Month: October 2010

I chose to write this because I watched a video online which reminded me of some knowledge taught on class 6. Also, it made me think about some reasons leading to the inferior position of McDonald’s.

As is known to all, McDonald’s is the largest fast food restaurant around the world,whereas KFC is only the 7th largest fast food restaurant around the world, which is far behind its competitor, McDonald’s. However, the situation in China is totally different, where KFC has the absolute advantages.

It is reported that the number of chain stores of  McDonald’s is approximately 1100, which is unexpectedly less than 1/2 of that of KFC (about 2600). As far as I am concerned, such a large gap can be attributed to the following reasons. Firstly, saying that Chinese people would never be interest in burgers, McDonald’s made a big mistake in market research, which led the fact that KFC preceded McDonald’s to seize the Chinese market. Secondly, compared to McDonald’s, KFC is more likely to improve their food in order to fit Chinese people’s taste, which makes a big contribution to KFC’s success in China. Last but not least, McDonald’s initial wrong target market and value position also resulted in its inferior position. Different from KFC whose target market is white-collars,  McDonald’s initially paid their attention to children and families. However, McDonald’s ignored the fact that fast food which is pretty cheap in America is also relatively expensive to almost common households in China that not every parents can always take their children to McDonald’s. Thus McDonald’s still cannot compete with KFC in Chinese market.

I chose to write this because I read some articles today which made me further understand how entrepreneurs doing online marketing through social media.

LINKS:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217391

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217387

As what I have written on last post, the social media is widely applied in market research, PR online, brand building and general marketing. But at that time, I did not know exactly how these things are operated. Now I have a further understanding about these things.

Given that not all outposts on the SNS will necessarily boost sales and referrals to a company’s website, how to use the right tools in a strategic way is a significant thing to be considered. The first article recommends 10 effective ways to build an impressive and attractive facebook page which can make contribution to consumer service and marketing. In my opinion, these 10 ways are figured out through the analysis on consumer psychology, which will definitely take effect.

Introducing some cost-effective and creative marketing strategies, the second article is mainly focused on unconventional market-research methods for small-business owners. Indeed, for the fact that these small-business owners are short of funds and their companies are not yet mature, social media is no doubt the best way for them to open up markets.

I chose to write this because after I was introduced to the social media in class 8, I became so interested in it that I did a research online for more information. I just decided to write something about it.

Social media, based on web 2.0, is capturing increasingly more entrepreneurs’ eyes. They found social media is a new chance and new instrument for them to operate their company in a more efficient way.

Social media is applied to various aspects of human life, and even the blog I am using now is one of the crucial parts of social media! Not just a tool for entertainment, buzzing around and social interaction any more, social media has now revealed its usage value in the domain of education and business. As was shown in the diagram in class, it is applied mainly in market research, amplifying word of mouth, idea generation, brand building and general marketing. Also, it is also used for PR such as the reinforcement of customer loyalty.

As I see it, those usages are all attributed to the fact that all the content and information are user-generated or customer-generated. Because people are able to be involved themselves in the social media to the maximum extent, there is great potential for bringing considerable commercial interests. In other words, social media is a significant source for precious customer information. In my opinion, the advantages for commercial uses of social media can be seen in the following several aspects. Firstly, it is a good way to get feedback from customers directly, which gives company the information for commodity improvement. Secondly, social media is a platform of MIS, where managers can attain significant information for decision making and company management. In addition, it has the potential to create a larger customer base and it provides a new way for market research.

In short, social media is now regarded as an indispensable part of business operation.

I chose to write this because I read an article about TOYOTA today which reminded me of the fishbone analysis & urgency/importance quadrant I learned on class 4.

Link:http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/allstate-sues-toyota-over-acceleration-claims_488839.html

Nowadays, as a series of negative reports of TOYOTA are into our sight, TOYOTA vehicles have aroused widespread public concerns, which made it be stuck in a plight of sales decline.

As is said in the article, TOYOTA was involved in a new accusation of its quality problem, which is likely to be a new heavy blow on the already weak sales. In view of these facts, it is high time to figure out the radical causes which result in this worrying condition. After I learned the fishbone analysis & urgency/importance quadrant in class 4, I made an analysis on these causes.

Maybe it is not comprehensive and objective enough, but I just thought it is necessary to practice and try to apply things we learned on courses. Therefore, I just tried.