Bose’s recent sponsorship deal with the National Football League restricts any player from wearing Beats by Dr Dre head phones. This is being over ruled by Beats’ affiliation with several NFL stars, causing much controversy throughout the league.

Bose attempted to overtake some of the 57% stake that Beats controls in the $1 billion headphone market through the sponsorship deal with the NFL, trying to further position itself in the market.  This marketing plan has seemingly backfired due to quick thinking by Beats’ marketing team.

The NFL, after its deal with Bose, fines any player ten thousand dollars who are found wearing Beats headphones during any televised events to attempt to promote brand loyalty. This rule has led to Beats accepting the fine and directly paying for it. The plan of action taken by Beats has resulted in free (other than paying the fines) advertising across the league. The promotion of Beats by the individual “big-name” players has seemed to overpower the attempts of Bose, indicating that personal branding can potentially have a bigger impact than an entire organization, depending on the marking strategy.

http://www.thestar.com/business/sportonomics/2014/10/27/nfl_and_bose_fight_losing_battle_against_beats_by_dre.html

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000408187/article/kaepernick-fined-for-wearing-beats-by-dre-headphones

http://www.bose.com/controller?url=/promotions/entry_pages/soundlink_nfl/index.jsp&src=OCG00001

Recently, Taha Bhopalwala wrote a blog discussing the depletion of the electronic department stores and how one past giant, Best Buy, is gradually running out of business.

In a recent effort to counteract the revolution from big box stores to online shopping, Best Buy have announced the addition of the past president and CEO of Domino’s pizza, J. Patrick Doyle, to its board of directors. Doyle became the CEO of the struggling pizza chain in 2010, and since this change he has managed to double their profits and watch their stock rise 600%.

An article by Rich Duprey highlights Doyle’s dramatic turnaround of one of the largest global pizza chains, with Best Buy hoping to receive the same improvement. Although the trends are against Best Buy because of online competitors, the article states, “analysts find the company has almost reached price parity with Amazon.” This gives confidence for the foreseeable future of Best Buy if Doyle manages to find a way to engage the customer and create a point of difference in order to stay alive in this competitive market.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/tahabhopalwala/2014/09/27/is-it-really-the-best-buy/

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/11/07/can-a-pizza-guy-turnaround-best-buy.aspx

I am writing in reply to Tamara Giltsoff, to build on her blog post on Kickstarter’s creation of shared value. Tamara shares an interesting view on an innovative company and how they create shared value in the global community.

The concept behind Kickstarter’s business model is to bring aspiring entrepreneurs together and give them an opportunity to pitch their ideas to the world, in hopes of gaining financial capital and starting their dream business.

This innovative concept goes against the norm of capital investments CEO Perry Chen explains, “People are supporting projects because they want to see them happen. It’s so different than giving money because you want to make a profit.” Chen is letting everyday people contribute to ideas that they want to see succeed, in hopes of gaining nothing in return but gratitude.

Kickstarter is giving each of its customer’s an opportunity to succeed and reach their goal, while still being successful itself. This business model creates value for each entrepreneur that uses its service, generating economic benefits, and gives the global community an opportunity to support one another, developing social prosperity. Kickstarter is a perfect example of creating shared value because of their values that strive for joint company and community growth.

Interesting Kickstarter example!

http://tamaragiltsoff.com/blog/kickstarters-and-shared-value/

http://allthingsd.com/20121105/kickstarter-ceo-no-ipo-for-us-and-no-equity-crowdfunding-either/

https://www.kickstarter.com/?ref=nav

Google Wallet Ad

In response to James Lau’s interesting blog post on Apple’s new technology, I wanted to further develop the comparison between Apple Pay and its main competitor, Google Wallet.

Google Wallet has been available on Android devices for the past few years, being released into the US market in 2011, but has not caught on like its new Apple counterpart. After the release of Apple’s payment service, a tech reporter compared the two rival products to see how they matched up. His discoveries can be found in this article.

After the analysis, both Google Wallet and Apple Pay stack up to one another quite equally, so what has made the latter so much more successful?

Apple’s marketing strategy, unlike that of Google’s, has taken a direct approach to their customers giving the general consumer the idea that Apple has created a point of difference. This false PoD is a perfect example of how great marketing can make up for late entry into a market segment. Google’s product might contain all of the same innovative elements, but Apple pay has exploded in sales through the use of their disruptive marketing tactics.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/jameslau/

http://business.financialpost.com/2014/10/28/apple-inc-pay-signup/?__lsa=f41a-b5dc

http://bgr.com/2014/11/03/apple-pay-vs-google-wallet-comparison/

http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/week-apple-pay-google-wallet/

DOLLAR SHAVE CLUB ADVERTISEMENT

Co-owner Michael Dubin saw an opportunity in the area of men’s grooming products and spearheaded the market with the video above, which went viral in with over 3 million hits in less than a week.

This disruptive innovation directly attacked the men’s grooming giant Gillette through the discovery of a cure for the pain that all consumers face when faced with purchasing razors: high cost. Bloomberg Businessweek does highlight that Dollar Shave Club does not necessarily provide a product to the consumers at a much lower cost, but the consumer only sees the physical price that they pay: Either $3.50 per month with Dollar Shave Club or Gillette’s $29 package which lasts 6 months. Although the general consumer is not conscious of this, the better quality razor provided by Gillette is only roughly $1.33 extra per month. This ingenious marketing plan by Dollar shave club targets the consumer’s anger towards spending a large sum of money at once, spreading it over a period of time and giving their customers the mildly false idea of large savings. The marketing scheme has been successful for Dollar Shave Club, giving them a sector of the market and helping them disrupt other markets with their unique and innovative idea.

https://ca.dollarshaveclub.com/

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-10/rethinking-gillette-s-pricing-the-disruptive-innovation-of-a-dollar-shave

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/22/dollar-shave-club-michael-dubin-interview_n_6025648.html

After only being submerged into the Sauder community for 2 months, my appreciation for accounting has soared. My past understanding for accountants have been much like the view shared by the everyday close-minded citizen: they are boring number crunchers. But after meeting with an upper-year accounting student and experiencing just some of the opportunities that Sauder offers for interested students, I am intrigued.

This article highlights my experiences so far and why I see so many opportunities, in school and afterwards, with accounting. Prof. Scott Sinclair continually states that in his upper year accounting classes, the majority of his students will continue on in the accounting segment for some time and then branch off into either starting their own company or into some other division of business. This makes me think of the endless possibilities and makes me thing of all the skills someone will be able to learn along the way through Sauder. For instance, if I do choose to pursue a career in accounting, I will have the general skills that I gained through first and second year courses such as Comm 101 and the following years to specialize. This process will not only give me the basic accounting skills, but the necessary skills that every modern accountant now requires.

http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/feature/2265153/-aayp-2013-modern-accountants-people-who-think-differently

The sheer power that Enbridge has in the Canadian economy, earning $629 million in net income in 2013 and employing roughly 11,000 Canadians, will lead them to the production of their pipeline.

There should not be such a strong view against the creation of this pipeline by the Nak’azkli and other First Nations because of all the benefits it will provide them with, just like their past endeavors noted in the article. Although the First Nations are worried about the preservation of the land, wanting to ensure that it will be the same for future generations, this will ensure a prosperous life for their future generations. The financial stake that the First Nations will take in the pipeline will provide a strong base of funding for their future generations to grow and continue their history. This view is shared amongst 40 percent of the First Nations stakeholders in the Northern Gateway pipeline, which proves that the project does benefit all parties in some way.

This debate cannot result in all of the stakeholders being content but a decision should be made in order to benefit Canadian economy, which each stakeholder should respect.

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/There+will+pipeline/10122968/story.html

Innovation is the best thing a company can do in order to excel above and beyond their competition. This is one fact that I have learned from the Comm 101 course thus far and I now feel that I truly know the meaning of revolution in the business world.

Innovation can take many different forms, for instance, the marketing innovations of Mr. Christensen have changed the way a business should approach its customer base. The most successful companies are consumer centric as opposed to company or product centric in order to surpass their competition, but that isn’t the only job marketing executives face. Jobs-to-be-done marketing has changed the way a marketer should think. This innovating idea changes a company’s way of thinking: their product satisfies a job for their customer. Nothing but this idea can help understand their market and what they are trying to accomplish when purchasing their product, which is exactly what a company needs to know if they want to beat out any competitors. When thinking of the job a product provides, a company can change and improve a product in order to satisfy their customer.

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/6496.html

Although the SWOT assignment has passed, I am still intrigued about Tesla’s decision to release their patents.

From a blog post by Elon Musk, “If we clear a path to the creation of compelling electric vehicles, but then lay intellectual property landmines behind us to inhibit others, we are acting in a manner contrary to that goal.” This Decision made by CEO Elon Musk Created a great uproar in the auto industry because nothing of the sort has ever been done to such an extent.

In my opinion, there is a significant hidden advantage that Tesla gains through the release of their patents that could be the real reason behind Musk’s bold actions. By Tesla releasing their patents to whoever cares to use them fairly, they are letting the other major car companies absorb the major expenses needed to promote and advertise electric vehicles while they act like the “good guys” from this action. But realistically, Tesla gets free advertising for making the decision to release their patents into the public and they will be seen by the consumer as the first true pioneer of electric vehicle because their technology will be the base of new innovations. This strategic act gives Tesla an amazing reputation with the global market as they remain atop the luxury electric market.

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/all-our-patent-are-belong-you

Qatar, a Middle Eastern country, has won the bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup, despite much controversy. The country received the most votes by the 22 FIFA executive committee members, but after a formal investigation launched by FIFA’s ethics investigator, previously unknown knowledge surfaced. Investigations showed that the President of the Asian Football confederation, Bin Hammam, made payments of $5 million dollars to build support and to secure Qatar’s position as the 2022 World Cup hosts. In the past, the world cup generates hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue and GDP growth for the host nation. This enormous incentive explains Qatar’s corrupt actions.

Qatar, using their seemingly endless wealth from their oil industries, unethically bought their way into a position of power. This position gave them the ability to bid unfairly and allowed them to win it fraudulently. After these suspicions came to light, FIFA has stripped Hammam of his title as executive committee member and he has been expelled for corruption. In order to truly correct the situation, FIFA should strip Qatar of their title as the host country and reconsider their other options. If FIFA enforces Qatar out of its bid, this will create the awareness of FIFA being an ethical global icon.

http://www.thestar.com/sports/worldcup/2014/06/08/qatar_denies_wrongdoing_amid_new_allegations_over_2022_world_cup_bid.html