Recently, Pinterest seems one of the most heating news that people are talking about. If you tell me that you do not know what it is then think about your new FaceBook timeline, which is nakeing good use of the idea of Pinterest. Pinterest allows you to organize images — maybe pretty sunrises or wines you’ve tasted — into boards for specific categories. When you “pin” something new, your followers will see it. They can like, comment or re-pin it to their boards. Like Facebook content, your Pinterest pins can go viral (entrepreneur.com, 08/02/12).

Other than being cool, Pinterest also has some potentials on being used for business. It can be a modern, inexpensive, and creative way for small business owners to use Pinterest to market  their visual products or services. Customers may be more willing to check out one product when they see it posted on Pinterest as a beatiful image rather than seeing it in commercial ad. One more thing to be mentioned is that customers can have immediate and casual communication on Pinterest. It can help seller collect feedback and also simplify the bargaining process. However, if Pinterest is being used as a channel for advertisement, the management team of Pinterest needs to make sure it does not get filled with commercial air.

Everyone knows that most of Apple’s main profucts like iPad and iPhone are all manufactured in China. However, Apple still has a long way to go for expanding the Chinese marketDespite its popularity, Apple still has a tiny portion of the Chinese computer market. It is fourth in the smartphone market, with about an 8% share, partly due to its October 2009 entry into the Chinese market (online.wsj.com, 07/19/09) What is wrong? How did Apple do their markting in China?

Apple is now maintaing its margin profit by targetting the upscale customers in China, since products like iPad and iPhone would be a luxury for most of Chinese customers. However, when Apple is investing more of their money in opening more retail stores,  it could be difficult to match the performance they have had so far.

As a Chinese, I can feel the efforts that Apple is putting in to marekting themself to Chinese customers. They have opened two retail stores in my city-Beijing and according to Wall Street Journal: Apple’s retail stores in China have more than 40,000 visitors per day (online.wsj.com,07/19/11). Last summer when I was back home in China, Apple has become more porpular among Chinese citizens. You can see Apple’s commercial in almost every shopping mall. However, the middle class, who have the buyer power, seems not that interested in  pursuing the trend. People like my parents bascically get to know Apple’s products from their children. The latest technology also sparks them, while they do not think it is worth buying since it is time-consuming for them to handle the IT technology and they do not need most of those fancy functions that they will not normally use.

Given the research I have done, I believe Apple should target a broader range of consumers in China and I suggest they start from those university students in modern cities.