Brittany Labron's Blog

As pointed out bye Jacquie Ottman in her ‘Green marking Blog’ (http://www.sustainability-marketing.com/) Timberland is an excellent example of a company successfully using sustainable marketing practices. Unlikely the Land Rover example discussed in class, Timerbland’s marketing practices are well  tailored to their target market and help them to appeal to their chosen segment of environmentally friendly and active individuals. This specific advertisement helps illustrate how Timberline’s product and advertisements are both tailored to the target market:

http://youtu.be/0QyLtDlgxRc

Additionally, Timberland is involved in a number of environmental initiatives headed by their ‘Eart keeping committee’ such as tree planting. http://community.timberland.com/Earthkeeping describes a number of their environmental initiatives in greater detail. After reading about the company it becomes obvious that Timberland’s stance as an environmentally friendly business is not merely a marketing ploy to increase their customer base. Instead it is a part of their core business strategy and long term focus.

All aspects of  Timberland’s marketing strategy focus on elements of sustainability, and it is this focus that makes them an excellent model of a company practicing Sustainable Marketing Practices.

In response to Jenny Zimmermann’s blog post (https://blogs.ubc.ca/jennyzimmermann/2012/01/16/no-frills-is-full-of-thrills/ ), I used to be an avid nofrills shopper, however, I have recently begun shopping at Save-on-Foods (which is within walking distance of my apartment). Yes, nofrills low prices are attractive to many consumers, however, with these low prices come a variety of trade-off’s. When purchasing produce from nofrills I noticed that it had a very short shelf-life and would go bad a few days after purchase (unlike similar produce bought from different retailers).  Additionally, as stated on nofrills website “while most grocery stores carried thousands of items, the first nofrills® featured only 500”. (http://www.nofrills.ca/LCLOnline/aboutUs.jsp ). This business practice has been continued by nofrills and allows them to offer lower prices at the expense of product selection and variety. This limited selected resulted in my continual frustration in finding that basic cooking supplies are often out of stock or not sold at nofills.

Nofrills has been extremely successful at targeting price conscious consumers by cutting costs within all levels of their business. As Jenny suggested, they have successfully tailored their four P’s to appeal to their desired target market. This appears to result in a profitable business practice, however, it is important to keep in mind that by targeting the specific market of “price conscious consumers” nofrills is eliminate a large number of potential customers who prefer to pay slightly more for increased convenience, quality and selection. The two logo comparisons below help illustrate the different goals and value proposition of Save-On-Foods and nofrills; Save-on-Foods promises ‘

As suggested in Vivien Lee’s Blog,  Toms shoes has been an extremely successful enterprise that was able to make a charitable idea profitable. One main reason why  Blake Mycoskie  was able to experience great success was that his cause-related marketing strategy was able appeal to many of the factors influencing consumer behaviours. First off, by providing a charitable contribution Tom’s shoes appeals to the largely untapped market of socially responsible consumers. Specifically, the largely phychological aspect of charity plays a large role in the number of individuals purchasing Tom’s Shoes. In addition to this, many celebrities and opinion leaders became large advocates of Tom’s Shoes, therefore helping to further increase sales.  In order to maintain a sustainable business practice Tom’s is constantly coming up with new inventory and new marketing campaigns’ to ensure consumer’s remain loyal to their brand.

In an attempt to compete with Tom’s sketchers launched a brand of shoes called ‘Bob’s’, which appear almost identical to Tom’s. For every pair of shoes sold sketchers donates a pair of shoes to a child in need. Bob’s do not appear to be as popular or profitable as Tom’s; likely because Tom’s has already captured the majority of the market. Despite this, the introduction of this new line of shoe’s further emphasizes Tom’s success and sustainability (Due to their vast successful other companies are attempting to mimic their business practices).

It should come as no surprise that marketing has, and will continue to change dramatically due to the invention and use of new technologies. A particular blog post, “Growth in Mobile Marketing”  by Michael Fleischner (http://marketing-expert.blogspot.com/2011/12/growth-in-mobile-marketing.html) discusses how cell phone and mobile devices are create new marketing opportunities. Michael goes on to suggest that businesses who do not adopt this new marketing strategy may loose future profitability as a direct result.

I find mobile marketing to be a very interesting aspect of marketing because of the numerous potential opportunities, and threats, it posses. Text messages could be used to send coupons and advertising to individually selected consumers, however, this could merely result in individuals being spammed by numerous text messages; an undesirable outcome from the perspective of both the marketer and consumer. Many privacy issues also surround the debate of mobile marketing due to the ease of tracking an individual through their mobile device and access to various information stored within the devices themselves.

Another opportunity created with modern technology is applications; businesses can create applications for both phones and other mobile devices. This seems to be an area of extreme growth within the past few years, and one which has been proven to be extremely profitable. (For those who are also interested in these new and prosperous opportunity http://appsmarketing.mobi/#  has some interesting information about the growth of mobile apps and marketing opportunities).

The greatest lesson I’ve learned from someone else is to make the best of what you’ve got. When I was volunteering in Ghana, Africa, Rebecca showed me how to enjoy life  in both desirable and undesirable conditions. At the age of 7 Rebecca was abused, neglected, and malnourished, yet she managed to go through life with a smile on her face and an upbeat demeanour. Rebecca showed me that, no matter what resources you have available to you, ‘life is what you make of it’  and if you want it to be enjoyable all you have to do is smile. After all “life isn’t about waiting for the sort to pass . . .it’s about learning to dance in the rain”.

         The primary mission of divine chocolates is “to improve the lives of cocoa farmers in West Africa, and, [create] a farmer-ownership model [that] ensures Kuapa Kokoo benefits financially from access to the highest point of the value chain” (according to divinechocolate.com). Divine chocolates is an ideal example of a social enterprise due to their innovative production process which creates many benefits to society. Additionally, Divine is a social enterprise because they were able achieve societal change by successfully blending financial and social returns.

    This particular social enterprise resonates with me because of the location in which it focuses on societal improvements. This past year I spend 6 months in Ghana, Africa, where I witnessed first hand the numerous hardships experienced by Ghanaian coco farmers. Divine chocolates provides an ideal situation in which they are able to both improve the lives of Ghanaian coco farmers and earn profit from this endeavor. Although they are not entirely selfless in their action I strongly support the work Divine chocolates has done to eliminate ‘brunt workers’ and menial wages within Ghana.

     The two video links below help to illustrate Divine’s impact upon the Ghanaian community. The first, “Divine Chocolate Report by Reuters” briefly outline Divine’s production processes and touches on some of the numerous societal improvements the company has made. The second video focuses a Ghanain school, similar to the one i volunteered at during my time in Ghana, and demonstrates the positive impact Divine is having upon the entire Ghanaian community.

Divine Chocolate Report by Reuters

Divine Chocolate: Getting an education

Image Source: http://www.treehugger.com/2007/09/30-week/

General source: http://www.divinechocolate.com/default.aspx

       PayPal, a payment system for personal digital assistants,  is one example of an entrepreneurial company. The first quality that makes PayPalan entrepreneurial business is their competitive advantage, created as a result of their innovated service. PayPal was able to identify a ‘online deficit’ relating to payments, therefore, they create a system which would solve this current dilemma. A second characteristic that makes PayPal a entrepreneurial company is the large degree of risk initially involved in operating their business. Because the PayPal was extremely innovative (they offers a service unlike any others on the market) the success of their service was unpredictable.  Additional risks relate to their access, and disclosure, of confidential information as well as the financial implications of ‘transferring’ money.  For example , it PayPal is not careful that could easily be sued by their clients. PayPal also needs to ensure that all payments made by individuals are ‘carried though’ so they are not stuck ‘footing the bill’.  Finally, the amount, and speed, of wealth that was initially created by PayPal was substantial, making them the ideal example of  a successful entrepreneurial business.

For more information of PayPal visit: https://www.paypal.com/ca/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_home&country_lang.x=true

          The article “The making of a BlackBerry & why its rendering trade obsolete” discusses the ‘supply chain’ of BlackBerry’s products. In order to reduce production costs, many of the BlackBerry’s components are produced externally in locations such as Mexico, South Korea and Texas. This ‘global supply chain’ gives BlackBerry a cost advantage despite the increased use of intermediaries. Additionally, as a result of outsourcing, many of a Blackberries components are produced externally. This causes  BlackBerry to to pay for product transportation and other excess expenses. However, RIM continues to outsource the majority of their operations, suggesting that the decreased production costs are greater than the increased costs of intermediaries. The graph below illustrates some of the implications of outsourcing. (although the specific percentages are debatable, it shows many of the implications BlackBerry has likely considered)

     Evidently Blackberry believes the advantages of oursourcing (displayed about) outweight potential losses incured; such as a less cohesive organization culture.

Source:

Image: Schaffhauser, Dian. “Research: Trends in Data Center Outsourcing.” Sourcingmag.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Nov 2010. <http://www.sourcingmag.com/content/c060424a.asp>.

Article: Mayeda, Andrew, . “The making of a BlackBerry and Why it’s rendering ‘trade’ obsolete.” The vancouver Sun. N.p., n.d. Web. <http://www.vancouversun.com/business/making+BlackBerry+rendering+trade+obsolete/3720099/story.html

  In the article “Profiting from Hapiness” it is suggests that by investing in “fortune’s 100 best companies to work for” individuals will “enjoy gains beyond what can be explained by the risks they take”. Although the limitation of such a prediction are mentioned, this article suggests that  job satisfaction, employee engagement, and organizational culture are directly related to productivity. The graph below illustrates this relationship. 

             Fortune’s ‘100’ best companies to work for (available at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/bestcompanies/full_list/) include an unlikely combination of diverse companies. Perhaps the common link between these 100 companies is their positive organization culture. (Organization culture is a important aspect of any business because is  can help improve employee motivation & commitment which will intern increase productivity and consumer satisfaction.) Despite this, it is important to keep in mind that numerous external forces can influence productivity, meaning that certain companies may have a positive organizational culture but still experience profit losses. Therefore, organization culture is an important aspect of profitability, but it is not the only factor influencing a companies success.

SOURCE:

“Profiting from happiness.” economist Online Feb 17th 2009 : 1. Web. 29 Oct 2010. <http://www.economist.com/node/13133891>.

      The article “Retail sales on the rise in August” proposes a variety of statistics relating to ‘retail sales’. I have illustrated the proposed percentage change in sales, per sector, in the graph below:

    By looking at this graph it become obvious that retail sales have decreased most significantly in the ‘sporting goods, hobby, books & music stores’  sector. In contrast, sales have increased most dramatically with relation to gasoline sales.

    Despite this, the article fails to disclose how these statistics were calculated, where (geographically) the study was based and what the changes in percent are in compassion to. Therefore the validity of this data is extremely suspect. Additionally, the category ‘sporting goods, hobby, book & music stores’ seems peculiar as these four sectors have few correlations.  As far as we know, the sale of children’s books could have decreased by 3.75% and the sale of sporting goods could have increased by 0.25%; giving a mere average value of -1.75%.

     In conclusion, these statistics could be a useful analyzing tool. However, when discussing proposed statistics, such as those presented within this article, it is important to recognize potential flaws in how they were calculated and to remember the context in which they are being discussed.

SOURCE:

“Retail sales on the rise in August .” Globe and Mail Friday, Oct. 22, 2010 : n. pag. Web. 24 Oct 2010. <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/retail-sales-on-the-rise-in-august/article1768446/>.