Month: October 2010

Have you ever wondered what will be used as advertisement in the future? Probably not newspapers, right? Mainly because most newspapers have moved on the internet! How will the marketing of a company be affected by that?

Although television still remains as the leading advertising location, many firms have been exploring the internet, on social networks and other websites where people are more engaged. “Companies are beginning to see social networks as an alternative means of building brands through discussions, which makes them a threat to TV advertising. Mr Weed of Unilever forecasts a drift from paid advertising to “earned” media, including Facebook.” (article: http://www.economist.com/node/17149050?story_id=17149050). Online advertising has been growing more and more each year making the internet one of the best ways for a company to invest its marketing budget on.  Facebook and other social networking websites have given companies the possibilities to appeal to people in engaging ways. Thus, gaining more customers as well as improving/ increasing sales. An example would be the famous “like” on Facebook, that result in sending the person updates and information about all their “likes”. If you like a brand on facebook you will receive coupons and weekly news from that company. Other medias such as Google might feel threatened by the increase in Pages and ads Facebook has been building up but social networks seem to be the fad! After all, who doesn’t like a nice tweet?

Article:

http://www.economist.com/node/17149050?story_id=17149050

Perhaps we are addicted to social networking websites… Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5TI3gzx3JA

How could MIS (Management of Information System) in a business use video-conference to increase the organization’s productivity and encourage its employees? Well an article in The Economist has given us a few ideas and reflections on how the market for professional video communications can be very helpful for a company.  Yesterday, on October 6^th, Cisco introduced to the market of video softwares (Skype for example) the ūmi telepresence which is a television screen that bring your living room to your friends and family. The attitude toward video conferencing has changed: people now feel more comfortable using it with family and friends.

Video-conferencing could also be used at work in order to increase the speed of information throughout the company, which would consequently increase the communication between the workers and their managers. “Gartner forecasts that the growth of high-end telepresence systems will allow companies to keep more workers at their desks, saving 2.1m airline journeys a year by 2012 and cutting car-rental costs.” (Article) If the MIS decided to increase the use of video-conference in a company, not only would it encourage the employees to communicate more and thus contribute more to the firm but it would reduce transportation costs! An idea could be transmitted much faster to your boss, information that arrive at an early time could make sure your company sign a contract with what will become a great customers, and so on. Skype or Cisco could therefore help a company stay ahead of the game and grow! Way to go!

Article: http://www.economist.com/blogs/newsbook/2010/10/cisco_bets_home_video-calling

“Canada will enhance its innovation and productivity by greater engagement with the BRIC countries and other emerging economies – or so a paper from the Institute for Competitiveness and Prosperity persuasively argues.” (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/time-to-ramp-up-bric-trade/article1719509/?cmpid=rss1)  The BRIC countries, which include Brazil, Russia, India and China, are considered emerging countries since they are at the same stage of economic development.  In the ICP paper, written by Daniel Trefler, an economist at the University of Toronto, states that  a free-trade agreement in 1989 led to productivity gains of 13 per cent. These great results means that if Canada would start or be more involved in free trade, especially with economically advanced countries, its productivity would go up drastically.

Canada should see trade agreements, trade offices and even political visits with the BRIC countries as an investment! Increasing their trading market could mean an exposure to more competitors and unfortunately it is unavoidable, however such an increase could also mean higher productivity of Canadian firms (as proved before). If Canada’s relationship with the emerging economies began to be stronger, the country could experience a boom in productivity growth, as a result of new opportunities of good exchange and expansion of trade.