In this recent Forbes article, it is discussed the change in advertising for films. Earlier, there existed a sort of Cinematic “Event” trailer for most films, such as this one for The Lion King watch?v=HwSKkKrUzUk# , which were a big deal and were often premiered in cinemas for the audience as a way for them to get really hyped about a film without giving too much of it away. However, in recent years these have fallen by the wayside as audiences view cinema trailers on youtube or Apple Trailers or other sites. Basically, companies have decided against releasing trailers in cinema because the cinema is no longer where people view most of their movies. With new companies like Netflix, movie producers are changing their advertising structure and moving it online in order to appeal to demographics moving away from cinemas. In my opinion, this is a good thing because it demonstrates how movie producers are changing advertising tactics in order to appeal to changing demographics as technology and the way people view movies changes as well. In an industry that is often fixated on the past, and repeating past victories, this new online focus is a good thing.

Recently, reports from a Forbes article and from Facebook executives here discuss how there has been a 16% fall in American teens liking pages, and even more from other countries like the Netherlands. Part of this is due to teens transferring into a more mobile space, utilizing apps like Snapchat and Instagram and starting to forgo Facebook as an essential social media tool. For a social network that relies on it’s users, losing technically proficient teens is a major blow. Facebook Messenger is seeing more usage than Facebook itself in some cases, where people are using the Facebook SMS client to chat with friends instead of following feeds, which in my opinion have become clogged up with advertisements for unneeded products and lots of garbage. When the clutter becomes to great on networks such as Facebook or Myspace and Digg in the past, users tend to migrate away to cleaner, fresher sites. Facebook is dealing with an image problem, where problems with spam and malware on games is discouraging users from becoming as heavily entwined with the site as they were earlier.

In this recent article on The Economist, it is described how certain individuals in the Blackberry structure, as it confronts failure and tries to avoid becoming another notable Canadian company to fail like Nortel, are trying to switch the gears of the company from a hardware company to a company focused on supplying applications and other services to businesses. Actually supplying the handsets has become a major monetary sink for the company. I believe that RIM’s best option is to switch gears out of hardware, because the prospect of breaking into the market after being forced out to such a large extent is almost nil. Even major Android players like HTC and Windows Phone producers like Nokia are announcing losses and being forced to sell off divisions, respectively. By switching out of hardware Blackberry has the ability to occupy a niche market and become embedded with business consumers, instead of simply dying out if it keeps attempting to become a player in the cell phone market again. The major points of differentiation that Blackberry used to offer are no longer attractive to consumers, and it’s better for the company to cut losses and cut back in order to stay in business.

As described in this article on The Economist, the US Department of Justice has finally dropped resistance to the proposed merger of US Airways and American Airlines. In my opinion, this is a good thing because it not only follows the way the DoJ is moving towards dealing with airline mergers, including not blocking recent ones such as the merger of United Airlines and Continental. It also allows the two companies to exit the limbo and operational problems of dealing with a potential merger that is being held up, and allows them to focus on how to deal with the competition. Airlines in the US have often gone in and out of bankruptcy, including Frontier in Denver where I’m from, and has been a serious problem for those seeking steady unemployment, as a bad year could almost crush airlines. This merger allows US Airways and American Airlines to have a larger base of funds and revenue, and also make it easier for American to compete with low-cost carriers like Southwest that have been a serious problem for traditional airlines.

In class the other week, a guest professor came in and discussed his field of operations with us. Operations is especially relevant with the recent news from Air Canada, where their stock has gone up 13 percent due to cutting costs around the airline. Essentially, the operations sector which has handled the day to day operations in trying to pursue profits. Profits have risen this quarter because the company costs have gone down. While competition is increasing and new airlines are trying to muscle in on the Canadian market, banks such as RBC place it’s value as the highest among Canadian airlines, showing that this overall wellness in operations will lead to better odds of long-term financial solvency for the company. Also linking back to what we have learned earlier in the year, Air Canada is moving to slash pension deficits and remove such legacy costs and future costs from costing the airline an arm and a leg, and allowing it to expand in the future, which is further expanded upon here. The carrier needs these cost cuts to allow the rapid expansion and addition of newer airlines like 777’s and 787’s into the overall carrier size of the airline.

In COMM 101, we talked about government regulations for soft drinks and whether they were necessary. This becomes relevant upon examining this article from The Economist, that discusses the e-cigarette industry and how the absence of quality and control standards may lead to government intervention, as well as the health issue. While e-cigarettes don’t contain the harmful carcinogens that hurt people’s lungs and cause lung cancer, they do contain the drug nicotine. While they are currently regulated as a casual item, different manufacturing standards given that many of these products come from China and other places where controls are more lax have given rise to the idea that there should be more regulations on the sale of e-cigarettes. Not only because of the drug issues, but because of how many locations exist where cigarettes are produced. One solution that has been put forward by several producers is the institution of better standards for production that are more consistent across the world. I feel like this would be better for the rapidly growing industry, which is growing due to slowing cigarette sales and turn in public opinion against it, because it prevents the intervention of government and the red tape it brings.

A large component in the success of a product is not only reaching points of parity, which basically are the standards in an industry, but also being able to show the features of a product, what exactly is different about the product. As discussed in The Globe And Mail, RIM, the producers of Blackberry phones once were at the top of the mobile phone market, but when Apple announced the iPhone and the arrival of Android devices from Google and other manufacturers, Blackberry not only refused to stick by their points of differentiation, but also released disastrous new products that were often a response to the market and were late to the mind of the consumer. Things that were pushed by execs such as a proprietary messaging server, BBM, to replace SMS, never caught on. Instead of sticking with their keyboard-based phones, which were highly popular with business users, RIM released a Z10 phone with little differentiation from competitors in an already crowded market. This disastrous launch, along with other blunders made by RIM, show why differentiating yourself in a market that is as highly competitive as cell phones is extremely important, as well as adapting to changes in consumer preferences.

Edward Freeman discusses in his Stakeholder thesis how every member of a community, including the consumers, stockholders, and also communities and financiers. That all of them have a stake in the business, and an essential part of capitalism is making sure all of them are going in the same direction in order for the business to maintain success. That makes this article on Exxon Mobil illegally dumping waste in Pennsylvania so harmful, because dumping waste directly harms the communities in the area by creating a health risk, thus damaging the stake of people in the business. Even Milton Friedman in his article about how there is no real social or environmental responsibility to a business, and the primary duty of a business is to increasing profit margins, states that breaking the law to do so is not only an ethical violation but can directly harm the business. By breaking the law and placing profits over environmental safety and government regulations on protection of groundwater, Exxon potentially polluted Pennsylvania community groundwater. Upon examination, it becomes clear that the company was negligent in dealing with waste and needs to re-examine its commitment to stakeholders like Pennsylvania communities close to its shale-gas drilling sites.