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New Gillette Guard

Funny how articles I read the night after I have a class in COMM101 are related by coincidence.

Gillette’s gone backwards in tech and is now offering a one-blade version of their famous razors, but there’s a reasoning behind it: they’re targeting a developing market.

There’s a new razor in town! Called the Gillette Guard, its concept goes back to the blueprint of simple razors by having just one blade and a plastic handle-none of those 5-electric-powered-blade madness. This simple razor, début-ing in India, will cost the equivalent of 34 cents USD, making it affordable for the market while allowing P&G to expand their presence and market share on Gillette’s weakest market,caused by the formerly expensive line-up. Although selling such a cheap blade might hurt their brand image a bit, the competitive pricing should attract many buyers by brand perception and fanciness that Gillette blades that are known for in that area.

[Full Article]

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Nokia: What’s Their Problem?

Post author By raymondtang
Post date September 27, 2010
No Comments on Nokia: What’s Their Problem?

If you ask my friends how they would define me, they’d probably respond with something like “cellphone nerd”, “phone person” or sometimes even “Cellphone freak”. Although I do have an interest in mobile phones, I don’t see myself as an know-it-all in that industry but as someone that reads on the latests mobile phone news or technological achievements.

Setting that aside, I encountered this article yesterday on the New York Times explaining the problems employees at Nokia face in their workforce and reasons why they are suffering in the market that they once dominated without any threat less than half a decade ago. The reply that was common amongst those that used to work for Nokia was the difficulty of getting an idea or proposal to the executive team for initiation. Each person had a different set of goals that conflicted with other executives, not to mention the employees that worked for them. As a result, they lost some very capable minds in their company that went ahead elsewhere.

Simply by communications problems inside the biggest cellphone company in the world, Nokia’s market share is slowly being chipped off by new players in the field, notably Apple and HTC. Although Nokia lost their spot in the high-end cellphone market, they must reposition themselves in the low to mid end market where the demand for their phones is still high since their cheap phones are known for their durability and reliability.

[NewYorkTimes]

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Media gone too far with the Toyota Crisis

Post author By raymondtang
Post date September 16, 2010
No Comments on Media gone too far with the Toyota Crisis

The infamous accelerating Toyotas in the United States, was it a big problem?

In this Forbes article by Michael Fumento, he questions the validity of the claims covered by the media and analyses the discrepancies within some widely reported cases, specifically the adventure of the Jim Sikes and his Prius that’s full of plot holes, inconsistencies, and logical fallacies. Through this example, Fumento argues it isn’t entirely Toyota’s faulty cars that are responsible for Sikes’s success to receive national attention, rather it’s the extensive media attention given to the whole crisis that contributes to Sikes’s success. Similar articles on the web point to similar conclusions, and this post on Jalopnik reveals Toyota isn’t the first manufacturer to fall victim to the false media hype: Audi was under the same limelight in the 80’s.

So, who’s at fault here? Certainly Toyota’s responsible for their products; however these problems are common with other auto companies, yet Toyota ended up being the scapegoat for problems that are primarily related to driver error in the media. Regardless, the media continues to drive headlines by using situations that already passed half a decade ago , and even make attempts to rig a car just to grab attention on the headlines.

Has media gone too far for their self interest? In this particular case it may seem so, but in a society that allows freedom of speech it is difficult to regulate information control. The result of media’s generation of fear and anger in the society results in Toyota’s loss of reputation and brand perception

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Ryanair

Just ran across an article today on Gizmodo redefining the new ‘budget class’

^I definitely wouldn’t be smiling like that if I was sitting on one of those saddle seats, it looks painful X_x

Anyway, it’s a perfect solution for Ryanair…I can see them installing these onto their airplanes soon, no maintenance and no moving parts. Wonder what’s it’s like to shove a 6ft+ passenger in one though haha =P

[Link Here]

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