Monthly Archives: October 2014

Link of the news article:Cashless Buying Poses Financial Risks for Those Without Self-Control

Still worrying about leaving your wallet at home and realize it when making a payment? We have several new payment methods coming out now, which provide more convenience through some useful apps on smartphone used to make payment more easily. However, before we adopt these payment methods in our life and enjoy the convenience they offer, there are still some problems for us to consider.

There is no doubt that the popular cashless payment systems such as ERPLY  and TabbedOut make the payment process a breeze and reduce the possibility of losing the wallets and plastic cards, potential risks still exist during the payment process without considering about the budget. By promoting rewards and pushing advertisement on customers’ payment account, retailers thereby attracting more consumers to encourage more transactions on the account. Simultaneously, problem arises because it’s harder for customers to track their expense when enjoying the efficiency and convenience the digital tools are bringing them.  Thus, improvement should be carried out to make up for the potential risks. Except for simply defining the problems by translating decision problems into research problems, more potential problems which would most likely arise without recognition should be figured out. In other words, it is important to break out the limitation of problems definition in marketing research. Furthermore, it would be advantageous to roll out certain systems which would facilitate the management of the online bank account linked to the cashless payment systems.

Information about some useful mobile payment systems:Mobile Payment Systems

Work Cited:

 Friend, David. “Cashless Buying Poses Financial Risk for Those without Self-control.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 24 Oct. 2014. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.

Lee, Singyin. “Mobile Payment Systems: The Era Of A Cashless Future.” Hongkiatcom RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2014.

First Nations are set to declare their natural land as tribal park and New Prosperity mine. Questions exist that are any risks behind the declaration of tribal park and is it beneficial or harmful for the future. Generally speaking, it’s a beneficial plan to develop partnership with First Nations if the plan is conducted in the light of First Nations natural environment, heritage, natives right and so forth. It should be a two-way inter-governmental activities based on protection of aboriginal land and listening to the natives’ wish in order to obtain a long-term benefit for both side.

Tsilhqot’in set to declare site of New Prosperity mine a tribal park

It’s become a life style that people make coffee at home with a convenient coffee machine. Keurig, the American coffee giant, provides customers with over 250 varieties of coffee^[1], tea and other beverages, promising customers a more enjoying way of life. Recently, Keurig has increased the price of its coffee product by 9 percent^[2], which is claimed as a artificially high price by an Ontario coffee roaster and grinder. As a coffee giant, Keurig is also facing a urgent environmental issue that the coffee pods are plastic so they produced a great amount of trash which flows into the waste stream after being used. Artificial high price and negative impact on the environment are the main factors that challenged by Keurig’s competitors which claims to have the same quality and generate less waste by using compostable materials for pods production.

It is believed that most customers still choose Keurig as their daily coffee brand regardless of the hiking price. Customers can find a variety of coffee blend specially designed for every single time with different degree of taste and aroma. Keurig can use glass or other compostable materials instead of plastic to produce the coffee pods in order to make them reusable and reduce waste.

Keurig coffee sued for $600M by Ontario-based Club Coffee

Works Cited:

[1]http://www.keurig.com/

[2]News, CBC. “Keurig Hikes Cost of K-Cups by 9%.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 14 Aug. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/keurig-hikes-cost-of-k-cups-by-9-1.2736431>

“Canada’s wireless networks are among the fastest and most reliable in the world,” said Telus president and CEO Joe Natale. People are willing to pay for fast wireless network because it provides efficiency to browse fresh news, post on facebook and chat with friends only by using a portable smartphone outside their home networks. The Competition Bureau claims to entice a new fourth wireless carrier to Canada in order to stimulate competition to reduce price. Several months before the news, Canada’s three big wireless carriers hiked the base price for their new smartphone plan by $5^[1], which means customers should pay more monthly when they think they are enjoying a ‘sweet’ lower cost for wireless networks even if they are BYOD’ing (Bring Your Own Device)^[2]. On top of that, customers’ feedback indicates that they receive worse service after price cutting. We need to think about if the stimulation of competition is necessary for the evolution of Canada’s wireless networks and what the price decrease brings to customers.

In my point of view, there is no need reducing the price if the quality of service decrease at the same time. Lower price can be one of the competitive advantage but wireless carriers should not merely focus on price competition, they should also improve service quality based on the low price. Efficient customers’ feedback mechanism should be established to track comments on the service so as to facilitate service improving constantly.

Works cited:

[1]News, CBC. “Wireless Carriers Hike Prices across Canada.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/wireless-carriers-hike-prices-across-canada-1.2575886>.

[2]“New Telus Plans: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” WordsByNowak. N.p., 16 July 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. <http://wordsbynowak.com/2013/07/16/telus-wireless-3/>.