Lucy Stephenson

The introduction, maintenance and determination of renewable resources are more important today than ever before. Non-renewable resources are slowly coming to an end, as the finite resources are being exploited to their fullest capacity.

Australia: A country with glaring sun almost all year round, large areas of unused land and also coastal, leading to high amounts of wind and water, is one of the only countries in the world where renewable resource use is decreasing.

“Investment into renewable energy projects in Australia has dropped by 70% in the last year, according to a new report by a climate change body.” (BBC, 2014)

Most economically developed countries have been accelerating in recent years with the implementation and building of infrastructure for the use of renewable resources, showing promising results in the slow down of global warming. In my opinion it is extremely questionable why Australian leaders would not invest in the increase in production of solar energy, wind power and hydroelectric energy, seeing as they are more than capable due to the extent of the aforementioned geographical characteristics of the country.

Australia is lagging behind.  The reason for this according to Prime Minister Tony Abbott is that the installation of the infrastructure needed for renewable resources is expensive. In the short run, this may be true; the installation of wind turbines, hydroelectric dams and solar panels is expensive, however in the long run it is the most efficient and cheapest way to sustain energy throughout the country. I believe that the government should subsidise homeowners for installing solar panels on their houses and also firms for instigating renewable resources into their factories.

Hopefully in the future Australia will sort itself out and make use of the benefits that the geographical conditions of the land brings and do their part in sustaining the environment and their economy in the long run. Step up your game, Australia!

“Australia ‘giving Up’ on Renewables.” BBC News. BBC, 9 Nov. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-29982908>.

“Australian Renewable Energy Agency.” Home. ARENA, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. <http://arena.gov.au/>.

Following up from the guest lecture “people, culture and teams” by Danielle Van Jaarsfeld, where we discussed the culture in firms and also different ways of working together in cooperation’s. We used Zappos online shoe store as a case study in class, however the business that kept coming to my mind was Google.

Plenty people have heard about the Google teams creative, inclusive and wild way of working. Organisational culture is the common behaviour of the staff in the company and how they interact with each other. Google, just like Zappos focuses on having all their employees sharing the same values and beliefs, and all have a common understanding of the way in which to think, act and socialise within an organisation.

My friend from Germany recently interned at Google and said it to be the most amazing and insightful experience he had ever had at a workplace.

Hence, after the lecture earlier this week, I read into Google’s values and the way they function in their workspace. The ways in which it is described makes the company appear to be the most fantastic and innovative workspace ever heard of.

Essentially, the people make the work environment. The employees are determined, creative, innovative and out of the ordinary. Google doesn’t necessarily seek people who are the most intellectual on paper with a degree, but rather Google selects its people based on what they are willing to thrive for, what their values are and how they are able to achieve their goals.
Pinpointing, the environment in which they work, I believe it would be an amazing atmosphere in which people can be open about their ideas, opinions and essentially learn from others.

“Our Culture a Company at Google.” Our Culture a Company at Google. Google, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2014. http://www.google.com.sg/about/company/facts/culture/

Being from the UK, Primark is a big part of Students and Teenagers culture. It is a low cost clothing shop, with basic and fashionable clothing items. In 2008, Primark went through a scandal of being accused of using child labour in India, paying a mere 60cents a day to children working exceptionally long hours.

Hundreds of Protesters stood outside the clothing shops all around the UK, and shouted “sweatshop shame” and “pay workers a living wage”.

Interestingly, sales didn’t change in quantity during the time, or even after the time of the protests. Indubitably, most people who shop at Primark would have known about the accusations that were also backed up with evidence.

So, -why do shoppers continue to shop at Primark, knowing of the unethical treatment of its manufacturers?

I believe this is a case of perception vs. reality. People agreed and said they were shocked by the child workers and the payment they received, however they did not alter their consumption patterns. This could hardly be due to customer loyalty; but rather to ignorance of consumers. While Primark’s public image wasn’t preserved, their profit and market share remained in tact.

This shows how consumers get what they want, disregarding how they were attained. Thus, as the title of this blog already states: perception vs. reality plays a large role here, as what consumers let others believe their opinions are, may not indeed be their opinions at all, they are just attempting to crowd follow and not be frowned upon.

This case shows exactly how consumer’s work and that any business can succeed even with scandals and unethical behaviour – this needs to change.

“‘Sweatshops’ Protest Hits Primark.” War On Want. Ed. Paul Collins. N.p., 23 June 2008. Web. 06 Nov. 2014. <http://www.waronwant.org/news/press-releases/16133-sweatshops-protest-hits-primark>.

Most businesses start off small, and in time they grow into large enterprises and companies. BYD – Build your dreams is a Chinese rechargeable battery manufacturer which did exactly that. It started off as a miniature company in 1995 with 25 employees. It grew exceptionally, and the founder Wang Chuanfu is now the richest man in China with a net worth of 5.9 billion USD.

The company started selling batteries to different consumer markets, and it’s biggest being the car industry. It started selling rechargeable batteries to use for cars, but I believe the biggest mistake they made was selling to consumers directly, rather than the car manufacturers, as these are completely different positions and target audiences. This caused for a lack in optimising their dealer network. The criteria that is most important in this case is the potential income gained from expanding consumers as BYD did.

By having a dealer network that is too large, BYD is expanding too rapidly, where it’s output isn’t able to cope with its demand. At the same time, production is becoming more expensive to the essentially over-night desire for the products. Therefor at the same time BYD batteries are loosing in quality, and therefor also efficiency for consumers. Due to the quick expansion, the companies retail channels are opening up at a rapidly increasing pace, causing them to essentially suffer and falter.

I believe that once a firm is expanding, it should not loose sight of what it’s initial promises and reputation was to consumers. BYD – Build your dream promised qualitative and efficient rechargeable batteries, and would benefit from having large, targeted retailers who then distribute themselves, rather than BYD trying to distribute to everyone.

“NEWS.” BYD: Electric Vehicles, Photovoltaic, LED Lighting, Energy Storage. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2014. <http://www.byd.com/na/>.

“How to Manage a Fast-growing Firm.” BBC News. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2014. <http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29697973>.

As a change to the ordinary Blog post, I decided to dive into a topic that I consider to be most relevant and extremely interesting in relation to Sauder School of Business and people’s everyday life.

‘Innovation’ can be defined as the creation or change of something to make it more efficient or effective. This could come in terms of products, services, processes and ideas.

I believe that Innovation has been taken as a much too broad concept in terms of ideas. People coming up with useless products, such as the banana slicer or app’s that do nothing, except cost $999; is making people who come up with brilliant ideas – confused. Some people who have had interesting, useful and remarkable inventions are not receiving the funding and ability to launch their ideas; whereas those who shouldn’t receive funding; – are.

Hence, the question I am posing is: Where is innovation going in the future?

A topic that I have long been passionate about, is that of sustainability, conservation and the environment, which leads me to the following idea: In my opinion, innovation should be going in a direction of filling gaps in the market. In a world where resources are running out and poverty is increasing, innovators should be looking to satisfying every humans needs through new ideas and products – not just those of the wealthy.

While most visionaries are looking to make large profits, there is still the question of what will happen when clean drinking water runs out, the air isn’t breathable, global warming is being driven through the roof, and the wealth of the world is solely focused on a tiny part of the population.

Thus the ultimate question posed, which I hope will be answered throughout my time at University is: Who will drive humanity forward through Innovation, and most importantly how?
I believe the future of the modern world lies in the hands of the innovators, scientists and highly passionate people.

http://www.chahal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Fotolia_1210741_Subscription_XL.jpg

The advertising billboard for clothing of the elite Paris fashion brand ‘Sisley’ is provocative, sexual and inappropriate for young viewers.

It is the definition of “sex sells” – most people will know these famous words to remember, when trying to market a product, in this case clothing. Over the years brands have become more and more daring with their advertising, such as Calvin Klein’s underwear. 

The brand is expensive, exclusive and the clothes are short, sexy and unique. Sisley is basically marketing its clothes as drugs, which undoubtedly appeals to a rich, reckless and young audience. Did Sisley cleverly throw drugs, skinny models and fashion into one picture just to attract a group of doped up rich kids that throw their money about? For some reason, the ad mildly amuses me, as I know people who shop at Sisley personally, and also know how their lifestyles are and what these people are all about; to be more accurate – the ad’s target audience is spot on.

Ultimately; I am looking at questioning and investigating the way that marketing has evolved over time and what the end outcome is. To highlight some: I believe the use of social media is a big standing point in this, as more people are stuck to their computer screens rather than looking through magazines. Therefore the use of social media has caused a shift from hard copy marketing to soft copy and social network marketing. Also, consumer’s consumption patterns have changed; depending on people’s income categories, they spend less or more on clothing and other items. This makes it harder for Sisley to advertise to a larger audience, as only few people will lean toward spending hundreds of pounds on a dress that has less material to it than a dishcloth.

There are many more ways in which marketing has transformed, however the most appealing to me is the content of the ads, especially this one.
Sisley is authentic, young, and vibrant and I hate to say that I love its approach at shocking people into buying their clothes. With proof of its advertisement, Sisley believes that this generation is creating a whole new society based on image-obsessed junkies, and sadly this is true. And its advertisement is the most perfect marketing strategy I have seen in a while simply due to its shock factor and ability to address to its targeted audience directly.

“Social Media Explorer.” Social Media Explorer 7 Ways Marketing HAS Changed And Its Not Just The Tools Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Nov. 2014. <http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/digital-marketing/how-marketing-has-changed/>.

Dewulf, Brianna. “Google-Ergebnis Für Http://blogs.longwood.edu/advertising3/files/2012/09/SISLEY-FASHION-JUNKIE-17.jpg.” Google-Ergebnis Für Http://blogs.longwood.edu/advertising3/files/2012/09/SISLEY-FASHION-JUNKIE-17.jpg. N.p., 21 Sept. 2012. Web. 06 Nov. 2014. <http://www.google.de/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.longwood.edu%2Fadvertising3%2Ffiles%2F2012%2F09%2FSISLEY-FASHION-JUNKIE-17.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblogs.longwood.edu%2Fadvertising3%2F2012%2F09%2F21%2Ffashion-junkie-by-sisely%2F&h=868&w=1280&tbnid=_l6ugHnztjaeGM%3A&zoom=1&docid=5pTiVoWp279b1M&ei=F9JbVLDQDNbtoASwzoCgDA&tbm=isch&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=212&page=1&start=0&ndsp=20&ved=0CCIQrQMwAA>.

Kalle, Matthias. “Nacktheit in Den Medien : Das Prinzip “Sex Sells” Hat Ausgedient.” Nacktheit in Den Medien: Das Prinzip “Sex Sells” Hat Ausgedient. N.p., 5 Sept. 2014. Web. 06 Nov. 2014. <http://www.tagesspiegel.de/meinung/andere-meinung/nacktheit-in-den-medien-das-prinzip-sex-sells-hat-ausgedient/10661126.html>.

Tropicana juice recreated their packaging in 2008/2009, giving its juice boxes a new design, less familiar with customers. Rebranding and Redesigning their product that was already a competitor in the eyes of consumers was a bad idea. The new package has seen absolute failure in supermarkets. Tropicana sales dropped by 20% after the new packaging was  introduced. (Zmuda, 2009)

What drew me to this article, is the reason why previously loyal customers suddenly became disloyal and started to buy Tropicana’s competitors juices, such as Minute Maid or Florida’s Natural. One thing that instantly comes to mind, is that consumers would believe that the change in packaging also means a change in the product. Because the outside is no longer the same, neither is the inside. While this is an abrupt assumption, it is a common one that was made.

Whats more is that the size of the ‘Tropicana’ name on the front of the box has been reduced. This makes the ‘100% Orange’ stand out bigger on the box, allowing the brand name to be overlooked. (Huba, 2009) The reason people previously bough Tropicana juice is because they like it the way it is. Due to the new packaging, the thing that they previously recognised as the thing they liked, is different, therefore it isn’t the same thing that they liked anymore.

It was a bad decision on Tropicana’s account to change their packaging, and once sales plummeted after just 2 months, they quickly reintroduced the old tropicana boxes once again.

While it is surprising that sales would decrease by such a large extent, it is understandable as a common customer in a supermarket, looking for the usual groceries, if they are not there, you must settle for something else.

Nisen, Max. “This Logo Change Caused Tropicana Sales To Plunge.”Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 03 Sept. 2013. Web. 01 Oct. 2014. <http://www.businessinsider.com/tropicana-packaging-change-failure-2013-9>.

Jackie, Huba. “”The Tropicana Effect”” Jackie Huba. N.p., 2 Mar. 2009. Web. 01 Oct. 2014. <http://jackiehuba.com/2009/03/tropicana-learns-hard-lesson-of-not-talking-to-evangelists.html>.

Zmuda, Natalie. “Tropicana Line’s Sales Plunge 20% Post-Rebranding | News – Advertising Age.” Advertising Age News RSS. AdAge, 2 Apr. 2009. Web. 01 Oct. 2014. <http://adage.com/article/news/tropicana-line-s-sales-plunge-20-post-rebranding/135735/>.

Male, Bianca. “10 Major Rebranding Disasters And What You Should Learn From Them.” Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 07 Apr. 2010. Web. 01 Oct. 2014. <http://www.businessinsider.com/rebranding-failures-2010-3?op=1>.

Today, there is cutthroat competition between businesses to increase their market share, reputation and revenue. As we know, ambition and competitiveness are crucial to be successful, but there must be regulations to prevent immorality and unethical behaviours. Trustworthiness and credibility are essential for a business to maintain their success, if a company loses it, then their brand image could be hurt which would result as a decline in their revenue. There are many huge companies that didn’t follow the business ethics and faced with protests and boycotts against them.

For example BP was protested for causing “one of the worst environmental disasters ever happened, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Greenpeace played a significant role by starting a boycott against them by using media tools to increase awareness” (Greenpeace, 2010) The disaster was extreme, causing 11 mortalities and 5 million barrels of Oil to spill into the Water.

The main ethical implication with the BP oil spill, is the information that was released to the public. BP tried to keep the incident out of the publics awareness for a while, however i believe BP had the ethical responsibility to make people aware of what has happened. They restricted the press to gain access near to the site, therefore not being able to report on the damages that had been done to wildlife, ecosystems and the general environment. During the time, no laws existed for the protection of wildlife, however I believe that BP could have attempted to replenish its image by standing up for its mistakes and helping Greenpeace create laws and regulations in the place of wildlife protection.

Hence, BP’s attempt to increase market share, reputation and revenue backfired, as they did not act ethically after the spill, rather attempted to cover it up.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/ocgenc/ – Oguz, Can

“Current List of Consumer Boycotts.” Current List of Consumer Boycotts. EthicalConsumer, 7 Oct. 2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. <http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/boycotts/boycottslist.aspx>.

Greenpeace. “The BP Oil Spill: One Year Later.” Greenpeace. GreenpeaceUSA, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. <http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/news-and-blogs/news/The-BP-Oil-Spill-One-Year-Later/>.

Malik, Stephanie. “Practical Ethics.” Practical Ethics. University of Oxford, 29 June 2010. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. <http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2010/06/ethical-questions-surrounding-the-bp-oil-spill/>.

“Study Shows BP Oil Spill Could Have Been Prevented by Regulation.”Inhabitat Sustainable Design Innovation Eco Architecture Green Building Study Shows BP Oil Spill Could Have Been Prevented by Regulation Comments. Inhabitat, 10 Aug. 2010. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. <http://inhabitat.com/study-shows-bp-oil-spill-could-have-been-prevented-by-regulation/>.

One of the most recent areas of study has been Value Propositions, which takes introduced me to the Article “Positioning” by Al Ries and Jack Trout. In this Article, they discuss how brand imaging and a companies effort to develop their products and company more are difficult in the long run, due to the first impressions of the consumers. Something that is continuously discussed in the article is how a brands name is the upmost important factor affecting its sales and the desire for its products. Taking Apple as an example for a company with one of the most prestige and popular names in the world: “Ries and Trout argue [that] the success of a brand is not due to the high level of marketing acumen of the company itself, but rather, it is due to the fact that the company was first in the product category” (Ries and Trout, 2010) Relating this to Fang Fang’s Blog post (https://connect.ubc.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_45357_1%26url%3D), where she discusses the new iPhone 6 being imported into China and sold for a ridiculous sum of $1800, is simply due to Apple’s already outstanding reputation. It is popular, easy to use and stylish, making people attracted to it and therefor willing to pay more that what is reasonable and stand in queue’s for days. Whats more is that Apple was one of the first companies to come up with the no keyboard/ one button phone, making it as Ries and Trout say “the first in the product category”. Apple constantly upgrades it’s products, making it a kind of addiction for consumers of Apple to always buy the newest software, phone or laptop.

Ries, Al, and Trout, Jack. “Product Positioning.” Product Positioning. QuickMBA, n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. <http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/ries-trout/positioning/>.

Fang, Fang. “Chinese Smugglers Make Big Bucks on IPhone 6.” Web log post. FangFang’s Blog. N.p., 24 Sept. 2014. Web. 28th Sept. 2014. <https://connect.ubc.ca/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_45357_1%26url%3D>.

Ethics flood people’s every day lives. They are best described as the moral decisions people make as to whether something is good, bad, the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do.

As most people are aware, cigarettes are harmful to the smoker, and others around them. In the article “Britain says ready to ban all branding on cigarette packs” http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/03/us-britain-cigarettes-packaging-idUSBREA320SU20140403, by William James and Martinne Geller, the UK’s recent decision to ban cigarette advertising on billboards, posters, tv commercials and now also on cigarette packets itself is discussed. This decision is aimed to “improve public health and cut the number of child smokers”. The ethical decision of the government to ban advertising is courageous, as cigarette’s are a good, that causes for high levels of government income from taxation. His attempt to cut down the amount of smokers in the UK will lead to a fall in the tax revenue. However the moral decision to disregard the loss of income, in an attempt to reduce ‘start-up-smokers’ is renowned. The article says how the UK is looking to mimic the green cigarette packaging in Australia, which has proven to be successful in cutting the size of the smokers population. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/australia-shows-that-plain-tobacco-packaging-significantly-cuts-smoking-9697748.html. 

In my opinion, the choice to ignore the possible high profit gained from taxation and focus on the health of the british public, allows the government’s image to be seen in a more positive light and his future decisions to be taken up in a more open manner.