Month: October 2012

In Pili Vega’s Blog, she talked about how online marketing is useful and allows media to evoke emotions on consumers. After watching the Coca-Cola Happiness Machine video shown in the post, I saw how the video has evoked my emotions and made me associate coca-cola with happiness. The use of technology and internet is very common nowadays, therefore to follow the trend, companies will need to shift their traditional paper-based advertisement to online advertising. Online marketing can come in many forms such as videos, pop-ups and posters. Seeing an online advertisement or commercial is a more interactive way and it could reach a broader base of customers. Since consumers are usually online, it would be easier for them to see the online advertisement than to flip the fliers.

Online has become part of our lives, therefore it is more of a need for online marketing. It is essential to have it. Online marketing may possibly be cheaper and is also more environmental friendly. It can evoke consumers’ emotions with animations. I think online marketing is taking over the traditional way of marketing. With the use of social media like Facebook and Twitter, it can make online marketing very effective for companies.

On Tuesday’s class, I have learned a new term, which is social entrepreneur. Social entrepreneur is a relatively new terminology and is used to define someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to make social changes. In Sally Gao’s blog, she talked about an example of a social entrepreneurship that we discussed in class which is Save On Meats.

Save On Meats interests me a lot because I have never been there nor heard of it before. After some research, I have found out that Save On Meats is both a butcher shop and a restaurant which hires locals and serves the low-income people and its community. Brand’s vision is to support the community in Downtown East Side by providing jobs and access to food. He has definitely contributed a lot for the community.

Social entrepreneurs are different than entrepreneurs. I think being a social entrepreneur is very meaningful; in a way that they can do business to earn money while doing a good cause and contributing back to the society. In the near future, I would like to visit Save On Meats to experience this culture of community and also help support it.

Gastown restaurateur Mark Brand

http://www.bcbusiness.ca/tourism-culture/building-a-downtown-eastside-foodie-empire

Samsung Galaxy S3 and Apple iPhone 5 have become the hottest smartphones in the market. Despite the iPhone 5 announcement and the jury verdicts against Samsung, the sales of the S3 have not been affected but instead boomed when the verdict was announced and when iPhone 5 was announced (as shown on the graph). Since August 1, sales of the S3 have seen average weekly growth of 9 percent, according to analytic firm Localytics.

It is interesting that Apple is trying to ban sales of Samsung handheld electronics in the US and yet the S3 is still enjoying a huge demand. Apple is trying to limit Samsung sales as it sees Samsung as the major competitor against Apple’s latest product iPhone 5. The effect of this fierce competition has resulted in an increase in demand for Samsung S3. Usually when verdicts go against a company or when other competitors introduce new products, it will affect the sales of a company. But in this case between Samsung and Apple, it is the opposite. When Apple is trying to ban sales of Samsung products, it caused customers to fear a ban on Samsung products, causing them to rush to buy a device before it was too late.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57525052-94/samsung-galaxy-s3-sales-hot-despite-iphone-5/

Japanese are always the ones full of surprises. A Japanese start-up project, Town EV, is thinking to have its ZEVe ultracompact on the market in Japan next year. This new electric vehicle is smaller than a golf cart and is “Japan’s first new vehicle niche to win government approval in 50 years”. The value proposition of this new vehicle is to Japan’s aging population, Town EV is creating a street-legal golf cart that provides low-powered transportation as a way to ease travel for the elderly living in areas without convenient bus services.

Due to the company’s precise targeting of a niche market, ZEVe got approval from the government as a street-legal car because the government sees that there is a need to fulfill the market segment as almost a quarter of the Japanese’s population are over age 65. The government also shows full support to this new vehicle by offering subsidies to companies and local governments that purchase ultracompacts. Although the idea of this electric vehicle is great, there are still some safety concerns as the vehicle looks easy to crush and it has no side windows or doors. It also has a slow speed and  is light weight.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-04/japan-tries-cars-that-make-the-mini-look-maxi#r=read