally, on the last day, all hell break loose and they put most of the stuff on 80% discount because they want to clear everything they have and that's remaining are pretty much abysmal in terms of designs and cuttings.

The trick about the warehouse sale is to go on the 2nd day so that you won't miss out on the great stuff and it is still affordable as compared to the first's.

Also, the point about going all out, effusively, on the last day, it is because of the nature of the sale.

It is a warehouse sale.

As they say, "In Fashion, one day you are in, the next day you are out!"

This is particularly true for Burberry.

No one will buy the stocks from last year, people are constantly hunting for new arrivals because they can afford them.

It's not some Takashimaya sale mind you!

Also, if you want them to bring everything back, it will simply take up storage place and the inventory cost will be jacked up unnecessarily.

To throw them away seems like the best alternative because storing them is really taxing on the net profits.

So, rather than throwing it away, why not sell them at an unbelievably low price?

It makes more sense right?

Yeah, so that's the end of the lesson for warehouse sales 101.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Oh, did I mention that I walk away with a long-sleeve polo t-shirt with a 60% discount?

In the end it cost me $180.

Isn't the stripes and tailoring gorgeous?

Just look at the logo.

It's really a dream to wear this thing on Chinese New Year man!

Looking forward to it!

Credits -msb, -stockphotograph

Google's "iPad" not standing idle

The tablet running Google Chrome OS would also include a virtual keyboard at the bottom of the screen or a keyboard that could be opened in a separate window that could be placed in different areas of the screen. Applications would be placed at the bottom edge of the screen and could be opened with an upward dragging motion.


I like the fact that the applications are at the bottom edge? So that it will not block us from what we are doing and prevent us from accidentally clicking on it.

Also, the tablet can run various applications at the same time.


Apparently Apple seems to be having difficulty doing that right now and worse still, they do not have flash.


Flash is like the epitome of videos. Without it, we simply will get frustrated when we see that stupid plug-in sign which forbid us from viewing what we want to see!

Google has mentioned that they are most probably going to outsource the hardware portion like how they outsourced the manufacturing of Nexus One (Google's new phone that runs on Android) to HTC.

And HTC, being a renowned brand has of course not failed Google by producing one of the most successful phone on its first try ever!

As you can see, outsourcing sometimes is not just about sourcing for the cheapest deal.

Today, we are not just talking about price compteition, we are very much infatuated with the amount of value we get in return for our money now.

If you can find us the best deal and gurantee us that it is going to be awesome. I'm 110% sure that everyone out there will not mind paying 10% more than the usual market price.

Afterall, we are afraid to pay more than the market price only because of one simple reason.

That is we are skeptical about the touted functionality of the product per se.

They always go on and on and on, blabbering about how coveted their product is but when you bought it, you realised that it just isn't as great as they say.

Though price, ease of use and hardware functionality will certainly be important factors in who wins the tablet battle, the most important determinant of who comes out on top may be the variety and quality of applications available for the devices.


In the end, it won't be about the most apps but the best apps, Krajicek argued.


I think it makes alot of sense?


For me, I feel that what's the point of iPhone having like tens of thousands of applications?

At the end of the day, you are just obfurscating the really great ones from the public. They are not going to be able to filter out the best ones that Apple has because not all of us like so techy-savvy you see.


Furthermore, there are way, way too many choices already. Almost too many for us to browse through. Humans like choices but if you offer them too many choices, they will take an extra long time than expected. In the end, they just will leave the shop without buying anything. Because they are so confused!


We just want something great, not just good. The bad ones should be removed constantly.


You know? Great companies are great because they diversify along their hedgehog concept. Once you go haywire and start deviating from it, you will soon see the demise of your organisation.


Right now, I see that Apple is pretty complacent already as they came up with something called an iPad that is not the least impressive to me.


Perhaps, it's time for Apple to take a backseat and start to ruminate over how they can revolutionize iPod instead!

Credits -cnn, -npu, -mattcutts

SMRT card

Newsflash


Do you still have your NETS receipt worth $88 or more?


If you do, head down to Chinatown, not the MRT, it's somewhere the the food center and the "Geitai" stage and you will see an extremely long queue.


What are they queueing for?


Well, you can exchange your NETS receipt of $88 or more for an SMRT New Year card with a $5 deposit inside.

This means that whenever you top up, you can use the card immediately without having to pay any deposit or whatsoever.


Great deal isn't it?


Well, if you are interested, head down to Chinatown but avoid the weekends because the queue is mad long!

3D Effects

These pictures below seriously freaked me out and they chronically give me the vibes. I have this phobia of them because it makes me feel as if I'm tumbling down.

Then again, I guess they are extremely effective when it comes to the application of advertising.

In advertising, it is all about building a uniform form of consistency throughout the board, that is to have an enticing core story that traps the consumers in your imaginery world. Dissonance will only cause internal conflict among your marketing tools.

When it comes to trade shows, people promoting fertilisers are able to dress in Doctor coats to promote the fertilisers, as medicine to the land, to the farmers.

But how often are trade shows conducted? They can be extravagant and comes at an exorbitant price too.

Conversely, if you were to apply the theory of open public, we can use the 3D pictures below.

Wow, Mountain Dew with Transformers!

Even robots chose them as their fuel

Talking about sci-fi 3D movies? There you have it!

RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What other better way to promote Heineken than this ?

Look at the amount of attention it attracts everyday? The point is, you have completely achieved your aim, that is to build immense awareness and exposure to your product. More important, to let people have a time of their life with your products.


They get so close to your products that they even want to take a picture with it. When they do, more people want to do so too because these products are classified in the "COOL" category.


Then people post these pictures on their facebook and respective social networks and the word of mouth spreads again.


More and more people begin to take notice of these pictures and they remember them. It becomes indelible.


In conclusion, you are not only giving them a picture but you are bringing them on a whole new experience with your product, which entices even more to join in the fun!

Credits -gpgt

Google's Mobile Ad

The Mountain View, Calif.-based search giant's revenue rose 17% to $6.7 billion. Excluding advertising sales that Google shares with partners, a figure also known as traffic acquisition costs, the company reported sales of $4.95 billion, which beat analysts' forecast of $4.92 billion.



Advertisers paid 5% more per click on ads served on Google's Web site in the fourth quarter than they did a year ago.
 
Google's mobile business has been a "pretty clear success at this point," Schmidt said. He called Google's investments in mobile "clearly the right ones," predicting that in the coming years, most consumers will be accessing the Internet on phones, not on PCs.
 
 

 
First and foremost, congratulations to Google on its triumphant win with much exultation from its staff again. I'm pretty sure that working in Google allows you to fully immerse in the vissicitudes of life. It is not really true that they are enjoying life half the time you know? These people are working their ass off everyday just by trying to think of new strategies to obliterate Yahoo! and Microsoft and even Apple now.
 
 
Their appetite is getting bigger and they want more market share than ever before, not just in the advertising industry, but in the phone, cloud computing and applications industry.
 
 
So guys, do them a favour, set your homepage as Google.com and start searching away. I'm not really an advocate of Google though hahahaha!!! Just that I find that their search engine is one of the best around.
 
 

 
Okay, let's move on, as I was saying Google has been trying to tap into the mobile phone industry lately with its latest foray into Nexus One. Much has been said already and we all know that it is not going to hurt iPhone's market share by a huge degree but nonetheless, it has been affirmed as one of the best Android phone ever.
 
 
I'm sure Google is not going to stop here since it has embarked on such a great start.
 
 
This could very well be a great pedestal for Google to climb from as it promotes more mobile ads clicks.
 
 

 
Nowadays, youngsters are very much into the Data Plan schemes and Wi-fi services on their phones. The majority of them are starting to sign up for packages that allow you to surf on your phone. One of the example will be iPhone's famous 12GB data plan which allows to surf like no one's business.
 
 
So what has caused this paradigm shift? Why are people not surfing on their portable laptop and on Wi-Fi anymore?
 
 
Well, personally, I believe that a phone is so much smaller than a laptop and we are perambulating around all the time these days. We do not even sit in our offices for more than a few hours anymore. Instead, we walk to our colleagues and then we go downstairs for a drink and then we go out to meet our clients and then we have a flight to catch and then we need to constantly check our email but we can't possibly open our laptop as we are moving.
 
So, the solution: sign up for a data plan.
 
 

 
Phones are offering data plans in collaboration with the telecommunication giants to help people check their emails at ease, facebook status and twitter while they are on the move. You see wedding couples twittering that they are getting married in 5 minutes time these days and its all over the news.
 
 

 
It is still in its nascent stage right now of course but Google might just acquire Twitter soon enough and there will be a massive social network outbreak and all the ads will be plastered all over these social networks.
 
 
Then, teenagers will start shopping while they tweet or network and they will start to recommend the so-and-so places to shop.
 
 
This idea will definitely proliferate in no time, say 3 years or maybe even lesser I feel, perhaps 2 years even.
 
 
In no time, you will see yourself surfing away on your phone constantly sourcing for the best deals and the latest facebook status messages.
 
 
So, be prepared, as Google will ride on this wave and leech on your new found love, mobile advertisements!
 
 
 
Credits -economist, -google, -staffjournalistslike, -uh, -slashgear

Plan your day at The Cathay shopping mall

A world on its own

A dream to enter

A fantasy to indulge in

Presenting to you, The Cathay !!!

Just look at its brobdingnagian size, it's really wide isn't it?

The architecture is in fact intriguing, if you look carefully, you will see alot of panels rather than brick walls.

They literally expose the entire building to the world.

You can actually glance through the happenings in that building.

If you have no idea where exactly is The Cathay located, fear not!

Just refer to the map above. I will suggest that the easiest way is to take the MRT to Dhoby Ghaut station, exit the MRT and come out and you should be able to see the Plaza Singapura building.

From the entrance, head all the way right, pass by Starbucks then Sakae Sushi and you can continue walking all the way right and you should see the incandescent building named The Cathay.

I will advice you guys to go there at night.

Look at how happening this place is at night!

All the lightings and stuff.

Blue lights glowing and there are actually a plethora of people walking all over the place but at the same time it's not so crowded!

There are an abundance amount of shops in there.

You can drop by the Gramophone if you want to listen some music or catch up on some of the latest hits, it's really big and the staff there are really friendly.

You should have no problem finding the CD you covet.

But before anything, it is of course important to eat first right?

Yep that's right, Billy Bombers, it will blow you away with its well known milk shake

I swear it's really worth a try.

So good!

Yep, that's me!

Presenting to you a plate of Western meal

Salivating already aren't you?

But if you think Billy Bombers is way too exorbitant, you can always head up and try out the Astons

The surrounding is cool but the queue is really long so you had better go there early or you will queue until your legs break and fall apart.

That's me and my friends below.

We really waited for the damn long but the wait is worth it because the food is good and cheap :)

Head down to the Ben & Jerry's if you need some dessert!

Okay, I'm sure you guys know that there's a Ben & Jerry's shop at the Cathay right?

It's at #02-12/14 anyway.

Well, just a little interesting fact about Ben & Jerry's. I'm sure you've notice by now that they are consistently churning out new flavours all the time right?

But why do the number of flavours remain more or less moribund?

Well, that's because they send the lousiest flavours of the week into the Graveyard, yes, literally graveyard. And they are kept them in memory.

I was thinking, wouldn't it be really cool if consumers are allowed to vote every week as to which flavours they wish to bring back alive?

But, this outlet is especially unique. Synonymous with the one at Dempsey's road, Ben & Jerry's ice cream is married to the melifluous music played by the band. Some of the them are hard-rock.

It's really dreamy to just sit back and relax on the couch they provide and appreciate the music while you lick the ice-cream bit by bit off the cone.

You will really feel pretty pampered because it feels like home where you just lay back and watch a live band playing in front of you.

Really a luxury!

If you had enough of the music and wish to chat, you can walk out where they have tables outside too. At the same time, you can look up and down and you can actually see people. Quite scary initially but kinda cool after a while!

Of course, after you are done eating and chatting and blah blah blah, you can always head towards E2Max on Level 4.

If you haven't already realise, it's actually the largest and latest e-gaming haven.

The arenas are specially modified so as to promote a healthy yet competitive e-gaming environment.

They offer a panoply of games ranging from your favourite Dota World of Warcraft III, Left 4 Dead 2 to Maplestory and of course there are alot more.

It will be really awesome to play a 5v5 Dota game there where you pit against each other. The environment there is really friendly, you can simply walk around and request for matches against one another even if you do not know each other at all!

Also, what could be even more awesome than a macabre death and disgusting zombies slapping you all the time?

Join Left 4 Dead 2 for a game of shrieking and screaming, do introduce your girlfriends to the game and you will enjoy the game twice as much!


Join The Cathay Facebook page (www.facebook.com/thecathay) to get updated with latest promos, events, contests & giveaways!

Credits -blogspot, -metblogs, -cathay, -horn, -wikimedia, -thepicturehouse, -blogspot, -