Billboards, television commercials, pop-up ads – there are numerous ways that a company can advertise to consumers. Mobile marketing, also known as text-message marketing, is one of these methods. In this modern era, consumers are almost never without their mobile phones to stay “connected”, which makes text-message marketing so appropriate. But is it effective?

Text-message Marketing

Have you noticed how more and more retailers are beginning to ask you to sign up for memberships, free of charge? Don’t you find that rather odd? Of course, giving out free memberships is beneficial to the retailers themselves too, as they gain access to your personal information, such as phone number and email address. As John Jantsch had listed, text-message marketing makes consumers feel valuable, is easy to setup, and is relatively cheap. (Check out his blog, Duct Tape Marketing! It offers insightful information on marketing in a witty way).

Think about this: do you check your phone or your email more often? As a teenager, I would say we access the former more often in a day. Statistics from Business News Daily have shown that 98% of SMS and MMS messages are viewed, whereas most business-to-consumer emails are ignored. This points to the idea that text-message marketing offers significantly higher value and return on investment (ROI) than most other forms of marketing.

Does text-message marketing work on you, or do you think it’s just a waste of time?

Resources:

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5416-text-message-marketing-boost-sales.html

http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2013/10/24/text-message-marketing/

Starbucks’ use of information technology demonstrates how technology can be used across all industries, even the coffee market. As Jessica posted on her blog, “Starbucks also showed that it understands their segments’ needs very well”.

Through the use of technology, Starbucks not only put extra value to its name, it also serves as a form of marketing. Alongside of launching an app, Starbucks has also recently started a Twitter campaign, “Tweet-a-Coffee”. With the vast network on Twitter, Starbucks is trying to reach a large platform, encouraging spontaneous gifting on Twitter.

Tweet-a-Coffee

This e-Gifting platform makes Starbucks more readily available to an online market, a market that it has never been big on before.

Resources:

http://news.starbucks.com/news/starbucks-launches-tweet-a-coffee-encourages-spontaneous-gifting-on-twitter

Buyer power is certainly not the only factor that defines the success of a business. Just as Andrea had said in her blog, “the average Chinese consumer has buyer power against the supermarket giant”.

Having lived in China for the past decade of my life, I can say with certainty that Walmart is not a key player in the supermarket industry in China as it is in America. With such a large demographic and so many supermarket options, most Chinese housewives and supermarket-goers would pick alternatives such as Carrefour and Century Mart due to familiarity and brand loyalty.

Even so, it has been aggressively opening stores in China since 1996 with its abundant resources. To set a point of difference apart from other supermarkets, Walmart frequently donates money to charities. But while Walmart is surviving in the immense market that is China, it is not flourishing.

China has been a greatly coveted market to enter in the past few years for many multinational companies, but it takes more than just great finances to thrive there.

Resources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/walterloeb/2013/11/06/how-walmart-will-fight-to-be-successful-in-china/ 

People writing about clothing and what’s “in” is kind of a big thing now. Since the inception of LOOKBOOK.nu back in 2008, the popularity of fashion blogging has intensified.

Following fashion trends or creating your own identity through how you dress has become a big part of teenagers’ lives. So has blogging. But while blogging was once simply for expressing oneself, it has now become a full bloom business – that is, if you become a successful blogger.

Many Lookbook users often link their outfits to their personal blogs, helping them promote their own websites. Take Chiara Ferragni and Ebba Zingmark as examples. Having started their careers as fashion enthusiasts on Lookbook, posting outfits weekly, they have now become international models and entrepreneurs. Through their popular blogs, The Blonde Salad and Ebba Zingmark, respsectively, they have gained international popularity and made thousands of dollars as more and more fashion brands approach them to advertise on their blogs.

Goes to show even the easiest of tasks can become profit-making, doesn’t it?

Resources:

http://www.wwd.com/media-news/digital/a-closer-look-at-the-business-of-blogging-5942163

Technology is used in essentially every industry today, be it to produce outputs or to organize data, and the healthcare industry is of no exception.

Any large medical would use technology such as Management Information Systems not simply because it is helpful, but because it is necessary. With technology continuously advancing, upgrades in important facilities such as hospitals should be made as quickly as possible to provide more benefits to society.

One of the main tasks that professionals must undertake in hospitals is do routine checkups on their patients. SmartRoom, one of the most recent innovations for the medical industry, offers to do just this. Smartroomsolutions has also added some business rules that aid practitioners in prioritizing tasks by developing a workflow analytics module to “let clinicians and managers know if and when staffers are falling behind”. SmartRooms have also guaranteed higher ROI’s for hospitals as they will increase patient satisfaction, and help nursing unit with workflow balancing.

This piece of technology belongs in more hospitals, and is much more effective for the always tired nurses, don’t you think?

Resources:

http://www.informationweek.com/healthcare/clinical-systems/hospital-rooms-get-smart/231901129

Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) is raising its focus somewhat from the really affluent to the really, really affluent.

LVMH has an almost insatiable appetite for acquisitions, with its brand portfolio ranging from fashion brands Givenchy and Fendi to watch brand TAG Heuer. As if it isn’t already expensive enough, the Paris-based fashion house Louis Vuitton is launching a new line of higher than high-end handbags and accessories.

So what drove LV to make such a bold move? Firstly, fashion knows no end, evident through astrakhan – a type of fleece made from fetal lambs. The lavish lifestyle that celebrities nowadays embody and increasing numbers of Chinese consumers enjoy creates a niche for high-fashion conglomerates such as LVMH, and by launching an even more expensive and exclusive line of accessories, Louis Vuitton may be able to increase its gradually slowing revenue stream by targeting the “really, really affluent”. Secondly, LV by itself makes almost half of the conglomerate’s total revenue. However, its cash cow product, the Neverfull, has been seeing a drop in sales.

Recently, LV has been making profits from relatively lower margin areas, such as perfumes and cosmetics. Under its established brand name, LVMH’s new line can easily break-even by having great mark-ups.

Resources:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-25/louis-vuitton-shops-for-even-richer-customers

Have you tried McDonald’s most recent addition to its menu, the Veggie Signature McWrap™? We all know (and perhaps love) McDonald’s for its value-meals, which generally consist of a burger, fries, and a soda, but fast-food companies like McDonald’s has been under intensifying scrutiny for their contribution to the prominent health issue of obesity.

While it’s not trying to re-image its original fast-food brand, McDonald’s is certainly venturing into the “healthy” market of the fast-food industry, appealing to more health-conscious consumers, thereby enlarging its target audience. McDonald’s has been the unparalleled leader of the fast-food industry, with Subway following closely behind. Subway has made its brand synonymous with healthy-eating, and that has been its unique selling point. Back in 1998, Jared Fogle lose a whopping 245 pounds by living on the “Subway diet”, and he is still featured on Subway’s websites today.

By launching healthy options such as the Veggie McWrap, McDonald’s tries to take up more market share in the fast-food market. While Subway indubitably trumps McDonald’s in terms having first-mover advantage in the “healthy” fast-food sector, McDonald’s established brand name benefits the launch of its healthy menu options. Side salads have been announced to be offered as an alternative to McDonald’s conventional fries by early 2014, as an initiative to reduce childhood obesity. While this initiative is hopeful, some people may be overly passionate about their fries.

In recent years, fast-food consumers have seemed to show more interest in their calorie intake, and a recent study by the Hudson Institute discovered that sales of “higher-calorie foods” fell by approximately 1.3 billion orders between 2006 and 2011. The sales of fries alone dipped by 1.9% at fast-food chains. This shift is driving increasing numbers of fast-food restaurants to offer healthier options on their menus, just as McDonald’s is beginning to do.

Would you make the switch from Subway to McDonald’s Veggie wraps?

Resources:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-27/ready-to-swap-those-mcdonald-s-fries-for-side-salads

Remember the indestructible Nokia 3310 that would never break no matter how many times we dropped them? I’m sure we all do, but our grandchildren probably won’t have the pleasure of owning such a phone. Smartphones have replaced essentially all other types of cellphones, despite its shortened battery life. Apple, Samsung, HTC, are some of the many companies that have launched their individual smartphones over the past few years, and Google has joined the crowd.

After the acquisition of Motorola Mobility for $12.4 billion last year, Google launched Moto X by Motorola back in August of 2013. Since the launch of Moto X, there has been a “Lazy Phone” ad campaign that demonstrates how Moto X responds to commands when users say the phrase “Okay, Google now…”, much like the Siri of iPhones. It can already be seen that Moto X is not an weak competitor in the huge smartphone market, as many phone reviews have described it to offer outstanding overall user experience, such as its ergonomically designed size and shape.

Moto X – Moto Maker

On top of that, there’s the customization of the phones. Unlike other smartphone companies, Motorola is letting users decide what their phones will look like on its own website, the Moto Maker. The Moto X campaign stresses the idea of “Designed by You. Assembled in the USA.” The customization feature of Moto X not only allows customers to choose the colors they want their phones to be, but also lets them personalize the phones by engraving words at the backs of the phones. Even with the wide selection of colours that iPhones now offer, Moto X still retains a unique selling point of customization, as consumers feel more connected with the phones that they design, which ultimately define the customers themselves.

Being “assembled in the USA” also gives Moto X a competitive edge as it underscores how Motorola assembles its products in the USA, unlike most other companies, which outsource to overseas companies to assembled their products. However, this customization option is only available through AT&T at the moment, but Google says it hopes to make this option available across other carriers soon.

Resources:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/google-launches-moto-x-customizable-smartphone-1.1342977

From Facebook to LinkedIn, Weibo to Instagram, social networks are all consuming in today’s world. Of course, when it comes to listing popular social networking services, Twitter has to be included.

Twitter is one of the dominant players in the social networking market. Throughout the past few years, social media has shown to be a lucrative market; with a plethora of adolescents and teenagers looking for ways for “self-expression”, this should come as no surprise. While social networking market was still in its infancy just a year ago, Twitter is now looking to raise 1 billion dollars.

The seven-year-old company which was once operating in the private sector is now launching an initial public offering (IPO) after seeing a loss of $69m in the first two quarters of 2013. While the company itself has never made a profit, unlike Facebook, its revenue had increased eleven times between 2010 and 2012, from $28m to $317m. Twitter will most likely list on NASQAD, the second largest American stock exchange. Analysts are predicting a positive response for Twitter’s IPO, as it will be the largest Silicon Valley stock offering since Facebook’s listing just last year. Holders of Twitter’s common stock will be entitled to one vote per share.

However, with the increase in social networking sites, it can be said that social networks are becoming excessive. After all, who needs five different social networking accounts? With the rise of social networks like Snapchat, Twitter’s popularity is slowly dropping. While Twitter might not be in its prime anymore, it’s making a smart move by launching its IPO sooner rather than later.

Do you think Twitter’s IPO will be received positively?

Resources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24392336

Freshman 15 – a phenomenon that many college students fret about but do little to avoid. Nutrition seems to be a rising issue across people of all ages, with obesity at the forefront of the problem.

In a way, freshman 15 is a stepping-stone towards obesity. College students’ seemingly never-ending appetites make us the perfect targets of various food-selling agencies, like the conveniently located vending machines and Starbucks.

This poses the question: are consumers themselves to blame for the increasing obesity rate, or should the food industry hold responsibility?

Like most other private businesses, food manufacturers strive for maximum profits. However, this does not promote desirable “social” ends, as many food manufacturers produce relatively cheap and unhealthy foods. The largest food manufacturers in the world, such as Kraft Foods, Inc. and the Coca-Cola Company, not only sell food and beverages, they shape the environment in which consumers make choices. As such, they hold the responsibility promote healthy eating.

Funded by several charitable organizations, the ATNI was established earlier this year to incentivise food manufacturers in the private sector to help tackle obesity. This non-profit organization provides important information to all stakeholders, and encourages multinational food corporations to ethically create a more positive ‘consumption environment’.

While corporations in the food industry should engage in corporate social responsibility by marketing healthier dietary options, in the end, we as consumers hold the power to decide what we eat.

Resources:

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2013/aug/20/nutrition-index-global-hunger-food