When I first saw the title of the article, I was attracted. Japan always has many interesting and incredible new inventions coming out. This kissing machine basically functions as giving people the feeling of kissing someone. I think this is a good example of innovation making it less competitive. Because no one did the kissing machine before and it is a completely brand new industry. So it does not have competitors. In addition, there is a target consumer for this, mostly teenagers who do not have many chances in kissing.

In the end of the article, it asks a questions: Will this ever make it to market? Even though it seems that it should gain a lot of success if it is made to market, I still do not think that it will actually appear on market. Because the invention of this to teenagers distorts business ethics to some extent. Even if it comes out, many criticisms and opponents such as parents and teachers will arise which is an external threat to the product. So I think the kissing machine will only be an idea.

Article: http://hypervocal.com/vids/2011/japans-latest-invention-the-kissing-machine/

According to the article, the US firms suggest that marketers should bid against each other to target users. In order to do this, a score is given to every posters based on the amount they post and the times they are tagged or mentioned in others’ posts.

As it is mentioned in the article, the authority score includes the following stuff:

• The number of posts, reposts and retweets they make
• The type of products they “like”
• The lists they subscribe to
• The amount of times others write about them
• How influential their own followers are

The information together gives clues to which advertisements that the website will choose to better satisfy users’ needs. In the blogs that I posted before, Instagram and Facebook are all adding advertisements but Instagram chooses the advertisements that match the users’ interests. In this way, the company can get the revenue stream from the advertisement but meanwhile does not upset users to keep business ethics. This is pretty much the same thing as the authority score. The authority score gives a even more complete information of what users are interested in. Personally, I think this is a good and realistic plan.

Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22895781

After reading the blog post of reacting to the new spokesperson: Brad Pitt as Chanel No.5 Perfume, I had some thoughts.

Lood at the three advertisement above, which one do you think fits Chanel No.5? Obviously, from my perspective, it’s definitely not the Brad Pitt one. First of all, Chanel No.5 is designed for women and the target consumer is women. What do women want? Being alluring and seductive. But the link between the image of Brad Pitt and an alluring woman is much less stronger than the previous two. Secondly, even though it is crucial to think about innovation and creativity of advertising, the right fit is even more important. As the author has mentioned in the article, “The right fit isn’t just about the right face for the right product, it’s about everything.” Personally speaking, I think Chanel should change the spokesperson of No.5 to a better woman.

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/mitch-joel/channel-no5-brad-pitt_b_2357188.html

Apple has become so popular now that people need to line up days before the new products released. I found this article in my friend Yan Kai’s blog. In Yan Kai’s blog post “The Apple at the Summit”, he mentioned the theme “Think Different” of Apple. Instead of producing something that is already existed, Apple is trying to produce a new product, or market in a different and innovative way. From the marketing perspectives, it is always easier to be top in a new prospect instead of being top in a mature industry. For example, Apple developed “Siri” in phones. Even thought for real, Siri does not have much realistic function, it is an innovation in smart phone industry. It is a point of disparity. This is also one of the reasons that Apple can surpass Coke to become the world’s best brand.

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

Link to “The Apple at the Summit”: https://blogs.ubc.ca/yankaing/2013/10/03/the-apple-at-the-summit/

Snapchat is the new smart phone application that gains a lot of popularity mostly among teenagers. It is also called “ephemeral media” because every picture or video can only be viewed up to 10s. After the time limit, it’ll be automatically deleted from the phone. Even though actually, people can hack into others’ devices or take screen shot (which I did sometimes too), people still keep sending each other medias.

The company of Snapchat is only two-year-old. As a result, the company is mainly making zero revenue, just to cover its cost. Normally, the companies like this would first try to find revenue stream such as investment of other companies. But the small and new snapchat company rejected the 3 billion dollars offer! This fact kind of shocked me. But this actually does make sense if you think of the growing popularity of snapchat. According to the article, the snapchat now has more than 100 million users exchanging 350 million messages each day. And this may continue to grow in the future, which means in the future, the company can get more investment than now. The company has a higher value of future than now.

Article: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/snapchat-rejects-facebooks-3bn-offer-8938936.html

I found this article in my friend Yan Kai’s blog and I was attracted by the interesting picture: a women is eating the burger but holding a wrapper with a smiling women face. 

According to the article, the wrapper is invented by a japanese fast food restaurant, motivated by the low sales of the largest burger of women. The Japanese restaurant thought that the reason is that women usually want to be polite when they are eating and do not want to show the month. And the result has shown that this strategy actually worked.

To tell the truth, I always have such concerns when I’m eating the burger or sandwich, or even pizza. But if the burger is with this kind of wrapper, I would actually be more willing to buy it because it is both funny and helpful!!

I think this is really a good marketing strategy and obviously it is successful. The restaurant fully understood consumers’ minds and concerns. And I think this article shows the relationship between psychology and marketing well, which made me think of maybe I should minor in psychology. LOL

Article: http://www.businessinsider.com/japan-freshness-burger-liberation-wrapper-2013-11