The smart meter program is in effect in the US and many places in Europe. BChydro have been implementing this program since 2011 too. The smart meter program claimed to reduce electricity consumption, increase efficiency and decrease cost. However, many household received a significantly more expensive bill.  Concerns on safety, security, privacy and the purpose are raised and consumers remain skeptical about the device. A coalition to stop smart meter and some concern group were brought up and conflicts between customer and BC hydro becomes imminent.

BC hydro’s smart meter team should focus more on its marketing strategy to promote a positive image of the meter. It should be emphasized that smart meter is a social responsibility of a global citizen as it decreases energy consumption. Transparency on meetings and public hearings should be held to clarify the functions and details of the smart meter. Concern groups should be invited to the decision-making process so that they would be more involved, thus more likely to identify with the smart meter.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-hydro-pulls-smart-meters-for-testing/article534384/

Smart Meter Complaints

http://www.bclocalnews.com/opinion/177533611.html

http://usuryfree.blogspot.ca/2012/01/smart-metre-issue.html

Source: https://blogs.ubc.ca/jeremyliang/2012/10/09/she-is-poor-enough-to-buy-a-lv/

LV Closes Paris Stores Early To Preserve Stock

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2012-06/05/content_15473458.htm

http://www.commercialappeal.com/photos/2010/aug/16/182257/

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/chinese-consumers-shun-louis-vuitton-and-gucci-for-being-too-common/story-fnb64oi6-1226490441221

I totally agree with you. Increased amount of forged LV bag is definitely a threat to the LV stores in China, a change of consumer taste preferences led to significant decrease in sales in its stores.

Forged LV bag is a major concern for luxury goods company. Conspicuous consumption goods like LV bags are associated with high purchasing power, however a forged one would destroy this relationship because it costs only 20 Canadian dollars. Entry and exit of the handbag forging industry is easy and the low price is its major points of difference. Barrier to entry is ignored as forging is illegal.

There are many causes of increase amount of forging handbags. An increase in average household income in China, the nature inclination to show off and save money are the main reasons. The supply could not catch up with huge demand might be a reason too.

Wal-Mart “Goodies” Subscription Service

I am not sure if it is an effective marketing strategy but it is definitely a strategy to get more demand information. Walmart would use the information and determine if it is going to get the product from suppliers.

The price of this program is relatively low and it would attract a lot of customers.

On the other hand, customers would lose their ability to choose what they want. They might get something that they do not like.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/take-a-tour-of-microsofts-first-store-in-canada/article5344584/?from=5353443

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/new-microsoft-retail-store-aims-to-establish-cool-stuff-factor/article5353443/

http://www.buyric.com/vancouver/directory/apple-store-coquitlam-centre-2829-barnet-hwy-coquitlam-bc/buyric-com-1517/

New Microsoft retail store aims to establish ‘cool stuff’ factor

The competition of a new industry, tablet, between Microsoft, Samsung and Apple has come to Canada. The first Microsoft retail store outside the US has opened in Toronto. Microsoft not only saw the growing market in Canada on customer purchase of their software and hardware, but also the long term benefits of opening a retail store as a tech firm. By opening retail stores in different countries, Microsoft would gain more public exposure with its new products. Customers can experience the new features and also use the social space in the back of the store.

The new store focuses on giving customer a hands-on feel of the products, to focus on its new product, the surface

Look at how similar the microsoft store and apple store are.

This new trend of tech firms opening retail stores is growing despite of the risk of increasing cost of the rent. These retail stores are less about sales but more on branding the company and its products.

IKEA regrets use of forced labour in East Germany

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/european-business/ikea-regrets-use-of-forced-labour-in-east-germany/article5363079/

IKEA knows that forced prison labour is unethical. “The use of political prisoners for manufacturing was at no point accepted by IKEA.” an IKEA manager said. But why had IKEA done it anyways? Cost minimization.

Every company wants to minimize their costs in a way that could maximize their profit. Back in the 70s and 80s in East Germany when it was a communist state, the use of forced prisoner labour was allowed and the work was arduous. Many prisoner suffered from physical and psychological impacts because of it. It is clearly immoral and against human rights.

Also, as mentioned, a reason why is that they had an inefficient control system to prevent prison labour.

Some more questions are raised. Why would IKEA apologize after more than two decades? What is the point of apologizing now? What are the benefits? The victims’ group UOKG has pressured companies to apologize  and managers in IKEA might think it is a right decision to apologise to raise its company’s image.

Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/gaming/gaming-news/call-of-dutys-500-million-day-sets-sales-records/article5364698/

http://gamerfitnation.com/2012/09/halo-4-and-call-of-duty-black-ops-2-multiplayer-preview/

Call of duty Black Ops 2, a shooting video-game published by Activision Blizzard, has released a couple days ago and had a $500 million sales in the first 24 hours. The new record brings the company’s share up by 5%. Meanwhile, Halo 2 by Microsoft had only $220 Million in its first day.

Competition in the video-gaming industry is really high as there are many firms in the market. Entry and Exit barriers are low because technology required is common. The low margin cost attracts many new incomers however small gaming firms are hard to remain profitable in the long run. Threat of substitutes is high as buyers has many options to choose from, from Wii to Xbox to substutites like league of legends.

The article also brings up a concern about the slight declination of video-gaming industry as many users has migrated to tablets and smartphone gaming. Video-gaming companies like Activision Blizzard and Microsoft will have to come up with strategies to deal with this issue.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17479818

Hermes, as we all know, is a French multinational luxury goods company. According to Porter’s Generic Strategies, Hermes is adopting a differentiation strategy. The unique, highly delicate handbags are valued by customers as they are different or better than other handbags. The highly-priced products will more than cover its cost (at least more than 20 times!!) and generate immense profit.

Hermes is family controlled and therefore, their business ethnics and attitude to product quality is consistent. Reputation for the brand is high too.

As developing countries have high demand for Hermes bags due to an average increase in income, Hermes is even planning build two new leather factories in France. Its profit has increased immensely.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19879861

http://www.inquisitr.com/283653/beats-audio-bought-back-shares-after-htc-failed-to-meet-contractual-obligations/

http://www.slashgear.com/htc-revenue-dives-30-as-phones-fail-to-impress-06200223/

As Apple and Samsung are fighting over the phone market, minor phone companies that were not able to keep up with the technology trend like HTC, Nokia and Sony Ericsson are squeezed away from the market. 

Image from: http://www.cultofmac.com/186954/apple-samsung-trial-verdict-samsung-infringes-patents/

According to one of the articles, the profit of HTC, a Taiwanese mobile phone company, went from NT$18.68bn last year to NT$3.9bn this year. Comparing to Samsung and Apple, HTC’s smartphones have nothing in difference, that is, no points of difference to impress customers.

The Beats Audio has bought back their shares from HTC because HTC has failed to financially support it, this means buying a HTC phone no longer comes with a pair of beats headphones.

People complained that all HTC phones has similar design and shape. Their technology is not able to keep up with the monopolies, bad camera, so-so screen and heavy. People no longer think HTC is cool and therefore, its profit plunged.

Source: http://www.economist.com/node/21564344

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2182806/Facebook-share-price-hits-time-LOW-revealing-83million-FAKE-accounts.html

http://www.care2.com/causes/facebook-stock-fall-to-almost-half-the-original-price.html

Facebook is definitely one of the top innovations in the 21st century. Facebook is a unique company, it does not work like Lululemon, Starbucks, Walmart or Channel, it is a social networking website that first came into market in 2007, containing billions of users now. Facebook’s earnings are mostly from advertising. With an enormous user base all over the world, Facebook serves as a perfect platform for advertisements  Advertisers can easily identity target groups by looking at their interests, age, gender, job, education, culture, e.t.c-way more effective than advertising by email/mail. These points of difference made Facebook stand out from other social-networking website like Mingo and Myspace.

“SINCE its stockmarket flotation in America earlier this year, Facebook has seen its share price plunge as sceptical investors have dumped its stock.” Facebook’s share prince has been dropping since it lanched IPO, from the intial 38 to 20.4 today, the causes of this fall are more or less about Facebook’s failure to generate ad revenue and the fact that it has more than 83 million fake accounts.

Facebook should find new ways to generate revenue such as setting up its official online stores to provide a convenient environment for consumers and designing signature tangible products that make its company and the society more connected.

Source:

1. http://www.tinyspark.org/podcasts/toms-shoes/

2. http://www.toms.ca/

“With every pair you purchase, TOMs will give a new pair of shoes to a child in need. One for one.” I must say the marketing strategy of TOMS shoes is remarkably effective. Having good business ethics reflects a company’s philosophy. By using the one for one strategy, customer satisfaction is raised because customers feel like they have done a good job for the world and therefore demand goes up.

However, the article brings out the major ethical issue of TOMS shoes, that is, is giving children free shoes is best solution to get them out of poverty? Not really, but anyways, it is still a humanistic approach to help the poor. Some people just do not care if TOMS has increased its profit by making use of charity, as long as helping others make them happier.