Pinterest is a visual social discovery network. You create online pinboards (like a bulletin board) for various categories (i.e. “dream home” or “things to buy” or “recipes”), and you “pin” items to it. According to a research report, about 70% of pinners are women. So companies that target women as their main consumers are more likely to create a profile on Pinterest. As many companies are trying to figure out how to leverage Pinterest as a platform for marketing, Whole Foods has successfully conveyed to the users “what is behind the brand.”

Started in July 2011, Whole Foods was one of the first brands on the site. So far, it has pinned nearly 700 pins across its 22 boards. Michael Bepko, Global online community manager for Whole Foods, indicated “It allows us to curate images from across the web that really speak to who we are as a company, images that reflect our core values and essentially communicate the essence of who we are.”

In terms of company culture, Whole Foods demonstrates:

• Caring about the community and the environment
• Promoting healthy eating and education to our stakeholders
• Selling the highest quality organic and natural foods available
• Creating ongoing win-win partnerships with our suppliers

“It’s so easy, it’s so uncluttered and by browsing the images, you can create an emotional connection with somebody around something that you have a shared interest in,” Michael Bepko commented.

I believe Whole Food’s intention is not to promote the organic vegetables that are sold in the stores but to show people the lifestyle it advocates. And by creating a sustainable and healthy lifestyle, Whole Foods may change pinners into loyal customers.

To check out Whole Foods on Pinterest, please click https://www.pinterest.com/wholefoods/

In Peony Au’s blog “A Refreshing Company Culture: Starbucks,” she told a personal story about how she received a free drink for the long waiting time. A free drink is an easy way to make Starbucks more inviting and captivating; in the long run, Starbucks is the one that enjoys the most benefits of the free drink. Below I am going to listing several others ways that Starbucks use to build consumer loyalty.

Starbucks do not only focus efforts on attracting new customers, it also cultivates its current consumers. Their in-store experiences are highly valued, the consumers feel they are respected and taken care of. People can get a free drink on their birthdays if they sign up for a member card. Moreover, online engagement helps emphasize the importance of customer service. Starbucks shares photos on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, exactly where its customers like to hang out. In addition, Starbucks offer promotions regularly. For example, the Starbucks frequent promotions like “buy 1 get 1″ gains an extraordinary amount of engagement on social media. In the My Starbucks Idea website, the company encourages its customers to share ideas of better products, better customer experience, and better community involvement.

Finally, Starbucks provides personalized “signature” drinks just the way each consumer wants. This customization service makes people feel their individuality and preference are valued. Holding a warm drink with your name and a smiley face on it, you know you will come back.

After reading Mariska’s article about Single Day shopping Event hosted by Alibaba, I feel very related to what has been discussed in her blog. This year, the majorities of Chinese people I know have participated this shopping event and have contributed to the total revenue at their best.

Taobao.com and Tmall.com have been extremely popular and profitable for Alibaba because both the websites provide quality and low price products for online shopping. As November 11st approaches, the company decides to invent a festival for big promotions up to 50% to boost sales. November 11st, as it resembles “11 11,” becomes a new shopping carnival. This year, Taobao.com and Tmall.com together have made to approximately ￥35,000,000,000， which equals to about $ 5,384,615,385. As the company is continuing hitting the record highs, its competitors such as Dangdang, Zhuoyue (Chinese version of Amazon), and Mogujie start their shopping festival too.

In a survey asking about consumer satisfaction of this event, most consumers with age range from 16 to 26 said YES and they indicate that they are very much excited about next year’s Single Day. However, some consumers who age above 30 point out that much of their purchase were very emotional and the products are actually of no value in their daily life.

All in all, Alibaba and its loyal consumers are both enjoying this shopping event, even though some people have to deal with lawsuits concerning deception and delay. And one last thing, it seems like Alibaba is preparing for launch another shopping event on December 12nd. Stay tuned!

“Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God’s gifts. It is the mother of civilization, of arts and of sciences.”

—-Freeman Dyson

“In the world that we are creating very quickly, we’re going to see more and more things that look like science fiction, and fewer and fewer things look like jobs.”

A number of jobs used to be done by people can be replaced by robots or machines now. These jobs include truck drivers, customer service representatives, troubleshooters, and diagnosers, etc. So now we have come to the Age of “technological unemployment,” which means more and more technology and fewer and fewer jobs. However, the progress of technology has enriched and improved human lives significantly. The quality and quantity of output in the world is increasing at an amazing rate, while the price keeps going down. This is a great time for innovation and creation. Ambitious entrepreneurs are enthusiastic to explore so many possibilities with technology and imagination.

“This is a great time, because we get freed up from drudgery and toil. This gives us the chance to imagine an entirely different kind of society, a society where the creators and the discoverers, and the performers and the innovators come together with their patrons and their financiers to talk about issues, entertain, enlighten, and provoke each other.”

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

Steve Jobs, as the charismatic and visionary leader of Apple, has impacted the young generation greatly. His pursuit of simplicity and elegance has driven Apple to produce the most popular smartphones and laptops. His unique personality and way of managing the company are also a debatable topic.

He is well-known for his severe criticism towards his employees. “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” He said. As strange it may seem, in a survey asking about job satisfaction in Apple, a vast majority of young employees show a high degree of pleasure working in this competitive workplace. One of them even commented that it is actually the intense competition and harsh censoriousness that pushes him forward and inspires him to make the final perfect design.

And also an interesting fact that Apple retailer store just pay minimum wages to the salesperson, age ranging from about 19-26. Instead of giving job titles like “repairing worker,” Apple gives a rather fancy name – “Apple Genius.” That’s probably why those enthusiastic young people feel they are doing the greatest thing and being genius to save others’ data.

Apple indicates another perspective to look at job satisfaction. In spite of incentives like promotion, long-term contract, and ownership, the value and beliefs shared between the employer and the employee, the spirit or culture of the company, and self-esteem and self-actualization may become the more important factors for people nowadays to consider.

ETF stands for exchange-traded fund, much like stocks. Most ETFs track an index, for example, Standard & Poor’s 500. Technically, one can’t invest directly in an index, but index mutual funds and ETFs based on indexes allow investors to invest in securities representing market segments or the total market.

Advantages:

An important benefit of an ETF is the stock-like features offered. A mutual fund is bought or sold at the end of a day’s trading, but ETFs can be traded whenever the market is open. Also ETFs have lower expense ratios in comparison to traditional mutual funds. So ETFs offer much flexibility and become competitive in the market. A broadly diversified ETF that is held over time can be a good investment.

Disadvantages:

The Vanguard Group, a leading issuer of index mutual fund, argued that ETFs represent short-term speculation, that their trading expenses decrease returns to investors, and that most ETFs provide insufficient diversification. In a survey of investment professionals, the most frequently cited disadvantage of ETFs was the unknown, untested indices used by many ETFs, followed by the overwhelming number of choices.