Month: February 2011

          Nowadays, due to widespread use of smart phone the market share for Cell Phone Company has been changed dramatically; the most popular smart phones in North America are Iphone and Blackberry. Even though in the worldwide Nokia has the greatest market share, it seems that there is a less contribution from North America.

        However, Sony Ericsson wants to join the competition to increase the market share in North America. Due to the success of PSP, the company wants to add the features from PSP to their phone product which is Xperia Play.

        It just looks like PSP go, but it is a Cell phone the only different  between PSP go and Xperisa Play is the phone call feature, which is similar to the different between Iphone and Itouch. PSP is so popular in North America; nevertheless, I do not think this new product will be successful for the following reasons.

        It seems that the Sony Company wants to copy the success of Iphone. However, there is a big different that their positions. For the Iphone, the first feature is it can make a Phone call, and then there are lots applications to make this product more capable. As can be seen from the picture, the Xperia Play is just a new version of PSP go except the phone call feature.

        The reason of PSP’s success is that it really provides an excellent entertaining experience, but Xperia Play decreases its competitive advantage. The reaction is really slow when you play a game on the Xperia Play, and the battery only provides a short period of working. The position of this product is that it can play games first; then, it also can make a phone call. If people can not get the entertaining experience that they are looking for, the product will not be success.

        As someone say, he prefer to have a PSP and a cell phone rather than Xperia Play.

  Today, Starbucks is the most successful and famous coffee store in China. An increasing high number of people like to have a cup of coffee at the beginning of a day.  The social trend and the amazing number of population illustrate a profitable target market. The widespread communication between different cultures has been contributed to the Starbucks’ success in China. However, the target market seems to be undifferentiated because there are not lots competitors in China.

          Starbucks is the first brand enters into Chinese market as a coffee store. Even through Chinese market is the second profitable markets to Starbucks, there are lots of potential risks. The less stress from the competitors causes the less attention on the company developing strategy. The only strategy I can see is that Starbucks try to establish its stores as any as possible. I do not mean that this is not right; I think that Starbucks also needs to pay some attention to other strategies such as customer service. It seems that the service of Starbucks in China is not better than others in the similar industry; however, the quality of the service is even under the average. Why? Because of a big company it is.

        In China, the less efficiency management has lead to a damage of the brand image that the Starbucks’ most important competitive advantage in North America market, and Starbucks spent lots of effort to establish. Moreover, the inefficiency of management has raised the competition inside of the company. There are several stores that are too close to each others, they compete for the same customers in the same region. ( see the map on the right hand side how stores close to each others) I think that there should be some market protection to each store so that to avoid a loss from inside competition.

       Therefore, I believe that Starbucks should be more alter to those potential risks for the long run development in China. Also, the company should be pay attention to the local culture.

The following reading is about that Starbucks raised the indignation of the public in China.

“Forbidden City Starbucks”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/6898629.stm

      The last in class activity was about designing a research; however, there was an observation that I noticed form the search, which was that it seems that the Safeway is the best brand to choose for customers in my research. For me, I think the second sample is the best choose to purchase. There were several people in my team had the same opinions. In the second part of the activity, the result of our team research showed that most people thought that the second brand which is Safeway had the best taste, and they would to pay more for it. 

      I was thinking that why the products of retail store are so competitive compare with the companies who produce products in their specific domains. Probably, the answer for this is Safeway has gained lots of benefit from their in store researches. First, they may use the observations to see what products that most people would like (dislike) to purchase, which shows the potential profit. Then, Safeway may do some in-depth interviews or surveys to see more detail which part of products people are mostly like, and which parts the products need to improve.  After that, Safeway may get the idea that what the “prefect” products look like. Therefore, the company can easily define their target market, strengths, and opportunities.

     We can see how powerful a store could be. They hold all information between products and customers. The company who are closer to customers has a higher chance to be successful.  Thus, as can be seen researches play an imperative role in business success.