taline.ainein

Google Plus was launched on June 28^th, and already has close to 20million users; that might not seem much in comparison to Facebook, but it isn’t bad considering you need an invitation from an existing user in order to subscribe to the service. It’s easy to immediately say what Google Plus is not rather than what it is, it’s not Facebook, and it’s not Flicker or YouTube; but in fact it does combine aspects of all of those social media services.

Google Plus has a prominent “privacy policy”, and makes it easy to select what you share and what you keep private, unlike Facebook, where privacy and sharing options are sometimes difficult to find, difficult to interpret and difficult to customize.

Referring to Bryant Hsiao’s blog “Will Google Plus be Able to Compete with Facebook”; i disagree with his statement that “It may seem difficult to believe Google+ will become more popular than Facebook due to Facebook’s strong brand recognition”, that may not be entirely true. For the reasons stated above, in the long run Google Plus has a high potential of achieving a popular brand name and may become as popular as Facebook.

McDonald’s and Target have recently dropped one of the nation’s largest egg suppliers after an investigation by an animal rights group. Sparboe produces 300million eggs a year, and ships them to restaurants and stores across the U.S. The behavior on the tape is disturbing and unacceptable. Since McDonald’s has taken the initiative to take action and drop them as their premium egg suppliers, this assures the customers that they demand humane treatment of the animals by their suppliers.

Any business that wants to increase their demands and their customer loyalty should portray the same values as their customers. Having coincided values, will greatly increase their brands popularity, and thus increase revenue.

A counter example would be when Nike’s popularity and revenue decreased, due to the customers being offended by their production method, using child labor, and thus they had to alter their production method in order to regain their customer’s loyalty and their popularity back.

Since McDonald’s has taken the appropriate actions, it is assured it has its customer’s loyalty, and has secured a greater demand in its products.

If you take a look around you, you will see promotional items just about everywhere, what are the intentions of these free items? Promotional items are given out for free, as a marketing strategy, to increase the company’s popularity. Many companies use these items to give away as gifts to their loyal customers; having their name printed on a pen is a great reminder of   their company.

The blog titled “Using Promotional Products in Building Company Reputation” gives a good understanding on how these products can be used as great marketing tools. I agree with the fact that if you give your customers a valued promotional item, people aren’t going to throw away a nice water bottle or an umbrella; and the best part is that every time they use this item, your business is gaining more and more exposure.

The industry for promotional products itself makes over $18.1 billion annually. Even non-profit organizations use promotional products to raise awareness for cancer and other research programs.

Take for example the livestrong wristbands; Lance Armstrong worked with Nike to produce the livestrong wristbands, and although they weren’t free, he made over a million dollars just by selling them for $1. Who doesn’t know about the livestrong bands now?

Is social Entrepreneurship really possible? Referring to Adrian Fung’s blog, he stated that social entrepreneurship is just another business strategy to increase sales, but there obviously lies a good intension behind it. So what if the business is using it as a strategy, if their strategy is to increase their sales while giving back to their community; isn’t that what everyone should be doing?

Manulife Financial Corporation encourages and supports employees’ volunteer efforts with organizations in need. They provide employees with paid tine off to do such volunteering. You’re pretty much getting paid to volunteer! The company’s commitment is to give back to the community as much as they can, now are they using that as a straegy to increase their buisness? They could be, to branch out their name and become a well known corporation because of their good deed; or they could actually have the intention of just giving back.

Although employees are getting paid to do such volunteer work; in 2010, the company’s Canadian employees donated more than 20,000 volunteer hours  on their own time. Although we can’t be sure of the reasoning behind the company’s goal, influencing its employees to give back to their communities on their own time is enough.

Europe is criticizing the Italian government for being objectively self-serving, corrupt, and undemocratic…It is as much a failure of the Italian government, as a failure of Europe. The head of the Italian state openly manipulates media and laws to ensure re-election in an overwhelming display of everything that turns democracy into a sham. It’s about time Berlusconi left, but the damage has been done; and Italy’s powerful debt (1.9trillion euros) is going to drag all of Europe down if they aren’t careful. You would think that after all of the destruction that he has cause for Italy, he would be begging Germany and France to help him. However, Berlusconi has proven to be even more arrogant and destructive, and Italy may potentially have no backup from surrounding countries. Perhaps the government should impose some unwanted taxes to clean up their mess? Would that even be enough?

“Although the rescue plan set out by the euro zone last month is in tatters, the European Central Bank could still gain time by pledging to buy Italy’s debt in unlimited quantities and to protect European banks, as The Economist has argued.” This seems to be Italy’s fighting chance of survival.

FULL ARTICLE

An entrepreneur is an individual who sees a need and acts upon it; thus forming an entrepreneurial company or business. An individual or a group of individuals who have made their vision a reality initially form this type of company.  When you first hear the words entrepreneurial company, what comes to mind? To me the first companies I would think of would have to be Apple and Microsoft. However, thinking deeper into the concept I thought Ikea would be a great example.

What makes Ikea an entrepreneurial company? The fact that Ingvar Kamprad not only created a store with furniture, but he also tried to meet people’s needs by generating a place with freedom of choosing products in a relaxing atmosphere. Analyzing the entrepreneurial nature of Ikea it is important to emphasize that the company was taking a risk in investing.Additionally, the number of staff was purposely reduced, so that the customers could enjoy the freedom in choosing their own items. By reducing the staff, Ingvar was also reducing the costs. It is clear that Ikea was and still is a successful entrepreneurial company. It was successful in producing new products, entering new markets and forming a new way of shopping for furniture. The secret of its wealth is based on well-designed furniture, which has been adapted to customers’ taste and average income.

Canada ranks number 1, according to Forbes annual look at the Best Countries for Business. As the U.S is in fear of another recession, and Europe struggles with dept issues; Canada’s economy was held better than most. We have a $1.6 trillion economy, that grew by 3.1% within the last year, it is further expected to expand by 2.4% by the end of 2011. Last year we eased our way out of the recession that plagued the U.S and Europe. Our banks were actually profitable during the financial crisis that started in 2007, why? because  our banks were able to avoid the bailouts.

Denmark’s government is implementing a “fat tax”, by doing so it thinks that it’s going to limit the population’s fatty intakes. It has become the first country to take such measures, would you stop eating fatty foods because there’s a tax on them? we’re supposed to do it from our own desire, not because the government wants us to do so. Why don’t they reduce the prices of organic food, if they want their country to become healthy then?. Consumers over stocked on butter, milk, meat, and anything with saturated fat so they won’t pay the tax.

In my opinion, adding these taxes won’t stop individuals from buying these goods. As i recently learned in my Econ class, these goods don’t have substitutes and so they are inelastic to price changes (at the most part). Although fatty products aren’t a necessity, individuals can’t just give them up and become healthy all of a sudden. Either they find a cheap substitute, or in most cases they are going to buy what they need with the tax implemented. So the real question is, does the government really care of what it’s country eats, or is it just an excuse for them to add more taxes? that we will never know.

Full Article HERE. 

We’ve all been told numerous times that we should work hard and commit to our education in order to secure a good career.  I recently stumbled across an article online titled “15 Successful Entrepreneurs Who Didn’t Need College”; wait a minute, successful and no college? Doesn’t sound too promising, does it?  Well once I type out the names of these successful entrepreneurs, we’re all going to wish we didn’t need the hard and stressful work of education.

The members of this exclusive list include such respected names as: Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Coco Chanel, Simon Cowell, and yes even the legendary animator Walt Disney himself. While researching about entrepreneurship, I learned that 50% of businesses fail within 5 years, the main reasons associated with these failures included lack of experience and money, however Michael Dell dropped out of college at the age of 19 with only $1000 in his pocket; but with his dedication and desire, he managed to begin what became the most profitable PC manufacturer around the world. Additionally, Milton Hershey only had a fourth grade education and now Hershey’s chocolate is a very well known and wealthy company. In the end is it truly the education that makes an individual successful, or is it merely based on the desire and will of that person? These men and women presented on that list clearly lacked the educational experienced, but what skills they lacked academically were more than regained by their burning sense of passion. Passion holds no bias to its beholder no matter what the environment is.

Full Article HERE.

This Thursday, local-media, businessman and a few selected individuals passed through the glass doors of the new Apple store at Hong Kong’s upscale IFC Mall. The two-story store is the first in the city and has yet to open its doors to the public on Saturday. Camping outside a store for two days in order to secure a spot in line might seem like a ridiculous idea! But many residents in Hong Kong were eagerly awaiting the the first Apple store to open in their home town.

The earliest customer was there three days prior to the opening, would you    ever do that? “It’s all about the experience and atmosphere”, one customer  stated, Apple appreciates and cherishes its customers. They were giving out  free T-shirts and making these two days worth the customers wait. Apple  has an amazing international reputation, and this is why a good amount of  consumers are willing to spend their two nights camping outside a store.  Apple has a good opportunity of raising its revenue by expanding its stores.

Full Article HERE.