“I will say that iPhones in general are good smartphones but not great. They are excellent entry level to mid range smartphones. But in the end it does not matter what I say because as long as their is an Apple logo on it, people will mindlessly buy it.”-Athanasios Zarkadas

I am an Iphone user and I do acknowledge the strengths of Iphone. However, facing the troubles and inconvenience brought by Iphone, should we step back and rethink the value of Iphone?

When consumers choose monthly plan, most of people will choose the most economical one, as long as the mobile company support the cell phone we already have. For example, Wind Mobile provide $25 per month with everything unlimited. However, this economical monthly plan is not supportive for Iphone. Thus, Iphone user can’t benefit from the cheap plan provided by Wind mobile. Iphone users can choose Fido $25 monthly plan, but only get 150mins talk during day time and unlimited text within Canada.

The one of the reasons that Iphone users can’t have cheap phone bill is that the network of Iphone differentiates from mobile companies that provide cheaper monthly plan.

“We do not have the iPhone. Apple’s current iPhone is not compatible with the WIND network (AWS/1700 Megahertz/BandIV). When we hear an AWS iPhone is in the works, believe us, we’ll be knocking Apple’s door to get the scoop!” said a staff of Wind Mobile.

Wind Mobile as well as other cheaper mobile company such as Mobilicity, can provide services for HTC users and Samsung users, but not Iphone users.

Mobile companies are looking forward to cooperate with Apple so that more Iphone users can benefit.

Western companies looking to bring their products to China face a problem not unlike that of Chinese parents naming a baby boy: little Gang (“strong”) is regarded quite differently than little Yun (“cloud”).

An off-key name could have serious financial consequences, due to the negative meaning of the translated name. For example, Microsoft should be careful. The phonetic Chinese character for Bing, its new search engine, means, “disease,” “defect,” and “virus.”

However, a successful translated brand name brings good brand images and stimulates consumers’ interests to buy the products.

The paradigm probably is the Chinese name for Coca-Cola, Kekoukele, which not only sounds like Coke’s English name, but conveys its essence of taste and fun in a way that the original name could not hope to match.There are many others. Consider Tide detergent, Taizi, whose Chinese characters literally mean “gets rid of dirt.”

The art of picking a brand name that resonates with Chinese consumers is no longer an art. It has become a sort of science, with consultants, computer programs and linguistic analyses. So far, there are already some professional companies running translation brand name as a business.

However, if we could come up with a universal appealing brand name, wouldn’t we save money to think of translation, making the brand name world-widely famous once the brand succeeds!

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/12/world/asia/picking-brand-names-in-china-is-a-business-itself.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/11/12/world/asia/chinese-products-in-translation.html?ref=asia

http://blog.birdsonggregory.com/blog/voice/choosing-the-right-product-name-in-another-language (outside li)

Dear ZARA,

Because I am a fan of Zara, I want to remind you:”Don’t say Chinese government is defensive towards foreign companies, your company should guarantee the good quality of your clothing! Please stop finding excuse for your bad quality clothing!”

sincerely,

Your fan,

Ava

About two years ago, China’s consumer watchdog attacked Zara for poor quality. The firm denies that it was singled out for political reasons. But the Chinese government typically targets foreign firms first. Last week McDonald’s and Carrefour were pilloried for minor lapses.

Zara has good operations management. It is famous for fast fashion. It only takes three weeks to make the draft to the shelves in stores. The renewal of it’s trendy clothing is really fast, so that consumers will be attracted to visit the store more than 2 times a month. The temptation from Zara is far more irresistible than other similar stores that only have two seasons to change clothing.

The fashionable clothing brings young customers; the cheap price absorbs more middle aged women to shop in Zara.

No matter how chic and cheap those clothing are, good quality and reputation are always the fundamental requirements.

This is just a warm reminder for the fast growing brand- Zara.

Normal people believe only when they see that happens. While for social entrepreneurs, they choose to believe and then see the desired results. Creating systematic changes, driving by social benefits, social entrepreneurs are creating social benefits and making more happiness for people who need help.

Tom’s is one of the companies that are contributing to social improvements. It has sold over 1 million pairs of shoes and given away just as many as part of its one-for-one model.

They found a way to make money, and a way to provide shoes for kids.This is beneficial for them, and for the kids they serve.₁

Toms founder and CEO Blake Mycoskie has found a bright way to give an unique meaning for Tom’s shoes business and dramatically increase the brand value.

Similarly, Save on Meats is in the forefront when it comes to giving to the community; one of their many programs is to provide nutritious, sustainably sourced lunches to women in single room occupancies.² At the same time, Save on meats creates many job opportunities for homeless people.

One of the effects of helping community is to create a harmonious atmosphere. There aren’t homeless people walking around, no violence happening because of jobless and starvation, and no quarrel between customers and store owners because of the bad services. A harmonious community is very fundamental, yet not attainable in every corner of the world.

Business people should realize the happiness created by social responsibility will benefit society and their business as well. Hopefully, giving back to society will become more recognized and preferable. Our world needs more companies and more business getting involved in the development of social entrepreneurship.

http://leadershipforgood.com/a-nonprofit-social-enterprise/

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1678486/toms-shoes-ceo-blake-mycoskie-on-social-entrepreneurship-telling-stories-and-his-new-book

Recently, many most liked Facebook pages suffered large drops in numbers. The move follows the social network’s admission that 8.7% of its users are not “real”, many having been set up by spammers who artificially making those pages more popular.

Using Facebook as a media to advertise is free but may not be influential.Some companies just put delicate photos on their Facebook pages and let Facebook users comment on each photo, so that they can get some feedback about their products. However, beautiful graphs and comments are not convincing enough to drive users to buy products.

There is another problem: how can companies let users find their pages? The answer is producing fake “likes”.Facebook will show the latest photos and posts of the pages that users like, so that more information about their products and services can be acquired by users. But sometimes the “like” button is automatically clicked by spammers, which means even if you didn’t click the “like” button, the Facebook system will regard you as a liker of certain pages.

However, if the users themselves are not interested in the page which automatically appears  in their news feed page, those Facebook users will get bored and annoyed gradually, which easily produces negative feelings about the company and their disturbing advertisements.

In this case, the free advertisement in Facebook is not only useless but also harmful to a certain extent.

“I will say that iPhones in general are good smartphones but not great. They are excellent entry level to mid range smartphones. But in the end it does not matter what I say because as long as their is an Apple logo on it, people will mindlessly buy it.”-Athanasios Zarkadas

I am an Iphone user and I do acknowledge some of the strengths of Iphone. However, facing the high expenditure brought by Iphone, should we step back and rethink the value of Iphone?

When consumers choose monthly plan, most of people will choose the most economical one, as long as the mobile company supporst the cell phone we already have.

For example, Wind Mobile provide $25 per month with everything unlimited. However, this economical monthly plan is not supportive for Iphone. Thus, Iphone user can’t benefit from the cheap plan provided by Wind mobile. Iphone users can choose Fido $25 monthly plan, but only get 150mins talk during day time and unlimited text within Canada.

Regardless of the high price of Iphone, if we only compare the high phone bill of Iphone, Iphone users can feel the pressure already. The one of the reasons why Iphone users can’t have cheap phone bill is that the network of Iphone is different from many mobile companies who provide cheaper monthly plan.

“We do not have the iPhone. Apple’s current iPhone is not compatible with the WIND network (AWS/1700 Megahertz/BandIV). When we hear an AWS iPhone is in the works, believe us, we’ll be knocking Apple’s door to get the scoop!” said a staff of Wind Mobile.

Wind Mobile as well as other cheaper mobile company such as Mobilicity, can provide services for HTC and Samsung users, but not Iphone users. They look forward to corporate with Iphone but because of the different networks, iphone users need to wait for a long time before they can reduce their phone bill.

Next time when we choose our new cell phones will you still be a Iphone user or you will support HTC or Samsung products where you can also get good smartphone but with cheaper price in all aspects.

What makes you choose to be a Iphone user? Their superior products and brilliant apps…

What makes you choose not to be a iphone user? The large amount of money and mid level services…

a. Stakeholder theory puts business and ethic together!

b. Stakeholder theory focuses on how to make the interests of customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders and financiers go into the same direction.

c. It is the arts of NOT making those tradeoffs, trying to make interests go in the same direction. If you look for tradeoffs, you certainly will find some of them. If you look for how those interests go into the same direction, you MAY NOT find it. BUT, I am pretty sure, you won’t find it, of you don’t look!!!

d. Stake holders turn out to be not just products, not accounts, not assets, not liabilities. They turn out to be living and breathing human beings. They are not just some roles; they are actual people!

e. You don’t just provide products and services, because your things come with your promises.

Stakeholder theory puts business and ethic together!