Month: November 2014

The main purpose of United Nations aims to “maintain international peace and security, developing friendly relations among nations and promoting social progress, better living standards and human rights,” as stated in their website. If United Nations was fully funded, they would use the money to solve the social problems for the people that needed help. Whereas for social enterprises such as Arc Initiative, they aim to create positive impacts for the world and solve social problems through exchange of knowledge and business skills.

Social Enterprises do not aid the people monetarily nor provide them with any resources. Instead, social enterprises help the local people by teaching them the skills that are needed for them to sustain themselves and the local community. Just like what the old adage said, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” What the social enterprises are doing are more worthwhile- instead of doing something for them, like what the United Nations are doing, social enterprises are teaching them.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/09/starbucks-name-wrong-reason_n_5791820.html

In this hilarious video by Paul Gale, he explains why Starbucks baristas can never get your name right. The reasons are more than them trying to play with your emotions. If fact, it is quite a clever marketing tactic. For example, if you see your name spelt in a way that is wrong, more than likely you would have the impulse to share it with other people through social medias such as Instagram and Twitter, like what Jessica, or “Gessika” did in the video.

But to be honest, Starbucks doesn’t have write the names on the cup. In fact, Starbucks is the only store where the baristas ask for your name. If you compare with other coffee shops, many of them only shout out your order instead of your name. Then why would Starbucks bother to ask for your name if it is more time consuming and in a way, wasting marker ink?

Well, this allows the Starbucks baristas to create stronger customer connection. This reminds me about our group’s business model, in one of our value propositions, we want to create stronger customer bonds. One of the tactics we came up is to make our employees memorize the names and the little details of the customers. If our employees are able to greet the customers by the names, they are breaking the barrier of the service provider-client relationship. By doing so, our employees are treating the customers like family, and the customers, enjoying the friendly environment will be more likely to return to the spa.

This is exactly what Starbucks is doing. By asking for the name, the baristas are then able to learn the names of regular customers. As for the part about spelling the name wrong? The baristas are just making the customers’ experience more memorable. As the video puts it: “[They’re] always in your head now.”

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According to this article, Starebucks, despite having the 5% increase in sale, disappointed the investors as its share dropped about 6%. As a result, Starbucks will soon be implementing a delivery system next year, hoping to increase its total revenue.

As mentioned in Jessica’s blogpost, the new delivery system will not help to contribute much to the total revenue for Starbucks. There are so many questions regarding the home delivery. How can Starbucks attract customers if they have to pay at least $10 for delivery? If they were to have free delivery, then would the price increase in order to cover up the expense? And if they do deliver, how are they supposed to preserve the drinks? Starbucks needs to address those issues.

In Emi’s blogpost, she mentioned that Starbucks has been a “third place” or an “affordable luxury”- a place where people could hang together outside work and home. For the longest time, Starbucks has been offering comfort and pleasing environment to its customers. In the new delivery system, Starbucks will not be able to offer the comfort that it once provided to the customers. As a result, many will not be prone to use the delivery system as many of the customers go to a Starbucks store not only for the coffee, but also because of the atmosphere and comfort that the brand has been providing.

In conclusion, the delivery system does not seem like an ideal way to increase the total revenue for Starbucks, perhaps Starbucks should invest in portable coffee shops, which can provide the convenience and the comfort, instead?

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Through Chasing Sustainability Conference, I had the privilege of meeting up with the representatives of Flipside, a “nice” marketing firm that is only willing to work with “nice” businesses.

What does it mean by being “nice”? Flipside explained the term in their blog post, “The Thing About Nice”. In the blog post, Flipside mentioned that they are nice- the company is nice to the people, the environment, to everything. If fact, they believe that “Nice is a business necessity,”. This belief contradicts to what most people believe in what the businesses should be doing. Businesses should do anything, anything in order to maximize profit, to gain as much as possible no matter what the cost and the consequence is. However, Flipside, along with other B Corporations, wishes to change that perspective. They want to use business as a force for good- to make businesses to become more socially responsible and sustainable.

However it is still really hard for business to be willing to put that amount of commitment for that practice. But I have good faith for businesses who are practicing those beliefs, because after all, what goes around comes around. This world needs more businesses like that, because, as we all have learned, niceness tends to be rewarded, thus making the world a better place.

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After reading Emily’s blogpost and Jose’s blogpost about the ongoing “cola war” between Coke and Pepsi, I was surprised to know that both of the two major soft drink companies are still trying to win back customers by producing “healthier, natural and less-fattening” sodas.

In general, carbonated drinks have been in decline since the last nine year. It is no surprise, as more are becoming weary of health problems such as obesity, diabetes, and other weight-related health it is. The general public is becoming more health conscious, more have switched from the sodas, either regular or diet, to alternatives such as sports drinks, vitamin waters, tea and simply water.

So in their latest attempt, Pepsi True and Coca-Cola Life are released: both are made with stevia, a natural sweetener. However, using Coke as an example, the new Coke Life has less calories then the regular ones (89 calories instead of 139 per 330ml) but contains more calories than Diet or Zero. By replacing sugar with natural sweetener doesn’t make it healthier, but actually less healthy and more fattening.

Therefore, I believe that the two products will fail eventually. When you ask others why they would prefer the less healthier option over the healthier one, the answers will roughly be “because it tastes better”. When people are drinking sodas, they are enjoying for the taste and not caring that much about the calories. So what are the chances for the public of having something that taste like a diet soda with 60 calories? The product would appeal to no one. It seems like neither Coke nor Pepsi will be winning in this cola war any soon if both of them don’t step up in their game soon.

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