Dora Leung

In Susan “Min Jee” Kim’s blog “Product Placement“, I read her opnion on how strong the advertising power of product placement is. I would have to strongly agree with her that product placement is a very subliminally effective way for marketers to get television or movie viewers to purchase products. I, myself have too, bought products that I’ve seen in movies. For example, I remember watching the movie “Eat. Love. Pray.” starring Julia Roberts. In one of the scenes where she visits Italy, she goes to one of the most famous pizzerias in Rome, where the pies look simply delicious. During the past summer I was given the opportunity to visit Italy for a family vacation. While having watched that movie, I spent three full days in search for that exact same pizzeria, just so I could eat there because the pizzas looked irresistable, and the fact that this restaurant “was in a movie”. This just goes to show that product placement can easily become one of the strongest methods of advertisement.

http://www.seriouseats.com/images/20100813-eatpraylove2.jpg

Forever 21 is probably one of the most popular go-to fashion stores targeted towards young female adults in North America. I feel that it’s success is due greatly in part of the fact that they know exactly what strategy quadrant they have placed themselves in. They have chosen the path of cost leadership and it has done them very well. Because fashion is subject to such fast paced changes in styles, Forever 21 has figured out that many young females are more concerned about style than the absolute best of the best quality in garments. They want whatever is fresh of the runway, trendy and chic. Due to this fact, Forever 21 has chosen to produce average standard quality garments at a low price, but with an exuberant variety of styles. In tandem with targeting the most appropriate market that goes along with their type of fashion, numerous Forever 21 locations can be found all across Canada, the United States, Asia and more.

http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/5b/ae/Forever_21_Online_Store-resized200.jpg

While I was reading Larry Cheong’s blog entry “Apple vs. Samsung” I could not help but to find myself dumb founded by the fact that Apple would sue Samsung over such trivial matters, such as the rounded-edged rectangular shape of the iPhone. I find that both phones have very strong points of difference that it was uneccesary of Apply to force a law suit upon Samsung. And the fact that Apple won, means that consumers now have less phones to chose from (in the words of Larry Cheong). Let’s be honest, how many ways can you change the shape of a phone? And how many phones have exsisted in the rectangular shape before iPhones? I’m sure we all have an answer here. And it simply shows how ridiculous the lawsuit made on Samsung was. But then again, I guess it also shows how powerful one brand’s monopolizing power can be once it has established a patent.

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/business/moneybox/2012/08/120827_$BOX_SmartphonesEX.jpg.CROP.rectangle3-large.jpg

Packaging sells.
From my own experience as a typical girl who enjoys beauty and make up, I have realized that many of my ultimate decisions of purchasing one beauty item over the other is packaging. I have even gone to the extreme of not purchasing a certain fragrance that I love the scent of because of its absolutely horrendous packaging. Humans a visual creatures, and advertisers know it. Packaging may be one of the most important selling points of a product because it is the first thing that a consumer experiences from a certain product. If the product is visually appealing, it is more likely that a consumer will walk over to that specific shelf, look at it and try it. Packaging is remeniscent of the product itself, therefore the appropriate packaging must math the appropriate product.

http://www.notcot.com/archives/2010/03/mor-cosmetics-packaging.php

Up to date, there are approximately 800 million users on Facebook and 140 million users on twitter. With out a doubt, social media has become a huge part of modern day society. It is almost guaranteed, that if you walked into a big city and asked the person sitting next to you in the bus whether they had facebook or not, that they would say “yes”.
On that note, businesses have now become very resourceful and use social media to publicize their company. Many companies would create their own page so that facebook users who also enjoyed their goods and servies can “like” their page. I find this to be a very strategic way to keep consumers aware of your company and any special promotions or updates in general because many users have Facebook on their phone, or many simply hop on-line to Facebook to check their notifications. I find social media as a great forum for companies to advertise and promote themseleves. Speaking as a Facebook and Twitter user myself, I see myself following brands such as Sephora and on Facebook.

http://blog.tweetfind.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/twitter_facebook.jpg

Recently I was hired at a make up company (in this blog let’s refer to this company as Glam due to company privacy policies). I was so ecstatic to become a part of their working force because I am very interested in make up and make up artistry. However, I soon realize that they business side of the company actually plays a huge role in how the company functions as a whole. Previously as a customer I would have never thought of Glam as much of a business giant, but it is. Everytime before an employee goes to work, they are informed of the current standings of Glam as a business; they are informed of their company budget, stretch goals, product forecasts and such. Glam also highly prioritizes their company core values. All employees are subject to watch company a monthly Glam video that includes points on how to improve the company as a whole through better customer service, merchandising, marketing, emphasizing company values and such. Glam has a very strong sense of community and everyone with in the work force understands the values that they have, which in return results in a very successful company.

I was reading YuWei Wei’s blog post ““U.S. children recognize more Pokemon characters than common wildlife species” – Teaching Kids To Consume” and I found it absolutely unbelievable that children in the US are so caught up with media, including the advertisement with in it, that they can hardly recognize the tangible reality around them. Though YuWei states that advertising companies are just “doing their job”, I do not agree it that is right. Not only does the responsibility of teaching children to be cautious and critical of what they see fall upon their parents and their guardians, but I feel it is also important for companies to practice corporate responsibility. Even if they are not doing anything necessarily “illegal”, they should uphold the morals of understanding that children are young and impressionable. They do not have the mental capacity to think for themselves, therefore companies should really re-evaluate how they advertise to children. Companies that run these advertisements should also re-think how much they should advertise. For example, the Family Channel is a Canadian television service provider that practices corporate responsibility by choosing not to broadcast commercials to rake in revenue, but rather run by payed cable.

McDonald’s is no doubt the worlds biggest fast food chain. But why? What are they doing right that chains like Wendy’s, Burger King, Dairy Queen or Jack-in-the-Box not doing? McDonald’s’ biggest business strategy is their focus on “keeping it local”. Though there are thousands of McDonald’s’ across the globe, their menu varies according to the country that the franchise is situated in. In Singapore, one can order Jasmine rice and “Shaka shaka” chicken. In Hong Kong, you can get a hamburger patty sandwiched between rice patties. In France, you can order a “Fromage Royale” which is essentially a Quarter Pounder, but renamed to fit the non-emperical system Europe.

We can see that McDonald’s is a company that is excellent at listening to what their customers want. What American loves in their burgers may not be the same as what India loves in their burgers, and thus they are not afraid to implement change. They seek to find what products have international appeal and which dont. For example, their fries, milkshakes and ice cream remain consistent within most chains, but their other products depend on who is consuming them.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/10/mcdonalds_local_strategy_from.html

Currently a quarter of Japan’s population is made up of elderly above the age of 65. Yoshiro Sugimoto, 62 year-old Toyota Motor veteran, and his colleagues have invested 20 million yen, which is the equivilent of US$254,800, to introduce the low-powered, eco-friendly ZEVe ultracompact vehicle. This vehicle has been compared to a golf cart; an aluminum framed windshielded single seater, without doors or windows.

Sugimoto, looking at his sociodemographics, has targeted elderly above the age of 60, living on the rural outskirts of Japan, who are in need of convenient transportation. Due to the lack of accessable public transport in those areas, this automobile could prove to be very successful.

Though the ultracompact could have potential in European markets, they probably don’t in North America. Because of the safety criteria established in North America for their street legal vehicles, they have decided not to sell their product in Canada or the US.

However, some points have been made about how the small hatch-back trunk would not be large enough to fit farm tools. Toyota would also have a lot of competiton amongst the other Japanese motor companies, such as Honda, Suzuki, Nissan and Daihatsu Motors who are all also in the ultracompact business.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-10-04/japan-tries-cars-that-make-the-mini-look-maxi

The Athabasca Oil Sands is an area of large bitumen (heavy crude oil) deposits located in northeastern Alberta. The Athabasca Oil Corporation, founded in 2006, is the company who controls the development of the oil sands and its resources. On average, they rake in an annual profit of $1.48 billion, making it one of Canada’s biggest money makers and most valuable businesses.

However, research has shown that the oil sands have been bring arsenic, lead, mercury, and bitumen to the surface of the water in the Athabasca Lake in Alberta. Even though there is a very low concentration of these substances, there can be long term serious impacts as a result of it.

In Dr. David Schindler’s, an American/Canadian limnologist at the Univeristy of Alberta, experiment, he took snow from within a 50km radius of a certain area in the oil sands. This snow could be used to analyze if there were oil pollutants coming from oil activity and how much of it was going into the atmosphere. Schindler and his team of scientist went to very careful measures to analyze the snow. The results were jaw-dropping. They found a substantial amount of toxin particulate in the snow. Over a course of four months of snow fall, they found 11,400 metric tons of particulate deposited in the snow. They also discovered that 64% of the particulate came from bitumen build up.

And my question is simply…why? Why would anyone continue with such a business that is so toxic to the environment, the people and the community?

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofthings/2011/tippingpoint/