Chinese National Television has recently released a survey that it did. In it it discover that the prices of Starbucks beverages in China are higher than anywhere else in the world. For example any Starbucks store in China would sell a 354ml Latte for 27RMB, while a store in London for example would sell the same coffee for 24RMB. This difference has gotten many customers upset due to the price discrimination Starbucks shows. However many of them are still willing to buy the coffee.

Starbucks at this moment has no plans of bringing the price down. The reason for that is because the company has a strong image and is popular worldwide. The company also has no competition from the local coffee shops in China since they are not as “westernized” as Starbucks. At the end of the day it does not matter how much the population hates the price discrimination they would still buy coffee from Starbucks since its cool and “western”,  which is something the Chinese customers would do anything and pay anything to be a part of.

Article: http://www.chinasmack.com/2013/stories/cctv-reports-starbucks-prices-higher-in-china-chinese-reactions.html

The Walt Disney Company has announced that it will release the next Star Wars film on 18 December 2015. Star Wars initially belonged to Lucasfim before Disney bought the company for four billion USD. Since then the company has been working on the new Star Wars movie and the new film is a great opportunity for the Disney company to increase its profits and pay back the initial investment to buy the Lucasfim company.

Disney announced the  release date as it reported a better-than-expected 12% jump in net profit for the three months to 28 September.  The new movie would also benefit the company in several other ways such as all the fans of the Star Wars movie would now watch other Disney movies and by so increase the companies profits. The new movie would increase publicity especially the fact that there have been other Star Wars movies in the past and people would be interested to find out what happens in this one. Also the company would build a strong loyal customers segment, which will help the company prosper in the future due to customers who would watch future Star Wars movies and continue to contribute to the companies’ increasing success.

Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24862359

In the recent days the British Airports Commission has said that the southeast of England would need more runway capacity in the years to come. This problem does not seem big in the short term, however if we look at it in the long term then the consequences could be devastating. If a new runway or some other form of expansion does not take place at the airports in London and the region then that could have huge impact on the businesses in the area.

An example is British Airways, which is as Airline Company with its hub at Heathrow Airport in London. If the government does not approve expansions, then the company would suffer horribly. For instance the company would no longer be able to expand and would slowly be overwhelmed by other companies, which are able to offer their customers more regular flights as well as flights to more destinations.

Article Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24429443

On Monday the aircraft manufacture company Airbus announced their first deal with the Japanese national carrier JAL. The Japanese company ordered 31 planes from the new A350 manufactured by Airbus. The deal was not pleasant news for Airbus biggest competitor Boeing, who is producing the Dreamliner B787. That is because the A350 is a similar aircraft to the B787 except that the A350 uses 25% less fuel then previous generation wide-bodied aircrafts.

The deal also came as a treat to Boeing since it backed Airbus plans to continue expanding its sales in the Asian market, which is the most popular market for aircrafts in the world and it is most likely to stay that way in the future fifteen to twenty years. However due to the size of the Asian market, Boeing is still strongly continuing its sales despite the technological problems that the B787 Dreamliner has experienced in the beginning of the year.

Eli’s Blog: https://blogs.ubc.ca/elisei/2013/10/07/airbus-and-japan-airlines-agree-on-historic-9-5bn-deal/

BBC Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24424873