Macklamore’s big hit song “Thrift Shop” has been a spectacular form of advertisement for all thrift shops in which the song has been made popular. Thrift shop sales have increased since the song has become popular. Value Village, a large company with a chain of thrift shops, has even made a commercial to promote Halloween costume sales by using the beat of the song, with their own personal lyrics. When surveying shoppers, 50% said that they were inspired by Macklamore’s song “Thrift Shop” to shop for thrifty items. 50% is a huge percentage.

Although Macklamore did not specifically collaborate with Value Village, this shows that collaboration with a public icon can increase businesses sales. Consumers around the globe admired Macklamore’s thrifty style and his song, which has influenced many to want to imitate his style. Clothing companies specifically can benefit from this form of marketing. By having a public figure wear a specific clothing companies pieces, many admirers will potentially buy them. This would also help to create a unique brand image, depending on who is wearing the product. The target market is also able to expand to many different consumers.

Source:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/value-villages-unlikely-duet-becomes-a-halloween-hit/article15125906/

Tesco PLC, a British retailer has come up with an innovative way of displaying advertisements specific to the viewer. This new system is called “Optimeyes” and it scans the face of the viewer to detect age and gender, then displays the ad most relevant to them. This innovation can increase the impact that ads have. Instead of a company paying a certain amount to have their one ad displayed on one screen for a certain amount of time, they can pay less to have their ad on the screen for a shorter amount of time. Also, for the time that their ad is on the screen, it is directed only to their target market. This is a much more efficient way of advertising. Companies can eliminate the research put into the location of where to put their ads, since they can know that they will have their ad displayed to their target market by this new system. Sales would also increase because their targeted consumers would see their ads more frequently.

Source:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/tesco-to-use-face-scanners-for-targeted-advertising/article15324033/

Many companies “celebrate” holidays with special promotions and many companies also show their support on social media for holidays such as Remembrance Day. Some may say this is disrespectful, or an unethical business practice. People believe that companies use special days, such as Remembrance Day for marketing their brand name or products, and it is not actually about the focus of that day. People feel disrespected even by the commentary of businesses on these special days because they don’t believe the business is being genuine, and they only want to look good.

Christmas is the most used holiday for businesses. Companies market their products specific to Christmas in attempt to increase sales. Christmas is essentially the day Jesus Christ was born; it is a sacred holiday to many Christians. When looked at from a Christian’s perspective, these marketing tactics are seen as shallow and offensive. So the question is, is it unethical to associate your business with any special days and or holidays in the year?

Source:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/should-companies-tweet-about-remembrance-day/article15377812/

A couple years ago Blackberry was number one along side with Apple’s iPhone in the cellphone industry, but since then, Blackberry has been going downhill. Many consumers, including I, lost all hope for the company to every get back on its feet, but not anymore. Blackberry was famous for their messaging system called BBM, which used Wi-Fi or cellphone data to message other people who you choose to be on your BBM contact list, and it also allowed the user to have a profile picture, username and personal message. Blackberry has recently made this app available for iPhone and android users. Quickly after releasing the app, the number of downloads skyrocketed. In just 24 hours, it reached 10 million.

My original thought was that BBM is what gave Blackberry their competitive advantage, and if they gave that availability to other cellphones, their sales will drop even more. I now realize that their cellphones were not selling at the rate they should be anyways, and making BBM available to other cellphones expands their target market. This opens up a chance to make profit, and innovate through their app. Although this may not help Blackberry create and sell better cellphones, it puts them back in the game and gives hope to Blackberry’s consumers and investors.

Source:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/top-business-stories/downloads-of-blackberry-bbm-app-for-iphone-android-top-10-million/article14999410/

A company’s name is sacred. It takes numerous years to make your company’s name known globally, and a lot of hard work to have a certain image associated with your company’s name. When I think of “Starbucks” I think of good quality, sophistication, deliciousness, comforting, and much more positive traits. This is Starbucks’ brand image, and they generated through their business tactics and strategy.

A small family owned roaster in New Hampshire named their company “Charbucks”. This is very obviously a remake of Starbucks’ name, and Starbucks attempted to bring justice to their brand name, but lost the appeal. Naming the company “Charbucks” is the family owned businesses attempt to attract customers through the brand image already created by “Starbucks”. In turn, the inconsistent business practices and products of the smaller company can soil Starbucks’ brand name. This is just like stealing a persons name and pretending to be them. Clearly this is wrong, but the legal system in the United States is not capable of noticing that.

Source:
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/11/17/starbucks-loses-charbucks-appeal

Apple released their new version of iPhone 5 quite recently and instead of only releasing one version, as they usually do, they released two: the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C. The iPhone 5C is made out of cheaper materials than the 5S and is therefor sold at a lower price. The release of the 5C is a new business tactic to target price-conscious consumers. Many businesses in different industries have used this type of tactic and have shown to be successful, but will it work for Apple?

Currently Apples sales for the iPhone 5C in comparison to the 5S do not match. The 5S appears to be much more desirable globally, but one Yankee Group analysis, Carl Howe says that once the frenzy over the 5S is over, the 5C will pick up sales. Could this be possible? Or could the reason behind this be because of the relatively small price difference? The iPhone’s target market is not one of cost-conscious consumers, but if that is their target market for the 5C, they are not hitting it with the approximate 100USD price difference.

Only time will tell whether Apples new business tactic is a success, or a bad mistake.

Source:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/28/apple-iphone-earnings-disappoint-5c-5s

The change in season gives many firms the chance to get creative and market their products and or services in new ways. In addition, firms are also able to market their products for free through social media.

Many people have views on what objects or events are associated with each season. One of which is the Pumpkin Spice Latte in autumn. Starbucks releases their Pumpkin Spice Latte every autumn and only sells it during that season. Since seasons are around only a few months in a year, the demand for the product is especially high when the season is present. This September Starbucks had 10 days in which they encouraged customers to take pictures of their lattes to send in to Starbucks’ social media sources for the chance to win a prize. This is a great way to market the drink and their brand. It gets the consumers involved it and gives the brand more attention. The Pumpkin Spice Latte has become an iconic product associated with the autumn season.

For companies with less to spend on marketing, social media sites, such as twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, tumblr, instagram, etc. are a perfect way to gain brand recognition, plus it doesn’t cost a dime. These websites are very popular with the younger generation, so it is perfect for companies whose target market are youths, teens, or young adults.

Source:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-marketing/advertising/how-savvy-brands-are-fallingforfall/article14658644/

In America, the inequality of income is growing. As stated in the article, it is affecting the educational opportunity of young people. The gap between test scores is growing among rich and poor children. The cause of this issue is said to be quick technological change and persisting globalization of the economy.

The way that the government in Canada handles this economic issue is through progressive taxation. This means that the higher your income, the larger the percentage in taxes you are required to pay (progressive taxation). In theory, this seems like a good way to reduce the severity of the issue, but some think it may not be the best way. As stated in the article, focusing on the youth is the way to go instead of using a fiscal policy to reduce the inequality of income. Since it is affecting citizens’ education at such a young age, they must focus on making it so that every youth has the same opportunities as each other, therefor, they will have the same abilities as each other to enter the working world to make somewhat similar incomes as each other.

Approaching the issue from that perspective would take a lot of time to see improvement. The quicker, and seemingly more sensible approach would be to implement progressive taxation and to provide more subsidies for the poorer as well as reduce subsidies for the rich. This way the inequality of income of Americans would be noticeably smaller.

Source:
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21586578-americas-income-inequality-growing-again-time-cut-subsidies-rich-and-invest

Essentially, Obamacare would require firms to provide affordable health insurance if they have at least 50 full time employees or be forced to pay a fine of $2000-3000 per employee. Also, each citizen would be required to have health insurance, and subsidies would be provided to the ones that cannot afford it.

One view someone might have would be that this could cause the firms become devious. They could try to find a way to employ less than 50 full time workers and have many part time employees to avoid providing affordable health insurance to employees. Many people who desire or need to work full time many have to find multiple jobs, since firms would be reducing hours for each employee to make them part time workers.

If America were to provide health care through taxes, this would not be an issue. It is known that the majority of Americans are capitalists, which means they would be against government taxation, but the citizens of American also want universal health care. With Obamacare, America runs the risk of increasing unemployment, but if taxpayers provided health care, they could have jobs, and universal healthcare.

Source:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2013/08/health-reform-and-employment

The Onion, a website known for pushing the limits with tasteless humor has gone over board with their newest advertisement. On September 6th 2013 The Onion released an ad for Subway, the popular sub/sandwich company, making a reference to the twin tower bombings, also known as 9/11. “Fly on in for subtember 11th. You will never forget this deal”, stated the ad. In addition the price for two foot long subs is $9.11. The ad was followed by a fake statement by Subway president Fred DeLuca, stating the facts given in the ad. Subway later tweeted “Like everyone, we are deeply offended by the fake story and ad created by The Onion.”

The Onion’s actions were highly unethical because they offended many people, some of which were affected by 9/11. Many loyal readers may have taken offence to the ad and decided to switch to another source of entertainment.

Stakeholders:
– Anyone with shares in the company Subway
– The employees of Subway
– The editors of The Onion
– The friends and family of victim’s of 9/11
– Anyone who has been affected by 9/11

What should the stakeholders do?
– The Onion should make a public apology for this highly offensive advertisement.
– Subway should take The Onion to court for any financial loss that arose from the offensive advertisement (people losing loyalty to Subway).

Sources
http://www.buzzfeed.com/adriancarrasquillo/the-onion-makes-intentionally-offensive-911-subway-ad-subway
http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-subway-promotion-to-honor-subtember-11,33768/?ref=auto