SMU experience

Just came back from my SMU interview... thought it would be good to quickly blog down all my experiences before I forget.

Well the first part of the process is a group interview with 8 people in my group. I was really quite amazed by how these people quickly got to know one another during the waiting session and one of them even said we would be friends after this inteview. Anyway, the interview was conducted by 2 professors, one from the School of Business and the other from the School of Law. The topic is about an article which the author argues that Singapore brands need time to grow in order to compete with Western international brands. The first guy to speak mentioned about how important advertising is to branding and he gave his personal experiences based on his design course in poly. I was the second guy to speak and I rattled on about how I disagreed with the author's point of view that time is the essence. Basically, the author compares Singapore brands to age-old established brands such as Coca-Cola and Tiffany which took more than 150 years to establish. I remarked that in the past advertising was mainly by word of mouth, newspapers (which most people were illiterate at that time) and radios (which don't show any pictures). Hence, marketing will take a considerable time before people are aware of these products. However, in the information era that we are living now, any product can be easily marketed and together with creative advertising, the product might even gain a certain diffentiation and advantage over other similar products. I also mentioned that Singapore brands need not necessarily be at a big disadvantage against established Western brands as Singapore companies can easily access the rapidly growing Asian markets like China and India and we can capitalise on this while there is still a gap between the Western and Asian world.

One of the professors later asked us whether it is the style or the substance of the product that creates a brand since both ideas have been brought up by the interviewees. He asked the girl who mentioned substance to relate it to the car industry and brought up examples of Rolls Royce and Mercedes. I substantiated her views later by arguing that the professor is relating to a very specialised market, the luxury products group where style (eg. Mercedes signifies a person's affluence and taste) far surpasses quality. However, most common products such as food, normal clothing and other necessities like toilet paper would depend very much on their quality to establish their branding. (Even Levi's jeans which have a certain style about it markets its durability, after all it was the most durable pants for the gold miners during the California gold rush)

The seond part is the essay and the topic is on writing about a favourite movie to a friend. I wrote about Brokeback Mountain to an imaginary gay friend Danny and argued about certain themes such as social discrimination and gender identity. All in all, I feel that the whole process was rather successful, but at the same time I was also rather guilty about depriving some interviewees of their time by talking too much at times. (But then again some of them really don't want to talk too much)

Anyway, I intend to email SMU soon whether I can change my single business degree to a double degree in both business and accounting. I must admit it was a pleasant surprise when I received an email last night from the assistant dean of NUS School of Business asking me to consider their scholarships and overseas programmes even though they haven't officially shortlisted anyone on their website. Hmmm... she even said she is willing to help me with the NUS global merit scholarship although the deadline is over. (Wonder whether it is true) So I suppose I will also email her soon about my "enthusiasm" to get a scholarship. (Haha) I don't know how all these will work out, but one thing is for sure, I'm beginning to like SMU's environment more and more after today's visit. : )