The exponential growth of e-commerce throughout the past few years has put pressure on physical stores and shopping centres.  Many customers have been persuaded to purchase items online due to the lower prices and greater selection only achievable by an online store-front. Suffering from the shift of customers to online shopping, malls and big-box retailers have decided to offer more entertainment and digital attractions in hopes catching the attention of the consumers. For specifically, Cadillac Fairview Corp., one of Canada’s largest mall owners, has made drastic changes and plans to double its marketing spending to study ways to attract their customers.

I think that it is inevitable for online markets to gain popularity because they take advantage of the cost leadership strategy by offering a greater selection of products at lower prices and attainable from anywhere in the world. Clearly, shopping centres, such as Cadillac Fairview Corp, are taking a different approach by offering more in-store entertainment to customers because they simply cannot beat the prices of online stores where costs of maintenance and hiring staff are drastically minimized.  It is hard to say whether consumers will weigh entertaining environments over price and selection, but it is definitely a refreshing improvement that cannot be offered by e-commerce. Furthermore, consumers, especially the elderly, will always prefer the conventional method of shopping. Thus it is safe to assume that physical shopping centres are here to stay but is in need of drastic improvements to stay up with e-commerce.

Website link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/online-shopping-forces-malls-to-evolve-and-keep-customers-coming-back/article20777568/

In hopes of revitalizing BlackBerry’s dying market, the new BlackBerry Passport with a physical keyboard, 4.5 inch square screen and a 30 hour battery life was newly released on September 24^th, 2014. The Passport phone has the dimensions of a passport and fits perfectly in a suit pocket.  It is designated for businesses since its screen is perfect for displaying enterprise-friendly documents such as medical charts and spreadsheets. The phone is retailed 299 with a two year plan and a hefty price of 699 without contract.  Along with the launch of the Passport phone, BlackBerry also launched a new app called the BlackBerry Blend which enables users to sync data across computers and other mobile devices without a virtual private network.

Judging from the on-going decrease of sales and lack of innovation of BlackBerry products over the past few years, it is obvious that this brand no longer appeals to the general public, especially compared to its rivals Samsung and Apple. However, BlackBerry’s new strategy allows them to play their strengths and create a smartphone targeted towards corporate users. This strategy of product differentiation offers a glimmer of hope for BlackBerry since there is definitely a lack smartphones that are directed towards corporate use on the market. Thus, there is a foreseeable market for the Passport and a likely possibility that businesses will purchase bulk numbers for their staff. Product differentiation is possibly the only realistic strategy for BlackBerry to rejuvenate itself and I think it will be fascinating to witness the results that Blackberry’s Passport phone yields.

In many situations, the social responsibility of a business encompasses more than the maximization of profit.  Often times, personal values and ethics can generate a more superior result in a business than incessant profit-making.

An impeccable example is demonstrated by the executives of CVS, who are removing tobacco products from their shelf in order to “truly reduce tobacco use in America.” (Dainfo,2014)  By doing so, CVS inevitably loses profit that cigarettes engender. However in my opinion, this is no short of a strategic move since a positive brand reputation can offer more auspicious future prospects than the 2 billion dollars that CVS generates yearly from tobacco sales. (CNN, 2014) In fact, I believe that CVS may be able to compensate for the revenue lost from tobacco through the publicity and customer favoritism it receives from the moral decision. Furthermore, this decision allows CVS to receive support from their essential stakeholders, such as the customers and the community, which formulates business success according to Freeman’s Stakeholder theory. For these reasons, CVS is able to challenge the relentless money-making drive of businesses and pursue moral decisions to aid their success.

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