Escape

5/31 was my last day in Coca-cola Taiwan. It was quite stretching taking three months to prepare GMAT, TOEFL, and MBA application, and even to finish my interview with the admission. What was the most terrible was that I went back to work immediately after finishing the application process. After 8 months working at Coke, an intense job that I have never imaged it would be, I could finally take a rest before leaving for Barcelona to kick off my MBA life. Here I would like to re-cap some learning and the life experience in Coke as a personal record.

First, the experience in agency is totally different from that as a client. As a brand person, I have bigger job scope and always has to swim through chunk of market information and research data to figure out the opportunity to enlarge the market share in the most cost efficient way, to get profit in the short-term and to establish the brand momentum in the long run. Also, to save the cost and to ensure the quality of the campaign, brand person not only has to coordinate different parties and agencies, but also has to educate these partners at the same time. Working at Ogilvy, I can only took the brief from client side and go back to client with the communication solutions to satisfy their needs. Not surprising, agency's core competencyy is to provide the high "quality" ideas, also execute the ideas efficiently, but to decide where the brand is moving to and why they have to do so. Agency daily job does nothing with the quantitative analysis actually.

There are pros and cons in both positions and I am very luck to have this vertically integrated experience. Marketing job not only requests for logical thinking and analytical spirits, but also demands the balance between emotional and rational factors to develop a "big idea" campaign to motivate target consumers, clients and even the sales force. The successful brand people must be very flexible since they are always thrown up and down all the time. :p The situation might be like this - after the meeting with agency to decide which TVC script is the best one to excite our consumers and to strengthen the brand, brand person may head to another meeting talks about all kinds of number about YTD sales, market evolutions, or consumer panel result. Up and down. Right and left. Calm or crazy. It depends.

So I decide to do something special in the very first escaping day. I went to Hsin-fon, a country side that near Hsin-tzu, to have lunch with my buddy at a very pretty and natural cafe - Hsi-mu Cafe. Jumping on the train with the back pack loaded with books and my laptop, I feel really excited when the train going through the forest, big plain, and the tiny rail way station. Everything is so different from the grey area in Taipei city. The green touch, the bright reflection of sun shine, the grassy smell, the tender wind........ That's what I am looking for - escaping from the messy Taipei. When arriving Hsi-mu Cafe, I am stunned by the beautiful scene. A white construction stands in front of me with its simple and elegant shape, surrounded by well-decorated garden and the waving rice paddy. It is really a enjoyment eating a nice homemade curry rice and Panini with this fantastic environment and with the best friend, of course. I put some fotos on the blog to share with you. If you are interested in this great place, just search 喜木 Cafe on Internet. Of course, you need to spare some time and to slow down your pace first.

It is your mood and attitude decides what you feel.

Front Door View

Want to spend whole afternoon here?!?!

What a scene!