Month: November 2010

Groupon is a website that sells coupons featuring a deal-of-the-day. They negotiate discounts (50% – 90%) with popular businesses in the local area. Their marketing strategies include sending out daily deals through emails, Facebook, and Twitter. The first market of Groupon was Chicago, and later expanded to Boston, New York, and Toronto. Today, the markets of Groupon had expanded to Europe, Asia, and South America.

A strategy is long-term, and it affects the firm’s overall direction. Many North American based companies see future potential growth in Asia, and thus sets their goals of expanding in Asia. Despite the rumours that Google might purchase Groupon for $5 billiion, Groupon recently made the announcement for the new launches of Groupon in Hong Kong, Singapore, Phillipines, and Taiwan. These launches will add join the launch of Groupon Japan (August 2010).

This will allow Groupon to offer more unbeatable deals to consumers throughout the world. More importantly, it will allow local businesses to gain valuable new customers and also have efficient, measurable marketing done without digging any extra money out of their own pockets.

Has it ever occurred to you that social media and the technology we have today may have caused more number of people to be socially awkward than people in the older generation? Vancouver Sun recently conducted a survey that showed how many people in Vancouver and Canada thought that social media has made society more socially awkward. Vancouver Sun’s Gillian Shaw stated that “75 per cent of social media users check their email, text messages and social networking sites first thing before they get out of bed in the morning and last thing before they go to sleep at night.”

Today, social media is a part of almost everyone’s lives. However, this doesn’t necessarily make social media a good thing. In Shaw’s article, she stated that “eight in 10 people surveyed said they prefer face-to-face communication with family and almost as many say that about contact with friends.” People nowadays say they prefer face-to-face communication,, but let’s face it… More people use email, text messaging, and social networking sites to keep in touch rather than actually meeting up and have a decent conversation over coffee.

Last but not least, this video is somewhat old but for those of you who haven’t seen it, stay tuned for the next 4 minutes.

How much would you pay for this pack of rubber bands that’s shaped into characters/letters?

The first set of Silly Bandz was sold online in November 2008. The idea of Silly Bandz is to wear them, and trade them with friends. The main target market is towards children, however, people from all age groups purchase this product.

According to Schumpeter’s View of Entrepreneurship,  a company is considered to be entrepreneurial if they place an emphasis on innovation. I see that Silly Bandz is an innovated product, it opens new markets, and it also creates a new form of organization. It is definitely an innovative product because it takes a simple elastic band and turns it into a product that’s attractive, and has gimmick. As well, this product opens a new market as it is a brand new product that’s simple, but brings in a lot of sales for the company. The new form of organization is formed around the trend of trading, as the people with the same interest in Silly Bandz would come together and share their passion for this product.

Although it is an innovated product, I feel that this type of product is catered more towards children, especially after hearing some people say that they paid $6 for 26 of these elastic bands. Nevertheless, they are a successful company as they sold over one million of these packages in the last year!