Category: COMM101

As growing awareness of environmental issues, sustainability has become a trend. People will criticize companies that have environmental scandals. This hugely relates to a company’s image and will certain affect the sales of the company. Therefore, more and more companies are working towards environmentally friendly. Starbucks, announced that they will be working on the Cup to Cup recycling project, which means the cups will be made of 100% recycled materials. They will collaborate with Mississippi River, a pulp mill in US now, in 2011.They plan to achieve this goal in the next five years. By working on this environmental project, Starbucks will further strengthen their brand name.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUS85995946320101202

When starting a business, it is very important to decide what market segments the business is going to appeal. There are several aspects that need to be evaluated regarding the market segment. First, the size of the market segment needs to be considered, so we are able to estimate how many people would be attracted. Also, the potential of this market segment to grow is also very important. The sales potential and expect profit margin also needs to be evaluated. When doing the group project, I found that our business plan is lacking a lot of information. There is no sufficient analysis of the market segment, which makes investors not able to determine the profitability of the company. The right target market would determine whether the business would be successful or not.

Source: http://www.netmba.com/marketing/market/target/

I believe that many people are fascinated by the realistic effect brought by 3D TVs; however, wearing the heavy glasses is just irritating and uncomfortable. But now comes the 3D TV that requires no glasses. Toshiba and Sharp have currently introduced a model of 3D TV without glasses. However, the technology is still immature and costly. It will probably take a few years before it can be available on the market. But firms that are selling 3D TVs are optimistic and they predict that the sales will exceed 4 million this year. On the other hand, Apple also got a patent for a no glasses 3D screen currently, which means Apple is also planning to join the 3D TV competition in the future. I believe that 3D TV will certainly be a trend in the future.

Sources:

http://vator.tv/news/2010-12-02-apple-gets-a-no-glasses-3d-patent-approved

http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/110264

I guess many people are familiar with online shopping now. People enjoy staying at home and shopping with just a click on the computer. EBay, as a large online shopping company, has millions of transactions going on every day. EBay introduces the payment system, PayPal, which they claim to be safe because it doesn’t disclose customers’ personal information when doing transactions. However, we can hear more and more complaints about EBay now. The customer service, and the confusion caused by PayPal are all problems of EBay. If we google eBay or PayPal, we can see all kinds of complaints and questions about them. Although online shopping is convenient and fast, customers have to be extra cautious when choosing who to do business with. EBay needs to find a way to solve the trust problem and improve customer service, or they will certainly face a downturn in the future.

This video talks about some complaints from eBay customers:

After reading the definition for entrepreneurship, the first company that comes to my mind is the Apple Inc.. Apple is a multinational company that sells personal computers, electronic devices and software, founded in 1976. The first entrepreneurial characteristic that Apple possesses is innovation. Apple has created the innovative idea of personal computer, the iMac. It’s well-known for its simple design and the new system, which attracts a large group of customers. It opens up a new market among the traditional PC market. Apple also has many other innovative products such as iPod and the recent iPad. While creating such innovative products, Apple has to undergo many risks. It’s difficult for people to understand and accept these innovative products. However, Apple eventually turns out to be successful. For example, the launch of iPad a little earlier this year, has been such a great success. Apple has sold over 3 million iPad in less than three months. From April to June, iPad has brought $2.17 billion to Apple. This demonstrates the amount and speed of wealth creation, which is another entrepreneurial characteristic of Apple.

Sources: http://www.doxtop.com/browse/e5ab3c6b/apple-ipad-trends-and-statistics.aspx

Since Apple’s Ipad has come out, it has been a great success and has established its leading position in the tablet device market. Now, more and more competitors have appeared, for example, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab with Android system, RIM’s Blackberry Playbook. As Ipad has already positioned itself in the market, the competitors must create some new features in order to success in the tablet market. For example, the Blackberry’s Playbook has positioned itself as a business tablet. It’s a device with “true multitasking, high performance multimedia, and advanced security features”. RIM is expecting that people in business will make a good use of it with all its business apps and it’s called “BlackBerry Enterprise Server”. These new competitors in tablet market have created some distinct features that are different from Apple’s Ipad. This strategy may help them enter the market successfully.  

Sources: http://www.lanewsmonitor.com/news/RIM-Playbook-Is-Business-Tablet—iPad—Android-Tablets-Can-Rest-Easy-1286110331/

http://www.usanewsweek.com/news/Major-News-Outlets-Court-RIM-PlayBook–Samsung-Galaxy-Tab-1286803875/

Everyday, people broadcast a lot of information on the internet, using social networks, like twitter, face book, etc. Businesses are now beginning to use online social networks as a way to advertise themselves and communicate with customers. It’s definitely a chance to bring more revenue to businesses because it is instant and convenient. I find an article called “Social Media Strategy: Nissan Juke Facebook Promotion”. According to the article, Nissan has currently joined Facebook. They hire people to work on promoting and advertising their products on Facebook. They hire two people to drive their “new Juke automobile” around America, and they will post their experience on Facebook. This is a very innovative and creative way of advertising using social networking. “It’s so different than traditional advertising,” they say in the article. This might bring revenue to Nissan because the posting on Facebook can let the customers know the real experience of using the car and help the company build up good reputation. However, they should consider what percent of people actually trust the information online. Moreover, they might receive negative feedbacks on Facebook.

Nowadays, more and more businesses are using social networking to promote their product. If they can wisely manage it, they will get profit from it. However, they should also be able to undertake the risks that it might bring to them.

Source: http://www.onlinesocialmedia.net/20101011/social-media-strategy-nissan-juke-facebook-promotion/

From class 6, we learned about the importance of positioning. It’s important to be the first one entering the market because it builds up the reputation and it often leads to great success. For example, the McDonalds was the first who created the idea of fast food restaurant. Their efficiency in producing food for customers immediately leads to their great success.  They attract a lot of customers because of their reputation. Now they have restaurants all over the world and they are still in the leading position, although they have many competitors that came after them.

There are many thical issues regarding advertising to children. These advertisments usually used vivid colours, cartoon characters and many other elemetns to attract childern’s attention. Children learn from what they see around them and they can be greatly influenced by these advertisements. They might not understand the negative effects of those products, for example, video games. Children can be negatively influenced by the violence scenes in the video games, but they might not aware of that. Also, many advertisements are targeting directly to children, such as candies, games, and toys. However, it’s the parents who are actually paying for these items, not the children. Therefore if they are using this kind of strategy, it’s not ethical. In a word, business should not advertise directly to children without the consent of their parents.

Just read a news article from financial post.com, which talks about green energy issues of Canadian industry. In the article, it mentions the difficulties in getting the green projects work. Most private company would not want to take the risk to invest in using renewable energy, because they might have to wait for twenty years to actually get the payback from it. I think they should look in a long term regarding this issue. The fuels might be used up very shortly; they may not even last for twenty years. If they do not start working on renewable energy right now, it’ll be too late once the fuels are used up. Both the government and companies should cooperate and pay an effort for a clean environment.