Author Archives: Parth Dhand

A Temporary Marketing Technique With Permanent Results

A pop-up store
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Recently I was reading the blogs of my COMM 101 classmates, and one blog post that I really enjoyed reading was titled “Pop Ups: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow” by Celia Yu. The thing that I found most valuable in this blog post was when the author discusses why people go to pop-up stores, because these

stores possess the “fear of missing out” quality. The short duration of these stores makes customers feel like they might not be able to purchase these items ever again. Many stores are following this trend, such as MUJI in Vancouver, Shake Shack in Toronto and even a TV show titled “Riverdale” had a  pop-up restaurant that is featured in the series in Vancouver.

 

I did research on pop-up stores and read an article that discusses the different models companies can have for a pop-up store. Companies can either have stand alone pop-up stores, or they can partner up with big department stores and open up a pop-up shop in there. One example of this is by the department store, Nordstrom which has a program “Pop-in@Nordstrom.” Nordstrom partners up with different companies and allows them to have a pop-up store for a short duration in their stores. They have chosen 8 locations in which they have the pop-up stores. The pop-up store will also be online. Currently, from September 29 to November 12, Everlane has a pop-up store in Nordstrom.

Pop-in @ Nordstrom
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This is a very effective marketing technique for both Nordstrom and any company that decides to open up a pop-up store with them. The advantage of this program for Nordstrom would be that more people would visit their department store for these pop-up stores, and while they are there they would also shop in the Nordstrom department store. Like Celia discussed in her blog, people would want to go to pop-up stores as they would not want to miss out on anything. I do however believe that Nordstrom should not sell the products of the pop-up store online as some people might decide to buy their products online and then decide not to go to the department store. When people are buying online, they can choose what they want to see, so they may not look at any of the other offerings of Nordstrom.

The advantages of this program to companies that open up the pop-up stores is that they get free advertising. People will get to see these brands during their visit to the department store and if they like it, then they will continue to make repeat purchases. Also, people are usually excited to go to pop-up stores, as they believe that they will receive more unique products and have more fun while shopping.

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A beneficial twist on customer loyalty programs – Amazon Prime

While reading the marketing and sales blog of Hubspot, I stumbled upon a very interest article regarding the top 5 tools a company can use to retain its customers for the long term, written by Sophia Bernazzani. Hubspot is a company that develops and markets software products for inbound marketing and sales. One idea I found interesting  in this blog post was that a brand should try and make sure that once a customer does a purchase with them, it should become much more difficult for the customer to choose a competitor for the next purchase. One way to do this, as stated in the blog post, was to develop a customer loyalty program, which is usually a system in which customers accumulate points or rewards for repeated purchases or leaving reviews for the company. However, Amazon has changed the way customer loyalty programs work through the development of Amazon Prime.

 

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Amazon prime is a customer loyalty program developed by Amazon, so that customers can receive their orders within two days. Customers pay an annual fee of $99 to upgrade their Amazon account to a prime account. This is one of the first customer loyalty programs in which customers pay in order to receive extra rewards. Usually customers do not have to pay anything for loyalty programs, however Amazon charges people for this service. This is a great example of a customer loyalty program because frequent shoppers feel like Amazon prime is really benefiting and rewarding them.

Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester Research, has estimated that due to Amazon prime, the company is losing around 1-2 million dollars every year. However the company is still continuing with the loyalty program, as customers are making more frequent purchases. An investigation done by the CIRP shows that Amazon.com customers spend around $625/year, while prime members spend around $1500/year.

Amazon Prime is making it hard for customers to do their next purchase with a competitor. Customers are getting quick service from Amazon and they are also paying for the service, so they want to make sure that they take full advantage of what they are paying for. With these two factors together, prime customers keep on making repeated purchases. This is a possible reason to why Amazon isn’t removing its prime service even though they are losing money.

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Amazon prime is an excellent example of the idea mentioned in the Hubspot blog. Customers are forced to continue to make repeated purchases. The ideas in this blog will be valuable for companies as Hubspot is a marketing and sales software, and thus is has a lot of knowledge and date regarding brand and customer management.

 

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Was it worth it? – Starbucks shuts down its online store

 

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In this age and time, when most consumers are increasingly shifting their retail shopping towards online shopping and e-commerce, one company has made a decision to shut down its online e-commerce store. I am talking about Starbucks, one of the worlds biggest coffeehouse chains. In late August, the company put a notice on its online store informing people about the closure, and just last week, they finally shut down their online store.

Maggie Jantzen, a company spokeswoman said that this decision was made to simplify the companies sale channels. Shutting down the online stores does decrease the amount of distribution channels Starbucks has, but according to me, it eliminates one of the easiest distribution channels Starbucks has. It is a zero intermediary distribution channel, in which the producer (Starbucks) sells directly to the consumer. The company would directly earn revenue from the consumers.

The major disadvantage of this decision would be that consumers would lose access to two important things. First of all, they will not be able to get Starbucks merchandise and syrups delivered right to their doorsteps from Starbucks. Second of all, Starbucks will be permanently discontinuing its syrups, such as the Pumpkin Spice Latte because these are only sold on the online store. Some customers are very sad about this decision and have been constantly posting on Twitter to show how they are against this decision. This decision could potentially lead to a negative consequence for Starbucks, which is that they may lose some customers who only shopped on the online stores, and the company may face some loss of revenue but it would not be anything major as a lot of people still buy products from the stores or groceries.

A Starbucks Syrup
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Starbucks has also said that this decision was taken so that retail stores would increase their performance and provide customers with a very good experience. Starbucks recently shut down around 400 branches that were underperforming, and wants to make sure that more stores do not continue to underperform. Customers would now go to the retail stores to buy the merchandise, as well as bulk buy their coffee supply. While they are purchasing this they might decide to buy a snack and a coffee to eat over there. These are ways performance is being increased.

I personally believe that if Starbucks wants to increase the performance of their retail stores, then they should start selling the syrups they sold online in these retail stores. No one is gaining anything from discontinuing the syrups, as consumers are losing some of their favourite products and Starbucks is losing the revenue made on these syrups. This would be my recommendation to Starbucks

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Government vs. Uber

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Recently Uber has been at war with a lot of governments around the world due to disagreements between the policies of the company and the policies of the government. The government of Quebec has a imposed a new rule, due to which Uber is threatening to halt  operations in Quebec. The Quebec government is requiring all Uber drivers to undergo 35 hours of mandatory training before they can start driving for Uber. However, Uber is opposed to this law as it goes against their business model. The business model of Uber allows drivers the flexibility to try out Uber first and then drive whenever they wish to do so. If there is a mandatory 35 hours of training, then drivers will not be able to test out and see if driving for Uber works for them or not. This is a case of stakeholder conflict, as the government and company are opposing each other.

The government is surprised that Uber isn’t able to use their application to train drivers, thus is imposing this regulation. Uber originally started in Quebec as a pilot program, which is now coming to an end. The government says that following this law will be mandatory if Uber wishes to continue operations in Quebec.

Looking at this situation, it seems like the government of Quebec is trying to support the local taxi drivers who have been majorly affected with the entry of Uber into the city. Taxi drivers in Quebec need to obtain taxi permits, which are really expensive. Uber drivers on the other hand do not have to get these permits. Also, with the entry of Uber, local taxi’s are getting less business. The government wants to make sure that Uber taxi’s need to comply with similar regulations if not the same as regular taxi drivers. Regular taxi drivers are paying a lot of money to operate and they are not getting as much business. Also, the government is trying to make sure that all drivers are good for the public.

Uber has a strong case in this conflict, as they providing employment in Quebec and also making it convenient for the locals to obtain taxis.Uber has provided around 3000 full time jobs in Quebec. If Uber leaves the province, then a lot of people will lose a source of income. Also, Uber is a convenient application as people can easily get taxi’s at their doorstep.

Personally, while I lived in Manila using Uber was very convenient and safe as I would use to travel around the city. Family and friends could also track me while in the taxi. Once I came to Vancouver, it has become much harder to get taxi’s without the convenience of Uber.

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“We give where we live”

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“We give where we live”

This is a short statement that encompasses the philosophy of a huge company in the Philippines BPO industry, which is TELUS International Philippines. TELUS International Philippines focuses a lot on developing itself to become an ethical company by creating many corporate social responsibility programs. They do this because they believe that the Philippines is acting as their host country and providing them with many resources such as land and labor, thus they have to give back to the community of the Philippines.

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Recently, an article published in the Philippine Star shared the story of the company’s annual event, which is called the TELUS Day of Giving. This year, the company and its employee’s took on the responsibility of renovating a public school in the city of Tondo in Manila. They painted walls, refurbished the bathrooms and helped in building new classrooms. Around 2600 employees came directly from their night shift in order to work on this project. This shows the commitment of the employees towards achieving the corporate philosophy of the company. This also shows how deeply rooted the values of the company are.

These activities help in improving employee motivation in the company as employees get a chance to contribute towards the development of their country. They will be more involved and will play a role in developing their community.

 

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“TELUS Days of Giving are just one of the ways our company provides team members with the opportunity to showcase their commitment to the communities around the world where we live, work, and serve” – Jeffrey Puritt, TELUS International president and CEO.

I personally believe that what TELUS International Philippines is doing is a great way of showing their commitment towards the community in the Philippines. I have been living in the Philippines for the past 12 years, and have seen the conditions of the public schools there. Overcrowded classrooms and unhygienic buildings are just a part of the problems faced there. Doing projects such as these will make a great impact on the Philippines as it will help improve the quality of education for young students.

I believe that TELUS International Philippines is on the route towards becoming an ethical business because they are investing back into the community that has given them the resources the needed to become a successful BPO in the Philippines. TELUS International Philippines is truly striving to complete its social responsibility.

A company aims to satisfy all stakeholders. The shareholders want profit and the employee’s want financial and non-financial rewards. But one important stakeholder for multinational companies is the host country. They provide the company with resources to operate and the company should help them in return.

-Parth Dhand

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