Glamorous Business

The COMM 296 as the introduction of marketing course, we have been learned unprecedented learning experience.

We have learned how to established a brand, how to position the product awareness and more knowledge for marketing. Even more important all of this knowledge is closely related to life. Since the process to constructed a brand need get through by mass media, as same as we learn on Chapter 17. And every product they released, it also needs the customer to purchase that. As the terminal consumption, we are more understood the process of company’s doing. It is the most important part to us, no matter as a consumer or a student of business school. And we also are taking a group work for completing this course. Teamwork spirit is also valuable experience we learned. We are working together, we are learning together, and we are happy together.

Certainly, every day we wake up, and check our email, we will receive a lot of mails from department store, network store, Gourpon, and which store I have left Almost email indicated the sales and promotion they taking right now.

However, a mass of mail received would make me, a regular customer, feels irritable and dislike. Although almost them has attractive deal. Molly’s 5 tips for e-Commerce is exactly idea for improving sale amount. I thought the stores should be more focus on how to extent new customer and make the email more and more interesting. Sometimes, I even do not want read the mail. Maybe, it is good way to convert is using the interesting headline, or very clear informational headline. Or take more focus on website advertising. Such as, take a corporate with Youtube. That would be a not very bad idea. Of course, it also would made the negative effects, customer would ignore the ads, therefore they also need try to figure out the good way to take a effective informational advertising, as same as we learned from Chapter 17. Maybe they can using the segment advertising, more apparel advertising on cooking website since almost user for this website is women. And by this analogy, more vehicle promotion advertising release on the sport website.

E-commerce promotion(1)

The article “Direct Mail: Still a Bargain for Marketers” discusses ways in which companies can use direct mail advertising effectively (Johnson, 2013). The author argues that, because of the low cost of direct mail (postage) rates and packages through USPS, direct marketing is a viable advertising channel that can help attract consumers and boost return-on-investment (ROI). A list of four essential points for direct advertising, ranked in order of importance, is provided in the article: 1) Lists and data, 2) Offers/messaging, 3) Creative and copy, and 4) Timing. According to the author, the first two points are responsible for 70-80% of direct advertising’s success. Effective direct advertising relies on marketers understanding target segments and varying offers and messages accordingly. Effective direct marketing also requires significant testing of different messages and offers with different target groups.

Other important points from the article consider the creation of marketing copy and the timing of direct marketing campaigns. According to the author, creative copy is more important that format/layout and different copy should be tried before different layouts in testing new direct mail campaigns. Timing and seasonality are also very important, and marketers need to be aware of how often target demographics are marketed to and what seasons marketing is performed in. For example, consumers are unlikely to respond well to ads for snow shovels distributed in the summer, or to the same ads being mailed repeatedly. The article’s conclusion is that targeted direct marketing campaigns can help support social media and online marketing, providing added value to promotions and help seal the deal with consumers. Overall, this article provides a good review of important considerations for effective direct marketing campaigns.

Source:

Johnson, G. (Feb. 27, 2013). Direct mail: Still a bargain for marketers. Chief Marketer, Direct     Marketing. Retrieved from

http://chiefmarketer.com/direct-marketing/direct-mail-still-bargain-marketers

The article “Web Design and SEO: How to Make Your Website Look Good and Rank
Well” (DeMers, 2013) discusses techniques for websites to improve search engine optimization(SEO) and improve online marketing. Good SEO helps sites attract a larger number of readers customers, which helps generate revenues from ads or the sale of products and services. Of all the recommendations in the article, the most important is that marketers and web developers should focus on usability. Google’s online rankings are in the process of changing from being affected by keywords, to being affected by the user experience. Pages with too many ads, for
example, now receive lower rankings from Google. The growing importance of usability in online search rankings is a key concept for marketers, who ensure that relevant information online is easy to find and digest by readers.

The article also includes several other important points. It notes that keyword tags can still influence some search rankings and are therefore useful, while accurate, personal, and truthful author biographies also have a significant impact on rankings. HTML site-maps are considered important for SEO by the author, and all images should have relevant and explanatory title and alternative text tags. The author also mentions the usefulness of SEO plug-ins for WordPress, which can help bloggers optimize their rankings but which may also have downsides like increasing websites’ loading times and reducing performance. Overall, this article
provides a good review of practices for marketers on how to use SEO effectively to drive traffic to a website and increase the site’s search rankings. Marketers that use these tips will be more successful at distributing content and gaining exposure online.

Source:

DeMers, J. (Feb. 27, 2013). Web design and SEO: How to make your website look good and rank well. Huffington Post.

www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson-demers/seo-tips_b_2770713.html

In keeping with my focus in my last entry about the need for Canadian business people to adapt to the changing nature of the market and find new opportunities, I thought it would be appropriate to briefly discuss the importance of entrepreneurship in Canada.  Small businesses (those with fewer than 50 employees) account for nearly half of all employment in British Columbia and provide approximately 34% of the provincial gross domestic product.  In addition to this, entrepreneurship provides the engine of creative innovation that results in new ways of doing things like making money, communicating, dealing with social demands, organizing our society, structuring our economy, and countless other aspects of our national reality.  It is common for small-scale entrepreneurs to move into lucrative new opportunities ahead of larger companies because they are more willing to accept risk in order to reap large benefits.  Obviously this means that many small businesses fail and statistics indicate that “barely half” of all new businesses survive past their fifth year.  The most important thing for fostering entrepreneurship is to construct the “rules of the game” such that creating a small business is a “rational and informed choice for individuals with entrepreneurial talent”.

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Entrepreneurship+vital+driver+innovation/3675542/story.html

The strength of the housing market has been a particularly common discussion topic in Canada over the last two decades, largely because there have been amazing increases in the average costs of homes.  Throughout the 1990s and 2000s many long-time homeowners saw the values of their homes rise nearly 100%, and many people have been suggesting that the real estate market is forming a large bubble that will eventually pop.  Vancouver is right in the middle of this trend, as it is experiencing some of the highest housing cost increases on the continent and has become one of the most expensive places to live in the world.  Still, statistics indicate that Vancouver’s housing market is continuing to rise, with annual increases well over the national average.  Despite an international recession and rising mortgage rates, Vancouver’s housing market continues to appreciate considerably year after year.  Historically speaking, interest rates are still quite low.  There is also a steady population influx into Vancouver, which artificially inflates housing demand over national levels.  Considering the strength of the economy in British Columbia and the steady growth in the housing market, it is unlikely that the ‘bubble’ is going to crash any time soon.

This article describes some recommendations for human resources managers on how to manage sick days (Wintrob, 2011). It lists best practices, such as training understudies, alternative work arrangments, and having an operations manual, which will reduce the costs and inconvenience of sick days to employees and their companies. Holding brainstorming discussions and involving employees in company policy management is a great idea. My only concern is that managers could be seen as being too eager to offer alternative work arrangments. Seeming keen to do so could be taken by some as encouraging employees to work while sick or injured. Employees could view this negatively. The concept of fore-planning and making contingency plans is good risk management, and documenting processes in an operations manual helps avoid confusion and miscommunication about benefits. It seems today that even small companies are capable of documenting processes, due to the availability of cheap or free management software.

LINKS: Wintrob, S. (Apr. 01, 2011). How to handle sick days. The Globe and Mail, Human   resources. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on- business/your-business/start/talent/how-to-handle-sick-days/article1961523/

One of the most pressing economic issues in the modern world is the price of oil.  In addition to the price, there are concerns about availability, the effects of prolonged, heavy usage on the environment, and the relationship between oil needs and international conflicts around the globe.  Clearly, a heavy addiction to oil is unsustainable, particularly when one considers the kind of economic difficulties (not to mention international disputes) that will result when oil eventually starts to run out.  It is also unsustainable in an environmental sense.  80% of Canada’s annual oil consumption is due to transportation, and 90% of the crude oil used in Eastern Canada comes from other countries.  Gilbert argues that the best alternative transport power source is electricity, because it outperforms internal combustion engines of all kinds in every relevant category other than storage capacity.  Biofuel production is gaining in popularity but it frequently competes with food production in developing areas of the world.  In addition to this, internal combustion engines often create pollution that is environmentally unsustainable.  In order to preserve the environment, reduce foreign oil dependency, and avoid having to reduce transport volume, it is essential to begin a switch to electricity.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/economy-lab/the-economists/why-electricity-is-the-best-alternative-transport-fuel/article1793008/

Only a few short years ago it was common to find that the company you were looking for online did not actually have a website.  Internet business has exploded so quickly that it is now extremely uncommon for businesses of any size to be without a website.  It is common for people who need to buy something to simply go to their favourite search engine (probably Google) and type in the name of their city and the name of what they want to buy.  The results that come up are the result of a complicated algorithm that search engines use to determine what links are the most relevant.  This has led to numerous opportunities for companies to receive a new kind of advertising by optimizing the content of their sites to ensure they will be listed near the top of the resulting search list.  This process is referred to as Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and it has exploded into an entirely new segment of the marketing industry.  Having a website effectively optimized for search engine performance allows small companies to receive a kind of advertising value that would normally cost an unreasonable amount.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-  bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/11/09/prwebprweb4765414.DTL