Month: October 2011

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).