• Recent Posts

  • RE: Recessions and the Young
  • America’s latest solution to their, “What-is-wrong-with-America’s-economy Derangement Syndrome”
  • L’Oreal cosmetics mislead consumers
  • IPad-like device for $35
  • Dr. Pepper Ten, macho macho man drink

• Monthly Posts

  Monthly Posts Select Month November 2011  (3) October 2011  (5) September 2011  (2)

External blog: ‘Bagehot’s Notebook,’ articles about British politics –  The Economist

According to the article “Recessions and the Young,”  Bagehot states that the British government plans to solve their recession by creating jobs for youths in the labour market.  Youths, particularly teenagers, in Britain are suffering the most from the recession due to the growing numbers of youth unemployment which are reaching historic highs.  Foreigners and immigrants are being blamed for taking jobs away from the youth however, employers prefer to hire university students or foreigners since they are often more skilled and hardworking than the youths who lack experience and aren’t as driven.

Apparently, the government plans to fix the current education system since employers aren’t impressed with the quality of education that the youths are receiving thus, employers prefer not to hire youths.    In addition, the government also plans to cut back on the welfare spending since they were losing money by allowing too many out-of-work benefits.  I think that the two plans will not have much impact in terms of solving the recession.   However, it will make incremental improvements to the recession.

 

The American government passed a bill during October 2011 that imposed tariffs on imports from China because China is ‘manipulating its currency‘ by ‘keeping it artificially low.’

Background Info: American corporations went to China for manufacturing because of China’s low cost of production.  This caused American corporations to earn a larger profit and Americans losing their job to low-waged workers in Asia.  However, American corporations soon realized that Chinese products lacked in quality thus consumers stopped buying Chinese products.  American corporations then complained to their government that when they pull out of China, they will have to exchange their 8 yuan for $1 USD which, according to the American corporations, is unfair since China is ‘keeping [their currency] artificially low.  This along with un-employed Americans supported the tariff.

The article did not explain the whole story; I feel that the article was highly mediated in favor of Americans.  Firstly, it puzzles me in that America borrowed huge loans from China to help with the US debt crisis and now America repays China by imposing tariffs on Chinese products (maybe due to US government: President did the borrowing, Congress imposed the tariffs).  Also, China isn’t purposely keeping their currency low since their currency has always been lower than the American currency.  The article just failed to mention that American corporations knew that the currency conversion was $1 USD to 8 Yuan at the time they converted their USD to the Chinese Yuan, which seemed like a great deal since the number 8 is more than 1; however, the monetary value is equal/same.

Re: “L’Oreal Advertisements banned in the UK” – Beini Chen’s Blog Post

L’Oreal’s Eraser Foundation ad showing Julia Roberts’ perfectly smooth, glowing and blemish-free skin has been accused of unethical practices since the ad falsely led consumers to believe that their foundation will give the same results as Roberts’.  The UK government accused L’Oreal of performing digital re-touching to the original photo of Roberts which enhanced the actual effectivneess of the foundation.  As a result, the UK banned L’Oreal ads in order to protect the esteem of the targeted consumers.

Re: Aakash- Today’s Word for Affordable and Accessible – Priscilla Wito’s Blog

The ‘Aakash’ is a computer device, similar to that of Apple’s IPad.  Originally, the Aakash was suppose to be a prototype of an extremely affordable laptop.

For only $35, “it supports web browsing and video conferencing, has a three-hour battery life and two USB ports.”  Although the Aakash is affordable, it is lacking in speed, has poor connectivity, and has poor touch screen sensitivity.  The creation of the Aakash was meant to make internet accessible to everyone in society.  It will be used in India’s education system so that the rural areas and the poor will also be able to have internet access too.

The invention of the Aakash is innovative in their reasoning.  There is a large market for people who are looking for affordable alternatives for having web services since many parts of the world can’t afford IPad-quality like products which are priced at a few hundreds of dollars.  However, like the BBC article, I also question the quality and usefulness of this product.  It probably won’t blow up into flames like Tata Motors but I think that the Aakash wont last long in terms of use.

Dr. Pepper has recently launched an interesting ad campaign for their new beverage ‘Dr Pepper Ten’, a diet version of the original Dr. Pepper which contains only ten calories.  Their marketing scheme seems to be targeting the male market, which is evident in their new commercial and slogan, “It’s not for women.”  However, one musn’t mistaken that Dr. Pepper Ten is only for men.  Dr. Pepper Ten is meant for everyone.  The reason for specifically targeting men is because they tend to “shy away from diet drinks that aren’t preceived as ‘manly’ enough.” 

I think that Dr. Pepper Ten’s marketing tactic is genius.  Their commercial is more of a joke towards men who don’t like to be seen as ‘weight concious’.  Weight conciousness is associated mostly with women since they care about their figure; therefore, the diet drink market is usually made up of women.  The slogan will make women want to consume the diet drink just for the sake of proving the slogan wrong.  In terms of gaining the male customers, I don’t think that Dr. Pepper Ten’s ad will be very effective in changing the views of men who would probably just joke about the ad.

While the world seems to be facing an economic downturn, the haute couture industry has not been affected since most of their buyers are Arab women from oil rich middle eastern nations such as Qatar, the world’s richest nation per capita.  Arab women show off their social status by wearing designer dresses to social events such as weddings.  They tend to purchase around 30 to 40 haute couture dresses each year since wearing the same dress twice or having the same dress as another person is a no-no.

“Very often, the race was on for the most expensive dress,” according to a Dior sales assistant (The Vancouver Sun).  This came to me as a surprise since a few weeks ago during my economics lecture, my professor could not find an example where the Law of Demand (as price increase, quantity demanded decrease) did not apply.  In the case for the haute couture market, the law does not apply since women are competing to buy the most expensive dress to show off their status even if the dress isn’t fashionable (as price increase, demand increases too).

 

In November 2010, Health Canada recommended renaming energy drinks to ‘stimulant drug containing drinks’ and that the beverage be sold under supervision of a pharmacist, according an article from The Vancouver Sun.

The recommendation to rename the product was mainly due to the fact that the name, energy drinks, is inaccurate and deceiving to customers who believe that energy drinks are healthy.  Instead, energy drinks contain too much caffeine, an addictive drug which causes people to become addicted to the beverage, thus resulting in consumers buying and drinking more.

As a consumer, I think that renaming energy drinks to ‘stimulant drug containing drinks’ is a great idea.  The terms, ‘stimulant drug’, is seen as being bad for your health as it is associated with illegal substances.  Consumers will also be detered from drinking the unhealthy, health-defect causing, addictive, caffeine-filled beverage.  However, renaming energy drinks would cause a negative impact on marketers and energy drink companies since they would no longer have complete control over branding their product.

I was reading the newspaper the other day and stumbled upon an article about two brothers who, in attempt to rescue their father’s beef jerky business from closing down, had landed a $150,000 deal for 50% of the company’s share on the Dragon’s Den.

The ‘Dragon’s Den’ is a Canadian reality television show where entreprenuers present their business ideas to venture capitalists, ‘the Dragons,’ in hopes of securing some financing for their company.  This show is a great opportunity for entreprenuers who are seeking to expand their business through securing financing.  The show is not only entertaining but also educational in the way where you observe a range of entreprenuers who have started their own business but did not neccessarity have a business education.  Many of the entreprenuers do not receive financing mainly because investing in their business would be too risky such as loosing money on a product/idea that wont sell.  After watching the show, I realized how useful a business education can be and the importance of having a business plan (something that we learned in the lecture last week).

In 2006, Air Canada won the legal case involving airline rival, WestJet, who was found guilty of accessing Air Canada’s internal Web site which contained private data and information about the company.  A WestJet employee was able to access Air Canada’s internal web site through the use of an employee password that he obtained when he use to work for Air Canada.  This password was passed along to the WestJet management team who then had access to Air Canada’s private information such as their fares/times for booking certain flights, flight routes, and Air Canada’s overall performance.

Air Canada and WestJet are rival airline companies who should be competeing for business in a lawful and fair manner.  However, the main ethical issue is that WestJet was illegally spying/snooping in Air Canada’s private information that weren’t theirs to see.  This private information gave WestJet and advantage since they were able to keep an eye on their competitor and used the information to improve their airline.

Foreign clothing retailers such as Topshop and Eileen Fisher are beginning to open their stores to the Canadian market, particularly in Vancouver, since the Canadian market is less competitive compared to the ones in their home country.  As a result, our market is seen as an opportunity for great economic growth.

I think that this is a great opportunity for foreign retailers to expand their businesses internationally.  However it could be risky since the article states that this trend is “prompted not so much by consumer demand, but by foreign retailers on the lookout for greener fields like Canada.”  Although Vancouver is a cosmopolitan city, I wouldn’t consider the majority of Vancouverites or Canadians as materialistic people who can afford to spend money on luxury items (e.g. clothing) every season.  If one compares a mall in Vancouver with one in Los Angeles in any given day,  the malls in Vancouver are infinitely less busy then ones in Los Angeles.  In conclusion, foreign retailers would probably make large profits early on in the Canadian market but their sales will steadily cool off once they are well-established within Canadian society.

http://www.vancouversun.com/life/City+clothing+sector+sees+wave+foreign+competitors/5386156/story.html

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