RouJun Ye's blog

Response blog: Why Google’s Self-Driving Car is a Game-Changer(brandchannel)

Autonomous cars are years from mass production, but technologists who have long dreamed of them believe that they can transform society as profoundly as the Internet has. Google launched the self-driving car which is using Google’s pioneering self-driving technology. The technology  was developed with the goal of making driving safer for everyone, eliminate traffic jams, and bring people to their destinations without getting lost.

People who are not able to drive safely on the road — like people with vision loss, people in wheelchairs, or elderly people with age-related physical or cognitive disabilities, may rely on alternative technologies or services to achieve the sense of independence and control. Robot drivers react faster than humans, have 360-degree perception and do not get distracted, sleepy or intoxicated. The technology could double the capacity of roads by allowing cars to drive more safely while closer together. Because the robot cars would eventually be less likely to crash, they could be built lighter, reducing fuel consumption. The car can be programmed for different driving personalities — from cautious, in which it is more likely to yield to another car, to aggressive, where it is more likely to go first.

But the advent of autonomous vehicles poses thorny legal issues. Under current law, a human must be in control of a car at all times, but what does that mean if the human is not really paying attention as the car crosses through, say, a school zone, figuring that the robot is driving more safely than he would?

Google’s first self-driving car crash was on Aug 5, 2011 in California. People are worried about self-driving cars because the complicated set of lasers and imaging systems thought it was just looking at its shadow. Google has never answered the question of who’s ultimately responsible for any accidents that happen while the software controls the vehicle.

The biggest battle in auto safety today involves keeping drivers focused on driving. Google’s self-driving car seems like the ultimate distracted driving machine. And in the event of an accident, who would be liable — the person behind the wheel or the maker of the software?

This blog post was written in response to Taewan Kim ‘s blog post, titled ” Nike on Les Bleus and L’europe  “.

Nike is a global sports giant company, 30% bigger than nearest rivals Adidas. It spent nearly $800 million on ‘nontraditional’ advertising in 2010, according to Advertising Age estimates. The brand has overhauled its $100 million-plus campaigns around major events like the World Cup and Olympics. The spend on TV and print id down by 40%, however, the total marketing budget was $2.4 billion last year. The company has decided to target teens who spend 20% more on shoes than their adult counterparts. After a decade of growth, its sales have reached $21 billion, making it the world’s largest sports company.

Nike’s 4Ps are the following:

Product

Nike offers top-selling products in a wide range of shoe, apparel and equipments. The company started selling sports apparel, athletic bags and accessory items in 1979. And it also carries a line of dress and casual footwear and accessories for men, women and children. Other manufacturers can buy small amounts of plastic products, ice skates, skate blades, protective gear, hockey sticks and accessories from Nike Team Sports and Nike IHM, Inc.

Price

Nike’s pricing is designed to compete with other sports retailers. The pricing is based on the basis of premium segment as target customers. Nike’s pricing strategy makes use of vertical integration in pricing wherein they own participants at differing channel levels or take part in more than one channel level operations. This can control costs and influence product pricing.

Place

Nike products are carried by multi-brand stores and the exclusive Nike stores across the globe. Nike sells its product to about 20,000 retail accounts in the U.S. and in almost 200 countries around the world. In the international markets, Nike sells its products through independent distributors, licensees and subsidiaries. Independent distributors need not adapt to local pressures because the 4Ps of marketing are managed by distributors.

Promotion

Nike has a number of famous athletes that serve as brand ambassadors such as the Brazilian Soccer Team (especially Ronaldino, Renaldo, and Roberto Carlos), Lebron James and Kobe Bryant for basketball, Lance Armstrong for cycling, and Tiger Woods for Golf. Nike also sponsors events such as Hoop It Up and The Golden West Invitational. Nike’s brand images, the Nike name and the trademark swoosh, make it one of the most recognizable brands in the world. Nike’s quality products, loyal customer base and its great marketing techniques all contribute to make the shoe empire a huge success.

In response to Tim Cheung’s blog post ( https://blogs.ubc.ca/timcheung/2012/01/15/6/), I’ve found that most of us have been victims of false advertising. They’ve used weasel words to exaggerate how fancy their products are. The question is, will companies change their marketing policies or continue to gain profits over the consumer’s right to know.

There are three main types of false advertising: failure to disclose, flawed and insignificant research, and product disparagement. Failure to disclose means the representation of a product is untrue and is unable to disclose a material fact. So misleading advertising comes from both misstatements and avoid disclosing something the consumer should know. The example of the beats headphone demonstrates this kind of false advertising. Besides, Flawed and insignificant research can be defined as represents a product in a way that is unsupported by research or accepted authority. The last one is Product Disparagement which involves defaming competitors’ products.

After the misleading advertising has been verified, the court can require the company to launch a corrective advertising campaign and make a correcting statement in that campaign. In order to ensure consumers have competitive prices and product choice, the Competitive Act prohibits a number of marketing strategies. Consumers can complain to the Government about any of these false advertising even they have no intention of buying the product. An non-govermental organization named Advertising Standards Canada is made up of advertisers, representatives from advertising agencies and the media and consumers. It encourages monitoring false or misleading advertising and reduce the amount of it.

“Apple always wants a reaction when one of their new products launch, although they probably weren’t hoping for the angry scenes which erupted in China today. Frustrated customers threw eggs at Apple’s flagship Beijing store after its opening for the Chinese launch of the iPhone 4S was cancelled due to concerns over the size of the crowd. Apple reacted to the scuffle by postponing iPhone 4S sales in its mainland China stores to protect the safety of customers and employees.

Customers including migrant workers hired by touts in teams of 20 to 30 to buy iPhones for resale at a mark-up to Chinese gadget fans waited overnight in freezing weather at the Apple store in Beijing’s eastern Sanlitun district. The crowd erupted after the store failed to open on schedule at 7 am. A person with a megaphone announced the sale was cancelled. Police ordered the crowd to leave and sealed off the area with yellow tape. Employees posted a sign saying the iPhone 4S was out of stock.”

The chaos showed that Apple was definitely underestimated the Chinese demand and spending power of Chinese market. The CEO Tim Cook said, “We didn’t bet high enough.” The company may want to figure out what happened in that situation and how to prevent it from happening again in the future. Apple should have an effective marketing information system to give the managers the right information and help them to determine and act correctly and create stronger customer relationships. Companies use this system to compute information needs, develop the needed information, and help decision maker to use the information to generate and validate actionable customer and market insights.

The company should also perform marketing researches before it launches its iPhone4s in Chinese market. It should collect both primary data and secondary date to assess its target consumers and shipment. Besides, online marketing research such as Internet surveys and online panels are interactive and easier to give some information about the demand.

Apple is trying to expand its distribution in China and pushing forward close cooperation with other second carrier partners since China is one of its most important markets and it would seek more in-depth development of China.

Last week, more than a thousand Hong Kong residents protested outside the Dolce & Gabbana flagship store in Hong Kong. This incident started because Hong Kong citizens are not allowed to take pictures of the storefront, but mainland travelers and foreigners can do. It was reported that some powerful Chinese customers was asked for the photo ban to protect their privacy. Hong Kong people are viewing this as “discriminatory” practices and they are asking for an announcement and apology. Someone posted a video on youTube showing that a security guard intimidated a local journalist to break his camera when he was taking photos from the pavement outside.

This news has been spread on Facebook quickly, and more than 13,000 people supported to create a stir in the store on Sunday. Angry netizens took their complaints to Dolce & Gabbana’s official Facebook page, leaving unflattering comments under their new year’s greeting status update.

Internet and social network is a good way to spread information and ideas immediately, and generally will have a wide audience. People can promote their ideas and products through social media, by writing blogs or sharing articles. They can expand their network and convene more participants without costs. Every person who confirms the usefulness of the product or information helps undecided people to make decisions.  As in this case, a Facebook page was set up on Jan 5^th for the flash mob mustered a thousand people in a few days, and the incident has putted a great pressure on D&G.

The store was closed again on Jan 15 because of the third protest, and the Italian brand owe an official apology to the public.

COMM 299 is a valuable course which helps me to present myself in a better way. I have learned a low of useful skills from this class on how to write an impressive resume and cover letter, also how to demonstrate my advantages and experiences in an interview. This course combines academic knowledge with real experience, and provides feedback for improvement.  I had no idea how to write a resume which can matching the job posting requirement at the beginning of this class. After attending Comm299 lectures, I recognized my advantages and what I am interested in. So I picked a job which is connected to my previous work experience, and able to convince the interviewer that I should be the one who can get this job. By preparing my interview, I knew that a detailed research has to be done, and good questions that an interviewee asked can gain a good impression. Besides, we learned how to shake hands in a proper way and how useful the eye contact is. After that, I become more confident about finding jobs and doing interviews, and good communication with co-workers and group members can inspire me to work harder and be more efficient. I am grateful that I can have this course in first year, and I would recommend it to other students .

I’ve learned lots of important lessons from life, but one lesson was self-taught and get out of pressure. My parents have been raising me to be independent my entire life. They have  emphasized the importance of learning to be dependent on no one else for my survival. When I get into the university, I realize that where my true independence began to manifest into reality. All the years of my parents’ teaching were finally becoming something true. Sometimes I realize what is happening when it happens, but I can’t do anything to stop it. So I think the greatest lesson I’ve learned is that this is who I am, and I shouldn’t put too much pressure on myself. In a group of people that I am with frequently, I will confide in one of the group members, and they will help me if necessary. I wish that everyone could stand on their own, provide on their own, and be successful on their own. And although I’ll be the first to admit that I am barely standing on my own right now.Something, to get me to where I want to be in life. Something, to help me grow in ways I never thought were possible. Something, to help me achieve that success I’ve always wanted. And maybe, one day, being able to share my life and success with the person I love the most.