Month: November 2013

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.

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.

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.

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… >:)

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.