https://www.the-cma.org/about/blog/why-transparency-is-important-on-social-media

The blog discusses how, for any company, transparency, especially in social media is crucial for a company’s reputation and success. It expands in discussing how promotion through social media can be detrimental to the success of a company based certain details such as tags made on a post during a tragic event. It also discusses that companies that own up to its own mistakes and subsequently address/fix these issues will develop customer trust in their brand, hence strengthening company reputation/improve branding.

I felt that the points made in this blog post touched on a major mistake that has continuously been made by Pepsi Co in terms of its marketing campaigns for its beverages, in particular, Pepsi and Mountain Dew. One of my previous blog posts mentioned the continuous release of commercial ads by PepsiCo. offending various social/racial groups and creating negative feedback from consumers.

This blog reinforces my previous opinion on PepsiCo that they need to re-evaluate their screening process for commercial ad ideas in order to create commercials that will not harm their reputation and brand image and continue to create negative criticism towards their company. They need to show the public through social media that they are planning to change their way of screening commercial ad ideas and producing ads that won’t offend the public.

For our marketing project, our group chose to focus on Pepsi Co. Prior to doing proper research and analysis, I had a very narrow-minded perspective on the company itself, only aware that it is one of the biggest beverage brands in North America and that their advertisement strategies have sometimes produced negative responses from the public due to poor company screening of ad/commercial ideas prior to production and release.

The process of systematically researching and analyzing various aspects of the business using tools we learned through lectures such as using the 4 P’s, STP and SWOT analysis not only showed the real-life application of these tools in the business world, but also helped to better understand the motives, direction, and vision of Pepsi Co.

Our group was effective in communicating and cooperating to complete all the assignments for the project, equally distributing the work, and learning from each other’s findings through group discussion and writing.

By learning how to creatively communicate our findings and analysis through media in order to present our ideas to the rest of the class, it helped not only solidify my personal understanding of what I had learned, from the theories and tools learned in the classroom but also taught me to translate what I had learned in class into something tangible, reports, videos, and presentation.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/why-thanking-mom-is-a-marketing-must/article14859680/

(Associated Press)

The article discusses the remarkable success of Proctor and Gamble’s “Thank you, Mom” marketing campaign during the London Olympics. The success of the campaign was linked to mothers of the world feeling unappreciated.  Market research conducted by Environics Communications and Citizen Optimum indicates the need of mothers to receive recognition for their work. Recognition of one’s work is one of the big motivators for employees in any company. Apparently it is a big motivator for mothers as well as evident from the half a billion dollars of increased sales. P&G is planning an Olympic “Thank you, Mom” redux for the Sochi Games.

The campaign was successful because Proctor & Gamble made an honest, genuine connection with mothers. They understood that everyone wants recognition for what they do, especially mothers, since people want to validate their self-worth. By portraying mothers realistically rather than idealistically, Proctor & Gamble was able to make an emotional connection with mothers and influence their target market into using their buying and decision making power within the household to purchase more Proctor & Gamble products. Now with more and more stay-at-home dads, will we be seeing a “Thank you, Dad” campaign in the future?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/10/us-apple-iphone-idUSBRE98908I20130910

(Reuters/Stephen Lam)

The article focusses mostly on the new upgrades and features of the IPhone 5C and 5S but also discusses the negative criticism that has been made in regards to the new models. Although this new model has been developed in order to become an affordable luxury, critics have stated that Apple’s “new” products are becoming easier to replicate, allowing competitors to catch up to their product designs and unique features. The article also mentions that Apple has had difficulty compared to its competitors in reaching out to the global market, faltering in sales to companies such as Samsung.

I believe Apple’s attempt to create a product that is more inexpensive compared to its older models is a poor strategy to target emerging markets. One of Apple’s strengths is the strength of its brand, for being known to provide high quality innovative products that are “cool” and useful. In order for it to succeed, shouldn’t Apple develop a marketing strategy that enables them to allow consumers to believe in the strength of the brand? Should price be considered, or should segmentation, targeting, and positioning be re-evaluated in each of the global markets/demographics in order to develop a marketing strategy that customers will buy into? It is also dependent on whether the current CEO Tim Cook wishes to continue on with Steve Job’s image of Apple, of “thinking differently,” or whether he wishes to lead the company in a different direction.

http://business-ethics.com/2013/05/17/1631-when-edgy-advertising-sends-the-wrong-message/

news report video http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/01/tyler-the-creator-racist-mountain-dew-commercial-pepsico_n_3193650.html

The article discusses the temptation for companies to target certain stereotypes within particular racial groups in order to provide “humour” for their commercial ads. The article focusses on the recent 2013 Mountain Dew commercial which had components that were targeting certain racial/social groups, in particular, black Americans and women. The writer reports the press releases that were made in response to Mountain Dew’s commercial and emphasizes the importance of social responsibility, ethics, and human resources departments within a company. The video available in the second article emphasizes that Pepsi Co. has had advertisement campaigns in the past which have been offensive to the public since 2009.

If this was the first time Pepsi has had a company rep apologize for an offensive commercial and state that they are reviewing their screening process to prevent this from happening again, perhaps one can give them the benefit of the doubt and give them another chance. However, this was not the first time and since 2009 other incidences have occurred … they have lost credibility. The mistakes that were committed seemed to be obvious faux pas, that anyone, especially a marketing and advertising group should have the common sense to prevent. Pepsi’s actions imply a lack of understanding of acceptable social norms which imply a serious lack of professional capability. You would expect that Pepsi would do adequate work in validating the ad via focus groups, etc. We can say let the free market decide the punishment for their mistake, but it seems like there is a continued lack of urgency or understanding of the seriousness of the mistake because these mistakes continue to happen. There are legal ramifications if a company causes damage to a brand, but shouldn’t there be legal consequences for causing damage to a person’s dignity?

The Blog post offers an interesting look at the definition of risk management in business and clears some misconceptions on the definition. MacDonald, the blogger, refers to Professor John Boatright who states that instead of “reducing risks” in risk management, the concept of risk management is finding the right combination and degree of risks. Professor Boatright also states that the public needs to be aware of how corporations are looking at risk management and their perception of risks.

In my opinion, Boatright brings up a good point in that one needs to understand that in the business world, corporations, entrepreneurs, employees etc. all take risks and to succeed, will be required to take risks regardless of whether they want to or not. It is simply the nature of business. However, individuals in the business field can carefully plan out what risks they are willing to take, and which risks are worth taking and would achieve greater results compared to other risks.

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/blog/business_ethics/106699–the-need-to-manage-risk-management

(AP / Virginia Mayo)

Europe today is still facing an economic crisis. Specifically Germany, despite finally getting out of its financial debt, still has a problem, starting up the economy again. There are a number of reasons concerning the reason why the economy in Europe is being held back. The article states a variety of factors ranging from government policy to the refusal of consumers to spend more money to subsequently help start back up the economy.

With this jumble of concerns and issues circulating around Europe’s failure to quickly recover from their financial debt and resolve their poor economy, it’s extremely difficult for European governments to effectively set up a strategy in order to efficiently resolve their debts. Furthermore, as Europe as a whole is facing this problem, governments need to cooperate and effectively coordinate a strategy in order for all parties to reach the same goal of financial recovery. However, this will require strong coordination between governments, strong communication, and regardless of the strategy that the governments decide to implement, either consumers, banks or government policy or perhaps all parties will have to compromise in order for the economy to start back up again.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/as-eurozone-economy-shrinks-gov-t-debt-loads-grow-1.1042272

As a parallel to the bankruptcy of Hostess, Dell and HP, two strong PC brands, are facing a consistent fall in their stocks with Dell falling 34.7% from the start of the fiscal year and a 49.2% decrease in stocks compared to the start of the year. However, Apple’s current situation, despite a loss in stocks, currently have a 29.8% increase in stocks compared to the start of the year. These statistics highlights both the ability and inability to adapt to the changes of the world, the movement from the PC to the mobile internet.

This report ties with not only the fallout of Hostess, but also the establishment of a new retail store in Toronto by Microsoft. The major PC brands are attempting to mimic the strategies of successful competitors such as Apple in order to adapt to the changes in the market. However, can Dell and HP be able to successfully push past this slump? It will all depend on how Dell and HP will be able to differentiate themselves in comparison to their competitors with the experience that they can offer to customers.

http://money.cnn.com/video/investing/2012/11/16/investing-hp-dell.cnnmoney/index.html?iid=SF_BN_River

(JASON LEE /REUTERS)

11 Furniture, a knock-off Ikea store located in southwest China, has come to the attention of Ikea. 11 Furniture, like other “knock-off” companies, is just one of the examples of the type of stores that are emerging throughout China. Stores across China have emerged that mimic products/storefronts of brand named businesses such as Apple. However, the potential for these stores to damage the reputation of the brands if consumers believe that the stores are indeed affiliated with their corresponding brands may prove to be lethal to these businesses.

This emergence of these types of stores has been in response to the developing economy of developing countries like China. If you think about any other country that was at one point, experiencing a developing economy, you will notice that there have been the same types of stores appearing in those countries during that time. Why does this occur? In a madly developing “third world” country where everyone is trying to emerge from poverty and get rich, intellectual property and patents are foreign concepts that are luxuries of developed Western countries. Combine this attitude with a legal system that have a poor ability to enforce IP laws in not only the major cities in China, let alone the second tier and third tier cities away from the coast.

The pattern of copying successful business models and products from the West has been used by most of the successful Asian economies (Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc). That is the fastest way to learn from scratch and get to a level of capability that enables them to compete. Once they hit a level of economic maturity and these countries develop their own intellectual property, attitudes, laws, and enforcement will reach Western norms. This breach of intellectual property rights is unacceptable, but “understandable” given the current conditions of the Chinese economy and society. However, letting this piracy continue will seriously damage China’s international reputation and the “China brand”. Therefore, this will also be unacceptable for the new Chinese leaders who recently took office and I would expect that concrete measures will be taken … but due to the scale of the problem, it will not be a quick fix.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/chinese-retailers-hijack-the-ikea-experience/article590004/

Hostess, the maker of the Twinkie and Wonder Bread, has gone out of business after a nationwide strike by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. With its 18,500 workforce no longer in employment, Hostess has stated that it will be focussing on selling out their assets to the highest bidder.

The strike was the straw that broke the camel’s back and ended all chances for Hostess to survive. Although Hostess management seem to indicate that the company could have been saved if all workers returned to work by Thursday, I highly doubt that Hostess would be able to survive.

The fact that the business was retailing products in a narrowing market of people willing to buy unhealthy treats and losing sales while maintaining a very poor relationship with employees resulted in the loss of the business and loss of work for the employees of Hostess.

If there was a stronger relationship between workers and managers, could the downfall of the company been prevented? If the union was more flexible and accepted more company conditions would the company have survived? The opportunity to turn the company around was long past. I think that despite the annual sales of $2 billion dollars, the shrinking market for unhealthy snacks, the unhealthy relationship with its workforce would make it nearly impossible to save the company. How could management not see the potential for bankruptcy to do something about it earlier and equally puzzling, how could the union and workers continue to “play chicken” and risk causing the company to go bankrupt and ultimately losing all their jobs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20364595