A new study has found that people with ‘foreign-sounding names’ are passed over more often than people with English-sounding names by recruiters, even if both candidates have the same level of job experience and same degree. The reason for this may be subconscious discrimination. When recruiters see a foreign name, they may worry that the candidate may not have the social and lingual skills required for the job.

What's in a name? Perhaps another name would sound sweeter

The study found that resumes with English-sounding names were forty percent more likely to get callbacks, compared to resumes with Chinese, Indian, or Greek names, even though all prospective ‘candidates’ had the same level of education and experience, over a range of professional fields.

In Canada, we advertise our ‘multicultural society’ as a benefit to skilled immigrants in search of a better life and job, that they will be accepted and treated like an average Canadian citizen no matter what ethnicity. However, if skilled immigrants cannot find jobs because of their name, that is an inherent contradiction of that belief and raises interesting questions about bias and prejudice in the recruiting process and HR hiring practices.

Alice Cheung writes that Google has decided to challenge Facebook in its social network dominance, releasing its new social sharing platform, Google+.

Google+...

Google+ has all the features of Facebook, but tweaked so they’re a little shinier and more user-friendly. It also has the advantage of having a ‘new video-calling feature in tandem with Skype’, and has incorporated elements of other social media sites, like Twitter, into its interface. Alice writes that Google’s decision to limit Google+ invitations to a ‘select few’ piqued interest in the project, and perhaps once Google+ gets all its kinks ironed out, it might be able to surpass Facebook.

...or Facebook?

I signed up for a Google+ account in order to video-call my friends in other provinces and had to wrangle an invitation from a friend of a friend. Google+ definitely has more features than Facebook. However, I find Facebook more accessible, and it’s easier to find people on Facebook. Everyone I know only uses Google+ for its video-call function. They use Facebook for their other social sharing needs. From my point of view, Google+ is nowhere near overtaking Facebook, but in the future perhaps we’ll all be in ‘hangouts’ with each other, rather than Facebooking everyone.

In The Small Business Blog, Adrian Swinscoe writes that inbound marketing is now the way to go.  What is inbound marketing, you ask? How is it different from ‘old’ marketing? Inbound marketing is finding ways of ‘earning people’s trust instead of buying it‘. Old marketing, or outbound marketing, is ‘any marketing that pushes products or services onto customers‘, i.e. all those annoying tactics listed above. Take a look at this cool info-graphic at Mashable that illustrates these concepts.

Case in point: those awesome Old Spice commercials. We all watched them because they were hilarious and frankly, Old Spice Guy has nice abs. ‘Aha!’ you say. ‘But they’re television ads, so aren’t they outbound marketing?’

No. The smart folks at Old Spice figured out they could use social media to their advantage, and asked its followers to send questions for Old Spice Guy to respond to. Old Spice kept its audience entertained and involved. These commercials were interesting and interested in its audience, and they worked, with total of more than 70 million views. I know I’d watch Old Spice Guy over a boring TV advertorial any day.

HMV’s flagship Robson storefront is closing down. Nicole Dee writes that it will be downsizing to a space 80 to 90 percent smaller, as a result of the increasing digitization of the entertainment industry.

HMV Robson's soon-to-be-vacant space; Photo Credit: punkrawker4783 on Flickr

I agree that it has been quite surprising that HMV on Robson is only now closing down. Perhaps HMV thought that it would be able to keep up sales despite the increasing number of consumers who opt for iTunes rather than CDs. Or it didn’t have the foresight that this would happen, which is hard to believe given that the digital market for music has been long established and is continuing to grow rapidly. Record stores are largely going the route bookstores have been taking. There isn’t anything quite like turning the pages of a book or listening to a CD, but the convenience, usability and the potential of e-readers and Mp3 players have won over consumers.

I visited the HMV store this past weekend, and it was sad to see a downtown fixture closing forever. However, I think we can all agree that record stores, like bookstores, Justin Bieber, and a stable European economy, are soon all going to be a thing of the past.

Kath Eats Real Food (KERF) is a ‘healthy living blog’ written by Kath Younger, a RD, who owns a Great Harvest bakery in Charlotte with her husband. KERF details Younger’s meals, recipes, events, and various other things happening in her life every day.

Great Harvest Charlotte storefront (Photo by Kath Younger)

KERF’s main aim is not promoting the bakery, but it is a major part of Younger’s life. Items (sandwiches, sweets, breads) from the bakery often show up in blog posts. Great Harvest is a bakery that touts its use of healthy, natural ingredients to make baked goods. KERF is a blog that emphasizes eating real, unprocessed foods and living a fulfilling life.

In our last class, while talking about Naked Boxer Briefs, Joel Primus said something along the lines of ‘you’re not selling a product; you’re selling a lifestyle.’ Looking at major companies who have pioneered their fields, it is true. Take Apple, Coke, Lululemon et al. KERF is using the same idea. It may be a stretch to call Younger a pioneer in her field, but it does illustrate the fact that successful entrepreneurs aren’t just selling a product. By ‘advertising’ Great Harvest on her blog, Younger is selling her lifestyle through her bread.

Divine Chocolate Ltd. (Divine) is a British chocolate company created in 1992 that manufactures and sells fair-trade chocolate products. What makes Divine unique from Green & Black’s or Cadbury’s is that it’s not a major corporation; the farmers who produce the cacao own it themselves!

Divine was one of the first fair-trade chocolate bars that could compete with the major brands. Fair-trade was a niche market when Divine was first conceptualized, but the farmers and leaders of Kuapa Kokoo decided that they wanted to reach a larger market. Instead of going through existing middlemen, Kuapa Kokoo decided to form their own manufacturing company. This guaranteed the farmers would be getting a fair share of the profit. Divine carved a new entrepreneurial path, deciding not to be limited by the existing resources that were available to them.

Divine has recognized and exploited opportunities, expanding its product line and creating marketing campaigns that educate people about fair-trade and encourage consumers to support fair-trade companies. It continues to support Kuapa Kokoo, ensuring that the farmers have a say in the direction of the company and continuing to embody the ideals of a social entrepreneur.

If you ate a Hershey’s bar this Halloween, chances are it was made with cacao from a plantation that uses forced and child labour.

He might have made the chocolate in your Halloween treat this year

This might be surprising, since Hershey’s touts its contributions to children’s causes around the world. Hershey’s even mentions ‘commitment… to children’ in its mission statement. It has been proven that identifying suppliers and committing to certified cacao (‘fair-trade’ cacao) is one of the best tools for eliminating forced labour on plantations. However, not only is Hershey’s the biggest chocolate maker that isn’t transparent about its suppliers; Hershey’s doesn’t even have policies to ensure that its cacao isn’t made with ‘forced, trafficked, or child labor’.

Hershey’s isn’t the only example of companies lying or being hypocritical about their sustainability and CSR claims; it’s a practice called ‘green-washing’ that has risen up in the face of renewed calls for better corporate practices. Basically, companies are making false claims in a bid to win market share and consumer sentiment.

Sustainability and CSR is all good and well, but if companies are lying about it and consumer choices are being made on these claims, consumers deserve to know the real dirt and not the green-washed ‘truth’.