My mother constantly tells me to appreciate what I have because there is always someone less fortunate. At first it was mere rhetoric but when I was about nine, she really taught me what this means.

My older siblings and I were lunching with our parents at home but we wanted to go eat at McDonald’s. We were so obstinate that finally my mother said we were going on a little trip. I was so excited, thinking that she had finally given in to our pleas. I couldn’t have been more wrong. We kept on driving, past the paved road of San Salvador and onto a dirt one.

In front of us stood a cluster of little houses that looked more like shacks after a hurricane. They were made of cardboard, plywood, mud, or anything they could find that would keep them warm and dry. Near the road were some women selling fruit, and as they saw the car approach, they scurried, fighting to be the first to sell their merchandise. Behind them two small babies, who couldn’t have been more than three, sat naked on a piece of cardboard, their fragile bodies and ribs exposed.After a while I couldn’t take it. I started to cry and begged for us to leave. My mother asked if we were now ready to eat our food; unhesitant and unanimously we answered, “Yes!”. We returned home.

It was both didactic and insightful of my mother to show us those people and the wretched conditions they endured every day. It made me feel extremely selfish to be so picky, when these kids were starving and would have been grateful for anything and everything. It taught me not to take for granted the roof over my head, the clothes that keep me warm, or the three meals a day I eat. I now know that thousands of kids in El Salvador don’t have these luxuries.

At first I was angry with my mother for taking us there. But I can now see why it was indispensable for us to see that. I’m appreciative for this early lesson because learning to not be spoiled when surrounded by all the things you need is a tough process.

While positioning a product in a unique segment is important, marketing products with sexual undertones to children is NOT the right way to go.

Shirts that say “porn star”,  padded bras, or lap-dancing kits and Playboy-branded merchandise become inappropriate when their target market are girls younger than twelve. In the UK, retailers selling sexualized products aimed at children could face new restrictions under new plans by the government. They want to implement a sort of watchdog to ensure that they have “age appropriate” marketing because of the increased concern that children are experiencing too much too young with sexualized imagery everywhere.

Companies and marketing campaigns should be more ethical and take into consideration the impact they are creating in today’s youth and there should be regulations to prevent them. Before putting a product out they should think whether they would want their child to wear or use something like that like that.

Other appalling (yet funny) examples :

Pole Dancing Doll

Nipple Tassle T-Shirt for Toddlers

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11923107

As we have seen in class as well as in Organizational Behavior, a company culture with strong shared values and beliefs creates a sense of identity among employees and breeds commitment and higher productivity.

Along with Zappos, another company that has a unique culture is Hewlett Packard. They follow the “HP Way” which is a set of guidelines similar to Zappos Core Values, and it includes provide employment opportunities and give them autonomy as well as maintaining a fostering environment that encourages initiative and creativity.

In 2002, HP made a decision that could have jeopardized their beloved culture, the merger with fellow computer giant Compaq, who has a completely different organizational culture. While HP cares about their employees, wishes to retain them, and tries to give them liberty to innovate, Compaq sees their workforce as more expendable and they are not encouraged to be creative but to stick with the rules. Their oppososing treatment of employees as well as theri overall differences in culture can pose as a problem to their merger as cultural synergy is very important.

http://www.awpagesociety.com/images/uploads/HP-Compaq-case.pdf

Companies invest large amounts of money to be sponsors of large events like the Olympics or FIFA World Cup.  But do they really see the fruits of their investment? They go in with the hopes of gaining more market share, increasing brand awareness, creating social impact and showcasing their products and services.  What they get out of it is hard to measure but evidence shows that on average sponsorship doesn’t exactly correlate with the above mentioned benefits due to market ambushing, that like we saw in class, they can mitigate the efforts of the official sponsor and gain profits by appearing to be one.

People are bombarded with so many Olympics-related advertising, that it is hard for them to discriminate which brand is the official sponsor.  A survey trying to find out whether sponsorship in the Beijing Olympics has been effective found that  while Adidas was the official Olympic sponsor, 40% of the sample thought it was Nike and 10% thought it was the Chinese brand Li Ning.  Adidas spent millions to be the sponsor but Nike had a less costly sponsorship, supporting a famous Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang and thus effectively reducing Adidas’s sponsor benefits.

Nike Ad on Building uses more “Gorilla Marketing” Techniques

Adidas Ad

Ben and Jerry’s are known for their large variety of ice creams but they are also a very socially responsible company. Their mission statement includes creating the finest ice cream out of wholesome natural ingredients, operating in a financially sustainable basis, promoting business practices that respect the Earth and the Environment, and initiating innovative ways to improve the quality of  life locally but also internationally. As we learned in class Corporate Social Responsibility is very important because it creates intangible value as consumers come to trust the brand and are more willing to buy from them because they are sustainable and socially conscious.

They commit at least $1.1 million a year to charitable causes like:

• trying to increase people awareness of global warming,

• helping out farmers through their exclusive agreement to buy all theri ingredients through Fair Trade that also ensures they are using environmentally sound practices to grow and harvest their crops in a sustainable way.

• asking congress to stop the approval of genetically engineered animals for food

To learn more visit their super fun and interactive website http://www.benjerry.com/activism/

IKEA is a perfect example of an entrepreneurship for the following reasons:

• fast and large amount of wealth creation

Since its creation in 1943 by 17-year-old Ingvar Kampard in Sweden , IKEA has now become the world’s leader of furniture retailing with stores in 37 countries.  And last year they created a revenue of 23.1 billion euros.

IKEA in Israel

• new products for a new market

IKEA designs and  sells furniture for the customer to assemble, selling them in a box. Their products range from bookshelves to beds and from children’s toys to kitchen knives. By this innovative way of presenting their product, Ikea is saving costs for the customer and making transportation of their product  less hazzle free and expensive. His market targets the economically conscious modern person on the go that often uses public transit. Initially, this was a huge risk, as the whole concept could have been completely rejected by the customers accustomed to having their furniture pre-assembled.

• new methods of production and structure

Ikea focuses on making their operational and manufacturing methods as environmentally-friendly as possible. For example, the creation of a chair that is 100% made out of post-consumer plastic waste, using wood from responsibly-managed forests, and investing in solar panels, energy efficiency, and water saving and purification.

Lately the rivalry between Google and Microsoft has intensified, each trying to grab market share in each other’s core products and services.

Google has the upper hand as a search engine; in September, it accounted for 72.15% of all U.S. online searches. Thus Google is the greatest source of online traffic to key U.S. industries, giving them supplier power to companies who want to place their ads there. On the other hand Microsoft has developed Bing which accounts for 23.64% of all online searches. Although Bing had barriers in entry as google has an established market and reputation, considering it has only been running for a little bit over a year ago, it is increasingly becoming a threat.

Regarding browsing, Microsoft rules out the competition with their Internet Explorer with 59.7% usage, but this percent in decreasing while google is increasing. Google’s Chrome browser continued its steady rise in usage from 7.5% in August to 8% in September.

Here is a good example of how rivalry between mayor and profitable companies work. They emulate and try to outperform each other to gain more profit.
http://bx.businessweek.com/google-vs-microsoft/view?url=http%3A%2F%2Fc.moreover.com%2Fclick%2Fhere.pl%3Fr3249926977%26f%3D9791

After months of speculation and even trying to sell themselves, MGM studios, the company behind James Bond, is filling for chapter 11 bankruptcy. Their total debt amounts to 4 billion dollars, and by filling for bankruptcy they are hoping to get rid of this debt while they restructure the company and operate as normal. But they don’t have enough budget to carry on with films previously scheduled for release in 2011 and 2012, like the new James Bond movie that has been suspended indefinitely. Their bankruptcy plan includes merging with the privately-owned production company Spyglass Entertainment to create the new MGM company.

We saw in class how Blockbuster’s bad tactical desicions brought them into bankrupcy. Here we see how not only video rentals but also film studios, are affected by the shifting consumer preferences to watch movies online for free instead of renting it or going to the theater. MGM has to change strategies in order to stay affloat.

Will there be another OO7 movie?

http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11498081″

More than 9.25 million people have watched this video! But why is it important?

Dave Carroll is a Canadian folk singer, and his $3,500 guitar got damaged by the bag-handlers of United Airlines but his complaints were fruitless as the company refused to pay any compensation and furthermore the customer service agents were rude. After 9 months of complaining he decided to post a video on youtube and since then its viewers have skyrocketed. Dave Carrel got a hit song and it even was one of the most downloaded dongs in itunes UK.  On the other hand, United got a PR crisis as more people came out to complain and their reputation got increasingly tarnished.

This example goes on to show how social media has become so influential in the business world. How a simple tweet, blog or in this case video, can damage and potentially destroy a brand. In the past a complain like this would have gone largely unknown, you would rant to your friends, but the issue would stop there. Now the consumer has the power to go against big companies; they can complain in social media sites like facebook, twitter or youtube, and be heard around the world.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8145230.stm”

Made.com is an online furniture retailer. While it may have many points of parity with other furniture stores, like quality, reliability and comfort,  it has a mayor point of difference. The company runs by  allowing the websites’ visitors to submit one of their designs, which are transformed into  prototypes for which its community members can vote. The designs that get the most votes would subsequently be made available for pre-orders. All furniture will then be manufactured  in China and sent directly to the buyers’ home. There is also one big advantage for buyers: prices are 60-70% lower than traditional retailers! This is due to the lowered need to outsource; as the manufacturers are directly linked to the customers and there are no intermediaries, no extra price is added.

While they are many criticizers I think that crowdsourcing is an innovative and profitable way to market and develop any product.   It not only brings more profit to the company itself as they have no need for creative directors or chiefs of resources , but it is also beneficial to the customers, as the price is lower than by traditional methods.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11437839″