Cherry Xu

This guy is Blake Mycoskie, former reality television contestant, owner of Toms Shoes.

He first started off on the show “The Amazing Race”.During his trip, he came to realized that there are many children didn’t have shoes. He thus started his company with the idea of “shoes for better tomorrow”. Every pair of shoes a customer purchase; his company will donate another pair to children who need them.

His company was founded in 2006, Toms now has 160 employees and has given away more than 1 million pairs of shoes.  TOMS quickly becoming the one of the most successful shoes brand. is success came from different aspects. First, the idea of donate shoes to children in need.  He is not doing business for benefiting himself, but to the world. Most companies donate to charity once they are successful.  I have never seen company like TOMS-donate from the very beginning and continuously doing it. He started with nothing, he started with everything. He started with no money, no profit but he started with his passion and full heart. Once he started the company, his idea grabs media’s attention. His design and quality of shoes is another factor leading him to success. The design is simple and comfortable; the price is relatively fair. From high school girls and boys to Hollywood stars, they all have a pair of TOMS now. Another reason that he is so successful is because he uses social media far more than traditional advertising. This breaks the traditional role of most of the companies; meanwhile, he takes the advantage of social media and socially conscious ideals to establish a profitable business.  Promoting company by using social media saves more money compares to traditional advertising as well as grabs more people’s attention.

After coming across Jennifer Langston’s article, “Is the world ready for a baby doll that breast-feeds?”, I think a new doll that encourages little girls(or boys) to pretend to breast-feed is too much for their age.

This new product is a doll that allows kids to pretend to breast feed. Here is the doll’s website, it includes this video on how the works. From the video we can see that “a little girl straps on a halter with pink flowers over the nipple areas, lets the baby slurp away and burps it”. The marketers are obviously targeting little girls (or boys). However, little kids are not capable of walking into a store to pick their toys and pay at the cashier. Their parents are doing all that jobs for them, which means that marketers’ target market should be the parents rather than the kids. Therefore, parents’ thoughts of the toys should be taken into consideration as well. Have the marketers of the breast-feed baby doll ever done a survey on how parents view their newest product beforehand? Probably not- here is a video on how some moms think this product is. 

After the doll has launched, there are tons of negative comments like-“why would a little girl need to learn how to breast-feed before she has breasts?” and etc.

Just like Jennifer said, “this is just a toy. Kids love to mimic things they see adults doing.” I remember when I was a kid, I love brushing hair for my Barbie, I love making cupcakes for my doll, and I love changing clothes for them. However, in my opinion, pretend to breast-feed would be too much because kids are too young for it, kids don’t even know what breast feed mean and how it works. “The manufacture goes on suggest the doll may help the U.S. toward greater acceptance of breast feeding.” Frankly, why do little kids have to be educated to accept breast feeding when they are so little? There is no point to educate them when they are babies.

Vending machines are everywhere, delivering just about anything you can think of nowadays, from chips to lobsters. Yes! There are vending machines selling lobsters and eggs in Japan now. People can’t be fulfilled with the traditional ones which sell chips and pops only. In Japan, there are over 5.6 million vending machines, one for every twenty people. Here are some of the strangest ones that have found around the world.

 Live Lobster Vending Machine

here is a video on egg vending machine

It is certainly not surprised to find bags of fresh eggs inside vending machines alone side of the road, set up by local farmers in Japan.

Book Vending Machines

Book vending machines can be found at the airport and hotels in England. The machines offer a variety of titles from best- selling author, puzzle books to kids’ titles. Book machines are also coming to Australia and Asia lately.

While I am amazed by how talent and novel these vending machine developers are, I do think about the potential concerns among store managers and consumers. These vending machines take over merchandises that are selling at local stores. From the store mangers’ side, they might be worried about the sales impact by the new innovation that brings consumers so much convenience. From the consumers’ side, even though they brought consumers with great advantages and convenience, they probablywould be considering if the eggs and lobsters are fresh.  After seeing these bizarre vending machines, will you get stuff from the newest vending machines?

By now, you probably have heard about “groupon”. If not, Groupon is an easy way to get huge discount while discovering fun activities in your city. Each day, it features a cool new experience with an undefeatable price in dozens of cities across the country (ex: restaurants, salons, spa and etc)

Website like groupon.com, which launched in Nov.2008, is having a big success now.  The website works with local businesses each day at an incredible low price. The groupon deal can only activate if it meets the minimum number of members who join the deal. When there are enough people, you will get a groupon that can be used just like cash. To make it simpler, the idea of groupon means “group coupon”, the deal becomes available to all people who sign up for the offer with a cheaper price. However, while lots of people are taking great advantages from the groupon deal, there are some downsides that we need to know as well.

First, you may not get the great deal you are expecting. To avoid this, maybe you should search for the regular price before you join the groupon. Second, be aware of date limitation, certain locations may have a date limitation on using groupons. For example: a restaurant can say that groupon can only be used during lunch time not dinner or they don’t accept groupon on weekend. Also, they often come with expiration dates, many times in just six months.

Overall, groupon can give you some super good deals, however, make sure you double check with the regular price and limitation before getting it. Have fun with the newest deal-groupon!

Apple has recently released their new product-Ipad2

Ipad 1 has just been out for about a year and now there is Ipad 2 already? Yes. Apple has been updating their products once a year. Apple fans are really excited about it while people like me-non apple fan think they are pushing their products too often.

8 reasons that you shouldn’t be buying Ipad 2- there will be Ipad3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10..of course that’s a joke, but honestely I think apple only released their products because it is time not because they have a full developed and enhanced product. How much more technology they have improved in less than a year? If they want a better product, they would need a lot more time than one year. However, to gain profits and reputations, they need to release Ipad 2. Once they developed more advanced techonology, they would realease Ioad 3 and etc just like how they have done on Iphone. Their strategy doesn’t fail though, there is still huge line ups of customers around the world getting Ipad2.

From marketers’ point of view, they have done a pretty good job on marketing. However, it leaves us a question- is it ethical to do so?

In Michael Tam’s recent blog post, I want a Blackberry! He spoke of wanting a Blackberry. As a blackberry user, I found that there are both pros and cons of using a Blackberry.

As Michael mentioned, having a Blackberry does make you look professional. It not only makes you look professional, it actually makes users especially business users professional with  its best contact management, calendaring, and email devices. With its renowned mechanical keyboards, Blackberry users can send/receive emails, SMS messages, and set calendar productively.

While having so many advantages of Blackberry, the two major disadvantages are its slow internet and short battery life. Blackberry has a huge disadvantage of its short battery life. I have used Nokia before, and it provides the most optimal power consumption for users. Weeks of standby time and hours of talk time truly bring users a very convenient usage. However, I have to charge my blackberry every night. The battery life can only hold for a day or so. In addition, I have great difficulties with web browsing using a Blackberry. It has a relative slow internet especially comparing with its biggest competitor of smartphone-Iphone. It takes forever to load a site and the screen is too small to read compare to Iphone.

After reading these profs and cons of having a blackberry, are you still to consider buying one?

After coming across Lauren Nipp’s blog, RBC Mobile Banking App, I was impressed by how creative and thoughtful marketers are while they are developing new services or products. At the same time, I really appreciate how much convenience new sevices/products have brought us to daily lives. As Lauren has introduced, “free RBC mobile banking application which includes a full range of banking services was now available to download”.

Markets are trying so hard to think of new services/products in order to attract new customers while retaining current customers. In addition to understand their customers better, the marketers must understand the macroenvironmental factors (CDSTEP). Time-poor society, as one of the various social trends, appears to be shaping this new application. As families are getting busier and busier, RBC realized the fact that many people need “bank services on-the-go or an easy way to make payments”.

The RBC application enables Smartphone users to access a full range of services, such as: view account balances for all personal and business accounts, pay bills, view transaction history and payment history, transfer funds, and etc. Under such a fast paced society, bringing convenient application like this, would definitely attract some new customers who seek fast and simple ways to manage their money.

Like Lauren has mentioned, “24% of people cited they would be worried about security and privacy concerns with the mobile service.” Marketers have to take privacy concerns, which is another social trend, into account. RBC promises to provide its customers “with the same safety and security guarantee as its online banking security guarantee.”

Last week, I wrote a blog on the ideal images women portrayed in recent media have deeply influenced how women behave in their daily lives. The pursuit of beauty and thinness is turning into a social phenomenon which acts as self-censoring block to their own development. Do all people just sit at home and mimic this negative trend?

 No, some people take actions by boycotting or disputing this phenomenon. For example, the well- known brand Ralph Lauren has outraged followers of fashion by using an extremely thin model, named Filippa Hamiltonon, in their advertisements. This advertisement shows a female model with jeans and tight tank top. Her waist and hips are even smaller than her head which makes the picture look really abnormal.

However, after working for Ralph Lauren for eight years, Filippa was fired by the company because she had become too fat for them. After further investigation, readers have found out that the advertisement was retouched in order to create a very skinny look. After this incident was exposed, people especially women started to criticize the company online. The reputation Ralph Lauren built for 42 years was ruined. Many women felt really uncomfortable and disrespected because the advertisers distorted images of a women’s body and conveyed the faulty idea of beauty. Afterwards, the company apologized for its mistakes. Society is taking this into account and some fashion designers are trying to avoid using skinny and unhealthy models. The organizers of Milan and Madrid Fashion Week have banned skinny women, with body mass index of less than 18, to develop healthier image.

When we read a magazine, watch a television program, or glimps a commercial, we receives messages about how women should look, act, and behave. Nowadays, women shape their social values, behaviours, tastes and preferences based on what they see on advertisements from TV, magazines, newspapers and websites. The most common images people see from advertisements are skinny beautiful women selling fashionable products.

I recent read a research article, it shows that “The average woman sees 400 to 600 advertisements per day, and by the time she is 17 years old, she has received 250,000 commercial messages through the media”. In addition, “Only small amount of commercials have a direct statement about beauty, but many more focus on the importance of beauty”. This constant exposure to pretty women-oriented advertisements are influencing girls to become self-conscious about their bodies and appearances. Media conveys many behaviors, including regular exposure of a “perfect” appearance, one few women can ever attain. Women are influenced, and under constant pressure to be thin and beautiful. I think women are both physically and mentally affected by pursing perfect images.  Physically, the ideal images of women that advertisements portray affect women’s eating behavior and desire to diet. Mentally, women value their worth or self identity by their appearances.

I think the media should stop conveying the idea of the importance of women being beautiful and slim. Instead, marketers should use the power of media to deliver  healthy messages which can improve our quality of life.

When I was waiting for this endless line-up at Tim Hortons besides Sauder, I started to think what If there is a Starbucks opened besides it like where the Whitespot is. Which one is going to have the longer line up?

Personally, I am not a loyal customer for any of them. When I need a cup of coffee or tea, I will just go to the one that is closer to me. However, if you are a loyal fan for either one of them, you have your own reasons of course.  Well, I see the price as the dominant differences, followed by products, environment, logo and cup design, and etc.

The logo and cup design can be taken into consideration. Starbucks’ clean white cups look classic yet pretty. Their cups catch better attention than Tim Horton. The images of the stores are different as well. Starbucks have this cozy environment with comfortable sofa and free Wi-Fi. However, Tim Hortons has relatively simple furniture.  

However, when it comes to price, Tim Horton definitely beat Starbucks. Tim Hortons’ cup of coffee costs a lot less than Starbucks; to me they taste the same in a lot of cases.

Tim Hortons has a variety of donuts, muffins and etc. Starbucks not only has food, yogurt and fruit provided, but also offer holiday season special drinks.  Even though the prices of those drinks are more expensive than the regular ones, people are willing to pay extra money to taste the spirit of holidays.

The reason they are having so many varieties is because their target markets are different. Starbucks’s target market might be students with higher income, adults who have a job, businessmen who have short meetings while grabbing coffees or housewives who want to spend some time reading and chatting after riding their children to school. On the other hand, Tim Hortons is targeting at college students who can’t afford expensive coffees everyday and people who want a fast and convenient cup of coffee.