Rebecca Quach's Blog

Alright, so the title of this blog post has spiked your curiosity, right? At least, that was what I felt when I found Mike Michalowicz blog ‘The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur‘. Mike’s blog is basically what the name suggests: Mike posts advice for entrepreneurs looking to start a business, when all their plans are written on “toilet paper” ready to be turned into reality. As an aspiring entrepreneur, I find Mike’s blog really helpful. The tips he gives, such as how much to pay employees or where to find employees to work for free, are interesting, organized, and well thought-out. Mike doesn’t just gives his own advice either; he gets help from actual people in business to write tips and tricks.  The tips themselves are written in ready-to-implement lists. If you want to start your own business, but don’t know where to start, this is the blog for you. It is concise, easy to read, and holds a wealth of information (there are more than 100 blog posts!). Want specific advice on say, customer service? There’s a topics section that organizes all the blogs into different topics like events or branding.

All in all, this blog is for the Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.

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This is a blog response to Jolene Lloyd’s blog post ‘Peculiar Marketing From Australia‘. What first sparked my interest was that I had viewed the video myself many times before; in fact, the reason I even watched it in the first place was because my 11-year old sister had sent it to me via Facebook. And I completely agree with Jolene: the video is an excellent marketing tactic. If it even caught my little sister’s attention, think about all the other people it can attract. This video is on its way to viral fame.

Jolene goes on to include some very good points on how exactly the video attracts such a large audience. They use basic marketing tactics like differentiation and “shock-value”. I especially agree that this is a great way to target youth.

The importance of marketing can’t get any more clearer than this. Marketing is an important tool to lure in your target audience; it should captivate and make one want to research more about the product/service. As “Dumb Ways to Die” has shown us, good marketing will not only bring in favorable reactions, but an increase in demand as well.

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If you haven’t guessed already, the title of this blog post is a famous uttering of the one and only James Bond. In recent news, the new Bond movie Skyfall has reportedly switched the iconic Vodka Martini for a Heineken beer. Say what?

Product placement is often used in movies as a source of funding, and the new Bond movie is no exception. A marketing tactic, companies like Heineken often reach out to producers and directors to include a shot of their product. In this case, by having James Bond sip on a beer, Heineken hopes to advertise their product to moviegoers and perhaps target the particular audience that would go to see such a movie. Is product placement effective? According to various studies, it is. By using embedded marketing strategies, companies are almost guaranteed that their product will get noticed. One’s consequent buying decisions are therefore affected.

Is product placement ethical, however? Although product placement is definitely a good way for companies to market, most consumers seem to think otherwise. “Implicit” product placement, it seems, is unethical because it is “subliminal” and reaches out actively to almost brainwash consumers. My thoughts? I believe that ethical or not, advertising is generally of the same note. It was a smart move on Heineken’s part, though.

“James Bond just sold out: Daniel Craig swaps Vodka Martini for a bottle of Heineken to star in controversial new 007 beer ad” – Rob Cooper

More: About Product Placement

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You may have seen that commercial where McDonald’s invites you to ask any question you want about their food. Any question at all, and they will answer. As you might expect, there are a lot of questions about the “truth” behind what McDonald’s is serving its customers. But I won’t go into that. What I will discuss, however, is how great a marketing tactic this is. When I first saw the commercial, I was pleasantly surprised. I don’t know if my brain has been hardwired by Bcom, but I started thinking about what a great move this was on McDonald’s part. This clearly shows that McDonald’s is aware of the controversy surrounding their product, and instead of avoiding the problem like they always did, McDonald’s decides to take the bull by the horns. This campaign is an excellent, excellent technique to not only market their product, but to get rid of their bad rep among costumers and health advocates as well. I’m not a fan of the fast-food joint itself, but I was very curious, and that is a sign of an effective marketing strategy. Is McDonald’s finally getting transparent?

Main website: Our food. Your questions.

Youtube video: “What is in the sauce that is in the Big Mac?”

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This is a response to Claudia Jang’s blog post ‘The Importance of Organizational Culture‘. In the blog post, Claudia gives some very good points about how Facebook’s organizational culture translates into the overall success of the company. I completely agree that by instating such a creative and free atmosphere, this creates an encouraging environment for innovation. As well, Claudia points out that employee satisfaction is high and turn-over rates are consequently low.

Although Facebook’s organizational culture has definitely achieved high employee satisfaction, I can’t help but compare the culture to that of Google’s. The organizational culture of the two tech giants are definitely similar, and one can even go so far as to say that the reason why both Google and Facebook are so successful is duly because of their relaxed culture. At the same time, do all tech companies profit from a similar culture? Could we even say that all tech companies should copy Google’s and Facebook’s cultural model, as this is a bookmark for success? In my opinion, even if such a culture is definitely appealing for start-up tech firms, we should always analyze our own specific position and “work habits” before jumping aboard the band wagon.

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We’ve all heard about Google’s awesome organizational culture. They’ve got indoor heated pools, chefs, masseuses, slides, sleeping pods, as well as everything you can think of that exists in the typical bachelor pad. This is THE place to work at for most techies. Heck, as a BUCS student, I am definitely putting Google on my job-search list. And why not? Their culture inspires creativity and innovation. Googlers–Google employees for those of you not in the know–can ask questions directly to execs about any company issue. This inspires a family-like atmosphere that in turn encourages new ideas to flow. This in turn translates into innovative products/services that consumers love and enjoy. Google’s culture inspires a profits. One can definitely see how important organizational culture is; it can directly affect how profitable a business will be. If a company implements the right culture for their type of business, then that will decrease turn-over rates, increase employee satisfaction and loyalty, and of course, increase profits. Google is a prime example. Just by creating the right kind of culture for their line of work as a tech firm, Google can just sit back and enjoy the success. A company is first its identity, and then its product. If a company has a strong base identity, then the corresponding product will be just as strong.

Google’s Culture

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Have you ever heard of a site called Pinterest? If you have, then you would know that Pinterest is a social bookmarking site–ie. a kind of online scrapbook that others can see. One of the defining aspects about Pinterest is that 80% of the site’s users are female. That means tons of pictures of weddings and shoes and fashion and the like. Pinterest’s co-founders Colin Brown and Kamil Szybalski are aiming to change that when they launch Pinterest for men: Dudepin. Dudepin is the male counterpart of Pinterest; seeing as how the founders can’t make the original site any less female, they decided to just pave a new path for all the males out there. Dudepin is decidedly a genius opportunity in the making. I believe that the founders have taken advantage of a huge demographic gap–social bookmarking sites for those not in the know are mainly targeted towards women. Dudepin will hopefully transform this, and create a site where guys too can look at cute photos and sigh…at how gorgeous that car/piece of technology/man-cave is.

http://dudepins.com/

Dudepins Promo Video

Local startup to launch “Pinterest for Men” – Nelson Bennett

Tags:   Demographic Gap · Dudepins · Marketing · PinterestNo Comments.

In the following article, the author speaks of a Vancouver-based company called CONDOday, a company apparently similar to Groupon, but for real-estate. Customers who sign up for CONDOday can get discounts off of condos and other real-estate. Membership is free. Amid sluggish home sales in Vancouver, one condominium developer partnered with the company to help sell the last couple of condos in one Langley development.

CONDOday is an example of an opportunity taken by an entrepreneur. By providing a partnership with condominium developers to help spur on sales, CONDOday also provides deals to customers that they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. I think that CONDOday is a very interesting company in the marketing value that they provide–the company definitely has a very unique point of difference, appealing to both customers and partners alike.

Groupon-style condo sale to take place Saturday – Glen Korstrom

Tags:   CONDOday · Groupon · Housing flop · Metro VancouverNo Comments.

In the article, ‘Vancouver company takes bite out of video piracy’ by Nelson Bennett, Bennett talks about an interesting new way to make money off of viral videos. For example, if you watched a video about a certain charity, you could’ve made a donation without even cracking open your wallet. How? An organization called VISO Give generates revenue for charities by embedding advertising in videos. By simply watching a video made by or for a non-profit organization, a viewer generates revenue, paid by the advertisers.

I think that this is a great idea. For those of the YouTube generation, this was great news. Everyday people who enjoyed making videos could now even make money off of it. By monetizing videos, organizations who had problems with pirating could now take the reins back by producing their own exclusive online videos, and generate revenue from it as well. In a world rapidly becoming dependent on technology, developing businesses like VISO Give is not only a benefit to everyday people, but to the world as well. The opportunities created are endless.

Vancouver company takes bite out of video piracy – Nelson Bennett

Tags:   Monetizing Videos · Viral Videos · VISO Give · YouTubeNo Comments.

In the article ‘Antitrust Suit Could Bring Down Google’, author Dan Lyons discusses the lawsuit between Google and the Federal Trade Commission over antitrust concerns. To summarize, the FTC is suing the search engine giant because Google owns two-thirds of the US internet searches and that it has “rigged its search results in ways that hurt its competitors”. According to the FTC and the US government, Google is too powerful–its practically a monopoly. However, proving that Google is a monopoly is tricky business given the fast-paced and ever-changing world that we reside in today. As well, it’s not enough to prove that Google is a monopoly, the government must also prove that Google is abusing its alleged monopoly.

There are many ethical issues we can discuss concerning monopolies. For example, real monopolies are considered bad, as the company has complete dominance over a market and can therefore charge anyone any amount and basically get away with it. However, one can argue that in business, the primary goal is to maximize profits, and monopolies are just a step in that direction.

So is it true? We don’t know yet, as the lawsuit is still ongoing. However, if Google is indeed a monopoly, and abusing that monopoly, this becomes an issue of ethics–especially for the company whose unofficial slogan is “Don’t Be Evil”. In the end, however, this lawsuit is ultimately left up to the presiding courts, and the question of ethics left up to the individual.

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” –John Dalberg-Acton

Antitrust Suit Could Bring Down Google – Dan Lyons

Tags:   FTC vs Google · Google · Lawsuit · Monopoly3 Comments