Stella, a fellow classmate, has commented on The Globe and Mail’s “Twitter Conversation More Important than Blatant Advertising”. She has commented that in such digital age, comments on Twitter, Youtube, or Facebook about certain brands can make more of an impact than the advertisements the companies release.

As a person who readily uses Facebook and Youtube, I couldn’t agree with Stella and The Globe and Mail more that social media has now become such a large part of our lives that, if the brand fails to impress us on these media outlets, it fails the business.

With that said, I would also like to add that with social media, anyone can be an entrepreneur. “Beauty Gurus”, as Stella has pointed out, are now on YouTube reviewing cosmetics products. I’d like to add that, not only are they reviewing products, they’re also starting to create their own line, and promoting their brands on YouTube. A great example of this is beauty guru Michelle Phan. Michelle Phan started out on YouTube by giving makeup tutorials, and frequent reviews on what cosmetic brands she prefers to use. With now more than 7 million subscribers on YouTube, she launched her own line called “Em”.

What was interesting about her marketing strategy was that she used Emotional marketing to try and appeal to her subscribers. She made a 10 minute video in which she repeated reinforced that the brand name “Em” comes from the reflection of “Me” and that the “Me” was made by the subscribers’ support. She knows that YouTube provides a medium in which her and her subscribers (aka her customers) can relate in a very close and personal way. Hence, she used this to market her own product. Very smoothly too.

Both Stella and The Globe and Mail are right. Businesses now must understand Social Media to reach its target market.

Stella’s blog post can be found here.

“Small City Routes Hold Big Potential for India Airlines” by Reuters has reported that small cities in India, such as Patna has seen growing demand for airplanes as more people are now travelling.

One surprising point Reuters has made in this article is that airlines companies are now seeing more revenues coming from routes going to and from smaller cities than the typical  Mumbai-Delhi route. This reminded me of a previous article I read on Entrepreneur.com, about the barriers to entry of starting a new airlines. The article stated that although investors are very interested in starting new airline companies (because there is potential for huge revenues), it is also a very risky business as all the existing airlines dominate spots in airports of major cities. As a result, start up airlines companies can only look for opportunities to fly in smaller cities.

The Entrepreneur.com article made it seem as though it was a challenge/significant disadvantage to start up airlines. However in this article, I was able to gain new perspective that in a country such as India, the growing economy may give opportunities for companies to gain more profit in smaller cities. Since the middle class is growing in smaller cities such as Putna, flying in smaller cities is no longer a disadvantage for airlines companies. Rather, it is a great opportunity for them to expand their business further.

The India Airlines case was a very good example of how a perceived disadvantage can become an opportunity due to external changes.

The original article can be found here.