I'm a bitch ...yes I know.

For the past week, I (together with the Stratmark team, of course) have been blowing my brains out for a marketing strategy for Ali Mall. It was fun, yeah. It's just that working with all these new people for the first time for something sooo big....hayyy! At least it's over now..hopefully just for now. I really, really wanna get into the next stage! We did a "promising" paper...sooo... I'll keep my fingers crossed.

So what am I bitching about?! About the ideas with what to do with the mall...it came from me. YES IT DID. Di naman sa mayabang ako ah..pero...YEAH...

1. When I read the case, the first thing that came to me is make Ali Mall as this really nice family mall, just restore it, make it as it was before. Just change the packaging. But that's just one of those ideas that come out when a group brainstorms and you say whatever pops into your head.

2. I thought the first idea was crap, I thought. I mean...a-duh?! Someone just said they should put a gym there. Then it came to me that we should make it into this Sports Hub, filled with specialty stores, even put up spas, dance studios..since Araneta Center has already tons of shopping malls and the last thing they need is another one. Since they're the first to make malls...maybe being the first to do this would just be right. Then this researcher said..."Uhh.. I don't think they would be needing that anymore because these people are already batak." So what seemed to me like a wonderful idea was thrown to the bin by a frikking slave. I really wanted to push through with the sports hub thing. I mean, class C people are not poor! For sure, these people would love to be involved with things like sports, have a healthy lifestyle. In fact, it won't just be about sports. Health not just physically but also intellectually. There would be Trumpets, Color Me Mine, bookshops... Sports and Arts. A part would also be devoted to beauty..put up nice and affordable salons, barbershops and dermas. I mean..isn't that amazing?! For once, people won't just be hanging out in the mall, but they're actually going to do something that would contribute to their personal growth. Diba? But that frikking slave...grrr.... didn't even let me finish for my frikking explanation. I wanna smash his face.

3. Then I thought of putting up a theme for the whole mall. I mean, combine the old and the new. Vintage is soo in right now, that making it into this vintage mall seemed like a cool idea. My biggest mistake was to tell it to that same slave. Criminy. He was like... "You think that would work?" uhh..yeah why not? Vintage fashion is in and even tons of movies are being remade. So why not make the it into this old-fashioned mall, bring back those restaurants that had those car seats and waiters that wore rollerskates. Then at the same time, put up memorabilias around where people can look at and say, "Awwww..." I wasn't very convinced myself with that one since, after all that..then what? It'll be good only for the short term. So I didn't really expand on that.

The next meeting came, and I wanted to share my idea about that whole total health and wellness hub. I've told a few people about it and they were convinced, so I was happy about that. Then as I was explaining it, this same slave guy kept butting in. I gave him THE stare and he shut up for a while. But after that..when the group was just absorbing what I said, he opens his mouth and says..."What if we have a vintage mall?!" Uhhh...okay. Then he basically plagiarized me. He said exactly what I said to him. What an asshole.. Okay..the group liked that idea better, so we started working on it. Then as the day was about to end, I realized I'm not betting my life on that idea and present it to the Marketing department. No frikking way. So I expressed my sentiments with whoever was left in the room.

Edel: Hey, I'm not very convinced with this vintage mall.
Apet, Cindy & Shiv: Oo nga..ako ren.
Slave: You think?
Edel: Yup. Kase..blah blah blah. I want the other one.
Slave: Ahhh..so kayo ba di ren convinced? Kase ako feeling ko okay, idea ko eh! Haha!

I was too pissed to even counter that.

On my way home, I really wanted to pursue that 2nd idea, so I planned out exactly the stores and shops that will be there so that the next, day they would have a better picture. And so I did...and they loved it. Criminy. One day before the submission!

Yesterday when we had the extension, I was too tired to even jump for joy. Shiv (another researcher) omes to me and tells me that the "alternative lifestyle" thing should be changed. Soooo I explained to her again what exactly the mall is. Well, I really didn't know the words to describe it...so I told her..."It's basically like a country club." She wrote down all the revisions that had to made on a piece of paper and I asked her to upload it in the e-group.

Then I read this email from our team leader: Bleh bleh bleh..it's going to be a "Country Club Mall." Thanks, Shiv.

Argh!!! I mean, it's like the episode of the Levi's Jeans in The Apprentice 2. Jen getting all the credit from Mr. Trump for Ivana's ideas and hard work...
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Our paper was 100% better than the past Stratmarks, Abie told me when I got in this morning. Even better, this was said by Miss Z. WOOHOO!!!

Miss Zamora just scares me..gawwddd.. We were having the "mini-defense" in the department. Sir Gutierrez asked us, "Why the Country Club Mall?" I was just too scared of those Marketing profs, man. I feel like they're gonna judge me and think what an idiot I am. We couldn't answer it. Miss Zamora said she had 4 answers to that questions, and criminy, we had none!

Then she gave us her 1st brilliant answer: Go back to the history of Ali Mall..it's the first mall in the Philippines so having to introduce this kind of idea first..blah blah.
--Ummm...yeahhhhhh... we actually thought of that.

A few more minutes she gave us her second answer: The Araneta Center is already complete: Gateway, Araneta Coliseum, Farmer's Market and Farmer's Plaza and Fiesta Carnivale..adding a "Country Club Mall" will synergize it with the whole Araneta Center.
--Exactly..right?

Few minutes of torture more, Marie had the guts to actually tell them about making use of time wisely..rather than bum around the mall, they'd do something they really want.

Cindy came in late, and she added a new reason which was a really good one.

I just wanna bump my head into a wall. I mean..I know those answers! Why didn't I say it?! Arghh!!! A basta! I'm proud of the paper! and I'm off to KL tomorrow!