Tsao Now

Oprah has always been a powerful figure who can make a product’s demand skyrocket with a simple mention on her show. She recommend  books on “Oprah’s booklist” and also “Oprah’s favorite things” airs every holiday season which is hugely popular as we watch Oprah give away free extravagant items to her audiences. One might think companies would do anything to be featured in Oprah and get a boost, but for small businesses with limited capacity, being featured might not be too ideal. “When Oprah came along, it exploded our business,” said Pure Color Jeans CEO Kerry Jolna according to the CNN article, “Oprah’s Favorite Things: A blessing and a curse.” This year Oprah’s ultimate favorite thing is the Apple iPad, which will have no problem keeping up with the new found demand in Oprah viewers, it will not suffer like little “Garrett Popcorn Shops” which turned from making popcorn eight hours a day to 24 hours a day the month after being featured .

http://money.cnn.com/2006/07/26/smbusiness/oprah.favorites/index.htm?postversion=2006112013

HBC has struck gold sponsoring as the official outfitter of the Canadian Olympics team. This is the first time in recent memory that HBC has anything “cool” to offer exclusively in their stores. HBC is the retailer that owns both the Bay and Zellers. If you have been to either of these stores before the Olympics frenzy, you might notice how outdated they are. Usually dabbed with a few customers, messy shelves, ancient renovation, and employees that are as “dead” as the stores are. The official Olympics merchandises have brought a new burst of life into the vulnerable retail, instantly transforming the Bay and Zellers into the hottest stops in the mall. “Scarcity can create a perception of coolness,” said Chris Staples, president of Rethink Communications in Vancouver, and HBC have been selling out of Olympics items. Oprah made the must have $10 wool maple leaved palm mitten even more famous worldwide. These scarce popular mittens can go for three times its retail price on eBay. HBC will try to use the halo effect to try to keep the popularity of their stores high even post Olympics but I think HBC will soon fade back to obscurity once again.

Free coffee or a chance to win one of 40 Toyota SUVs? McDonalds Canada makes its move to counter the Canadian favourite post winter dreams that has started this Monday, the legendary  “Roll Up the Rim to Win”, with two straight weeks of free coffee giveaway with no purchase necessary. McDonald’s manager of communications Stephanie Sorensen said that they have timed the giveaway promotion to continue the excitement of the Olympics, and has nothing to do with Tim Horton’s Roll Up the Rim to Win campaign. It seems like again, McDonalds is staying on the toe of its competitors, demonstrated before in the Burger King in Russia case without admitting it. The fast food kind is again strategically looking to tap deeper into Tim’s 76 per cent of the Canadian coffee and baked goods market, and 22 per cent of the $14 billion fast food market in Canada. This year, Tim Hortons is giving away 40 Toyota RAV4s, 100 cash prizes of $10,000, 1,000 Toshiba netbooks, 25,000 Tim Cards and more than 31 million free food prizes. The odds seem good but a free coffee is a guarantee win!

According to the Globe and Mail, 15 months after being acquainted as the CEO of Canadian Tire, Stephen Wetmore decides to “put a little more testosterone (back) into Canadian Tire.” He states that the company has strayed away too much from its “core business.”  Wetmore decides to “trim back on some home decor departments that were designed to woo more women but sidetracked too many men.” This decision by the CEO is the opposite of what most other companies are doing, instead of expanding, Canadian Tire is contracting. Wetmore says that he will also plan to “reinstate an e-commerce site, which the company closed in early 2009.” eStores has been the popular trend recently and it sounds like a good fit for the Canadian handyman store. Canadian Tire has not been performing as well as they should recently and it is good to see that they are tuning in the focus on their target market in “sporting goods, hardware and, yes, tires”

Read more on http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/canadian-tire-going-back-to-basics/article1525372/

Nike’s collaboration with Apple on the Nike+iPod sport kit introduced on May 20, 2006 is no longer the only game in town. Long time rival, Adidas, counters with their very own,”miCoach” sports kit. Nike has had the advantage as the pioneer of such technology in respect to recognition and getting almost all of the early market shares, but it seemingly has fallen behind to the Adidas follower in terms of reputation on function and usability (based on online consumer reviews.) Popular gadget guiding website, “gizmodo,” sums up Adidas miCoach’s review with, “like Nike+, only better.” It is obvious the Adidas has taken advantage as being a follower by improving a technology pioneered by another company and selling it for a fraction of the price. I have faith in Nike, being as innovative as they are known for, will soon update their own Nike+ to outperform Adidas’s miCoach, fueling the infamous yet healthy rivalry between the sporting giants.

to read the full review on gizmodo.com click here http://gizmodo.com/5479456/adidas-micoach-pacer-review-like-nike%252B-only-better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7dMTGa4cHw&feature=player_embedded

“Nike”, followed by “Just Do It” almost comes simultaneously into a consumer’s mind. The sticky trademark has been replaced by an even simpler catchphrase, “Boom!”in a recent commercial. With brand equity as high as Nike, changing up their famous motto might spark some conversations and interests without damaging the company’s reputation. But i think in the long run, Nike should still use “Just Do It” as their main trademark and use “Boom” to supplement it in specific product lines.

Here is a comment I did about a couple of weeks ago after seeing this interesting blog post by my friend, Kojin.

https://www.vista.ubc.ca/webct/urw/lc5116011.tp0/cobaltMainFrame.dowebct

We are all some how familiar with the Axe body spray product, yes, it is the scent/ odor that graces/ pullouts high school boy’s locker rooms world wide. Axe has became a house hold brand through its successful mass marketing of the “Axe Effect,”. Warning labels are to be found on each bottles of Axe stating, “Beware of the Axe Effect. The Axe Effect may result in, but is not limited to, unrelenting female attention and/or late nights.” This false information brain washed many teenage boys into buying large amount of the product to drench themselves in, all in the hopes of attracting the opposite sex. referring to the good old Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs Axe has set out a full-on attack from the physiological needs, to the Love’ Belonging needs, then eventually the esteem needs.