I saw a blog post on Mashable about TapTap wristbands and it amazed me to see how technology improves day by day.

This new launched product allows people to communicate by vibrations that they send to each other via a wristband. Woodenshark, the company which launched TapTap wristband targeted the distanced couples and the price of two wristbands is $130. Customers download an application and register with their e-mails to use the wristbands. When a person taps the wristband, the other feels the exact same vibrations.

Other than other communication tools such as sms, Facebook, Snapchat this new product allows people to communicate by vibrations. I think especially couples are going to love this product because it is a different way to communicate. It is more realistic than texting or video chatting. With this product people are going to be able to feel each other, in addition to see each other of hear each others’ voice on videochat tools.

Technology improves rapidly and some companies know how to take advantage of this change.

Sources:

http://mashable.com/2013/11/17/taptap-wristband-communication-relationships/

Blackberry, which used to be one of the most popular brands in smartphone industry is struggling to keep its sales high. Nowadays many customers are not happy with Blackberry phones. Meanwhile Blackberry’s competitors Apple and Samsung provides many improved technologies to its customers. There is a high entrance level of competitors in smartphone industry. Thus since Blackberry cannot catch its competitors in terms of features and design of its products, it’s losing a significant amount of customers.

In his blog, Hanxuan Wang talks about Blackberry’s current situation in Canada. As one of the biggest partners of Blackberry, Rogers declined to stock its new smartphone model in their stores. Rogers is Canada’s one of the most profitable wireless carriers. Even though Rogers claim that this decision has nothing to do with Blackberry’s current performance, it still proves that Blackberry needs to take more steps for not losing its customers.

I agree with Hanxuan on the point that technology changes really fast and companies need to adapt to these changes in order to maintain their profits. Also it proves that even the biggest companies can fail in a very short period of time.

For Hanxuan Wang’s blog post:

Blackberry’s Fall

Other Sources:

http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/blackberry+struggles+sets+date+latest+device+canada/8992733/story.html

The main objective of preflight videos are informing the passengers about the flight and emergency situations. These videos tend to be boring for passenger and many people even don’t pay attention. However some airlines take the advantage of this opportunity and change this boring ritual into a fun marketing tool.

In her blog, Berfu mentions that Virgin America airlines made their preflight safety video like a musical to entertain the passengers and make them engaged. I agree with her opinions about how this videos became an effective marketing tool for airlines. Virgin America uploaded this video to social media tools such as Youtube to promote the flights.

Not only Virgin America, many airlines try to make their preflight videos creative. For example a Turkish airline company Pegasus used the children of their employees as actors. In the video the passengers and employees in the airplane are all children.

With such videos, airline companies both surprise and entertain their passengers which would strengthen customer relationships. Since people pay attention to such creative videos, they get to know more about what they should do during a flight which increases safety.

Pegasus Airline’s Preflight Safety Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPLJV6YcvUE

Berfug’s blog post:

Preflight Safety Video Becomes a Marketing Tool

With the increasing amount of internet usage, online shopping becomes more common among people. Amazon is one the most popular online shops around the world operating worldwide. Now it offers a new service to its customers, Sunday deliveries.

This week, Amazon made an agreement with the U.S. Post Office about launching Sunday delivery service to the customers in selected cities. This service started at New York and Los Angeles already but in 2014 the company plans to spread this service to Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and Phoenix. Also with the new service now Postal Office delivers packages everyday.

The service allows Amazon to reach more customers. This is a great opportunity for customers to have their packages during the same day that they make their purchase in “immediate” situations. Moreover, the great thing about this service is that customers are not going to pay any additional money.

This is a win-win situation for both U.S. Postal Service and Amazon. FedEx and UPS do not deliver on Sundays and with this service not only U.S. Post Office but also Amazon gains a point of difference which makes it more attractive among customers.

Sources:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/101186539

http://mashable.com/2013/11/11/amazon-sunday/

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/11/244452605/-business-new

Since H&M is a brand which has reasonable and relatively low prices for their products, it has a wide range of costumers. This causes long lines in front of the dressing rooms and cashiers. As their customer, from time to time this factor makes me angry. Sometimes when I see the long line from outside, I don’t go in because waiting can be pretty time consuming.

Luckily, last week H&M has launched a “try and buy” option for their customers. Now there are cash registers and sales advisors in the dressing rooms section for customers to pay directly after they try the clothes on. The check-outs inside fitting rooms section will allow H&M to get rid of the problem “long and slow lines”.

Normally this system is available only in very high-end brands so this is an original, unusual idea for H&M. Hopefully starting from the Time Square store, this system will spread to every H&M store.

This is a huge step for H&M. Most importantly, among similar brands such as Forever 21 and Zara, they are going to have the first mover advantage. Moreover with shorter lines they will have more customers, thus their sales are going to increase.

Sources:

http://www.psfk.com/2013/11/hm-cash-register-change-rooms.html

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-13/h-and-ms-megastore-brings-cashiers-inside-the-dressing-rooms

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_HwphYIRcu_Q/S746nsVaMDI/AAAAAAAABwE/h8se-eUWrEY/s400/jhjn.jpg

We have been discussing about customer relationships and corporate culture in our lectures. One of the articles that we had to read was about the online shoe shop Zappos. We’ve also seen a video about the corporate culture of Zappos and I really enjoyed their style so I did a little more research about them. Here are some ways that I learned from Zappo’s story which may “put a smile on customer’s face”.

First of all they have over 3 millions of different shoe choices. That’s a great way to reach many customers with different preferences. Also 7/24 free calls to customer service and free shipping, which many online shops doesn’t offer makes Zappos attractive. The most interesting one that I found is they suggest their customers to look at competitor online shops if they don’t have the right shoes for the customers. They pick passionate people to become their employees and they train them very well.

Take a look at the link below to see a real life situation which proves that Zappos customer service is great.

“My friend ordered a pair of shoes from Zappos that fell apart. This is the hilarious customer service response he received.”

http://imgur.com/gallery/trws6

Sources:

http://ahmetkirtok.com/bir-eticaret-basari-hikayesi-zappos/

View post on imgur.com

http://suitcaseentrepreneur.com/business-resources/delivering-happiness-zappos-style%E2%80%93-what-any-business-can-learn-from-this-billion-dollar-success-story/

http://www.mikekerr.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/zappos-team.jpg

Packaging is a major factor of marketing mix and it plays an important role while customers make decisions. Especially for chocolate bars 🙂

Cadbury, UK’s top chocolate company was founded almost 200 years ago and it uses a purple color for packaging for about 100 years. The eye catching purple color is a big component of Cadbury’s brand identity, since customers link the color purple directly to Cadbury products. This is why, Cadbury trademarked the purple color in 2008 and by doing this it prevented Nestle or any other companies to use that purple color for their packaging. However, Nestle appealed against the trademarking of purple and the ruling last year. It took a year for the court to make the decision. Last week Nestle won the appeal. Now, not only Nestle but any competitor company can use Cadbury’s purple for wrapping their products.

This is a fail for Cadbury, however it has been more than a hundred years that they use that color for every single chocolate they produce. Personally, I believe that it does not matter if other companies use that bright purple color. Many people will still know that bright purple color is Cadbury’s color.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24401249

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-04/cadbury-s-purple-reign-ended-by-u-k-court-in-nestle-appeal.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/9579930/Cadbury-defeats-Nestle-in-battle-for-purple-wrapper.html

On May 28, 2013 a big protest started in Istanbul after the government decided to destroy one of the biggest parks in the city, Gezi Park for urban development. Thousands of people reacted in tens of cities, not just because the government will cut the trees of Gezi Park and damage the nature but also because the democracy in the country is in danger and the government keeps forcing people to accept its decisions without any objections. After people start protesting for their rights the police attacked them with tear gas and rubber bullets. Many people got injured, many people died and most importantly the international media showed every second of the protests.

Tourism’s a major factor of income in Turkey. Istanbul hosts approximately 12 millions of tourists each year. However since Gezi Park is located in a highly touristic place, during the protests tourists were also under the attack of police. Therefore the number of tourists visiting Istanbul decreased dramatically in last 5 months. Many tourists cancelled their reservations. This cost 55 million euros to hotels in Istanbul. There is no significant change in politics after the protests. People still protest from time to time and apparently the tourism sector will get smaller.

Sources:

The Gezi Park Protests and the Future of Turkish Politics: An Interview with Seyla Benhabib

http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/tourism/2013/06/21/Turkey-Gezi-Park-protests-cost-55-million-euros-hotels_8905647.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23795857

$400 for headphones? Yes! We’re talking about Beats by Dr. Dre. Today we see those headphones everywhere but how did they become so popular? Beats electronics is actually a very young company which is founded in 2006 and with a rapid growth it became a mainstream brand. By selling around 15-20 millions of products each year, now the company’s market share in U.S. is 60%. Also it is expected that the company is going to hit 1.4B dollars of revenue by the end of this year. A common thought is their products are overpriced, however by their business strategy with the support of many celebrities they manage to sell more and more. As a customer of Beats headphones, I think that the designs of Beats headphones are very simple but also classy. Especially the quality of the sound is amazing. HTC Corporation, a well known company that produces smart handheld devices, started to work with Beats and produce cell phones with Beats in order to improve its reputation. Last month Beats ended its partnership with HTC and bought its 25% stake back. Beats is now preparing to buy one of its biggest old partners, HTC mobile. Now people are curious. What will be the consequences of this purchase?

Sources:

http://www.fastcompany.com/3015051/major-beats-beats-electronics-may-be-on-track-to-hit-14b-in-2013-revenue

http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/27/4776318/beats-ends-htc-partnership-buys-back-stake

http://www.fastcompany.com/3015937/fast-feed/dr-dres-beats-may-buy-out-its-unhappy-htc-partner

http://www.beatsbydre.com/aboutus

Cosmetics are everywhere. In your bathroom, in your purse, on your face… Did you ever think about the production process of cosmetics? For example your favorite M.A.C. lipstick? Mix some chemicals, pigments, a little bit perfume, put all of them in a fancy bottle and don’t forget to put a price tag on it. Make it expensive because many people would think that expensive means good quality. Here you go, now you can start up your own cosmetics line. But there is one more step behind cosmetics; many cosmetics companies test their products on animals. Torturing animals with chemicals, burning their eyes and killing them are definitely against business ethics.

The list of the companies that do tests on animals includes very big and famous brands like Avon and Estee Lauder. Although it was known that Avon and Estee Lauder are cruelty free brands, in 2012 PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) revealed that these brands pay money for animal testing. Chinese government forces brands to test their products on animals before selling them in China and this is why Estee Lauder and Avon are no longer cruelty free. “We would like to confirm that our commitment to end animal testing everywhere has not changes. Our products are not tested on animals except when absolutely mandated by law.” says a spokesman from Estee Lauder. It is the customer’s choice to boycott such brands or not but people should keep in mind that according to PETA over 100 million animals die just in U.S.A because of animal testing.

Sources:

http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animal-experiments-overview.aspx

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2104319/Avon-Est-e-Lauder-Peta-reveals-cosmetic-brands-ordered-animal-testing.html

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/features/animal-testing-list.php