In the last COMM101 lab with Juan, he showed us an episode on Dragon’s Den – a popular reality tv series where entrepreneurs appeal to investors to kickstart their business. This reminded me of an episode of Dragon’s Den that I watched back in my highschool marketing class where two students, HongWei Liu and Desmond Choi developed an indoor navigation system. We discussed briefly in class about the hardest part of starting a business and the majority of the class said that thinking of a unique idea was the hardest part.

This episode of Dragon’s Den was the “Students Special” episode and this company was one of the best that came out of the show. At the end of the video, Desmond and HongWei managed to partner up with three of the five dragons. However, when I did some research on the company, they actually rejected the partnership after the show and partnered with Esri Canada instead. Choosing the right partners is very important for a company as it will affect the future and success of the company. We learned in class about key partners in the business model canvas. Desmond and HongWei should also not get too comfortable with their current success and continue to innovate to stay ahead of their competitors.

You’ve watched the movie “The Internship”. You’ve used this search engine all your life. The truth of the matter is that EVERYONE wants to work for GOOGLE. The recent lecture by Ms Danielle about Zappo and organizational culture reminded me of a video I watched a few years back on Google’s beautiful office and working environment which led me to writing this blogpost.

So what are the benefits of having an organizational culture? It will build a strong relationship between employees and provide a sense of identity so employees feel more involved in an organization. It is extremely important for the members in any organization to be united and have shared values/beliefs. This will consequently lead to productivity and marketability.

Similar to Zappo and how they provide a healthy and active working environment for its employees, Google provides healthcare, free food, insurance, and plenty of other benefits. Though this might cost a company more, I believe that it is worth it. Google’s organizational culture is extremely beneficial for the company. It will develop loyal and reliable employees, low turnover rates and the company will develop a strong reputation. This is why Google is the number one company that everyone wants to work for.

Now that I have your attention, today’s post will be regarding a fellow classmate’s blog on McDonald’s innovation. First of all, I would like to give props to Peter Milobar for such a catchy title for his blogpost that really got me interested in reading what he has to say.

The gist of this blogpost is that McDonald’s is testing a new flavour – guacamole in its burgers. In fact, there are already stores that offer a guacamole burger in Denver, Colorado. Peter argues that this is not a good move by Mcdonald’s as it costs a lot of time and money. He also mentioned that McDonald’s should focus on just basic fast-food burgers to avoid confusing consumers.

Peter gave some great points but at the end of the day, isn’t business all about risk taking? I believe that this move by McDonald’s will be a great attempt in developing another value proposition and perhaps outdo its competitors such as Chipotle and so on. Recently, McDonald’s sales have decreased and this led to stocks falling. Over the years, McDonald’s have dominated the fast food industry. By testing this new flavour, it is able to appeal to a larger consumer segment and re-gain its market share.This innovation will also be a huge point of difference for McDonald’s and if it works out, McDonald’s will experience a huge increase in sales, stocks and will continue to dominate the fast food industry.

and perhaps one day, we will see this advertisement in a store in UBC.

Here is a video on the burger!

 

This blogpost is regarding a classmate and friend’s blogpost (Arisha Shory)

In her blogpost, Arisha mentioned how Shell celebrated their 30th anniversary by reducing gas prices to $39.9 cents just like how it was back in 1984. This attracted a ton of customers when they announced the promotion on their Twitter page. I found her blogpost very interesting and relatable as this is a common sight back home in Malaysia. Whenever gas prices are about to go up, you would see a HUGE lineup at gas stations all over the country the day before the price increase.

One point that I strongly agree with Arisha is when she mentioned how this move by Shell is a great marketing strategy and it will definitely strengthen brand image. However, I would like to add that this is not a sustainable competitive advantage. Gas, being such a basic commodity has a very inelastic demand. This means to generate higher revenues and profits, gas companies have to increase their prices. We discussed in class about profitability and it is calculated by the equation:

Return on asset = Profit/Average total asset

This is a good move by Shell in a marketing point of view but it is not profitable. Recently, the price of gas has dropped. This price drop has already taken its toll on gas companies. If Shell would have dropped their prices even more for marketing purposes, it will kill the company with the decrease in profits.

Apple is definitely growing larger and larger and they are trying to dominate the entire technology market. This is why Apple reached an all time high in stocks growth this past week.

Recently, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook announced the revolutionary new payment system called Apple Pay and it EXPLODED in sales. There are already over a million activations since the introduction of the e-payment system. Based on the business model canvas we discussed in class, Apple’s key partners are major banks and large retail stores which is a brilliant move to enter the e-payment market. The full news report can be seen here.

We also discussed about PoP and PoD in class and this move by Apple is definitely a strong point of differentiation. This sets Apple apart from other tech companies and it helps to generate larger profits as they enter a new market. Apple Pay being so successful is a huge threat for existing e-payment companies such as Paypal. With McDonald’s recent partnership with Apple to allow customers to purchase Big Macs and Quarter Pounders with their Apple devices, Paypal quickly made plans with Burger King and several other companies to avoid falling behind. We discussed in class how the market is always changing and businesses are always innovating. Scott also mentioned that, “if a business is successful today, they might not be in the same position in 10 years time”.