Allison Bullen's Blog

In reply to Paula Bieler: A Wondrous Pen. Blog post found here:  https://blogs.ubc.ca/paulabieler/2013/11/17/a-wondrous-pen/

Livescribe has invented an amazingly innovative pen. The Pulse Smartpen transforms your handwritten notes and audio recordings into interactive Flash videos, called pencasts that can then be added on to any website. The pen has a built-in speaker and microphone to record audio and a camera that captures everything you write and draw. Once the pen records all your notes, you then hook the device up to your computer via USB and transfer the files. The pencasts can be shared on blogs, websites, Facebook and you can even save your notes as a PDF file or export them into an audio file!

Like Paula, I prefer to handwrite my notes, however they can be a hassle to keep organized. Typing them up afterwards on my computer is a sure way to know I won’t lose them, although it can be time costly. The Pulse Smartpen would be great because I would be able to handwrite my notes, but then have them on my computer without having to take the time to type them up! However, I have to agree with Paula that spending $150 for a pen is not realistic for many people. Hopefully as this product becomes more popular, affordable prices will follow shortly after. The Pulse Smartpen could definitely be in the future of many students!

In reply to Nicole Godler: Customers Outraged with Lululemon’s Offensive Comments. Blog post found here: https://blogs.ubc.ca/nicolegodler/2013/11/13/customers-outraged-with-lululemons-offensive-comments/

Back in March, Lululemon was faced with a recall of their yoga pants due to the material being too sheer. The athletic branded company is once again in the hot seat due to a comment made by the chairman and co-founder of Lululemon, Chip Wilson. Wilson was attempting to address recent reports of issues with the company’s yoga pants; customers were complaining that the pants were too sheer and easily pilled. Wilson responded by blaming the pants’ problems on the women’s bodies, explaining that it’s all about the rubbing through the thighs and how much pressure on the pants there is. This of course created lots of outrage from consumers.

Like Nicole mentioned this isn’t the first time a company has prioritized a certain group of customers, with a certain “look”. Abercombie and Fitch and Hollister are definitely both guilty of it. Although I don’t agree with Wilson’s statement, I have to agree with Nicole when she says “their clothing and value proposition is too strong to be greatly damaged by this situation.” Lululemon has to big a customer basis to lose massive amounts of consumers over this. In handling the controversy in the correct manner, the company will easily recover.

As the obesity epidemic in North America continues to expand, restaurants are gradually tinkering with their menus to reduce salt and sugar. Stan Frankenthaler, executive chef at Dunkin’ Brands Group has been using a “stepped approach” to cutting salt and sugar, he says, “restaurants are wanting to do it a little bit behind the scenes because there’s a belief that something labeled healthy won’t taste as good.”

Chefs and executives from 25 food companies have formed the Healthy Menus R&D Collaborative, whose goal is to make their menus healthier and keep non-profit organizations like, the Institute of Medicine, lobbying the government for more regulation in the restaurant industry.

While it is admirable that the food companies are slowly changing the amount of salt and sugar in their food it is questionable whether this would have happened without the outcry from the non profit health groups who monitor the food served to the public and lobby the government for change. However, many consumers don’t want the new improved food, Chef Cordova from Au Bon Pain describes a 480 calorie cinnamon roll that was introduced to replace their 550 calorie roll and explains they had numerous emails complaining about the new roll. Chef Cordova said, “sometimes it’s a sin to take sugar away.” North Americans have become accustomed to unhealthy food and it may be an uphill battle to change their eating habits.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-14/2014-outlook-fast-food-chains-inch-toward-healthiness#r=hpt-ls

This February the largest recycled tire plant in North America will open in St. Mary’s, Ontario. Green Arc Tire Manufacturing will produce more than 3 million tires per year that are “green”.

Mike De Cenzo, COO of the company said, “We’re proud to be offering Canadians winter tires that are not only green, but have better traction and improve fuel efficiency, at less cost than regular tires.” The process of making the new winter tires not only uses 80% of the old tire but also sells for 30-50% less than regular tires. This is a win/win situation, recycle old tires and produce cheaper winter tires for drivers. Unfortunately for Green Arc Manufacturing many drivers feel recycled tires aren’t safe, a 2013 study done by the US Department of Safety acknowledged that, “despite the (cost) advantages that retreaded tires may bring, public perception is that retread tires are less safe than new ones.” This may be a difficult perception for the company to overcome. Another obstacle is the fact that many Canadian drivers buy all season tires and hope for a mild winter with no snow or ice. Recycled tires are popular in several European countries and it will be interesting to see if Green Arc can roll out a success story for their green tires in North America.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-drive/new-cars/auto-news/largest-recycled-tire-plant-in-north-america-opening-in-ontario/article15438269/

Social media sites are constantly being compared to one another; whether or not one is better for uploading pictures and the other better for letting your friends know what you’re up to.  In that sense, it’s no surprise that Twitter’s IPO is being compared to Facebook. Many articles and opinions, including the one linked below believe that Twitter’s IPO will be nothing like Facebook’s.

Numerous people are assuming that Twitter’s initial public offering will be much more successful compared to Facebook’s up and down shares that were destroyed before finally making an amazing comeback. For starters, Mark Zuckerberg (the creator of Facebook) waited too long before taking his company public and didn’t trust the demands that stock market investors and regulators make on publicly traded companies. Twitter on the other hand, is not only going public a lot sooner but also at an earlier revenue stage. This is smart, because there is room for growth, as Twitter is only believed to be worth between 10 to 20 billion dollars compared to Facebook, which has a valuation of 100 billion dollars. It will be interesting to watch how Twitter’s IPO fares out in the next month or so and compare it to Facebook’s roller coaster IPO.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2013/09/13/why-twitters-ipo-wont-be-like-facebooks-ipo/

David Edelman believes the funnel model is outdated and shows this through his post on LinkedIn. He explains that the model only shows a narrow array of choices until the consumer’s purchase. It leaves out the fact that consumers consider their set of decisions after buying a product just as importantly as before they buy the product.

I agree with Edelman’s post, I believe that as technology advances, the evolution of consumer’s preferences will as well. The funnel model is very linear; awareness and opinion leads to consideration, consideration leads to preferences and preferences ultimately leads to purchase. The problem with the model being so linear is that as modern time has advanced, social media has given consumers the ability to view information and opinions about brands. Therefore as people explore which products to buy they are exposed to new brands, which causes product consideration to expand, precisely when the funnel model might expect them to narrow. This is one reason why the use of this model is outdated. The cyclical plan that Edelman gives is great because it puts the consumer at the centre of the model by exploring the complete brand experience and highlighting important components of the journey.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121018110732-1816165-the-funnel-is-dead-the-new-consumer-decision-journey

Two years ago, many Walmart employees in the States stepped forward saying they were being treated unethically. The employees said there was discrimination, very low pay and bad working hours in their workforce. Back in 2011, one hundred employees involved in the Organization United for Respect (OUR Walmart) sat face-to-face with representatives from Scandinavian funds and others to explain their issues regarding fair pay and work hours. Last week, Sweden’s largest state-backed pension funds (worth a combined 140 billion dollars) finally decided to dump their Walmart stock on the advice of the country’s Ethical Council, which described ‘systematic abuses of workers’ rights’ as the main motivation. Other reasons for letting go of the stock included corruption allegations and people getting hurt on the job.

This is definitely one way to let Walmart know that what they’re doing isn’t right. However, instead of this Swedish company completely removing themselves from Walmart, perhaps the smarter way to do it is to stay with the stock and in the company. That way as a shareholder, you have more of a say in what goes on at Walmart then if you let go of your stock. The Swedish Company could have kept their stock and continued to stick up for workers’ rights by pressuring Walmart to change their unethical behaviour.

Kraft Foods Group company ‘Jell-O’ have had sales fall 0.45 percent to 154 million dollars. The decline in sales has caused marketers for the company to create a new campaign for Jell-O. The company’s goal is to reestablish what their core purpose and motto ‘food for fun’ really means. Kraft will be ending the recent adult-targeted approach and will refocus on families and fun. One of Jell-O’s new ads (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gporNcuC76M) shows the attempt at targeting families in a humorous manner. It shows a father and his son, bonding over Jell-O pudding while the father explains that the “the chocolate taste of Jell-O pudding” makes up for all the adult struggles he goes through. One fault for a decline in sales is the reduction in marketing and advertising. Measured media spending fell by more than half to 15 million dollars last year. However as a part of the new campaign, marketing spending on Jell-O will double, which includes money spent on television, print and digital ads. With Kraft Foods’ new slogan targeting a new age range and the recalculation of where their money will be spent, will the brand be able to reverse their sales? Although it has taken the company some time to announce their new campaign, it is here now and as Kraft CEO Tony Vernon says in an interview, “… it takes time to develop great advertising”.

Many Americans believe that if they spent less time watching television, used public transit instead of their cars and cooked more meals at home that they wouldn’t be in the financial situation that they’re in now. People come to these conclusions from personal finance books and advisors telling them that cutting out daily luxuries, such as coffee, are key to avoiding debt. Although cutting some personal needs from daily life could help, the bigger issue is fixed costs, the items and services that are difficult or impossible to ‘cutback on’. Housing, health care and education costs are only a few of the average American’s fixed costs. These payments cost the average family 75 percent of their discretionary income in the 2000s. Compared to only 50 percent in the 1970s. With the rising costs of medical services and college tuition its no wonder Americans are falling deeper and deeper into debt. Finally, if rising fixed costs weren’t bad enough, the average household income is falling as well. The median income for families in the 33 to 44 age range fell 14 percent between 2001 and 2010. With these two problems on American’s hands, there’s no question why they’re sliding further into debt.

Innovators from companies such as Google, BMW and Nissan have proposed and tested the idea of driverless cars. They say these vehicles of the future will be ready for the market by 2020. The cars will use artificial intelligence and external and internal sensors to autonomously navigate the road. Sensors, including lasers and cameras will also be used to monitor the surrounding environment. Experts say the sensors are tied to the car’s control system by 100 microprocessors allowing it to independently break before unexpected objects, stay in its lane and maintain a safe following distance.

However, as many pros as these futuristic vehicles may have, there are negative sides as well. Everyone’s computer has at one point either crashed or gotten a virus, what if that computer was onboard an autonomous vehicle going 90km/h? Or if the sensors in charge of the car’s control system overheated from the sun? It poses the question who would be to blame if there was an accident, would it be the driver or the car company? Other cons include the expensive price of the cars and the loss of jobs (taxi drivers, bus drivers, etc). Car manufactures are quick to tell consumers all the great attributes these vehicles will have but ethically there’s much more to the picture.