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A QR code is a type of barcode anyone can scan and read with the camera in their smartphone. In addition, QR code stands for “Quick Response code”, “quick” because consumers are able to scan the QR code with a smartphone and get instant access to the information or be directed somewhere such as a website. Once scanned, QR codes can either send the user to a PDF, landing page or video, or prompt a text message conversation, and so much more. Will 2021 be a breakout year for QR codes? It has been buzzed about for years, but adoption has been slow.

In addition to this, QR codes first started gaining attention around 2011 and 2012 when smartphones were first gaining traction, you would see these QR codes everywhere, but their usage didn’t really take off due to reasons such as usage difficulties, slow internet speed and so on. QR codes have started to make a comeback recently due to the global pandemic, which forces brands to re-implement QR codes, as there is a need to remain as contactless as possible in the current pandemic. 

Due to the straightforward usage of QR codes without the need to download a third-party app, QR codes have become a highly affordable solution for businesses, organizations, and brands that wish to transform their print communications into a more connected digital experience. Retailers and marketers are also able to strategically incorporate them into their ad creatives to drive users down the sales funnel and fulfill a variety of objectives. 

Without a doubt, QR codes can definitely be a helpful tool to help you to better engage with your audience, enhance customer experience, boost sales, and drive values in your businesses. Try it out now for your own brand if you haven’t already! 

With over 40 years of business and management experience under his belt, Anwar Jumabhoy is one of the most well known Mentor and Business Coaches in Malaysia. This episode, he talks about the most common reasons why entrepreneurs fail in Malaysia and shares how they can overcome the common challenges entrepreneurs face.

With rapid technological advances and speedy updates of trends and news, more modern-age employers have put an amount of emphasis on wellness at work. With mental and physical health issues on the rise due to stress overload, it is the responsibility of all of us to keep each other’s mental well-being in check. 

To start off, we need to understand what is Workplace Wellness. 

Generally speaking, workplace wellness refers to a work environment conducive to the health and well-being of all employees and others within it. Of course, there is also the idea that employees themselves can create and cultivate workplace wellness in their own right. This can be facilitated by focusing on better eating habits, promoting more movement throughout the workday, and developing crucial wellness habits such as mindfulness, yoga, and meditation. (Anahana Wellness)

Now, why is Workplace Wellness important to both employees and employers alike? 

1. To Have the Ability to Properly Manage Stress

• Being able to educate employees about stress management is essential for every employer. Working in any industry in this world, there will always be work stress, as it is something unerasable, we need to learn how to properly manage it to avoid work burnout, then causing it to take a toll on our physical and mental health. 

2. To Improve Productivity

• Being able to properly handle stress will result in better time and workload management. Hence, self-productivity in daily life will eventually improve. If one’s productivity level is enhanced, not only are the incoming workloads more manageable, but company income will eventually be increased as well. 

How do we practice workplace wellness then? 

1. Survey and Understand.

• Start off by sending out surveys to employees and the team, to better understand their needs and wants. What could be improved in terms of the workplace conditions? What kind of activities do they prefer doing during in-house training? 

2. Plan and Strategize.

• After understanding your employee’s needs, it is time to come up with a practical method or plan to properly improve working conditions. Research on leisure activities or consult experts on proper know-hows on the methods of improving workplace wellness. 

3. Launch Your Plan!

• Plan a suitable time, date and place to carry out these planned wellness activities. If the plan is to improve workplace conditions, find a day where there are fewer employees in the office to properly make the necessary changes. 

It’s never too late to improve workplace conditions, so start now by doing monthly or annual surveys with your team! 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of ‘TikTok’. TikTok is a short-form video sharing app that has taken the world by storm. TikTok was created and took off globally after merging with Musical.ly in 2018, a lip-syncing app, but had been popular in China since 2016 as ‘Douyin’. Currently, TikTok averages about a billion users a month, so it probably comes as no surprise that it has an immense influence over product sales. And while corporate marketing campaigns do work, it is actually often random user-chosen products that go viral.

The way TikTok’s algorithm works allows videos to go viral regardless of the users’ follower count. This creates a sense of authenticity that most young consumers prefer over blatant marketing. As such, product recommendations that are well received on the app can often go viral overnight, leading to increased sales. In fact, there is even an entire genre of videos called “TikTok Made Me Buy It” dedicated to sharing products users discovered via TikTok recommendations. Below are just some examples of products that flew off the shelves after becoming TikTok sensations.

1. The Ordinary AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution
   The Ordinary is a Canadian skincare brand known for its affordability and prioritising active ingredients over additives. Their exfoliating solution went viral when users began posting their before and after results, attracting the attention of large skincare content creators. Many beauty products have also seen success after going viral on TikTok, such as the Cerave Facial Cleanser, TooFaced Lip Plumper, and Elf Cosmetics concealer.
   

2. Sharpie S-Gel Pens
After TikTok user Jackie Brown (@/jackienotjaclyn) posted a video about her hunt for the best pen, she addressed “Office Supply TikTok” stating that she had ended her search and crowned a winner— the Sharpie S-Gel Pen, that apparently “glides across paper like Kristi Yamaguchi used to on ice”. Her video garnered 5.4 million views, 1.5 million likes, and media attention, leading to a sharp increase in demand for these Sharpie pens.

3. Martinelli’s Apple Juice
The reason for this product’s popularity wasn’t so much a recommendation as it was a trend. Apparently, biting into the bottle of this apple juice would make a ‘crunch’ sound similar to when biting into an apple. TikTok users couldn’t stop trying out the trend for themselves, even spreading the trend across other social media platforms.

4. ChomChom Roller Pet Hair Remover
Due to TikTok users’ affinity for practicality and animals, this pet hair remover product quickly started gaining traction among both pet owners and non-pet owners alike, the latter of whom used it to remove lint off clothes and furniture. Users also found satisfaction from seeing the amount of debris that was picked up using the handy device. 

Ahmad Hakym or better known as Kymio in the art industry is an architect by profession and the founder and director of KL Sketchnation! He will be sharing with us his personal stories that now inspire his art and motivate his career, and his advices to fresh graduates who aspire to be an architect.

Live Streaming is more than just talking to your followers in real-time. Live streaming is essentially an activity that builds trust and instils the faith of consumers towards a brand. Thus, what are exactly the benefits of live streaming for a brand? 

Bridging the Gap between Virtual & Reality Real-Time

By turning on live streaming, you are essentially letting people in to view you in real-time through their phone screens, no matter the time zone and place. The virtual connection that you originally have with your followers will be temporarily blurred, and your followers will then feel as if they are physically there with you.

Enhancing Personal Connections

By being able to demolish the virtual gap between you and your followers, you are then able to connect with them one-on-one. On your end, you may feel as if you are speaking to hundreds or thousands of people, but on your followers, they are only speaking with you. By speaking in a personal tone as if talking to someone else, your followers will feel as if they are just video-calling another friend. 

Building Trust

Speaking to your followers directly and personally will eventually establish not only a personal connection but trust towards the brand as well. By allowing your followers to view you in real-time, you are putting yourself in a space where there’s no editing nor a scripted scenario. Hence, by going with the flow, you are showing your followers your true and authentic self where your followers will then be able to fully trust and believe your actions and words. 

Cost and Monetary Reduction

Live streaming is actually one of the best ways to introduce a product or service or even engage to followers as it does not need much tools and preparation, except for a digital device like a smartphone and essentially the internet. Of course, extra items like props and decorations are a great bonus! But if you were to host just a momentary live stream, just to showcase the behind the scenes of a product, you really don’t need much. Just make sure your device is well connected to the internet and you’re good to go!

Now you know the benefits on why YOUR brand should go live, why not try it out? 

A ‘player’ is defined as a person that is taking part in a sport or game. A ‘persona’ is identified as the aspect of someone’s character that is perceived by others. When combined together, a ‘player persona’ is actually the representation of player profile types based on players’ behavioural data like gameplay preferences, motivations to play, etc. Player personas are built to assist player-centric game design and targeted marketing.

Creating player personas is also part of a designing process called ‘gamification’ where designers insert gameplay into non-gaming settings. This enhances user engagement with the service or product. 

Why Should You Create A Persona? 

Games, in general, are appealing to a specific group of people. Creating a player persona helps you clarify with yourself and fellow game developers on how the game should look like. As simple as the layout of your game, there has to be a distinctive feature or pattern that can be differentiated from the rest of the games. How do you identify this distinctive feature? What should it look like? What can be done, so that it appeals to your target players or audience? All these can be answered by creating a player persona. 

Collect and Solidify 

The data on your target audiences and players that you have collected beforehand should come in handy in this first step. Evident data like gender, geographics, ages of players, habitual stats, in-game spendings, gaming behaviors, can be simplified and condensed to create a personality or even several personalities in order for you to draw out a bigger picture of your ‘person’. 

Retrieve Research from Other Platforms

Platforms like the Apple app store, Steam, Google Playstore, and Google themself will alert you whenever your game is mentioned on any sites or forms of social media. There are gaming hubs like Discord where a huge amount of gaming enthusiasts come together, and where discussions are bound to happen. These are the places where you are able to collect insights, comments, and find out the different motivations of your audience.

Brain Racking 

This is the moment where you’ll need all hands on deck in order to figure out the path and specifically the design of the player persona. Do not be afraid to go wild with your ideas, as you are able to narrow down the specifications of this persona. There are certain types of aesthetic, pattern, layout, personality, image, and vibe of the persona that are compiled from all the previous data-collecting and research. If you have trouble during the creation of this persona, asking yourself questions from the perspective of a gamer, instead of a creator would help open up new approaches to better connect with your audience.

Narrow It Down 

There will be commonalities between each persona that you have created. Group those together and you will be able to figure out the core segments of your audience, hence, also finding out the direction of your game design. Bear in mind that you are finding similarities from differences, however, if there is too much commonality, try taking into account blending resembling personas into one.

Bringing the Personas into Life

The fun part of the process is when it comes to shaping and creating your personas. It’s great to include a little sense of humour into your personas, but try not to go overboard, as ease of communication is what you’re trying to achieve with these personas. Keep in mind the key elements of the personas, which comprises of:-

• Demographics
• Social Background
• Technology & Devices Used
• Gaming Motivation
• Non-Gaming Interests
• Goals & Aspirations
• Visual Representation

Once you have your key elements organized, it is always ideal to add a sense of ambition to your personas, their hopes, and dreams, something that they can achieve when they play your game.

Personas are fun and help you organize your creativity into something more vivid, and most importantly, they allow you to envision your users onto pen and paper. Consequently, if you have upcoming campaigns or marketing strategies, even new games and updates, these personas can come in handy in order to remind you of the direction of the marketing flow or suitable update. 

In order to build great games, understanding your player’s mind and developing detailed personas is what it takes.