Category: Uncategorized

Find this interesting short blog post, that lists the top most valuable brands: 1.Google 2.Microsoft 3.Wal-Mart 4.IBM 5.Vodafone 6.Bank of America 7.GE 8.Apple 9.Wells Fargo 10.AT&T. This list is quite different then the one one listed in our text book, which goes to show how fast the business world is changing around us. Especially those companies that are internet and innovation based.

The first big change I noticed when i first looked at this list was the fact that Coca-Cola the former number one seat was no longer on the list (it is now ranked 13th). Personally I was not too surprised to see Coca-Cola leave the top ten brands because I did not feel that it could keep up, to the other very innovative companies, in building its brand. Another noticeable feature of the list is the fact that almost all of the companies on the list are of US origin (9/10), which makes me wonder why.

Personally, I believe that Google will be able to remain as the top spot because of its highly competitive and innovative nature. Google is constantly working to stay in the front and acquiring other companies to do this. However I believe that the other places on the list will continue to shift around.

Through Comm299 I have learned things such as how the how to build my own brand, how to behave in business setting and many more. First of all, I learned how to write a professional resume and cover letter, which is totally different from the one that I wrote in high school. Secondly, I had to opportunity to have a mock interview to evaluate my interview skills, which I found really helpful because I got useful feedback on how to improve. Thirdly from Comm299 I learned about various opportunities that the Career Centre provides for the students, such as the numerous job postings exclusively on COOL. Fourthly, I found out how important making connections is, how I should really get my name out there in the business world and really strive to create lifelong connections with people. Fifthly, I learned about how to look for a job through asking for information meetings and the hidden job market.

To summarize, Comm299 was a very interesting course that taught me a lot about the business world, and really gave me a good starting push into that business world. I felt that the most important take from this course, is that I should really get my self out into the business world and make lifelong connections to help build my career.

Pepsi has created the world’s first 100% plant-based water bottle! This press release talks about how PepsiCo has developed a method to create plastic bottle from plant products, instead of using petroleum. If widely this adopted this could be an environmental break through. PepsiCo is incorporating these bottles into PepsiCo’s family of products so that PepsiCo can further promote the idea that Pepsi is an environmentally friendly company that promotes sustainable living.

But why is Pepsi so keen in making the consumer see PepsiCo as a environmentally friendly giant? That is because there is a growing social trend of greener consumers. So it could be that PepsiCo is trying to differentiate their relatively undifferentiated goods though this factor, which could work if the PepsiCo’s consumer see this as an added value to the Pepsi product.

Personally, although I think that this is great for the environment and will help in the vision of a sustainable future, I do not think this will boost sales by a significant amount unless there is another benefit that comes with purchasing this bottle, other than helping the environment, such as a lower price or stronger durability

I found this very interesting article on how Amazon has just released Cloud Music Player and Drive. From my understanding program will allow you to upload your music, video, documents and photos files onto the “Cloud” or internet, and allow you to access from a mobile such as your Android phone. This seems like a really cool idea because of many reasons. For example your phone may not have the same file capacity as the cloud(you are able to upload up to 5GB or 20GB if you purchase the files from amazon). Secondly this could be really convenient if you work from multiple computers/stations, so you could just put your files onto the cloud and access it elsewhere. Also, you could probably share your files on your cloud with other people. Finally, the most important factor, for me, is that you are able to access this cloud from anywhere, given that you have internet capability.

So is this a good move by Amazon?
I believe that this is a good step for them to take. First of all they providing a service to the growing number of internet users which will help them get the Amazon brand out and well known. Secondly they are showing themselves as innovated by effectively taking advantage of the Internets capability thereby strengthening the Amazon brand. Also, Amazon is pulling people to buy music from Amazon because if you purchase files from Amazon you would be able to increase your cloud capacity from 5GB to 20GB. So all in all I believe Amazon did a great move by launching this product.

I found this blog which talks about how newspaper/print advertisement revenue has gone down to record lows because of the increase tendency for marketers to advertise through an electronic medium. The blog’s reasoning for the increase popularity for advertising over the internet is because it is a much cheaper form of advertisement, which I agree with completely. Furthermore, I believe because the internet has become such a huge part of people’s lives, advertisements on the internet have begun to get more exposure then newspaper advertisements. As well, because of the increase usage of mobile phones and tablets, people are finding that using the internet as their news source a much more convenient way then having to go to the store to pick up a newspaper.  Another way the internet is better than newspapers is the fact that news on the internet can be constantly updated, so it is more up to date. Also, on the internet you could have more customization in your advertisements, such as pop-ups and video advertisements.

So given all these points I do see that amount of newspaper advertisements are going to continue to decline, while advertisement over the internet is going to increase significantly. And the main reason for this is because I believe that newspapers are becoming obsolete because of the constantly growing convenience and accessibility of the internet.

My biggest inspirations in the world are my parents. They are my inspirations because they are incredible parents that have done their best to provide for me. They are the ones that provide me with the food, shelter and support throughout. They are even more amazing because, I know that they sacrificed many opportunities so that they could provide me with a comfortable lifestyle. Also, they always put me before themselves for everything; from the simplest things such as letting me have the last slice of food, to the bigger things such as having to give up going on vacation because I got sick. They are truly amazing parents, which is why they are my inspiration.

My parents are the ones that inspired me to strive to work hard in life. They are my main motivation, in life, because one of my primary goals in life is to be able to repay my parents with a comfortable life, like the one they gave me. So because of them I will never give up, even when life gets hard. I will push through all the obstacles that come in my way because I must accomplish my goal, for them.

Are ads on youtube actually beneficial for the advertiser? Given that Youtube gets a lot of traffic and can somewhat derive your perferences from the videos you have searched for in the past, this seems like a perfect place to advertise. However, what if the advertisements you are forced to watch do not appeal to you or you are just not in the mood to have to sit through an advertisement before getting to your video. This could prove to be a huge problem for the company/product that is advertising because the viewers could develop negative impressions on the company/product. No matter how good the advertisement is, some people will only see the advertisement as a troublesome obstacle to view the video they intend to watch.

For me, I am one of those people that find that these advertisements before videos to be frustrating to sit through(because refreshing the page does not help). So although I do remember the company or product these advertisements are promoting, I have started to develop a negative impression on all of those company or product.

So in the end is this advertisement outlet a good or bad one. On one hand the product will get lots of exposure, however on the other hand the product have develop negative impressions in people.

Coke and Pepsi. Many people see these two products as different, while some people, like me, see them as the same. To me the only difference between these two brands is the packaging they come in, one is red the other is blue. However, some people believe that these two drinks taste different and would not settle for one over the other. Now for these people who think the two taste different; is the taste actually different because of the ingredients or are psychological factors at work? If it were because of psychological factors that make these two seem different, that would mean that the marketing and branding that goes into these products is very successful. Marketing and branding is heavily invested in for these products because it is an area that can be used to differentiate themselves. The effect of the heavy branding that goes into these products can clearly be seen. For example branding of Coke has gone so far that some people refer to all soft drinks as “Coke”

Here is a commercial by Pepsi, using many big name celebrities to try to gain market share in Asia

Is this effective?
In my opinion, although it is interesting and has couple of my favorite celebrities, it does not make me want to go out of the way to buy Pepsi over Coke, I would see go for the one that is more convenient or cheaper

To me, Five Dollar Footlongs campaign is a great idea by Subway for many reasons, stemming from the fact that is is very cheap. Offering a footlong sub sandwich at this cost has many benefits. First of all, it gets people who already frequently buy subway sandwiches, ones who buy 6inch, to rethink their choice and opt to up size their purchase to a footlong because the price difference is not to large. Secondly, by having a low price it will attract people, who are not subway regular sandwich purchasers, to try the product for the first time. Thirdly, its seemingly low price gives customers something to talk about, and subway will have customers talking and advertising their product via word of mouth. This Five Dollar Footlong campaign has become so large that it has seem to become what subway is known for, and it has certainly changed the behavior of other restaurants in the fast food industry.

In Keith’s blog he talks about how e-sports is an field where new entrepreneurs can start up a new business. I believe this to be 100% true, especially in North America

First of all, as Keith mentioned e-sports is a huge growing trend world wide, which I believe to be completely true. This is what gives rise to opportunities for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs or current businesses can market their product to this huge growing segment of people “e-gamers”.

For example, in Korea where e-sports (Starcraft 2) is already a huge sport, we see that many big companies are already sponsoring professional “e-gamers” to endorse their products. These types of sponsorships seem to be quite effective, as many novice players look up to these professional gamers as an aspirational social reference group; so novice players would pay close attention to and purchase the products, equipment and tools that these professional gamers use so that they themselves could improve their game play.

So given how e-sports can be a perfect area of opportunity for investment and how e-sports is a continually growing trend in North America, and around the world, I would not be surprised to see if businesses to start to invest heavy marketing initiatives into e-sports in the near future. In fact, it is even possible that North American professional gamers could eventually attain celebrity status like how some have already in Korea.

In conclusion, I agree with Keith and how he says e-sports is segment where businesses should really take advantage of, because of its growing size and it being a relatively untapped market, in North America.