The day after Donald Trump’s election victory, the footwear company New Balance encountered a postelection backlash. Its Vice President for communications, Matt LeBretton, remarked on Trump’s victory that “we feel things are going to move in the right direction” in an interview with a Wall Street Journal reporter, Sara Germano, who published them on Twitter.

Customers reacted furiously to this comment and social media were soon awash with videos of New Balance shoes being destroyed. The company responded swiftly to this issue and attempted to cool things down by claiming that the comment was taken out of context.

Unlike other social media crisis such as the time when Toyota had to recall faulty auto parts, there is no such actual thing that New Balance could fix this time. The company was in a particularly tough position because it was aligned was a bad public image and the backlash was caused by people’s interpretation, rather than concrete facts.

New Balance then did not respond to media’s request for interviews, which is the correct move in this case. However, it tweeted on the day after, saying it welcomed “all walks of life”.

But how could you expect the angry public to trust on it when they are in the middle of the fury? Whatever it says at the moment might be subject to people’s misinterpretation and will only worsen the situation. Dealing with this kind of social media crisis, New Balance should have a plan in place, keep silent till the storm is over and then make any clarification or apology it wants.

As of June 2016, Instagram had reached 500 million monthly active users. Different from Facebook or Twitter, Instagram offers a unique place for people to browse aesthetically appealing images and has become a sweet platform for businesses to place less invasive ads. As more businesses are using Instagram to reach its target audience, here are 3 trends I observed that will help businesses grow its audience and engagement.

1. Commonality and themes

When I am deciding whether to follow an account on Instagram, one key criterion is whether it follows a consistent style throughout the entire feed. This is a universal rule for businesses, photographers, bloggers, etc. You need to be consistent in at least one aspect (e.g. colour scheme, content, or unique style) which makes you really stand out from others, and users will know what they can expect in future posts if they follow your account. For example, the Cross Decor & Design uses bright, low saturated colours in all its photos that are visually appealing that make me want to visit the store right now.

2. Using Instagram as a business site

The ultimate goal for businesses is to turn your social media followers into customers, and you would want to facilitate the purchasing process as much as you can. Most of the e-commerce brands attach a link to their websites in the bio and mention “Link in the bio” in their every single post so that users can be easily directed to the right place when they see something interesting in the post. Another rising trend in the fashion industry is the use of LiketoKnow or LiketoBuy services. Rather than tagging the brand or product name in the post,  the way LiketoKnowit works is that after you hit the like button on a post, you will receive an email with a full list of the products that the model/influencer is wearing in the photo and a link to where to buy them. Not only will you be able to track where the customers hear about you, the service just makes everything as easy as adding a product to the shopping cart.

See how the local brunch place, Catch 122, is getting creative by utilizing Instagram as an online menu?

3. Build a community and show your brand’s value

Instagram users are just a great pool of talent and produce numerous high-quality content that you can draw from. When deciding what to post on your Instagram account, think about what value you are providing to your customers and who you want to engage with. Is it a healthy-eating lifestyle, or minimalistic design style? Sharing your company values with the customers by building a community rather than aiming to directly convert them. Daniel Wellington does an awesome job by generating all its content from users and rewarding them by giving them credit. It only picks the photos that match the style of the brand and shows you what life is with a Daniel Wellington.

Blog Link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/worifah/2013/11/18/snapchat-how-quickly-you-have-grown/

Eugene Worifah addressed Snapchat’s rise from obscurity to a rubbing shoulders with heavy weights such as Facebook and twitter. Facebook is currently willing to purchase Snapchat in a multi billion dollar but the founders of snap chat are intend on seeing just how far they can the app idea they developed as Stanford undergrads during an engineering class. Eugene Thinks that snap chat is at the mercy of any new entrant with an original idea due to the fact that Snapchat has little room for innovation however I disagree.

I believe snapchat’s grip on the short sequence video interaction is so strong and innovative that it will take something revolutionary to topple it. Snapchat has a patent; “Single mode media visual capture,” which means that snapchat’s element of mystery and naughtiness will not be able to be easily replicated. I believe that though the simplicity of snapchat leaves it with very little room for improvement, it’s core concept is strong enough to remain fresh and intriguing to the youth of the world for a long time to come.

Blog Link: https://blogs.ubc.ca/amalhatmi/2013/11/13/shopping-straight-out-of-the-fitting-rooms-hms-answers-to-the-cumbersome-shopping-experience/

In this blog, Amal analyzed how the tactic came up and how this new shopping experience is able to encourage and stimulate purchasing from her experience as a customer, which is very true. Most customers of H&M receive medium to low level income and would probably prefer a shopping pattern like fast food — cheap and instant.  No one likes waiting in slow lines and for the sellers, long waiting line means higher chance to lose customers. What I appreciate Amal’s post most is that she pointed out something deeper than this — the new till system also encourages impulse shopping. Obviously dressing-room checkouts can significantly cut down customer’s time of hesitating, which targets a whole segment of customers who do not want to make shopping a time-consuming activity.

As a fashion store counting on high volume sales, H&M’s new check-out system, although might encounter some problems in the first few weeks, will definitely help H&M keep up with this fast-pacing time and serve a larger amount of customer with positive feedbacks.

Micah Solomon: Four Seasons’ Customer Service: Consulting The Systems Behind The Click Of A Hotel Door

We probably all had unsatisfying experience in some inferior hotels — noise of air-conditioners, not sound-proof wall, sleepy bathtub, etc. Even though those hotels sometimes charge quite a lot of money, we can always find reasons to complain about its customer services. The reason why Four Seasons could successfully build customer service culture and become the premier luxury hotel is that they have answered and exercised three fundamental questions: Why? How? And What?

According to Simon Sinek’s “golden circle”, the question “why” is basically the company’s vision, which is usually missed in other companies. In the case of Four Seasons, they believe they can perfect the travel experience and emotionally engage the customers. Four Seasons answers the question “how” by offering only experiences of exceptional quality and by looking at, hearing, and feeling their business the way a customer does. That “click” is a functional sound that creates an emotion of wellbeing. This hotel succeed when every decision is based on a clear understanding of and belief in what they do, while in most cases other relatively inferior hotels are simply delivering their products and services.

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Other Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2013/09/01/four-seasons-hotels-building-a-hospitality-service-culture-without-starting-from-scratch/

http://www.fourseasons.com/about_four_seasons/service-culture/

http://dalethoughts.com/2012/01/why-how-what-a-brilliant-model-for-success/

Recently, I read an article named “Why Instagram Might Be The Best Internet Acquisition Ever” written by Eric Jackson on forbes.com. In this post, he argued that even though Facebook’s future is by no means guaranteed by acquiring Instagram, this photo sharing platform is the best Internet acquisition ever.

I personally agree with the author. Some might oppose that 55m photos are shared a day on Instagram while 350m and 400m a day are also shared on Snapchat and Whatsapp respectively. Since Instagram is not the hottest photo app, Facebook should not buy it unless Facebook is going to buy Whatsapp, Snapchat and the next ten as well. However, I don’t think   (# photo shared)/day is a reasonably metric, considering that apps like Line are more of a 1:1 photo sharing service whereas Instagram mainly aims at public sharing.

Furthermore, photos are on Instagram have greater commercial value than others. Advertisements on Instagram are put in forms of fancy pictures and short videos, being better blended in it and thus resulting in surprising effect. Facebook that is facing the problem losing more and more active users, especially the youth, urgently needs a new product to maintain its customer base and explore a larger market. The acquisition of Instagram expands Facebook’s revenue stream, adds to its profitability and consequently makes it probably the best acquisition.

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Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2013/11/12/why-instagram-might-be-the-best-internet-acquisition-ever/2/

http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2013/11/10/instagram-and-youtube

http://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/11/05/did-instagram-sell-too-early/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/10/03/instagram-launches-ads-promises-well-start-slow/

On November 11 (known as Single’s Day in China), the total volume of merchandise handled by Taobao and Tmall, the Alibaba’s two main shopping sites, topped 35 billion yuan ($6 billion). This day became a shopping day five years ago when many online shop offered bargain on Taobao and Tmall.

It’s a win-win for both buyers and sellers. The merchants on Taobao and Tmall are able to sell a considerable amount of goods on that day and Alibaba receives huge profits from this for the merchants pay Alibaba when every single transaction is made. Consumers, on the other hand, take this chance to probably stock up for the following whole year.

Even though the price is lower, consumer surplus and producer surplus both increase, considering that people might not even think about buying certain goods at their original prices. It’s a successful tactic for Alibaba because it gives an incentive to purchase and create an environment where people are willing to spend money.

SWOT Analysis for Alibaba

Strengths:

– advanced search tool, providing recommendations based on purchase history and view history

– own payment system, Alipay, which uses an escrow system to ensure payment security

– a gigantic marketplace with seven million merchants and 800 million item listings

– creative idea of promotion

– low prices

– a broad range of goods, wide selections

– relatively easy entry and exit for merchants

– overseas dealing system

Weaknesses:

– customers cannot see the goods with their own eyes or try the goods

– customers have to pay for shipping fees

– no examinations for sellers, hard to manage the reputation of the large amount of merchants

– sellers need ads to stand out in the crowd, which raises costs and thus prices

Opportunities:

– large marketplace in China

– increase demand for e-commerce

– overseas market needs exploiting

Threats:

– strong competitors such as Beijing Jingdong with it’s own delivery service

– might be hit by economic crisis

Pirate Joe’s is an popular (yet unauthorized) re-seller of Trader Joe’s products. It is recently sued by Trader Joe’s for trademark infringement, unfair competition, false designation of origin, and false advertising. But why would Trader Joe’s ever be suing one of their best customers?

Apart from food safety and competition, Trader Joe’s real concern is about their trademarks — customers might be confused whether PJ is affiliated to TJ and might feel mad when they’re being charged a few more bucks for TJ’s products.

However, since the store appearance of PJ is totally different from that of TJ and PJ is using “pirate” in its name, customers are not very likely to mistake the two stores. As a matter of fact, it is a sweet deal for TJ because TJ now is able to sell a lot of its product in a market where it would otherwise sell nothing, given the fact that there’s no TJ in Canada currently.

“We’d prefer it if they just opened in Vancouver, put everybody out of their misery,” Hallatt, PJ’s owner, said. According to Hallatt, PJ is only stocking what TJ lovers want and what they cannot get in Canada, making some profits that could just cover the cost of transportation and helps.

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Sources:

http://www.piratejoes.ca

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/10/04/trader-joes-loses-lawsuit-michael-hallatt-pirate-joes_n_4041755.html

Stung by all the problems with its new 787 Dreamliner over the past decade, Boeing waited too long to start updating its larger 777 jets, giving Airbus an opening to break into the Japanese market that Boeing had dominated for decades, aviation analysts said Monday. (NY Times)

Problems Boeing is now facing:

– 777X lost its differentiation advantage
– European companies announced a big order from Japan Airlines for A350 wide-body jets
– Two longtime Boeing customers order Airbus planes
– Relationships with an investing country is threatened

Basis of Presentation:
-consolidated financial statements
-involves estimates and assumptions
-use the equity method
-eliminate all significant inter company transactions

Principles of Consolidation:
-consolidates all entities that they control

Assets and Liabilities Held for Sale
-classifies long-lived assets to be sold as held for sale (if criteria are met)
-any loss resulting from this measurement is recognized
-gains are not recognized until the date of sale

Risks and Uncertainties
(a long list of variables noted here may be useful for other case studies)
-try to minimize the impact

Revenue Recognition
-recognized when title to products is transferred to bottling partners, resellers or other customers

Deduction from Revenue
-incentives to customers –> costs–> deductions from revenue (net operating revenues)

Advertising Costs
-count advertisement cost as of the first date the advertisements take place
-all other marketing expenditures: in the annual period in which the expenditure is incurred
-for interim reporting: allocate expenditures proportionally

Shipping and Handling Costs
-are included in the line item cost of goods

Net Income Per Share
-weighted average number

Cash Equivalents
-classify highly liquid investments as cash equivalents(0-3 months)

Short-Term Investments
-investments(3-12 months)

Investments in Equity and Debt Secuirities
-equity method

Trade Accounts Receivable
-record it at net realizable value

Inventories
-valued at the lower of cost or market

Derivative Instruments
-risk management tool

Property, Plant and Equipment
-stated at cost
depreciation recorded by the straight-line method

Goodwill, Trademarks and Other Intangible Assets
-intangible assets: 1.with definite lives subject to amortization 2.indefinite lives not subject to amortization 3. goodwill

Contingencies
-legal proceedings and tax matters
-a liability

Stock-Based Compensation
-Black-Scholes_merton option-pricing model
-on a straight-line basis(?)

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Source:
Notes To Consolidated Financial Statements
2012 Annual Report – The Coca Cola Company
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/annual-review/2012/pdf/form_10K_2012.pdf