Month: November 2012

Chris MacDonald’s blog post ” Target: Is store a person?” on Canadian Busness- The Business Ethics section

According to Chris MacDonald, the worker union of Zellers’ argument of Target should be responsible for Zeller’s current employees as they are replacing Zellers signs with their own is not valid enough in protecting their workers. It is a fact that Target is not purchasing Zellers from HBC but rather just taking over the lease of Zellers’ locations; therefore, it doesn’t have the legal responsibility to continue hiring the Zellers’ employees since it is HBC’s decision to close down Zellers stores and lay off their workers.

I agree with MacDonald’s point of view mostly. However, after taking morality and ethics into considerations, my heart actually leans towards the workers’ side. Although there’s no legal issue if Target decides to hire brand new employee teams for each location, it is to their best interest to actually continue employing most Zellers’ workers. First of all, experienced in-store employees of Zellers need very minimal training since they are used to work at the location already. The savings on time, money, and resources from training can significantly lower the start-up cost for each store. Secondly, it helps Target to build up a positive public image towards Canadians. For it is difficult to enter a brand new market, if Target can keep the experienced employees who have already build up friendly relationships with local customers, it will be a great asset to the company. On the other hand, Target does need to be careful with its employee selections as some old workers from Zellers have already lacked motivations and missed the sense of responsibility.

Thus, I agree with MacDonald’s point that the argument raised by the workers union of Zellers may get rejected. However, I feel it will also be Target’s best interest to keep most of the experienced and responsible employees from Zellers. Hence, the debate on the topic will still carry on as long as Target has no further responses towards this issue.

Kate Wen’s Blog Post

Just as my classmate Kate has indicated in her blog post, customization is a brilliant marketing strategy that businesses are adopting nowadays to increase the uniqueness of their products which hopefully will contribute to an ultimate rise in sales of the firms.

It is true that customization does not only satisfy customers but also benefit the company. However, what I am concerning is what degree of customization is acceptable and the problems involved when business lose its originality because of over-customization.

It may seem interesting that customers are able to design their own drink by mixing several Coke-Cola products. However, is it a real selling point that can last long? Mixing several drinks may come up with thousands of new varieties of drinks, but after all people will still stick with either Coke or Sprite. Customers purchase certain goods from a business because of the originality that product has with the brand. If a customer can customize a whole new good with the company, then why doesn’t he/she just DIY on his/her own? It’s cheaper.

In my opinion, a limitation to customization is needed for all businesses that tend to carry out this strategy.  Many businesses are already aware of the importance of limited customization. For example, Louis Vuitton only allows customers to embed their names on bags rather than customizing designs; Timberland only authorizes purchasers to customize the body and bottom of their boots with limited combinations of color. None of these brands allow customers to customize the original design of the products because that’s what they are selling for.

To conclude, customization can be an additional advantage of a company. But it should not become the main selling base of the products of a business.

Joshua’s Orginal Blog

As my classmate Joshua has mentioned in his blog post, it is true that bicycle is making automobile more elastic and causing an increase in the threat of substitute part of the automobile industry.

I mostly agree with the analysis of this blog since it well demonstrates several key ideas of our course such as the Porter’s 5 Forces, price elasticity, and the idea of substitutes. However, I have some different opinions on his further look on the issue in America. Joshua has stated that people are less willing to buy bicycles in U.S. because of less financial incentive and further distances to commute. It is fairly true. But in my opinion, bicycle is less of a substitute to cars in America is because of not only the economic and geographical outlook of U.S. but also the traditional mindset of its people.

China is similar to US in some degree since it is large in size and has increasing affordability of automobiles. However, people there tend to ride bikes. It is easy to see thousands of people biking home after work in many Chinese cities. Why? Because Chinese people have a stronger bond with bicycles while cars have only become more popular in the past decade. It is true that bicycle was not invented by Chinese, but for almost a century it has been acting as a necessity for almost every Chinese family. On the other hand, people in the US have been driving automobiles for centuries and the culture of riding a bike disappeared long ago. People there in nature trust cars more than bikes. And that nature is hard to reverse which additionally contributes to the less threat of substitute of bicycles towards automobiles in America.

Advertisements can come in varieties of types. TV, radio, websites, and mobile network are all different kinds of ways for companies to advertise on. However, as internet becomes more developed, another way of advertising has become popular.

10s, 20s, 30s…. the increasing amount of waiting time before watching online videos has been pissing people off. Personally, I feel that way too. Waiting for videos to start is just a total waste of time.

However, that break is actually a window of time for businesses to advertise.  This new area of “Web-video advertising” has been growing rapidly in the past few years. Video game companies, online shopping websites, and many other types of businesses have begun to insert advertisements before online videos start.

According to the China Daily, third-quarter revenues of China’s online video advertising reached $423.19 million, a 77.9 percent year-on-year increase. This is a shocking percentage of increase. The useless waiting time before has now become a fabulous business opportunity that online video websites like Youtube, Youku, and Tudou can earn a large amount of profit by selling Web-video advertising spots.

Because people like to watch online videos, Web-video advertising would seem more common and can still have a enormous potential to grow.

http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2012-11/02/content_15867936.htm