Recently, Kentucky Fried Chicken in China launched a new wave of promotion. The price of a family-sized bucket is cut into half from 80 Chinese dollars to 40. The family bucket is a iconic product of KFC and has been offered since KFC came into China. Therefore, when the promotion of half price in limited time came out, all the KFC fans cannot wait to try the new product. Disappointedly, the food in the half-price bucket is also half the the full-size bucket.

Some people complain that customers are cheated but KFC never mentioned that the content of the bucket will not change while the price is cut. The purpose of selling half-price bucket is not only to boost the sale but also to hype the brand itself. Since the promotion is valid only for two weeks, KFC won’t benefit from it for long. However, the enormous discussions it raised internet pushed KFC to sight of many customers. The psychological tactic KFC uses is very interesting. When many people tried the new product, they complained a lot. However, the more disappointment they express, the more curiosity it generates in other people who have not tried half-price bucket yet. After a few days, customers are not caring about the cheating behavior. Instead, people considered buying the bucket as a fashion and feel determined to follow the trend.

However, this success is difficult to be copied in other countries where KFC are not as common and successful as it is in China. The environment in China contributes to the success of half-price bucket.

Reference

FlorCruz, Michelle. “KFC China Promotional Disaster: Yum Brands Company Criticized For Ripping Chinese Customers Off.” International Business Times. International Business Times, 31 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ibtimes.com/kfc-china-promotional-disaster-yum-brands-company-criticized-ripping-chinese-customers-1450010>.

Sauer, Abe. “New KFC Promotion Strives for Disaster Trifecta in China.” Brand Channel. Brand Channel, 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. <http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2013/10/30/KFC-China-Bucket-Disaster-103013.aspx>.

In 2005, Google, the largest searching engine, was sued for scanning millions of books and the indexes by the Authors Guild, which represents writers and individual authors. The eight-year-old lawsuit ends recently. Google won the case for providing benefit to both people who use Google Book for research and writers and individual authors who gain more attention from readers.

Google is expanding and becomes a leader in many aspects of internet use. Google Books is very helpful to google users. It is a convenient access for viewers to search for and read books and strengthens google’s brand power. As a prestigious company, Google should clearly know the importance of respecting writers and authors and the cost of violating the law. When the idea of Google Books came out, staff in Google should have reflected these concerns to the executives. Missing this important point reveals either the ineffective operation inside Google where staff’s opinions cannot be effectively delivered to managers or the deliberate avoidance of paying for the copyright.

It is good that Google and the Authors Guild reached an agreement. Since Google has big power of influence in the internet and technology industry, its story will give a warn to other companies which might make similar mistakes as google did.

Reference

Pearson, Sophia. “The Vancouver Sun.” Www.vancouversun.com. The Vancouver Sun, 14 Nov. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://www.vancouversun.com/business/technology/Google triumphs over Authors Guild book scanning/9166273/story.html>.

“Vlog” is term referred to the video blogs. People who upload videos on blogs can be called “vloggers”. There are many bloggers famous on Youtube. They mainly produce their own videos about making up, comedies or talk show. They have thousands of followers on internet and earn income from advertising products in their videos. They are self-employed and work on their laptops day and night.

Yes, they earn a fortune but their career is more stressful than being employed by other companies. Two major issue that they always worry about is how to embody advertisement in videos seamlessly and how to inspire their ideas, which are key factors of attracting followers. For the first issue, blogger should be very careful about their use of words and avoid making the advertising too obvious.

For the second issue, vloggers need to communicate with their followers regularly and listen to their suggestion for improvement. They might also need to view other flogger’s video and compare theirs with competitors and adjust the content of their videos according to the trends. When the vloggers become more famous, they should build up their own brands. They also need a team to do a better! Specialization will improve the quality of videos and reduce the pressure of the vloggers, which allows everyone to concentrate on their own work and ensure a steady flow of ideas. Although it reduces the income for the vloggers, it enables them to enjoy a better quality of life and to strengthen the brands they created.

Reference:

Harvey, Declan. BBC News. BBC, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/24726895>.

Shangxia, which means up and down in Chinese, is created by an art designer Jiang Qiong’er and is backed by French luxury corporation Hermes in 2008. Different from most fashion products that Hermes sells, Shangxia is selling traditional Chinese culture in the form of art. The promotion of culture is reflected through the name, which implies the coexistence of modern and traditional cultures, the few but every delicate crafts and the traditional yet also modern design of stores. Culture is the core value of Shangxia.

When Hermes invested in Shangxia, it did not expect to gain much returns in short terms. Hermes want to position a brand of elegant taste and hand-made luxury and plant the core value of culture and art deeply into customers’ minds as it always does. Hermes builds the power of brands to attract wealthy customers and differentiate itself from other luxury brands which thirstily expands the number of store to pursue sales.

The customers segments are located at upper class in China, those who not only have enough wealth but also have elegant tastes of art and deep understanding of traditional culture. Many Asian countries such China and Japan value traditional culture as an crucial part of national identity. Owning a Shangxia product becomes a symbol of real richness.

References

Day, Peter. “The Designer Creating a New Chinese Brand.” BBC News. BBC, 09 Oct. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24038071>.

Song, Sophie. “Backed By Hermès, Shang Xia, A Luxury Brand Influenced By Traditional Chinese Design Elements, Is Expanding Overseas.” International Business Times. International Business Times, 21 May 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. <http://www.ibtimes.com/backed-hermes-shang-xia-luxury-brand-influenced-traditional-chinese-design-elements-expanding>.

Wendlandt, Astrid, and Pascale Denis. “Hermes Tests European Appetite for Its Young Chinese Brand.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 11 Sept. 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. <http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/11/us-hermes-shangxia-idUSBRE98A11X20130911>.

Nov. 11 is a festival for Chinese singles and has been commercialized  into a  festival for online shopping five years ago. The carnival of sales on Single Day was first launched by Alibaba, the biggest e-commerce corporation in China. Tmall is a  platform that Alibaba provides for independent sellers and independent buyers to trade,  a cross of Amazon and eBay. This year, the sales topped $5.75 billion and more than one third of adult population in China visited the site during the festival. A fever of online shopping rapidly spread across China. 

On one side, the stunning record of sales demonstrates the great potential of e-commerce market. Besides the huge population, another main reason is the strategy of e-commerce companies.Unlike Amazon, Tmall itself does not sell products. It collects many brands from all categories of products including both famous brands and independent, small brands. The revenue mainly comes from commissions and advertisements. The variety of products and the intense competition between sellers  offer buyers plenty of choices and drive prices down. On the other side,  phenomenons of fraud reveals the lack of regulation in the large, complex market. The overload of shipment causes long waiting time and  delivery mistakes, which troubles customers a lot.

References:

News, Bloomberg. “Alibaba Breaks Sales Record Amid China Singles-Day Rebate.”Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 12 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-11/alibaba-breaks-sales-record-on-china-singles-day-amid-discounts.html>.

Wang, Shanshan, and Eric Pfanner. “China’s One-Day Shopping Spree Sets Record in Online Sales.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/12/business/international/online-shopping-marathon-zooms-off-the-blocks-in-china.html>.

Staff, China Blog. “Singles’ Day – China’s Anti-Valentine’s Celebration.” BBC News. BBC, 11 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-china-blog-24896066>.

Since Kindle was released in 2007, it was largely welcomed among readers who favour the great reading experience that the technology provides. In my opinion,inexpensiveness and convenience are two main reasons that drive readers to move from printed book to e-book. When we purchase a book on Amazon, the website lists the prices of e-book and printed book. E-book can be twice cheaper than the printed one, in which the sharp contrast of prices drive customers to choose the electronic edition. The second reason is the convenience that technology creates, which is an incomparable advantage. People can put all the book that they want to read in one device, carry it in bags and read books anywhere and anytime.

Kindle is reshaping people’s reading habit  with the development of technology. This trend is certainly a huge threat to owners of bookstores. Even though it is almost impossible to fully replace printed books, to compete  with e-books, the most important thing is to lower the price of printed books and to try to generate revenue through other channels instead of merely from selling.

Reference:

Lee, Dave. “Amazon E-book Offer Riles Independent Bookshop Owners.” BBC News. BBC, 11 Aug. 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24868137>.

For consumers, buying luxury goods is a symbol of wealth. For luxury good companies, selling luxury goods is all about branding. They have to build good connections between the brands and wealth. What is wealth? It is the ownership of scarce resources in which the scarcity includes scarce raw materials, fine craftwork, fascinating advertisements or even noble history. Therefore, owning the luxury good creates a feeling of superiority for the wealthy consumers.

To effectively advertise a brand, creating a belief among people is possibly the most powerful method. De Beers is a successful example of diamond companies. It devised a slogan that “Diamonds are Forever”. It is this slogan that created a custom of wearing diamond rings for engagement. Since then, De Beers became a very popular diamond brand, which implies the promise of everlasting love.

Besides successful advertising, the stable supply of raw materials is a key resource for gemstone companies. Therefore, the company，which is able to guarantee a stable supply, has the advantage to consistently attract its customers. Gemfield is a gemstone seller who did very well in this aspect and achieved huge success due to its sufficient raw materials.

News Resource

Day, Peter. “The Art of Selling Luxury Goods.” BBC News. BBC, 24 Sept. 2013. Web. 08 Oct. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24222483>.

Recently, the famous social network Twitter is strengthening its partnership with television content owners. In the effort of their cooperation, audience is able to watch television programs and then talk about them on Twitter.

Such a new strategy benefits both Twitter and TV program owners. Many commercials encourage viewers to twit about their content. Therefore, more people tend to talk about specific events on Twitter, which earns Twitter plenty of advertising revenue due to users’ activeness. At the same time, the television programs can raise a lot of awareness and gain more sponsorship for its increasing influence. In other words, social network and television content owners provide a partners channel for each other so that they can expand their benefit from the partner’s strength.

Besides that, the two platforms can share the database of customers in order to perform better services. For example, television content owners can collect customers’ personal information through Twitter and Twitter can launch more TV-related activities that users largely favour according to collected data. In conclusion, the cooperation between social network and television content owners is a new method to expand mutual benefits.

News Resource

 “Twitter Exploring TV-related Advertising Ahead of IPO.” CBCnews. CBC/Radio Canada, 7 Oct. 2013. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. <http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/twitter-exploring-tv-related-advertising-ahead-of-ipo-1.1928356>.

Martha Tilaar started her cosmetics business in 1996. After a series of struggles, she has built up her own beauty industry with 4,500 employees. As far as I am concerned, the key component of her success is the right positioning of her brand. As Tilaar described, to challenge the mindset among modern Indonesians ’that foreign cosmetics were the best, she decided to produce Indonesian cosmetics that fit tropical skins better. Through the years, she consistently positioned her products as the true Indonesian cosmetics, which is made from traditional natural ingredients for Indonesian skins such as turmeric, clove flower buds or rice powder. The power of tradition and the profit of using natural ingredients helped Tilaar gain more and more customers and enabled her to expand her cosmetics country. Therefore, “natural” is the label of Tilaar’s comestics. According to this position, Tilaar launched a series of advertisements with models dressing in traditional Indonesian clothes and wearing matching makeups. Besides that, typical Indonesian patterns are designed on the appearances of products.

Similar in China and Korea, brands like Inoherb and SkinFood sell very well . They positioned themselves as skin care products made of Chinese herb and natural foods respectively.

Reference:

“My Business: Indonesia’s Beauty Magnate.” BBC News. BBC, 10 Sept. 2013. Web. 07 Oct. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23960325>.

After the scandal of worker abuse in Foxconn factories, which assemble technical products for Apple, Apple should have paid enough attention to investigate the issue and conducted immediate measures to protect the worker’s rights. However, in less than one year, the same problem raised public indignation again illustrating that Apple did not take its responsibility seriously. As a responsible company, Apple is obligated to protect the rights of all the workers, who do the most basic jobs in manufacturing, the same as engineers and managers. After the Foxconn issue, Apple promised to improve the working conditions. Surprisingly, the abuse of workers including underage labour, contract violations and excessive working hours became even severe than Foxconn. As a global firm, Apple did not show the appropriate attitude and impose effective conductions it should have done to deal with this crisis. The brand’s healthy image is largely damaged. In my opinion, Apple’s feeble reactions to the problem were not only due to Apple’s lack of caring about human rights but also due to the huge amount of compensation and the rapid increase of expenditure of wages in the future. These concerns deterred Apple from taking effective measures to protect workers’ rights.

News Resource: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23486638