Friday, August 26, 2011

A touch of class please in your advertising department

Received this through fax today.. to me it's super ironic as it says Save ME Mother Earth but yet when they fax this to me, it wasted a lot of my toner because of the huge bold black writings!!

It's basically trying to waste my toner so that I will order toner from them.. Not!! Furthermore it's also wasting paper.. guess we have to get a fax server soon to avoid this problem.

But till then whoever who does this kind of marketing through fax, kindly practice what you preach and stop faxing them. Use other more environment friendly ways like Facebook Ads, Google Ads etc or ways that do not waste the recipients' money like sms, emails or plain ordinary snail mails.

That brings me to another rampant problem which we have in Malaysia... sticker advertisements on all kinds of surface. It's amazing that I do not see this in other countries but it is so prevalent in Malaysia. Guess you can say it's a Malaysian thing... one which I am not proud of as a Malaysian.

I hope the police, local authorities and telco companies can work hand in hand to curb this menace.

The police and local authorities can update the telco companies the phone number used and the telco should issue warnings before terminating the phone number. I mean how hard is it to terminate phone lines? Try not paying for 2 months and see what happens.

This kind of proactive steps should make people think twice before they stick anything on public structures and facilities.

Malaysia is after all a modern society and such behaviour should not be tolerated. We as citizens should not accept this as norm and keep a blind eye to it.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Make time to blog OR make money to blog?


Since keeping this blog, I have come across many interesting blogs which I follow publicly. Even though blogging is meant to be an outlet to express one's thought, once the number of followers increase so did the innate pressure or responsibility to blog correctly... well maybe it's just me cos I dont others to waste my time and consequently I do not like to waste other people's time.

I follow cos I am a person who love to read and since young I cant put down a good book which comes first - over food and sleep. My favourite spot to read was the restroom cos then my mom cant make me do any chores but living an a low cost apartment then, we dont have toilet seat so most of the time I end up having cramped legs.

BTW the fastest way to cure cramped legs (or malay called it "semut semut" literally ants ants) for me is to pretend that a dog is chasing me and I will run for my life, even though it's quite painful and difficult. Try it! It works cos the main point is to facilitate blood circulation.

But recently I decided to UNfollow a particular blog cos it seems to be too "commercialised" endorsing products and services... too much especially since it's a personal blog. I'm fine if you peppered it once in a while but to do it consecutively is a bit too hard for me to accept.

So for this blog, yes we are Butik Turkuaz - which means we are selling our products but when it's under label "Just a Thought..." it is really just a thought.

As for product reviews - well it's cos I've faced the heartaches and I want to spare others the hassle of buying products which do not work as they claim to PLUS most importantly I do not get anything (monetary or otherwise) from those companies.


I know blogging is a business and you can make money and a living from it but first it must flow from a passion couple with responsibility to your followers.

But again that's just my thought.


Thursday, August 18, 2011

Annual Turkuaz / Bonjuk Tea gives back 2011




It's that time of the year again! Our boss is giving away free food as thanksgiving to God for the good year before especially now is a good month of Ramadhan!

We gave away 600 packets of authentic Turkish chicken kebab cooked right at our shop in Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, KL served with baked rice with raisin. We top it up with free kurma and Bonjuk ice tea with green tea jelly inside.





By 5:30pm there was a long queue waiting for the food as the aroma was so tempting.

To all who managed to enjoy the food, we hope you enjoyed it and be blessed just as we are. But to those whose turn came too late, our deepest apologies. We hope to see you again next year as this is our annual event.



Wednesday, August 10, 2011

LOL



I’M SO GLAD I FOUND OUT ABOUT THIS

The correct way to weigh yourself:
 





I can't believe you were doing it

wrong all these years.

YOU MUST SPREAD THE WORD.
Never take life seriously; nobody gets out alive anyway.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Since the opening of Bonjuk Tea, we have received mixed comments about the drinks.

Mostly good ones but there were one or two who mentioned that the drinks were not up to their standard.

So we are now taking the opportunity to apologize to our customers whose expectations were not met. Hopefully you can give us another chance to serve you. Perhaps this time you will try our house specialty which are tea based drinks!


Cheers to seeing you again soon!

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Turkuaz Fashion Spread - Nur (August 2011)





Turkuaz latest 4 pages fashion spread in NUR magazine August 2011 selling at RM5.90 (West Malaysia).

This is their pre-Ramadan edition with 90 scarves wearing variation.

Exclusive to this issue are 25 new recipes and a cover story on Dr Siti Ai'shah who is a finalist of Nur CoverGirl search 2011/12.

From page 131 is an interesting article with 105 tips on how to keep the spirit of visiting friends and family during the raya season alive and strong among the younger generations.

There is also a segment called "Kerjaya, Bisnes dan Kewangan" starting at page 85.

At pages 98 and 99 is an article on Melanie who started a business of carving stamps or "chop" out of wood, clay and even erasers.

Page 108-109 are informative for new moms on the benefits of new CD (cloth diaper) vs disposable diapers.

Turkuaz Fashion Spread - Nona (August 2011)





Turkuaz latest 4 pages fashion spread in NONA magazine August 2011 selling at RM12.90 (West Malaysia).

This is their Special Ramadan edition with 300++ of raya fashion with Rozita Che Wan gracing their front cover and exclusive to this issue 100++ recipes for raya.

There are a few notable interviews with namely, Rozita Che Wan, YM Datin Dr Raja Mazuin, Dato' Siti Hendon Haji Chik and Datin Paduka Hajah Khatijah Sulieman.

From pages 42-45 is a special travel review to Moscow and Ukraine under the programme Jejak Rasul season 17 where they experience first hand snow in Moscow.

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

The Reds are HERE!



Liverpool fans shout out loud!!



Never one to be a fan of football except for the once in every 4 years World Cup, I was dragged, kicking n screaming all the way to the friendly match in Bukit Jalil on 23 July 2011.

Ok I may have exaggerated a fair bit. I was actually quite happy to go there but only after knowing that this is the very first time Liverpool team are ever on Malaysian soil.

The reason for their absence was because their previous corporate sponsor for many many years was Carlsberg beer.

Beer being lumped together with cigarettes have long been banned from appearing in any media advertisements (tv, radio, newspaper, billboards etc) in Malaysia and as such Liverpool since having Carlsberg logo right smack in the centre of their jersey suffer the same ban.

This was not the case when I was young. I remember watching loads of blockbuster movies sponsored by none other than cigarettes company and Dunhill was the most prestigious of them all having the tagline of "Dunhill... Gaya, mutu, keunggulan"... see the fact that I can still remember their tagline shows their effectiveness.

The cigs companies can advertise through many means and I even found them in my old bowling score paper. Gosh I can believe I am saying this but cigarettes ads are SOOO YESTERDAY!



Hey my colleague just mentioned that even fast food are banned from advertising in the media... Wow!!

Anyway coming back to Liverpool it is good that their corporate sponsor is now Standard Chartered Bank so the match on 23 July was overall good as there were a total of 9 goals that day.

For a not-a-football fan the more goals the merrier cos it meant loads of opportunity to take photos and videos of screaming, shouting and singing fans (when both teams, any teams scored cos generally any malaysian will cheer for the Malaysian team as well).




I have no complains saved:-
1) the 1st half and beginning of 2nd half was a tad bit boring with the score being tied at 1-1.
I even managed to find the time for toilet break so you can imagine how un-exciting the match was.

2) the organizers did not allow any outside drinks / food including the H2O which I bring in my own tupperware... so after 2 hour plus of sitting in the hot stadium (we were there early), any human being with blood running in their system would be thirsty.

The only option? Buy carbonated drinks sold by the approved food n beverage sellers. To make matters worst they sell it in small cups with loads of ice at RM2! Money suckers!!

Food sold are only FRIED finger food and burgers! Ycuk! Having just gone for blood test, I got to watch my cholesterol level so fried food are a definite no-no!!

3) leaving the stadium was unbelievably difficult and they are many factors which contributed to it:-

i) even though the stadium is equipped with many gates (which can be opened), they choose to open only 2 gates at each section. And mind you the gates are just double the size of regular door.


ii) once out of the gates, our freedom were shortlived as again the organizer rented too many temporary booths to vendors and agains these booths reduced the walking space to just a mere 10 feet.

So can you imagine how cramped everyone was with 80,000 people leaving the stadium at the same time!

iii) later we face the same crowd trying to cross the same little bridge connecting the main stadium with the hockey stadium. To avoid this crowd, we then divert to use the main road to get to Endah Parade.

In doing so we passed by the Bukit Jalil LRT station and was bewildered and slightly amused to see the gates of the station being lowered. Reason? -- they just cannot cope with the number of commuters and the way they do it? Close the station! LOL

I can only imagine the frustrations of the football fans who thought that by taking the LRT they can avoid the jam... only to be denied entry. Kakakaka...

So the next time Liverpool is here, I hope Standard Chartered will continue to be their sponsor and the event organizer and LRT operator will think of a solution to these minor hiccups!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Selamat Berpuasa!!



Selamat menjalankan ibadah puasa to all our customers and readers!



Been working in Turkuaz for more than 7 years and I noticed that most of the time during the fasting month, it tends to rain every evening. So I hope the rain will bring much relief to those who have to toil under the hot sun... but then again, rain also means one thing ==> traffic jams during rush hours :(

So to all those who are rushing home to break fast today, let's pray for clear weather and smooth journey to be with family, friends and loved one!!

Happy fasting!!