Monthly Archives: November 2013

Starbucks: Inspiring Loyal Consumers

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Click to view Starbuck’s blog

Starbucks is not just a coffee shop; not only does the company provide individuals their morning pick-me-up, a warm place to meet up with a friend, and a delicious place to indulge one’s sweet tooth, Starbuck’s uplifts all individuals that gets a taste of what it has to offer. Starbucks’ mission statement describes the impression that it leaves on its consumers perfectly: “Our mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time.” By staying true to this mission statement, Starbucks’ consistently supplies cups of joy to 10,465,000 fulfilled consumers each day1.  Starbucks’ cheerfulness, generosity, and kindness have created an uplifting culture that inspires happiness among consumers, through its many functions and especially in its warm customer relations. This culture is evident in the joyfulness of the baristas, the tunes that sing happily in each shop, and most especially in the way that each consumer is handled with care.

Inspiration From A Starbucks Coffee Cup

In Peony Au’s blog post, “A Refreshing Company Culture: Starbucks,” Peony reflects a time that she was supplied with a complimentary drink because of the long wait she had endured.This is only one of the small ways that Starbucks goes above and beyond to supply customer satisfaction. As a result of Starbuck’s impeccable service and amazing positive culture, Starbucks has created innumerable loyal consumers that leave the shop with a satisfied tummy, a full smile, and soul filled with inspiration.

Source 1: http://www.ask.com/question/how-many-cups-of-coffee-does-starbucks-sell-a-day

Checkout Peony Au’s Blog for more of her intriguing business insights: https://blogs.ubc.ca/peonyau/

 

 

How Target’s Targeting You

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What’s the best way to target our consumers? The profitable answer to this question is the spark that ignites every major retailer to use predictive analytics: the science of predicting consumers’ habits. The research of this has been transforming how organizations’ attract its consumers and keep them coming back.

The degree to which retailers know about us is alarming. To provide a better sense, let’s take a look at Target. Target is arguably one of the best stores at using predictive analytics. The company has recognized that consumers make purchase decisions based on quantifiable habits. These habits may be hard to break, yet, this major retailer has discovered a time in people’s lives when consumers’ habits waiver and their shopping patterns are most easily influenced: when a baby is on the way. “We knew that if we could identify [pregnant women] in their second trimester, there’s a good chance we could capture them for years,” Said Andrew Pole, one of Target’s statisticians. And it worked. Between 2002 — when Pole was hired — and 2010, Target’s revenues grew from $44 billion to $67 billion according to a 2012 New York Times article. Now I’ve probably got you wondering if that coupon that Target sent you about dorm ideas before university, or party ideas before your birthday was no coincidence, and you’re right, it wasn’t. With this revolutionary expertise, companies may even begin to know more about what you want than you do.

Happiness: The Key to Employee Motivation

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Ali Jafferi‘s recent blog post entitled Yelling: Disaster or Motivator? made me wonder, what is the best way to keep employees motivated? The post explained that yelling only works in organizational cultures where high vocal-force is tolerated. Agreeing with his conclusion prompted me to further research the connection between motivated workers. The key is fostering happy employees through the following foundations:

1. Positive organizational culture:

The environment that surrounds employees has the power to either motivate or discourage any worker. Hence it is extremely vital that an organization’s culture remain positive. Working in an encouraging environment (as opposed to an intimidating or fearful one) equates to an organization filled with happy and motivated employees.

2. Choosing the right employees for the job:

A “well-qualified” employee for an organization is not simply a skillful employee, but one that is aligned with the values of the organization’s culture. Employees are key components to sustaining an organization’s culture, because they ultimately create the atmosphere they are surrounded by. Thus, it is important to select employees that will positively enhance this environment.

A Harvard Business Review article stated that the level of happiness has a profound impact on workers’ creativity, productivity, and commitment. Consequently, happier employees means more motivated employees.

More on motivating through positive organizational culture: How to Motivate Employees: 4 Vital Management Skills

More on motivating employees through the proper selection: Ed Brown: CEO, Patrón Spirits Company

Phones: Affecting the Way Businesses do Business

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For many people today, phones have become less of a convenient form of communication and more like a third hand. With the busy lives of consumers today, people feel the need to spend every free second doing something. Whether it be tweeting your random thought, beating the next level in Angry birds, or facebooking an old friend a simple, “I miss you,” anyone can do it all, at any time. This new “mobile moments” craze has left a wide open market for businesses. With the increase of marketing on mobile accessible apps such as Twitter, Facebook, games and more, it is evident that business’ need to further their mark in technology in order to stay competitive.

Starbuck’s App

Starbuck’s app alone, in October 2013, made 11% of the company’s total sales. This sends the message to its rivals, such as Tim Horton’s, that they need innovate their technology to get ahead. Although Tim Horton’s does have its “Timmy Me” app, without its ability to make purchases, it has already fallen behind. “We need to embrace technology to leverage our scale and reach and further enhance the experience of our guests,” says Timmy’s chief executive, Marc Caira. Thus, it is clear that, in order to stay in the game, business’ need to stop accommodating consumers today, and start pleasing the consumers of tomorrow.

 

You may also like these related topics:

“Tim Horton’s Eye’s Global Expansion”

“10 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2013”

 

Lululemon’s Culture: The Pursuit of Greatness

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Checkout the ideologies behind Lulu’s manifesto

Lululemon’s vision of “elevating the world from mediocrity to greatness” has created a strong foundation for the company’s organizational culture, which is artfully displayed to its consumers through a series of inspirational quotes also known as the company’s manifesto. Yet, Lululemon values more than just the significance of the company’s culture on consumers. The founder of the business, Chip Wilson stated, “The beauty of our cultures lies not just in what it brings to our company, but in what it brings to lives of the individuals who work at Lululemon.” Lululemon’s organizational culture differentiates from the typical business because of its value in encouraging employees’ self-development, which successively aligns its staff to its organizational culture.

Most organizations develop employees from the outside in (the way they dress, how they interact with customers and the like), while Lululemon develops its employees from the inside out. Employees’ initiation includes setting their vision and goals, and throughout their employment they are encouraged to achieve these goals, help others achieve theirs, listen to self-development tapes, attend workshops, and more. “It shows up in the work your people ask you to do, because they’re enrolled in their goals,” said Erin Hochstein, who does the company’s communications. Thus, self-fulfilled employees are happy employees, which equates to happy consumers. As a result, what may seem like an expensive $98 pair of pants, the true value is in the positive effects of Lululemon’s pursuit of greatness culture.

Check out the Lululemon employee review at: http://ca.indeed.com/cmp/Lululemon-Athletica/reviews

Also, take “A rare look behind the luon curtain at Lululemon”

The Environment or The Economy: Society’s Trade-off

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Checkout the New Yorker Blog for more on the economy vs. the environment!

The trade-off between a healthy environment and a thriving economy is one of the most controversial dilemmas faced by society today. The harsh reality is that people care more about their own well being than the shrinking glaciers, and especially more than the generations hereafter that must live with the consequences of our actions. So whose responsibility is it to sustain both the environment and its economy? The answer is: it begins with the businesses. David Owen’s blog on The New Yorker says, “The world’s principal source of man-made greenhouse gases has always been prosperity.” When the economy is thriving, the actions of the people greatly affect the state of the environment. For example, more employed, well-off people leads to more cars on the road, more travelling emissions, and the like. However, we must think back to the cause of this prosperity: the thriving big industrial, job supplying, carbon-emitting companies. Many big businesses have supplied a great deal to the economy, but at the expense of the environment. The only way to stop this trend is to transform businesses to jointly create a profit for itself, value to its consumers, and environmentally harmless procedures. Thus, the environment and the economy should not be viewed as needing an “either or” type of solution, but rather one that mutually benefits both, and it starts with the businesses.

For further information on the topic visit: Eco IQ