Monthly Archives: November 2014

Although the UN, The Arc and Social Enterprises have the common goal of making this world a better place. They are completely different from each other in their duties. This is what leads me to believe that even if the United Nations was full funded we still need the Arc and Social Enterprises. I believe we have to continue to fund all 3 programs, as it is beneficial to society.

The United Nations was established after the First World War; personally I believe their main goal is to work towards world peace and solving inequality. Due to the fact that the world is so big the UN would not be able to mange and take care of every problem. Even with all the money in the world they wouldn’t be able to do the actions the Arc and social enterprises offer. For example when reading into the trip Arc Initiative to Rwanda, I realized that they help develop the country through a business sense. As Sauder sent teachers and students to teach and help entrepreneurs from Rwanda establish a market. Social Responsibility is evident between the program at sauder and social enterprises.

Arc and Social Enterprises operate on a more business level and work in depth with communities. They work to the well being of communities in less fortunate areas. I believe in what Sauder created with Arc Initiative as it maximizes improvements in human well-being. The UN and Arc/Social Enterprises are different in the way of their actions of helping countries. This is what leads to say even if the UN was fully funded we would still need the Arc and Social Enterprises.

Recently in class, our lovely guest speaker, Danielle van Jaarsveld, spoke to us about Organizational Culture & Human Resource Management. She used Zappos, a shoe company for an example; I recently came across a blog written by the CEO of Southwest airlines. Gary Kelly spoke about how having fun in your workplace will relate to success. Happy Employees translate to happy customers, this external blog directly relates to the concepts discussed in class by Danielle.

The CEO (Gary Kelly)of southwest airlines dressed up for their annual halloween costume party

I personally believe in the theory of having fun in the workplace and making your employees happy. If I was an employee of Southwest Airlines, I would love to work there and in return do my best for the company. Establishing a culture within your company allows you to hire employees who best fit. Setting a fun, energetic environment work place, is what I believe to be the best environment to work in. Southwest Airlines, a top airline in America, is a living example. Organizational Culture and HR Management are two of the most important things in a company, and many CEO’s disregard that fact. A company is like a team, and in order to achieve success the whole company has to work as one.

Being the leader of a football team, I can relate to CEO’s trying to get their team (meaning employees) on the same page. The leader sets the environment for it’s employees because a good environment will allow your employees to grow. Thus in return your company will grow and earn success.

http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20141107000342-321194218-having-fun-at-work-makes-good-business-sense?trk=tod-posts-post1-psum

In Commerce class we have spoken about a company’s strategies and value propositions. We have talked about companies such as Walmart for example, a company who pursues competitive advantage through lowering costs and prices.

In Stav’s blog, she talks about a new innovative idea Walmart is looking to incorporate into their system. It’s basically called Walmart Pickup-Grocery. You order your groceries and you come and pick it up at the front door all ready for checkout. This new idea Walmart has come up with, adds to their value proposition canvas. Not only does it make people happier with cheap items, but makes people lives’ easier by limiting the time spent searching for groceries. I believe this new innovative idea would provide extra gain creators, and pain relievers. It relieves the stress of the person trying to find their groceries, and creates many gains.This company has also created a new point of difference from all other grocery stores with this innovative idea. It allows them to stand out even more in the minds of the consumer.

Honestly, I think this is a great idea that Walmart has come up with; this strategy will attract new customers who are looking to speed up their shopping. Personally, I have worked in a factory where I picked out frozen meat/food orders for clients and I have seen this strategy work with my own eyes.

We are exposed to over 5,000 ads every single day of our lives, these ads have the changed the way we live and look at society. Advertising today is a whole lot different from what it was a decade ago.

I personally think advertising went through a revolution, It’s about being smart, creative and FAST nowadays. They call it “Reactvertising”, Ad agencies and marketing sectors of company’s have to react and respond to global issues faster than the next competitor. Seeing numerous ads on the same thing gets boring and worthless, as a viewer I know I only remember the first advertisement I see about a event. I believe marketing is the key to getting a connection with customers, and establishing channels. I can only imagine myself being part of a marketing team for coca cola, how intense and fast every decision is made.

EXAMPLE(oreo reacts to the blackout during the superbowl and creates an ad out of the event)

EXAMPLE(Kit Kat reacts to the iphone 6 bending problem with an ad of their own)

Reactvertising is what I think is the best way to market products, using big events and relating them in ads to your product will attract attention. You want your ad to stand out next to the other thousands of ads. Personally, this and everything marketing has to offer intrigues me.

As of right now I am hoping to go into marketing, the fast & creative mindset, marketing requires you to have inspires me.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/ad-agency-pans-real-time-advertising-in-spoof-video/article21403898/

Mr. Dhanani recently talked about the preparations WestJet is making in order to brace the entry of North America’s biggest airline, southwest airlines. I personally believe this whole talk about WestJet restricting the width of the seat to increase leg space for passengers is rubbish and a big cover up.

WestJet is just like every other airline, a firm seeking to maximize profit. With the threat of another airline entering into the Canadian market it has to reduce costs some way. If I were on the management team of WestJet airlines I would also find new ways to reduce costs and maximize profit. This is because of the threat of new competitor, Southwest airlines plans on entering and becoming a huge competitor. With their value proposition of cheap prices, consumers like you and I will be more attracted too this. I think Airlines will have to react to the entry of this airline by changing their own target sectors and value propositions in order to maximize profit.    

Being a consumer, I am hoping for the entry of Southwest airlines, as it will force other airlines to bring their prices down as well.

In order to keep consumers from leaving, airlines will have to provide more benefits and also a better price. For people who travel a lot, this would be a positive impact as it will allow them to travel at cheaper cost.

Remember MySpace?…Hi five?….Msn?  These social media networks took the world by storm a decade ago, and then they  just disappeared.

Facebook fears they might be in the same situation as they are losing popularity and profit. Society is losing interest in the social phenomenon that changed the way teens interacted. No one updates their profiles or posts any status, the only thing I see on the media site is adds, more adds, and some photos. Even fewer and fewer photos are being posted, with apps such as instagram and twitter stealing most of the users away.

“We did see a decrease in [teenage] daily users [during the quarter], especially younger teens,” – Facebook chief financial officer David Ebersman

Facebook right now is still at the top of the social media-networking ladder, with sales jumping over 60% in the third quarter. However if Facebook wants to remain at the top they have to innovate new ideas to attract teens and keep them involved within the site.

Facebook itself is a marketing funnel, as it generates up to 1.8 billion through Ad revenues. I believe one thing that drives teens away from this social media site is the number of distracting and random ads. Personally I am not motivated to go on Facebook and click a bunch of useless ads that pop us up.

Facebook needs to target the sector of teens and create a business value proposition that will attract users.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/2014/10/24/why-facebook-losing-some-teens/rOT9pq1Btceya0QmErWqvO/story.html?p1=menu_business_latest#comments

http://money.cnn.com/2013/10/30/technology/social/facebook-earnings/

Erin Wallace of Commerce 102 section 102 wrote about the new marketing strategy, Coke had implemented into their toolkit. Coke is a top-level company in the soft drink market. However with the entry of so many competitors, Coke had to find a way to still remain the #1 drink in the mind of consumers.

 In her blog, “Share a Coke”, Erin Wallace describes the effects of the marketing strategy of putting your name on a bottle of coke. This boosted sales and created success for the company.

Personally having an uncommon name, I share the frustration of wanting to find my name on a coke bottle. Nevertheless, I believe The “Share a Coke” campaign is a huge success, because it attracts all kinds of consumer’s even people who don’t drink pop. I don’t even drink Coke, but I would still love to have one with my name on it. Personalizing the Coke bottles brought a whole new buzz around an old product. This marketing strategy was extremely well thought out and executed by the company, it allowed them to target all sectors of the market.

Our name is the most personal thing we have, it has our fingerprint and is our identity. Even people with unique names who found trouble trying to find their names on regular things, were able to obtain a bottle with their name. They expanded the “Share a Coke” campaign by creating a personalizing truck that allowed you to type in anything you wanted on the bottle. In Response to Erin’s last comment, Coke has found a way to satisfy your cravings of having your unique name on bottle. All you have to do is keep an eye out for these trucks and your dream will come true.