Response to Yan Rong’s post: Cannot Think About any Point of Difference for Products? Think About Services
Personally, The Four Seasons already distinguishes itself from other lower-end and middle-end hotels. Its luxurious property serves as a points of difference, besides the seemingly “extra” customer service that is provided. I am extremely fascinated and amazed by the level of customization that is offered: the level of care which is provided to the customers. When the hotel even takes the click of a hotel door into consideration, its cost must be high, no matter in terms of the fixed cost, such as the cost of equipment and furnitures provided, or the variable cost, like the salaries paid to its workers. But as long as it’s making a decent profit, it’s a good business model to follow. All in all, I wish you obtaining an opportunity to live in The Four Seasons one day:)
Response to Hang Yin’s post: Factors lead apple to success
Besides what you mentioned, I personally regard the marketing strategies of Apple extremely successful, compared to previous years. In regards to iPhone 5s, especially in the colours of gold and silver, it’s exactly what Chinese customers are dreaming of. In terms of IOS 7, although it fits well for iPhone 5S, it has brought many troubles for iPhone 4, even iPhone 4s users, who have consistently reported that IOS 7 does not go well with iPhone 4, not even some iPads.
Another idea I want to raise is that despite the success of Apple, Samsung has still been the leading seller in China, because customers not only trust and need its smartphones, but also its headsets and lower-end phones due to the recognition of the brand. Nonetheless, it’s always been a dilemma for iPhone to produce some lower-end products, thus iPhone is losing the market share of lower-end and middle-end products, which makes it difficult to catch up with the over a hundred percent growth rate of Samsung simply by introducing new smartphones such as iPhone 5S and 5C.
Response to external article: http://www.forbes.com/sites/theapothecary/2013/11/18/do-you-like-your-doctor-obamacare-drives-unitedhealth-to-downsize-its-medicare-physician-networks/
Personally, I like the article, but not the measures that is taken. Since Medicare is going broke as obamacare cuts $716 billion from Medicare to fund itself. Medicare serves vital function to citizens and workers as well, thus one cannot weigh Obamacare over Medicare. Two should be treated equally.
the tenth post is embedded in the “older posts” tab at the very bottom of the blog since the main page runs out of space. Sorry for the inconvenience 🙂