The Canada Business Network is a resourceful government service to aid Canadian entrepreneurs. In this particular article, Canada Business discusses what niche marketing is, what to think about before implementing a niche marketing strategy, and what approaches to take to implement it.

The article explains that niche marketing focuses on grouping customers by need. This is one area where market research is cashed in. Once you have conducted your research, you can cater to the needs of each niche group individually, which yields better customer satisfaction and ultimately higher profits.

Some criteria that the article stresses should be considered before starting niche marketing is to ensure the segment of customers is large enough, the expertise needed to cater to the segment, and whether potential growth in the market is forecasted. These are all important things to consider as it determines whether or not it is a worthwile investment.

Three steps they suggest to implement niche marketing are to first identify the most profitable segments of the market, then to tailor a fitting marketing strategy, and lastly to adapt your products to meet each group’s needs. I feel that this is an excellent condensed overall guide to niche marketing.

Tim Hortons is stepping up their game. Timmies has recently decided to expand their menu by adding espressos, lattes, and cappuccinos. Darren Zakus intelligently notes, “By doing this, Tim Hortons has identified that a weakness of their company and products is that they only offer basic coffees and that they are surviving on being a Canadian company while competing against other coffee companies such as Starbucks”.

Tim Hortons is launching a new line of specialty coffees to expand within the coffee market. Source: CBC News

This was unambiguosly a smart move for Tim Hortons, as it expands the company into the specialty coffee market, which has proven to be very profitable. Also, people may now see Tim Hortons as a low-cost substitute for more expensive coffee shops, such as Starbucks. However, Tim Hortons’ greatest hurdle will be competing with other quick service coffee companies, especially McDonalds. Tim Hortons will have to hope that its brand name and strong consumer loyalty will attract customers to its new product line.

Tim Hortons is a very innovational company, expanding their menu substantially throughout the years to even include a variety of lunch and dinner items. However, this latest innovation could be its best in a while. Retail consultant Wendy Evans puts it, “They were founded on coffee so it makes sense to expand on that”.

Facebook is indeed the world’s most popular website. It’s hard to believe this after learning about its beginnings, but nonetheless it is the truth. Facebook is truly an excellent example of great entrepreneurial success. In Kevins article, The International Innovator, he outlines Facebook’s substantial impact on society as well as its initial purpose.

Kevin makes a great point about what Facebook is used for today versus what it was originally created for. Today, everyone brand of person is on Facebook, from the old grandma down the street connecting with her family to the 12 year old girl posting pointless pictures of herself. Today, Facebook is a social media site, almost completely for connecting with friends and “friends” alike including sharing photos, opinions, and events. Although Facebook is very beneficial, creator Mike Zuckerberg’s original vision was to create a university “network”, a very innovative and creative idea. The network would be used for projects as well as general university interaction.

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook. Source: Forbes

Entrepreneurship is a highly underrated stream of business. Although it is not very popular in business schools, entrepreneurs are responsible for the vast majority of innovation and hold much of the world’s wealth. Think about that next time you use a product.

As of recent, we have heard much about the financial crisis in Greece outside of as well as inside class. The problems have been worsening, with Greek government taking drastic measurements including cutting spending and raising taxes. This has left many Greeks in horrible positions, unsure of what to do next.

Panagiotis Tsiriotakis imports olive oil into Canada from his family's farm in Crete. His business is hurt by current strikes in Greece. Source: Tsiriotakis Family

Closer to home, many Greek-Canadians are becoming affected by Greece’s economic woes. Greek-Canadian John Nikolouzos helps run the Greek Food Market in Toronto. Nikolouzos stated that many Greek customers, who are a main part of the store’s demographic, see the shocking news on television and are spending less as a result. Vacation packages to Greece have also suffered. With smart economic moves and a new prime minister, Greece hopes to get back on track, although it will be a difficult and long rejuvenation. The European economic crisis has put many in great peril across the world, not just in the respective countries. Kyriakos Katsanikakis, Greek-Canadian restaurant owner and Vancouverite, noted that it doesn’t matter where you are, “In a globalized economy, we are all connected and affected by it”.

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Air Canada and its flight attendants have avoided strike. In lieu of the unfavourable strike, both parties have agreed to an arbitrator: The Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB). The decision will ultimately be made by CIRB chairperson, Elizabeth MacPherson, within the next couple of weeks.

Dozens of flight attendants and their supporters hold a demonstration outside Lisa Raitt's office in Milton, Ont., Oct. 13, 2011. Source: The Globe and Mail

Lisa Raitt, the Minister of Labour, is ecstatic by the parties’ decision as it avoids any disruption in flights as well as detriments to the national economy.

The main issues are pay and working conditions, including Air Canada’s new proposal of a new low-cost air carrier in which flight attendants would be paid less on.

The decision of arbitration is overall more beneficial for the consumer, the company, and the economy as a whole. An impartial and fair arbitrator will be decided on shortly and should assess the situation and agree on a mutually agreeable decision. This decision will hopefully meet the wants of both parties and allow Air Canada to continue its success as the dominant airline in the country.

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Wal-Mart has done it again. Once more, Wal-Mart has found another clever marketing tactic, this time partnering with the largest social networking site on the planet: Facebook.

With this partnership, Wal-Mart has released My Local Walmart. My Local Walmart is a page that allows the Facebook fans of Wal-Mart to receive updates on stores in their neighbourhood. Wal-mart is getting back to the days where interaction helped define their stores. Chief marketing officer Stephen Quinn noted, “This is going to allow [that] kind of communication at national scale. Stores become more relevant on a local level because of interaction with customers.” (Reuters).

Wal-Mart Teams up with Facebook. Source: Sapient Marketing

Each local store will send out alerts to subscribers about upcoming deals as well as events in the community. They will even have downloadable maps for your local stores that indicate where certain products are.

With My Local Walmart, Wal-Mart has found a way to reach the new generation and to use social networking as a constant advertisement. Without a doubt, this launch should be beneficial to the company as well as meet the needs of its loyal customer fanbase.

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Qwikster is no more. Netflix Inc., the movie rental giant, had plans to separate its streaming services from its DVD mailing services. CEO Reed Hastings announced today that Netflix users will be able to use both services under one account. (Video)

In this Sept. 22, 2011 file photo, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings gestures during the Facebook f/8 conference in San Francisco. Source: AP

The news excited investors thoroughly, bumping their stock up 9.6% in premarket trading. Customers were peeved at Netflix’s previous plans, expressing their concern with managing two accounts, one for each service. If the new plan had gone into effect, customers who wanted to stream movies and get DVDs would have had to have payed for two separate accounts. The reason for this was for Netflix to move further away from the DVD aspect of their company, which they felt had much less future potential. Although the higher price of the overall service has still risen, it is still better for both parties that Netflix has backpedaled on its plans.

In class discussion, we came to the conclusion that the Qwikster initiative would be bad for customers and for the company as it would lose too many customers. With strong marketing and this latest news, Netflix will hope to regain the value that it has lost more than half of since July.

Diane Sawyer and Katie Couric at a news conference where Yahoo News and ABC News announced a content sharing deal. Source: AP

For many years, Yahoo has been trying to figure whether or not it is a technology or a media company. In recent times, Yahoo has undeniably been moving towards becoming a media giant.

Yahoo has more than 688 million users, so what’s the problem? It has been determined that the company is lacking respect, chiefly because of shifting priorities and no new innovation. Fortunately, the company is moving forward with a variety of projects. Of the most groundbreaking are a content sharing deal with Walt Disney’s ABC News as well as moving towards an original news program. With this, Yahoo expects to gain “the voice” that they are striving towards.

Mickie Rosen, the senior vice president who oversees Yahoo's media properties, says original reporting can help its reputation.

This move is an unambigiously smart one for Yahoo. The hiring of their own reporters and posting original articles and stories will begin to create a reputation for Yahoo. They already have people on their site, they just need to give the customer a reason to stay. Yahoo sports has been a major success in breaking sports stories and they can only hope the rest of their project will come together.

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Business ethics are becoming much more prevalent in business schools of today. At Harvard and many other business schools across the globe, courses regarding ethics are gaining popularity.

At Harvard Business School, one of the most prestigious in the United States, many students are signing what is known as “The M.B.A. Oath”. This is “a voluntary student-led pledge that the goal of a business manager is to “serve the greater good.” It promises that Harvard M.B.A.’s will act responsibly, ethically and refrain from advancing their “own narrow ambitions” at the expense of others” (Wayne).

Max Anderson, right, with Harvard classmates and their M.B.A. oaths saying they won’t advance their “own narrow ambitions.” Source: The New York Times

 The growing popularity of this subject is no coincidence, it has become a vastly larger issue after the economic downturn in recent years. Many of our economic problems can be attributed to poor business ethics. Sometimes, focusing merely on wealth can cause the economy’s downturn to continue (take the inequities of CEO’s during the recession). With luck, more schools will add emphasis on social responsibilty in the business world, ensuring a brighter and more prosperous future.

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The recent problems faced by the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan have not been its only problems. The power plant has had a history of safety violations as well as nuclear scares. “With such strong government support and a culture that ordinarily frowns upon dissent, regulators tend not to push for rigorous safety” (Sakurai et al.). Due to these factors, the nuclear power industry in Japan is often looked at as very opaque.

Location of the Fukushima Power Plant. Source: Digital World Portal

Tepco, the company that owns the Fukushima plant, has been later found out to have breached several safety measures. During one instance in 1978, control rods at one of their plants came out of place, but it was never reported to the government as they were not required to.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. President Masataka Shimizu (C) and company executives bow to evacuees to apologize for the accident at their company's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant at a shelter at Koriyama in Fukushima prefecture on April 22. Source: STR/AFP/Getty Images

Due to the fear of job security, many executives do not report problems that happen within a plant. This is a major problem as cutting corners and secrecy may be more profitable, it is a shocking ethical dilemma and negligence of public safety. It is one thing to maximize profit, but to put the public at risk is truly unacceptable.

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