Energy Aware

During a UBC lecture, I had the opportunity to hear the owner of Energy Aware; Janice Cheam, talk about her entrepreneurial efforts to create her company and what her company provides. The company is focussed on making and selling “Power Tabs” so that consumers can see how much energy they are using and how much it’s costing them.  This promotes less usage because you can actually see the energy consumption and price go down when you turn off appliances.  The fact that energy companies are buying this product, which will reduce profits but stabilize the current problem of demand surplus, made me think about the recent focus on environmentally friendly options.  We have a much broader knowledge than ever before of what will happen to the planet if we continue to use unsustainable methods for energy.  It is important to consumers and companies have begun to pick up on that.  It is now being used as a differentiation factor for companies products.  The brand Scott, for example, is using 60% recycled materials for its paper products.  This creates a differentiation from other companies and encourages consumers to buy the green product.  Advertising is starting to favour environmentally friendly aspects of products.

Consumer brand recognition is an incredibly important aspect of marketing for a company.  This creates consumer awareness, making the consumer more likely to choose a brand name that they know and that has a good reputation.  Brands that dominate in that field in North America are Kleenex and Band-Aid, and in England, there is Hoover.  These are not products, they are brands of tissue paper, bandages and vacuums, respectively.  I always thought that this could only be positive thing for a company and yield positive results, but after reading another blog post written by Lara Hon, I have realized that this is not always the case.  The brand name can get lost as the all-ecompassing product.  People no longer think to buy Kleenex brand, when they say that they are going to buy Kleenex.  They mean that they are going to buy tissues, without a specific brand in mind.  The blog mentions how Band-Aid is trying to get their brand name back by advertising their brand as Band-Aid Brand, rather than just Band-Aid.  A company has to make sure that it is differentiating its brand from the product type and also other brands that make the same product in order to entice consumers to choose its brand when purchasing said product.

Kleenex, Band-Aid

Kiva Picture

The company Kiva, which offers micro-loans to those in need, has a demand surplus.  This concept may seem strange because the idea behind Kiva is to help those in need by lending small portions of money.  Normally, people have a hard time finding loans when they need them and with Kiva, somehow too many people want to loan money.  The idea of micro-loaning has become so popular that Kiva has had to limit the amount of money people can loan.  People can now only lend $25 per “borrower.”  This company, a social entrepreneurship, has had success that any company would would want.  Companies normally start up a business with the main goal to make a profit rather than with a social mission.  This was not the case with Kiva, it began with the vision of little contributions making a huge difference in people’s lives that need loans to get back on their feet.  This is much different than philanthropy.  Money is not simply thrown at a problem to be fixed.  Kiva gives people the means to help and find a sustainable solution and shows that businesses can be non-profit and set up to make change and not the stereotypical, unmoral business that cares of nothing more than making a profit.

An important part of starting up a business, is how to differentiates from competitors and give consumers a unique product.  One way to accomplish this is to define your business’s niche market.  Another blog, talks about how to find a niche while not limiting yourself from potential customers.  I think this is extremely important because, as difficult it is to differentiate yourself as a company, it can also be a hindrance by excluding potential buyers.  It is best to focus on who is being targeted in the market but not forget about others who could help to expand your business when coming up with a marketing plan.  For example, as stated in another blog, many companies start out a niche market company and then when they grow, they expand to complimentary products and services. The Forzani Group started in 1974 as one store in Calgary in a niche market of selling running shoes and clothing because at the time, these stores simply did not exist.  Since then, the company eventually expanded into other sporting goods, such as skis, hockey equipment, etc.  Currently it is the largest national sporting good retail chain in Canada and was recently bought by Canadian Tire.

Apple Inc, frustrated with Google Android phones imitating their IPhones, have dropped Google Maps as the default mapping program.  Apple Inc. has decided to make design their own.  This seems like a great idea to decrease dependency on Google.  In a recent article in The Globe and Mail, Apple’s new mapping service has several major errors.  The Eiffel tower looked like a pancake, the Statue of Liberty was missing and there were many other glitches.  This is a big change for consumers as they are used to IPhones having dependable maps. Trout and Ries would argue that Apple will never have a number one mapping system because they were not the first.  However, they would also argue that Android phones were also not the first and in that sense they cannot beat Apple.  The question is, how will IPhone users that make frequent use of the mapping functions react to this change? Evidently It isn’t a huge deterrence as this video shows.  This video shows that Apple, being the first to create the product, is still doing exceptionally well even when flaws are found.  When people think of touch-screen, smart phones they still think the IPhone.

The company Groupon Inc, has started up a mobile payment business.  This new sector is much like companies like Square Inc.  These companies were set up to swipe cards like  Visa, MasterCard and American Express online. People associate accessibility with Visa, family values with Mastercard and status with American Express.  But what do people think of when they think of Groupon? Generally Groupon has been used by consumers to save money through daily deals.  Now this is being heavily encouraged by Groupon’s new plan to charge restaurants and other businesses less if they use Groupon deals. Groupon is attempting to define their points of parity with Square Inc.  The article about Groupon  tells us that it is offering lower prices to swipe credit cards.  This is something that is easy for Square Inc. just to copy again, so it isn’t a great value proposition, but because it charges different rates for each credit card company, it might influence the credit card companies demand. In this way, Groupon is indirectly advertising benefits for having one card over another.  Groupon charges 1.8% plus 15 cents for Mastercard and Visa, but for American Express it charges 3% plus 15 cents.  I think that this could have a significant effect on those who are looking into credit card companies or to change companies.  

The article found on this website: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/09/11/edmonton-oilsands-pollution-acid-rain-limits.html deals with the ethical issue of how oilsands are used in extracting oil and gas. The debate lies in the question of whether or not it is better to produce oil and gas cheaply, allowing more people access, or to develop means, more expensively, to protect the environment.  Oil companies want to make the most money possible and to do that, they will try to obtain oil with minimal cost possible.  This makes the product a cheaper price to sell to consumers. However, this poses huge environmental threats to many animals and their ecosystems. The above article mentions that the provincial government of Alberta implemented new laws for oilsands to minimize their pollution levels in an effort to protect the environment.  However, oil companies, acting in their own interests seem to be disregarding these new laws.  It is no more than two weeks since these pollution laws came into effect and the acceptable levels of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide outlined in the Lower Athabasca Regional Plan are predicted to be crossed if all goes according to plan.  Cheaper gas to fuel a car is not worth compromising the planet we live on.

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