I clearly remember that when the first Starbucks opened in my city, there were a great number of people waiting on line. It seemed that no one cared about the price of coffee at that time. However, recently, Starbucks in china under fire due to the high price of coffee compare to other places. Nevertheless, there are still many people purchasing coffee in Starbucks. As we can see, Starbucks has already gotten into the mind of the consumers in China. It is the almost first western coffee brand in China. Lots of blind faith consumers regard drinking Starbucks coffee as a fashion trend. Although nowadays, more and more western coffee brands expand their markets in China; however, it is more difficult to remember who is second.

Starbucks established its unique position in some Chinese consumers’ mind; this is one of the reasons that although its coffee is much expensive than other brands’, Starbucks still attracts and has more loyal consumers. In the news, “Starbucks under fire in China over its Coffee Pricing Policies”, one user said, “The prices are competitive and the quality makes people feel safe.” This certainly illustrates that some still support Starbucks due to the high quality of coffee and they are willing to pay such high price. Without doubt, the power of Starbucks name and logo cannot be ignored in China. Whenever people think about coffee, Starbucks comes the first place, which shows how memorable it is. Also, once people have Starbucks’ bottle; it seems they are fashionable. Starbucks successfully became the leader of the coffee markets in China. Surly, it is the first brand in the coffee category. Also, the difference in income between China and other countries emphasizes the high price of coffee. All in all, Starbucks uses brand positioning to target customers in the Chinese crowded market.

http://www.quickmba.com/marketing/ries-trout/positioning/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24619544

It seems that economy has been recovering in UK as “new UK car sales in September at highest level in five years. And the top selling car is Ford’s Fiesta, followed by Vauxhall Corsa and Ford Focus, with 20629, 14464, and 14295 sales respectively. From this information, it can be seen as that these companies sell inexpensive cars and meet the customers’ standards. Nowadays, customers consider the fuel-efficient cars, as they prefer to reduce the cost. Ford Company narrows its target market as they increase the fuel-efficient new model cars, which can satisfy people’s needs. As we can see, Ford Company is an example of gain creator because customers are happy to buy these fuel-efficient cars and as a result, the company creates positive consequence with the evidence that they are the top selling cars. In addition, another factor that boosting sales was “the type of financing deals available”. This greatly helps consumers to clarify their running costs.

Moreover, although in the chart “ Most popular new car models, Sep 2013”, there are not many luxury car brands, the Mercedes-Benz “sales volumes grew by 15.9% to 142,994 cars. It is also can be seen a great growth. Different than Ford’s company, Mercedes-Benz regards China as its main market. As more and more people getting rich in China, there is the tendency that people prefer to have the luxury cars. Surely, Mercedes-Benz sees this as an opportunity to extend their market along with their strong brands name and reputation, sales volume rose 21% in China.

All in all, companies have different targets and strategy, which satisfy different customers’ needs. Also, differentiation and low cost strategy are accounted for the importance of companies success.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24396562

It is quite difficult to establish a new business nowadays. The Porter’s Five Forces suggests that for the new businesses,we need to overcome the barriers to entry. This refers to the threat of new entrants. From the article “Young Woman Breaks through in Sri Lankan Business World”, it demonstrates the young woman named Nimall Gunawardana has successfully established her business through overcoming the barriers. At first, she failed to run a company as she realized that she could not afford the great number of loans and as a result, no bank would lend to her. This illustrates the absolute cost advantages and the bank policy have prevented her from establishing the new business. Also, as for the rural parts of Sri Lanka, it has the discrimination that woman cannot have their own business and Ms. Gunawardana did not get the support at all. However, she did not give up and ask the business support organization for help. Luckily, after training and borrow enough money from the organization, she had her company, “Nimali Chips and Fibre Mill”, which “turns discarded coconut hasks into three useful materials-coir, coir pith and husk chips.” Sri Lankan riches in coconut and Ms. Gunawardana uses discarded coconut as the main resources of her products which greatly decreases the cost. Without doubt, there are competitions that she has to deal with. Gunawardana “currently sells her products to other companies who then export them and she wants to start doing the exporting itself”. She began to improve her product differentiation as she starts to turn its coir into rope, which is also a point of difference. As we can see, innovation is vital in the business nowadays even in the rural parts.

PS: From this article, we cannot only to learn some business knowledge but also, ambitions and confidence is also crucial to our success. Woman also can be outstanding and we should not give up so easily when we are achieving our dreams.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24206038

Recently, from the International brand consulting firm Interbrand, Apple has become the world’s best brand and Coke which was the first one slipping to third place. Brand is the intangible asset that company has. It is not a physical asset that we can count, so how did Interbrand rank brands? From the article, “Apple Surpasses Coke as World’s best brand”, it is said Interbrand ranks brand based on companies’ financial results, the effect that brand has when consumers purchase products, and loyalty company creates to help increase its demand and future profit. Also, the company should have more than 30 percent of its revenues come from other regions and continents expect its home region. These all demonstrates that the top brands should be global and influential.

Surely, Apple has been greatly influenced our life such as, people can connect each other easily through facetime.  And its own unique system IOS is one of the point of differences, which attract more consumers and made Apple be more competitive in the market. Furthermore, Apple has establish its solid loyalty among some consumers as every time Apple released their new phones, a great number of people buy them immediately and even some queue the whole night. It is kind of shocked that Apple can be booming so fast, admittedly, the innovation plays a vital role on it. One of Steven Jobs’ quotes is “Innovation distinguished between a leader and a follower.” This has been proved that Apple innovates all the time as recent they released  IOS 7 and finger scan security system. Apple has been leading the trend of technology as a result of we can see many similar laptops or phones to Apple’s in the market. In order to remain the first place of the brand ranks and keep dominating the market, Apple also has to realize its biggest competitor Samsung and extend Chinese market as its new phone did not sell as well in China as other places. China has the potential market that Apple can explore due to the population and people’s preferences.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/apple-surpasses-coke-as-world-s-best-brand-1.1873259

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/stevejobs173474.html