Monthly Archives: November 2012

Lately I’ve been eating Kraft Dinner. KD is often considered an example of an inferior good in my Econ 101 lectures. However, my personally opinion is that it is amazing food for its price; I would buy it regardless if I was wealthier. Why is this recognition associated with KD? Why is KD often associated as a food for children? Because of branding.

 We talked about Marketing in class this year and many aspects of it considers the branding and value of a product based on the advertising and marketing. I realized that their marketing strategy has positioned their brand most likely using tools such as value proposition and brand positioning that we learned in class to establish their market segmentation focused towards both young children and immigrants (Chapman). Although this niche targeting strategy invests into advertisements geared towards these domestic groups, they have to clear the stigma of the brand recognition to stay profitable outside of Canada according to the New York Times article.

 Sources:

1. Chapman, Sasha (September 2012). “Manufacturing Taste”. The Walrus. Retrieved September 01, 2012. http://walrusmagazine.com/printerFriendly.php?ref=2012.09-food-manufacturing-taste.

2. Stuart, Elliot (May 26, 2010). “Kraft Hopes to Encourage Adults to Revert to a Childhood Favorite”. The New York Times. Retrieved 28 May 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/27/business/media/27adco.html?_r=0.

Earlier in this course, we discussed CSR. Corporate Social Responsibility underlines the business ethics and how firms contribute to society–whether they are impacting society or adding value. In the current business world there is clear evidence that proves that eco-friendly and socially responsible businesses have higher profitability ceilings due to consumer reaction. The Forbes article by Richard Levick indicates that:

“More than half the consumers surveyed by Havas want to reward responsible companies by buying their products. 53% would even pay a 10% premium for those products” (Forbes, 2).

This article also highlights the transition into established CSR programs such as green initiatives, health and anti-hunger plans, and sustainability are investments that somehow reach consumer needs due to the contribution firms are bringing to the world. To me, it appears that CSR is seemingly the act of companies being environmental and sustainable according to the Maclean’s article. However, CSR in “today’s model [is] based on impact,…value-creating,…[and to] provide the tools with which society can improve itself” (Forbes, 2). These quotations indicate that the success of Steve Jobs or even Nike+ is that their products are adding value and making our lives more efficient not necessarily their environmental contributions or cutting costs in a way that consumers support.

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardlevick/2012/01/11/corporate-social-responsibility-for-profit/

http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/06/09/better-business/

Throughout the second half of Comm 101, it was imminent that two main ideas that were constantly emphasized were business ethics and entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is an interesting topic as it broadly covers an amalgamation of personal interests and business skills. From class, we have heard from Janice Cheam’s Energyaware, Tom Dobrzanski‘s Vertical Studios and band The Zolas, and the Urthecast space camera among businesses such as Lululemon that were all started due to self-interests and market opportunities.

As I continue on with my journey through Sauder, I believe that there will eventually be more and more stories of young undergraduate entrepreneurs, such as Brian Wong’s Kiip. I have enjoyed hearing these personal testimonies from individuals and I believe that for myself, I took from this experience the message to continue with my passions, to take advantage of my opportunities, and apply business knowledge.

One significant aspect of entrepreneurship that is seemingly overshadowed by the success and innovation of entrepreneurs is the amount of sweat equity and time they put into the research and development stages in the process of founding and starting up their company. For many of these ventures, start up costs are also a great issue.

Walmart has currently chosen to go digital before the big holiday shopping surge begins. Walmart, known for a strong supply-chain management, could potentially create more efficient inventory management and increase product selling capability regardless of distribution channels. In class, we classified supply chain management as the role of operations in a supply chain is: get the right product to the right place at the right time in the right amounts.

I believe this is an incredibly smart investment as competitive markets transition more into digital mobility. The most significant gain from this decision is that it makes their chain of distribution more efficient and inter-connected. This application helps their market research on consumer behavior and thus makes their forecasts more accurate. Furthermore, it even helps cut inventory costs due to less uncertainty and better use of Just In Time distribution. Walmart realized they had “140 million weekly shoppers in the US. That is Internet scale to the offline world” and found the market opportunity to use technology to their advantage (Sloan, CNet). This application helps consumers get what they want, while helping management quantize correctly to maximize profits, which defines effective supply chain operations and  management according to our Comm 101 class.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57548785-94/how-walmart-is-going-all-out-with-mobile/

Toronto is one of the biggest cities in Canada; one surprisingly unorthodox market both successful yet unsuccessful is their professional sports market. According to the article by Glen Hodgson, Toronto professional teams, mainly the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs, NBA Toronto Raptors, and MLB Toronto Blue Jays have less incentive and motivation to perform well due to their successful market. Specifically, the owners of these companies are corporate businessmen who are seeking to generate profit, not necessarily winning championships. In addition, due to the conditions such as wide customer-base, long history, publicity, income, quality facilities, these teams stay profitable.

Although financially they are successful, is this lacking urgency of winning caused by their performance management issues? The repetitive lack of playoff appearances means lower revenues generated per season and the longer winning does not occur, the less loyal fans will become. I am curious why competitiveness is low in Toronto, where exchange rates don’t deduce player salaries, team history and services are available, and benefits are easily accessible. In class we discussed performance management, is this situation the lack of hierarchical workforce needs or lack of proper management?

Sources:  

1. http://www.conferenceboard.ca/reports/briefings/bigleagues/briefing-10.aspx

2. http://www.thestar.com/sports/basketball/nba/article/1289396–nba-toronto-raptors-fall-to-boston-celtics