I am responding to Gianluca Camerin’s blog Mitt Romney: Please Do Not Vote For This Man, in which Camerin talks about the flip flops in Mitt Romney’s views and statements. Camerin has included a video that highlights the “flip flops” of the views of  Governor Romney. Romney is contradicting his earlier statements as shown in the video, which is causing mass confusions among Americans. Romney is being conservative and liberal at the same time, this is what is going to cause the decline in votes for Governor Romney. He is going to loose his conservative voters and end up being blown out in this election. This is all being cause by a flip flop in Romney’s perspectives. Romney is essentially a “two-faced chameleon”  who no one should vote for, “not even Romney”.  In fact, I am in favour of this because an individual who cannot stick by his own principles and views will not stick by the country’s  values.

Mitt Romney’s sudden changes in perspectives are going to work against him come election time because the voters are now being able to determine that Governor Romney is not a man of his word; the voters do not trust him

BC Hydro is now sparking debates through out BC over the new smart meters. BC Hydro is a crown corporation that was formed in 1961 and has been supplying electricity to BC since. They are now introducing a new system to monitor consumption of electricity within households and businesses. This new system uses smart meters and BC Hydro claims that these new meters helps in saving money and makes it easy to manage electrical consumption.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thxd5Bo6OnM&sns=em

However, these new smart meters collect a lot of personal information and BC Hydro assures BC residents that “all customer information collected by [the] new meter will be handled in accordance with B.C.’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act” and “this Act prohibits BC Hydro from selling or disclosing personal information to third parties, unless authorized to do so by law.” With all this being said, there are still major uncertainties among the residents of BC and many are refusing the installation of these meters for their homes.

As stated in the video above, these smart meters use radiation to monitor hourly consumption of electricity and that radiation could potentially be cancerous. BC residents and businesses do not have a choice because there is no other substitute for this powerful corporation. BC Hydro is neglecting the the views of costumers and is forcing these smart meters upon everyone. Is this the start of “Big Brother”?

I am responding to the blog post “Going Green for Money“, by Jason Sidhu. In his blog Jason Sidhu states that companies are now not only going green for just the environment, but they are saving money by doing so as well. Sidhu argues that companies are now investing in a more efficient way of producing and are saving money. Companies such as Frito-Lay are “becoming more sustainable, [and] they are increasingly cutting costs and having a positive social impact“. Not only are they gaining popularity and helping to sustain the environment, but they are cutting back on production costs and their profit margins are increasing.

With all of this being said, there are some companies that ” “greenwash” consumers by claiming they are sustainable when they are not”. This is a new “strategy” which is emerging because companies know that consumers tend to buy green products and so they show that they are focusing on being environmentally friendly, yet they are not “following through with their green claims”.

All in all, the consumer has to be extremely cautious when buying into these ‘green claims’ set by companies. One way to determine if the product is really green is by being able to recognize and identify labels. Although, there may be food products which claim to be biodegradable the consumer should be able to recognize what the label means and figure out how much time is required for it to biodegrade.

As more and more people are buying the iPhone 5, Samsung is coming out with new techniques of marketing to promote the Samsung Galaxy S III. The rivalry between the Samsung and Apple has been brewing for a while, and now it is reaching new levels where Samsung directly targets iPhone 5 buyers and mocks them for purchasing it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf5-Prx19ZM

This advertisement which has aired on many networks, shows loyal Apple customers waiting in line to purchase “the next big thing” and Samsung ironically mocks the customers and claims that “the next big thing is already here”. This is a very creative marketing strategy and it seems as though it is working; shown by the increase in sales of Samsung S III phones. Even though Apple won the major lawsuit and sued Samsung, the sales for the Galaxy S III did not decline as shown in the chart below. In fact, the sales for the S III inclined when the final verdict for the lawsuit was released and also when the iPhone 5 announcement was made.

This new marketing approach is indeed helping the S III sales because it has a different style and is appealing to the audience; it is ultimately attracting more consumers towards the S III who eventually purchase the phone. The irony placed in these advertisements is extremely entertaining and thus the S III is gaining popularity.

Apple is one of the most iconic companies in the world and it recently released its fifth generation Iphone. However, the release of the  Iphone 5 was overshadowed by the iOS 6 maps mishap. Since Google pulled out its maps software from Apple, a new software was developed, which quickly fell considerably short of consumers’ expectations. In fact, the iOS 6 software update as a whole compared to iOS 5 has proven to be dis-satisfactory among users.

The Apple Ceo, Tim Cook, has felt some of the brand loyalty weaken and in response has issued a personal apology for falling short on expectations. The iOS 6 software has more drawbacks than benefits and this has enraged a lot of loyal Apple customers. Tim Cook’s apology letter is just one way of recovering brand loyalty, what other steps can be taken to further strengthen brand loyalty?