http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/10/10/pirate-raid-22/

Comment on external Blog.

By Nick Taylor-Vaisey

As I was surfing the internet about IT and information systems I came across this blog where Netflix recently revealed, how they know which TV shows, movies and music its subscribers are waiting to watch. As they spy around dark corners of the internet, looking at file-sharing websites and purchasing the shows that are most popular among the host of online pirating. When Netflix was launched in Holland last month, the company’s vice president told a reporter that Netflix has been purchasing TV shows based on their popularity among the Dutch torrenting crowd. The ability that Netflix has to acquire such information like this has earned Netflix praise for creativity and vision. The same method had been used in the Canada which had caused the company to become quite successful in Canada as well since its 2010 expansion. During that time Torrenting traffic in the north of the border had decreased by 50%, a sign that customers are willing to pay for online streaming due to the available shows now on Netflix. Experts predicts that Netflix could soar in value to 75 billion before 2020, almost four times its current value. I feel that this act would go against business ethics and corporate social responsibility, as this violates individuals’ privacy. Consumers and internet users would rather be quite concerned that anyone can just monitor what ever it is they are typing, doing on the internet which could cause a lot of problems in the long run in terms of trust.

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/article/1218330/mcdonalds-ends-40-year-old-heinz-deal-bk-boss-appointment

While I was reading through my section’s Sauderites’ blogs. I came across Jonathan’s blog and found this one particularly interesting. The Ketchup company, Heinz, acquired a new CEO by the name of Bernardo Hees, who was the former chief executive officer of Burger King. Because Burger King is a major rival, McDonald’s planned to change its ketchup supplier, destroying the 40-year old business relationship with Heinz. This decision by McDonald’s surprised a lot of individuals. I agree with Jonathan that McDonald’s is not being reasonable here, since there have been a long history behind the success to McDonald’s and its complimentary goods. Heinz is probably at the top of the ketchup supplier chain and McDonald’s is just walked away from them. I feel that he real story behind this decision of McDonald’s to end the partnership with Heinz is that Warren Buffet now owns both Heinz & BK so McDonald’s fear that they will become a second tier customer and lose out in the market. This isn’t petty gripes but contingency planning.

Jonathan’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/jonathanli7/

Sweden’s IKEA Group agreed to buy a 46-megawatt wind farm in Southern Alberta from Mainstream Renewable Power Ltd., deepening the furniture maker’s push into renewable energy. Mainstream, which has begun construction on the $90-million project, will operate and maintain the wind farm after it’s complete in the second half of the next year. I intend to look into Sauderite Mina Willett’s Blog from a different perspective. Although I agree that becoming sustainable will boosts the company’s credibility in terms of sustainability adds to IKEAs value proposition. As this act will push products to be low-carbon based, reducing energy and operating costs and pass those benefits on the customers offering high quality hoe furnished goods at relatively low prices. On the other hand, IKEA’s low-cost, assembly type, to go furniture ethic will certainly be pushed into the right direction with the proposal to go green and become sustainable as I feel that though development of more sustainable business practices, efficiency in operations will increase. With better use and conservation of resources, operations will be streamlined and costs will decrease. At the same time being sustainable will allow IKEA to enhance their brand name and increase their competitive advantage in the market.

Mina Willett’s blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/minawillett/2013/11/14/ikea-buys-a-wind-farm/

http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/real-money-with-alivelshi/Real-Money-Blog/2013/11/6/twitter-set-to-gopublicthursdayyetsharesarealreadytrading.html

by Duarte Geraldino

There were rumors and predictions about Twitter going public over the past year that they would go public around the year 2014. However, they have stunned everybody by filing or an IPO before expected. According to reports, the share prices of Twitter will probably double over the first year of its IPO. The question is, how would Twitter make its revenues and how successful would they be able to capture and be a part of the Global TV market, and how reliable would it really be to invest in Twitter. According to Twitter, they have planned for MoPub, an online mobile advertisement company , to enhance the company’s revenue streams. Specialists say that Twitter has gone through and experienced the hard part of building a strong and eye-catching brand in the market of networking. Therefore, from this point onwards, it should be much easier for Twitter to be successful in the public market.

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/10/07/blackberry-survival-seen-in-security-not-smartphones/?__lsa=14f3-d6af

This article exemplifies what the regular passionate business know-how person knows about Blackberry’s down-turn in the economy, but this also brought about a fascinating point. Among all the other declining facts and statistics in Blackberry’s accounts we have seen a 50 percent drop in sales and about 1 billion dollar loss. On the other hand, Blackberry have managed to increase their utilization of servers by 32%. If Blackberry focus and develop on its security software and network facilities, they may be just able to survive. With Apple and Android as their main competitors, Blackberry would need to expand their line of products and start to expand their vision and create a smart-phone that would be able to compete with the other big players in the smart-phone market. The article states that Blackberry needs to redevelop their chain of ideas and become more like a “software shop that caters to all” for the to survive. I feel that Blackberry would need to change its current business model and somehow, regain the competitive edge and become a major competitor and player in the market once more.

https://secure.globeadvisor.com/servlet/ArticleNews/story/gam/20131023/RBBELLADSPRINTATL

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

SUSAN KRASHINSKY

On November 16th Bell plans to launch its new management information system. Bell announced that they are collecting vital information to convey relevant ads to their users and consumers and stated that information technology will improve services and heighten protection against scams and fraud. The type of information that Bell plans to collect include, usage of applications, calling patterns, internet usage and activity and search patterns. Furthermore, the telecommunications company will also assemble information of one’s personal information, such as devices used, location services, payment methods and so on.

After gathering all of these data, Bell must be cautious when implementing such strategies while interpreting and analyzing consumer’s data. Data integration is an issue that all firms must be aware of as companies that revolves around information systems, discover that it is often difficult to analyze almost all of the data correctly and appropriately. Potentially information can be a commanding and dominant tool in the development of an organizations’ business. However, it is not very useful when not managed by the right people. Therefore, I feel that communication between managers and Informations department must be organized and strong. Bell’s announcement raised some concern as customers are worried about their privacy.

Bell Plans to Cut US Roaming Rates by 50% Starting Sept. 17

by Gary Ng on Monday, September 16th, 2013 – 8:58am PDT

http://globalnews.ca/news/842645/bell-drops-u-s-roaming-rate-for-customers/

Bell announced that they will be reducing the rates on its US roaming plans by 50%, as what the company says is its continued focus on “lowering costs for customers” who use their phones outside of Canada.

Every year 18 million Canadians enter the US and annually spend an estimated $800 million in roaming fees, charged by carriers who have network agreements in place with local US carriers. By decreasing its rate by 50% as we can see from p1 to p2, there is a significant change in the quantity demanded for the service from q1 to q1. Therefore, we can say that the demand for roaming services is relatively elastic. This shows that Bell is making the right choice of decreasing its costs by 50% to increase demand and therefore, decreasing its costs and increasing its revenues in the long run from the consumers. This would give the consumer more satisfaction as well as they are now paying half the price that they would before. In this situation Bell is implementing the right policy/method at the right time, allowing both the consumers and producers to benefit from the change.

Cristiano Ronaldo shirt sales ‘have already paid off £80m’

http://www.marca.com/2013/03/09/en/football/real_madrid/1362823886.html

Sunday 03/09/2013

Real Madrid have said shirt sales featuring the name and number of world record signing Cristiano Ronaldo have already surpassed the initial £80 million it took to sign him from Manchester United.

Cristiano Ronaldo Real Madrid shirt sales have surpassed his £80m transfer fee

Cristiano Ronaldo’s switch from the Premier League to La Liga broke all records for a single player transfer when Real splashed out the single fee of £80m, without clauses or additional payments in the summer of 2009. However, the Spanish club have claimed sales of branded shirts and other ‘Ronaldo memorabilia’ have already seen them recoup a substantial amount of the 27-year-old’s transfer fee.

According to the latest figures, more than 3 million shirts with ‘Ronaldo 7′ on the back have been sold in the Spanish capital alone, with millions more thought to have been bought up elsewhere around Spain and across the world. The income of around £100 million has not all gone towards paying back the outlay for the player’s services due to production and marketing costs and payments to kit manufacturer Adidas and Ronaldo himself. But experts are predicting throughout the player’s six-year contract he will more than make up for his market value in merchandising alone, regardless of his performances on the pitch. Past Real Madrid shirt sales have been boosted by marquee signings such as Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, and Luis Figo, although Ronaldo marketability is said to outweigh all of his predecessors.

http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/2175/la-liga/2010/04/14/1878552/real-madrid-have-sold-over-a-million-cristiano-ronaldo

Man United announce record revenue

September 18, 2013

By Richard Jolly
http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1556501/manchester-united-announce-record-revenue?cc=5901

The Premier League champions had a total of £363.2 million in revenue, an increase of £42 million from the previous year, and profits of £146.4 million, a 528% rise on their previous year, when they made £23 million. As a Manchester United fan, I was extremely happy to hear about this as Manchester United were being pressured in the financial side of things, as they are heavily in debt (500+ million) and struggling to compete with other established and up and coming wealthy teams in the transfer market. Throughout the years Manchester United were falling behind in terms of quality of players but still could manage to win the Premier League be quite a margin due to their legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who is now retired.

Vice-chairman Ed Woodward said: “Our commercial business continues to be a very powerful engine of growth enabling the team to continue to be successful. We won our 20th English League title last season and are delighted to have David Moyes lead our football team into a new and exciting chapter. We look forward to a successful 2013-14, both on and off the pitch.”

Now, due to the market strategies and sales in shirts and merchandise, position they finished in the league and in the champions league. They were able to break the record of revenue received in a fiscal year. Now with more funds readily available for the new manager, David Moyes. Manchester United will continue to be one of the big powerhouses when it comes to making transactions in the transfer market and hopefully attract football stars with great reputation.

http://www.football365.com/news/21554/8927981/United-Make-Massive-Amounts-Of-Dosh

Marketing tragedy: When ads become apologies

SUSAN KRASHINSKY – MARKETING REPORTER

The Globe and Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/marketing-tragedy-when-ads-become-apologies/article14267057/

This article circles around big brand named companies advertising their products with the use of historical and tragic events to promote their products. Large firms have started to use these events as a strategy of marketing their products as a way to support those who were affected by these events, not thinking of the consequences and conflicts that could have occurred due to the poor judgments of business ethics. Calling it “Marketing Tragedy”. Business ethics is the study of business strategies and practices concerning controversial issues that arise from the actions from the social groups. Business ethics are often guided by law to gain public acceptance.

Krashinsky talks about how poorly accepted these advertisements were, when initially released to the public. Comments were made through the use of social media. The comments commonly showed that people that were off-putted and offended. Most of these adverts were immediately taken down and then apologized to the general public. From this article it can be seen that the firms have only looked at one side of the entire situation before going forth with the adverts rather than looking at the benefits and consequences of both sides therefore, losing reputation and consumer confidence.

“Companies should never use tragedy to market their products and services, or do anything that could even be misconstrued as such,”.