After reading some of my peers’ blogs, I found one that really attracted my attention. Hoang’s blog talks about how tech companies keep innovating every day in a “never-ending” race. It particularly talks about the current competition between Amazon and Google regarding the intelligent home devices: the Amazon Echo and the Google Home.

The competition between these two big companies reminds me the marketing lecture we had about the Points of Difference and one reading about how to get in the consumer’s mind. Both the Echo and the Google home are intelligent devices that let you interact with your home with voice control. One can manage the lights, play music, and even ask any kind of questions like “How’s the weather?”. But after analyzing both products, they actually have very similar characteristics. So why would a customer buy one rather than the other?

http://cloudacademy.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Google-Amazon-674×332.png

This question can be answered by carefully looking at both the marketing strategy used and the Points Of Difference of each product. First of all, the fact that Amazon released the Echo in 2014 (almost two years before Google launched its home device) gives an enormous advantage to the e-commerce company. By being first in the market, the company gets the leadership and also a first place in the mind of the customers. People will relate intelligent home devices with the Echo. Therefore, the second player in the market needs attractive characteristics that will differentiate the product from the competition. Google started by creating a much more attractive and friendly design. While Echo seems to be a normal speaker, Home feels like it’s part of your home decoration.

Amazon Echo at the left. Google Home at the right.                                                                                                          http://united-locksmith.net/wp-content/uploads/product-battle2.jpg

Also, by being part of Google’s family, it has access to all the information available in Google accounts and apps, such as your calendar and the weather conditions. Another feature Home has is the ability to play multi-room audio by synchronizing all the devices in your place. The Echo, on the other hand, cannot sync with other devices to play the same song in the house. The advantage that Echo has over Home is that it has much more functions or “skills”. These skills vary from ordering a Domino’s pizza to asking for an Uber. However, Google announced a list of possible partners such as TicketMaster, WhatsApp, Uber, Spotify, and others.

Google partners for Google Home. https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/launchpartnershome.jpg

As contrary to what my peer Hoang stated in his blog, I think Google has a big chance of catching up the two-year gap Amazon had over them. Although Google was second in the market, and Amazon got the customer’s mind at first, it is implementing and improving fascinating characteristics to Home that will eventually overcome those of the Echo.

Word Count: 441

Google Lagging Behind Amazon Shows Corporate Discordance?

http://www.knowyourmobile.com/devices/google-home/23613/google-home-vs-amazon-echo-google-home-now-shipping-us

http://www.pcmag.com/article/348496/google-home-vs-amazon-echo-which-one-should-rule-your-smar

http://www.techradar.com/news/digital-home/5-reasons-google-home-will-beat-amazon-echo-1321967

“Change is inevitable and companies must be willing to embrace it rather than resist it.”

(Ries and Trout)

The gaming world has slightly changed over the last decade. This has to do with the introduction of mobile phones and apps that let you play really good games wherever you want. Children are now given a tablet or a smartphone at an early age, and they mainly use it to play games. Nintendo kept resisting to the idea that the way people play games is changing, until this year.

As my peer Jason Tse stated in his blog, I also think that Nintendo has finally realized that they now have to expand into the app market. The company has been resisting to move away from the games on consoles, but after they saw the huge impact that Pokémon Go had, they announced they’re launching their first game for smartphones in December 2016: Super Mario Run.

Super Mario Run
http://i.blogs.es/930613/super-mario-run/original.jpg

From my point of view, this is a really smart move from Nintendo. First, because kids grow with games that they can play on their tablets. If Nintendo develops apps that all these children can play, they will position the brand in early ages. This would eventually lead these customers to buy a Nintendo console in later years. Also, the company has thousands of customers that grew playing Nintendo games, like myself. It would be really easy for all these people to relate the apps with the original games and, therefore, download the games.

Baby playing with a tablet
http://omgcutethings.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/04/babyipad.jpg

However, going into the mobile market has some negative consequences. I think the most important one is the decrease in console sales. If Nintendo starts launching a bunch of apps with its iconic games, people will prefer to download the app version rather than to buy both the console and the game.

We can either see this issue as a problem or as an opportunity. In Nintendo’s earnings report for September 2016, we can see a decline in one of its console sales (53% decrease). In general, the console sales worldwide have been falling and I think it’s due to the fact that now people play on their phones. Nintendo could start developing apps and sell them instead of giving them for free. This way, they could reach a higher volume of sales; and more consumers would buy the app because it’ll be cheaper than buying the consoles.

Nintendo has to decide whether it’ll continue with the same strategy, or change it. The market will keep changing, and one must be willing to fight all these changes in order to stay in the game.

Word count: 434

Sources

The Comeback of Nintendo?

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/171587/20160727/nintendo-suffers-major-predictable-q1-loss-wii-u-3ds-sales.htm

http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/ries-trout/positioning/

When we think about Tesla Motors, we all think about a company that produces high-end electric cars. But back in 2015, Tesla came out with a whole new product. This new idea was completely different from what we have seen from the company. Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, announced the Powerwall. This is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that stores electricity for domestic consumption, load shifting, and backup power. This product can save up to 20% of the electrical bill, and it seems very attractive to many people already.

After the Powerwall launch, Sonnen, a German battery company, decided to compete with Tesla and started producing the eco-compact. This is a lithium-iron-phosphate battery that homeowners can buy for self-consumption, similar to Tesla’s product.

Telsa won the mind of the customers because they were first in presenting this new product. Sonnen wanted to start competing with the Powerwall, but their product came one year later than Tesla’s battery. This gives Tesla a huge advantage to be the leader in this specific product category: the home batteries that make consumption more efficient. In the other hand, I think Tesla Motors is starting to get limited by its name. We all identify Telsa with these revolutionary electric cars, but now that they’re developing new products and entering new markets, they have to start thinking about a name change. This new name has to be broader than the first one. But it’s not a huge change, it’s changing from Tesla Motors to just Tesla. This change gives the company the opportunity to expand to new markets without being narrowed to just electric-engine cars.

Regarding Sonner, I think they spent too much time designing this new battery that they fell into the follower’s place. They now have to think about a way they can claim a position in the customer’s mind. This competition will create a new battle for the customer’s mind.

We’ve all heard about UPS, the world’s largest package delivery company. On an average day, they deliver around 15.8 million packages to their customers; and according to the UPS Fact Sheet, the global logistics company owns almost 100,000 gasoline vehicles. This has a huge environmental impact, but the people inside UPS realized this problem and are now trying to reduce their carbon footprint. UPS’s Sustainability Strategy consist in reducing the emissions by using alternative fuel vehicles in their delivery process. The goal is to decrease 20% of the carbon emissions by 2020. Nowadays, the company is testing new means of transport, from hybrid and electric trucks to electrically assisted tricycles, in real life situations. 7,000 alternative fuel vehicles are now part of the big fleet.

UPS’s Sustainability Strategy consist in reducing the emissions by using alternative fuel vehicles in their delivery process. The goal is to decrease 20% of the carbon emissions by 2020. Nowadays, the company is testing new means of transport, from hybrid and electric trucks to electrically assisted tricycles, in real life situations. This is what they call the “Rolling Laboratory”. Also, 7,000 alternative fuel vehicles are now part of the big fleet.

UPS Rolling Laboratory Infographic  https://sustainability.ups.com/media/UPS_Rolling_Lab.pdf

Although UPS is the biggest logistics company in the world, it keeps working on ways to stand out in the market. They’re constantly thinking on how to overcome the challenges in an innovative way. Some cities, such as Hamburg, are banning the use of large trucks in the city center in order to reduce the emissions. UPS saw this as an opportunity to develop a new vehicle to deliver the packages: the electrically assisted tricycle. This creates a better value proposition for the customers because it’s a way to reach every single person that needs the service in a more efficient way. The creation of this service not only adds value to the company but makes it different, in a good manner, from all the competitors. Also, it shows that the company’s objective goes beyond maximizing profits. By creating the Sustainability Strategy, they demonstrate that they care about the environment and that it’s possible to work on improving the service while taking care of the social responsibility aspect.

UPS CEO David Abney pedaling an electric-assist Cargo Cruiser http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtnNHr3XgAAUZQJ.jpg

UPS is a great example of a company that can combine the different aspects of a business in an effective way. Social responsibility, differentiation strategy, improving the value proposition for customers. It is the adequate combination of many factors what makes a company better than the others, and this is why UPS keeps being the leader of logistics in the world.

Word count: 417

http://www.citylab.com/work/2012/12/how-ups-delivers-millions-more-fedex/4226/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2016/09/30/ups-employs-vast-rolling-laboratory-to-discover-clean-truck-of-the-future/#2b9b784d1f31

https://pressroom.ups.com/pressroom/ContentDetailsViewer.page?ConceptType=FactSheets&id=1426321563187-193

http://thenewlogistics.ups.com/sustainable-business/corporate-sustainability/

https://sustainability.ups.com/committed-to-more/fuels-and-fleets/#ground-fleet

What comes to your mind whenever you hear the words “Business Ethics”?  You may think about a company that pays taxes, or about the owner of a business who always gives a fair payment to the employees. The thing is we all think about about a business entity, whether is a person or a company, doing the right thing.

In a few weeks, the iPhone 7 will be available for every person in the world. Lots of people are excited about this great new, but some of us are questioning ourselves whether Apple is doing the right thing or not. So, what is the thing that’s making us feel this way? Over the years, Apple has been releasing some fantastic products: the iPhone, the iPad, the iMac. But the past few years it seems that they just ran out of ideas. But that’s not the thing that has made us feel this way. This thing I’m talking about is the fact that every device becomes obsolete in two or three years after we buy it. I used to have an iPhone 4 a few years ago and, when the iPhone 5 came out, I found out my phone wasn’t compatible with chargers, cases, speakers, and Apps anymore. So I bought the new one, naively thinking it would not happen the same thing with this phone.

I know I’m not the only one who has been through a situation like this, in fact many of us face this situation over and over again. But this year, Apple made it obvious for all the world that they’re constantly working on making their products obsolete. There was no clear innovation in the iPhone 7. With the removal of the plug-and-jack system, they just told the world that they want everyone to buy an adapter, or buy the new headphones. In other words, Apple demonstrated that the company cares more about making money than it cares about its customers. And there’s also an important environmental problem. By making the products obsolete, they incentivize the generation of electronic garbage, which continues to damage our environment in many ways. So when we talk about Business Ethics, we said it was about doing the right thing. Well, I think Apple’s business model is showing us that they don’t care much about doing the right thing. In fact, they’re  more concerned about how are they going to make the next product obsolete.

400 words