Over the past weeks, other than the buzz surrounding the Lunar New Year celebrations in Singapore, another buzz was happening. Resorts World was going to open its doors. It is now 2010. What started out as a dream in 2005 is slowly but surely becoming a reality.

How will it stack up with the other more famous gaming destinations in the world?

Frankly, no one knows at this time. But from a marketing perspective, you can see that Singapore has always been able to find just the right angle. From the world famous “Singapore Girl” to small wins like the “tallest man-made waterfall” in the Jurong Bird Park, Singapore has always managed to find something to attract tourists.

I am sure that soon, you will be reading more about comparisons, most certainly with the nearest destinations like Genting and Macau.

In the online world, comparisons have always been rife. In the world of online slot machines you will be sure to read one slot machine rvm or another at some point. How accurate these reviews are, will be a matter of personal opinion.

Many people prefer the hubbub of a real-life casino while others prefer to play their game of chance in the privacy of their own homes. In marketing, we call this segmentation. In business, I guess its called opportunities.

Whatever your preferences, I am sure someone some where will pander to your whim. As I watch this development, I cannot help but wonder if everyone feels the same positive vibes about Resort World or even online slot machines. After all, while gambling is probably one of the oldest past-times in the world, it is also one of the most frowned upon.

The Chinese have a tradition of visiting relatives during Chinese New Year. While there, what do you think is a common activity? Yes, you guessed right. Mahjong, Black Jack, Gin… you name it, they will probably play it. After all, the New Year is supposed to bring good luck and good fortune. What better way to put this to the test than to hit the tables?

OK, it is Christmas time, and somehow, in the midst of all the food and beer, I am suddenly reminded of a very old dream… six pack abs.

I tell you, the truth is, I went from scrawny to pot-bellied. I have no idea what happened in between. Seriously. My friend asked me to look at this Squidoo page which talked about this.

It is interesting that there are several issues that impact this. The lens has a sharing by Mike Geary who claims to have an answer, the truth, to our quest for the elusive six pack abs today. Maybe I will try it. Let’s see how it goes…

In the early days of the Internet, avatars were the “wow” factor for many new sites. If you had a site, and it allowed users to have an avatar… wow!

Those days came and went, or so we thought. Looks like now, avatars seem to be back again. I just realised this, so I must have been buried in work all this time (yeah, all true!). So, here are TWELVE, yes, 12 sites that allow you to custom create your own avatar. I saw this and thought to share this with you guys:

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/11-sites-to-create-cartoon-characters-of-yourself/

Yes, it is more than a year old. Bite me.

Friend of mine asked me to help spread the word, so here it is – the word!

The word is that Eran Katz, Memory Master who holds the Guinness Book of World Records for Best Memory Stunt will be in Singapore doing a half day seminar for students (lucky kids!) and it will help them perform better in school and enjoy studying… I guess because they spend less time studying and remembering more.

Anyway, you can read all about the seminar here: http://www.versacreations.com/84/super-student-sucess-seminar/

For those of you who don’t live in Singapore, well… I heard Eran speaks around the world, maybe he might visit you one day.

Sorry, this is so totally off-topic, but you guys really really gotta see this!

Transformer USB

Alright, its acronym time! F.E.A.R is the word and I would love to hear what you have to say about it.

As we face bad times, most likely, we make the bad times worse. Fear is one of the culprits. Like the deer staring at the headlights of an oncoming car, we are sometimes so paralysed by fear that we fail to act. As human beings, we pride ourselves on our ability to be rational, to be sentient even. We are supposed to be able to recognise danger, analyse it and then find a solution.

That sounds really good when it is someone else’s problems. But when we are faced with it ourselves, we experience fear at a whole new level. Everyone is fearful at this time, in one way or another, at some level. Just wanted to share this with all of you:

Fear is a falshood that robs you of reason
Expect the worse and it will happen just as you planned
Act positively and fight as fear is a coward that flees
Reality is usually quite boring and mundane when not tainted by fear

May 2009 bring you many new challenges, opportunities and be as exciting as the wild roller coaster that it has turned out to be. See you on the other side!

2008 is over. Looking back, it has been in unbelievable year.

But looking ahead, it is going be be even more interesting. Everyday ahead is going to be more exciting than the one before.

To help us move on positively, Vivienne has shared this interesting post on “Completing 2008, Creating 2009” which really is food for thought as we wait to greet 2009 on New Year’s Eve. OK, even if you are jumping and partying, these are still cool questions to ask!

Happy New Year everyone!

This is a story about product management, product marketing, subject matter experts and protecting one’s behind. Enjoy.

I decided that my car needed a new color. So, off I went to the spray paint workshop. They had this color consultant there, an expert in getting the best color for whatever impact you want to create.

Happily, I told him about what I liked, disliked and how I wanted the car to be. Delighted to have a discerning customer at last, the color expert proposed one of the new colors in their range. Perfect. It was everything I could want – the brightness, the energy, life and power!

The color expert did a mock up against my car’s model. Disappointing. It was just a little bit out. Huh? I could not see it. But, “… trust me… it’s out.”

The color expert was certain that when painted onto the car, it will not have the impact and the effect I wanted. Disppointed, I asked him. “What should I do? Can you propose a new color?”

The color expert then said, “According to my expert opinion, this is the best color. You should change your car and come back to get it sprayed.”

Nothing to do with marketing here. Just another demonstration of how “top management” can make sweeping decisions about things they barely understand. But more importantly, it demonstrates the sad state of affairs that our society in general, and the education system in particular; have fallen to.

The whole idea here is to “save” the students from becoming prey to teachers who might be criminals. Whatever it is, certain suppositions are disturbing:

- parents don’t know/care what their kids are doing
- teachers are not supposed to be friends with the students

The Lamar County school board approved “… a new school district policy in southern Mississippi prohibits teachers from texting or communicating with students through Internet social network sites such as MySpace”

I guess we will all feel safe if teachers hate the students, students hate the teachers, and everyone scores straight A’s because there is an excellent teaching methodology in place. Yeah, right.

Every morning, while everyone is still fast asleep, comfortable, warm and in bliss – the cock crows. Grumbling people get out of bed and go about their chores. Why?

You see, when the cock crows, everyone knows the sun is going to rise. Then, if the cock does not crow, or worse, there are no cocks where you live (get your head on straight); will the sun rise?

Sometimes in marketing, isn’t this how it seems to be? You see, we marketers have all these creative ideas, cool slogans and dazzling logos; our marketing {crowing} is irressitible. We hypnotise them with our witty copy, compel them with our TV commercials and of course, endorsements – who can resist when a movie star tells you which soap to buy?

So, it is not surprising, that just as there are some dumb cocks (no pun intended) who think that they are the ones who bring the sun up each day; we marketers sometimes feel that nothing succeeds without our brilliant marketing. It’s exciting stuff, this marketing.

What I want to say here, is that success requires teamwork. Any company that thinks that it can succeed with excellent technology alone, or products, or low cost, or great marketing – are delusional. So, we need great marketers; but these must complement a group of great engineers/cooks/designers…. you get the picture.

One final word on this. A smart aleck farmer hated cocks, so he assigned that crowing job to the ducks. I don’t know how successful it was, his farm is still dark, probably not awake yet.

For many of us in marketing, it is sometimes a challenge to work with very technically oriented people. They seem to see everything in terms of spec-points and checklists.

Imagine this story. Three guys running an engineering company wanted to hire a secretary. They agreed that they needed someone who could use Microsoft Excel, Word and the occasional PowerPoint. They also agreed that she had to be good with arranging schedules and handling clients who call. So, after interviewing 20 candidates, our three guys decided that Ms Scarlet would be the best – she had cute long legs.

How many times have we thought about buying something, listing out all the “features” that we want, calculating our budgets and so on… then throwing it all away when we walk into the store and see this latest and greatest gizmo that you would just die if you did not own?

Marketing is an art. Sure, there is a science to it. But there is no way that anyone is going to convince me that the pure mechanics of marketing can beat the power of a creative streak that is unsupported by any statistics or history.

Ask the market, “Do you need a Spreadsheet?” In fact, think about it, before they came out with it, how many of us ever imagined that the “presentation software” would be so important to our daily, working lives?

If it were up to the “bosses”, no on would have launched anything new.

Here is a quick thought and a quiet moment for those who have fought and died.

But also, let us spare a moment for those who survived and passed on their legacy of valor to make the next generation stronger.
We remember those who passed on, but we should also remember those who survived. Sometimes, it is easier not to have made it. When you die, you are a hero. But when you survive, you might suffer for many years, un-noticed.

So, while Memorial Day Weekend is a time to remember the valiant, look around and also remember those who have been blessed and who have blessed us by surviving.

Go check out what others are saying over at Angela Stevens site!