Yesterday, I walked into Target for the first time in Canada. Admittedly, I was very excited because Target is one of the stores I make sure to visit each time I venture south of the border. Now that they have opened a store in Metrotown, and I don’t have to drive for hours to get to one, I will be going much more frequently.
The executives of Target say that Canada is going to be a major contributor to the company’s growth. However, Target Canada president Tony Fisher said that Canada isn’t as into the one-stop-shop experience as the United States.
“Consumers are accustomed to visiting many different competitors to accomplish all of their shopping.”
Consumer preferences are definitely an important aspect to consider, as they will be the ones who will be purchasing the product. It is also important to look at how they will change. In my opinion, it is very likely that Canadians will begin shopping for everything at places like Target simply because it is more convenient.
If it doesn’t look good, don’t wear it.
Everywhere you look in Vancouver, you can see a sea of girls wearing Lululemon yoga pants. Women of all shapes and sizes love to sport the athletic garment because of their convenience and comfort. However, recently, Chip Wilson (pictured above), the founder of Lululemon, made a statement that the pants are not meant for everybody.
My classmate, Jennifer Yip, wrote a blog post regarding this statement. In her opinion, this statement was detrimental to the company, and not discriminate against women with larger builds. However, I think that, although the statement was slightly rude, it was not unfounded. I believe it is true that some people shouldn’t wear certain clothes. It’s comparable to saying that women with wider hips shouldn’t wear high-waisted bottoms. Yes, you can still wear whatever you want, but there are just styles of clothing that don’t suit specific body types. It’s not exactly discrimination, merely aesthetic appeal.
Also, there might be an advantage of creating so much attention over the exclusiveness of the product. It could lead some girls to believe that are “cooler” because they can wear Lululemon pants, which may lead them to purchase more. This may not be a popular opinion, but it could be a good play for the business.
Mr. Rogers Can’t Rope Us In For So Long Anymore…
My cousin just moved to Canada from China. He has an unlocked iPhone, so he didn’t need a new phone, but he did need a cellphone plan in order to use it. So, we began searching for a suitable company for his purposes. He doesn’t need data, which most phone companies seem to be offering as incentive, nor a lot of minutes, mostly just text messaging. We looked at all the major companies, like Fido, Rogers, Bell, Telus, Wind, Mobilicity.
To my surprise, I discovered that the plan I was using, which I started only a few months prior, was missing from the Fido website, replaced by one 10$ more expensive. WHY WAS IT GONE?? I did some research and found that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has eliminated the 3 year contract, reducing it to a maximum of 2 years. I then realized that this makes sense, because if Rogers can’t keep us paying for as long anymore, then it will charge us more for a shorter amount of time. That explains why the service plans increased so dramatically in price.
Those Annoying Ads on Facebook
They pop up left and right when you’re trying to scroll through your newsfeed, reading all the stuff your “friends” post that you don’t even care about. Some of them make noise, and some of them just won’t go away, no matter where you click. Sometimes, it’s just so frustrating that you don’t even want to procrastinate anymore, and just close your Facebook tab.
The thing is, are these ads even working? Sure, over time, with the help of Facebook’s enormous database of social information on its users, the ads have become much better targeted. Adobe’s Digital Index found that people were clicking more on the ads placed on Facebook, so advertisers are having 58% more returns on their investment.
However, there is also evidence to the contrary. A Forrester report that surveyed marketers found that they ranked Facebook the lowest out of social media sites to advertise on. The author of the report believes that Facebook is not using the information it possesses to its full potential, only employing about 15% of its social data to target advertisements.
With all this in mind, I’m just going to keep doing what I do, Adblock everything… >:)
“First the Worst”
Growing up, in elementary school, we had to line up between activities, and everyone would rush to be first in line. Eventually, since it was difficult to always be first, we began to shun the person who would always win. “First the worst, second the best, third the golden bird” goes the chant.
Likewise, everyone struggles to be first in business. They want to grab that first mover advantage, but is it really all that important? A classmate, Safira Nabila, discusses this issue in one of her blog posts. She uses the example of Apple, and how they were not really first in any of their products. This didn’t seem to be a barrier for Apple from becoming one of the most, if not the most, innovative technology companies of all time.
I completely agree with Safira on this one. Being the first in business is probably only very useful if you occupy a small niche and you sell something that is patented. Otherwise, being a close second is far more beneficial because you can learn from any mistakes that the first company made, and improve upon them.
Blackberry on a comeback?
I remember when I used to have a phone that could only dial calls and send messages. That is becoming a thing of the past. Phones are getting more and more advanced, able to do things that previously computers couldn’t even do. Years ago, Blackberry was at the top of the smartphone food chain. Everyone wanted one. However, recently, it’s been on a steady decline.
A new thing popularized is instant messaging on your phone. Apps like Whatsapp and iMessage allowed users to see when messages are read and sent. Blackberry also decided to jump onto the bandwagon and expand its popular Blackberry Messenger to iOS and Android phones. This is a smart move seeing that Apple, Android and Windows phones are all surpassing Blackberry in sales. In shifting its attention to software rather than hardware, Blackberry is able to test the market. If the app does well, then perhaps they can stop selling the phones, which are becoming less and less popular. Consumer demand is a critical component of analyzing a company. If the consumers’ preferences change, then the company should definitely take that into consideration, as Blackberry did in this case.
The “Cheaper” iPhone
(Click photo for article)
The iPhone 5c was marketed as a more affordable alternative to the iPhone 5s. However, when the phones were brought to the market, the price of the “cheaper” model was shocking. I had expected “cheaper” to mean anywhere between 100-400 dollars, but the 5c actually retails between $599 to $719 (source).
Coming out with 2 lines of iPhones is an interesting strategy by Apple. It could be risky in that bringing out a less expensive version would cause the 5 and 5s to lose credibility with the original segment that Apple was focused on. The elite, stylish people that the original iPhone is targeted towards could become uninterested in the product after discovering that it is made using pretty much the same things as the plastic ones. However, I think that it was actually a smart plan to make the iPhone 5c at such a high price point because this way, the customers won’t think that the phone itself is cheap, just the shell that it is wrapped in. Having two types of phones allows Apple to target two separate markets while still holding its foot in the door of the higher end smartphone industry.
Government Down: Yay or Nay?
According to a blog in the Washington Post, new research shows that the effect on the GDP from the shutdown of the US government will not be as devastating as analysts have previously predicted. The Defense Department has forced resumed many critical positions in the government deemed “essential employees” so the government has not completely stopped running.
From a political standpoint, I really don’t understand how shutting down the government resolves anything, because honestly, the stalemate wouldn’t be solved. From the financial point of view, it also seems to be damaging the economic state of the United States. National parks and various other government services have been temporarily discontinued and the government is even considering increasing its debt limit for a short period to accommodate for the shutdown (source). This could be extremely hazardous to the country because it could lead to a default on the debt. A Treasury report states that “Credit markets could freeze, the value of the dollar could plummet, U.S. interest rates could skyrocket, the negative spillovers could reverberate around the world” (source).
The shutdown could potentially cause quite a significant amount of damage, but I guess they haven’t figured out a better way to solve the disagreement…
Why in the world did we trade Schneider?
(I’m sure Cory Schneider was loved by most Canucks fans out there, and we are all sad to see him go. Although Luongo is not horrible like some complain, I want to know exactly why in the world we traded Schneider to the New Jersey Devils!
Let’s look at this issue from a economics perspective. In econ, the idea of opportunity cost has been consistently drilled into our heads. Although many people would have preferred to keep their beloved Cory in a blue and green jersey, the trade that was made seems to be the financially logical one. Essentially, there were 2 alternatives to the goalie problem in Vancouver, we either trade Luongo or Schneider, because it was far too expensive to keep both high-profile netminders on our bench. Luongo signed a contract with the Canucks in 2009 that ends in 2022 (source). This contract included a no-trade clause, which makes it extremely difficult to trade him. The opportunity cost would be the lost incurred from ending Luongo’s contract as well as Schneider’s salary.
After considering this, it is much easier to understand why Schneider was let loose instead of Luongo. We may not like it, but it makes sense.
Using Disaster to Sell
Recently, there have been incidents involving brands using disastrous events to advertise their products on social media. Is it ethical to use something that caused others so much trauma in order to make money?
On September 5th, fashion designer Kenneth Cole published the tweet: “‘Boots on the ground’ or not, let’s not forget about sandals, pumps and loafers. #Footwear”. This tweet refers to the Pentagon spokesperson saying that there will be no “boots on the ground” in Syria. Syria has been a war zone since 2011. According to the CBC, more than 100,000 people been killed during the civil war. I think that Kenneth Cole’s push to sell his shoe collection by alluding to war torn Syria is completely insensitive. It doesn’t seem like he realizes what a serious problem is going on in Syria.
However, this sort of advertising does have some value from a business standpoint. It has shock value. There is a saying: “no publicity is bad publicity.” This could be what Kenneth Cole was trying for when posting this tweet, because he posted a similar tweet during the riots in Cairo, Egypt. He must have seen some some results from this type of advertising.
Source:
http://www.cbc.ca/newsblogs/yourcommunity/2013/09/kenneth-cole-syria-tweet-draws-fire-online.html