Melinda and Bill Gates have shared their belief in the importance of the act of improving education in North America, specifically in the United States of America. Bill Gates has elaborated in this heperlinked blog, “the Gates Notes” that uneducated workers who have not received college level education double the number of those unemployed workers who have been educated in college level education.  As the America faces such profoundly unsettling nationwide economic issues, concerns for the quality of teachers and education for children are greatly neglected. With an increasing need for highly-skilled workers, the future of the US economy does not seem to be promising as well.  Although the absence of college level education will not totally ruin your life, I find the education I am currently receiving somewhat helpful as a postsecondary student myself. Some classes and lectures may include contents that one finds useless and nothing to connect to real life situations. However, in general courses of education, people attain more knowledges, skills and most importantly, realizations through one’s learning processes. I believe that learning matters more than education. Yet, learning process can accelerate and exceed when it is met with education.

As I observe people satisfaction when they purchase a good deal of money to get a car in North America, the impression has always been much more about the usefulness itself than conspicuous consumption. When you are entitled to buy your own new vehicle in compliance with how much of income you make, you look into the micro factors associated with the car such as how gas-efficient it is, how safe it is etc. rather than decisively choosing the luxury cars such as Audi, BMW, Volkwagen etc. just because you have enough money. Continue reading →

If you are in an unfamiliar place to travel, then you will stop before a train or any transportation ticketing machine trying to figure how it works. Also imagine if your next destination is cross over the board. Here come the SilverRail in emergence to solve this problem international-wise. Wholeheartedly voluntary work to make it easier for ticketing travellers expands to USA, Canada, Britain, Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg. This business focuses on differentiation in a broad sense. Simplification of ticketing process which cooperates with all sorts of rail suppliers will be integrated into one platform. However, even if their measurement of inconvenience from travellers, their threats still exist: it is also common for travellers that having difficulties in finding ways is fun part of journeys and not many business travellers will change their choice of transportation to train just because the ticketing process has become easier.

The only two ways to attract and entice travellers to the train transportation would be only if their ticket sales grow significantly and there is a decrease in the price of tickets. The second recommendation for them is to target at social factors of consumer behaviour by showing, for example, how cozy and comfortable trains are for families or travellers to enjoy.

In the face of threatening rise of Barnes & Noble(B&N), Amazon.com has become a bigger threat of crushing down B&N.  As it launched its online-based business in 1995, many critics predicted on the fall of Amazon as the new bookseller business came into the market, Barnes and Noble. However, the unpredicted upside-down has happened by Amazon. In the meantime, Apple, one of the greatest business in making tablets, has become now sensitive to the rise of Amazon.com.

Amazon has launched the production, a tablet computer called Kindle Fire which is to compete against such products as Nook Color tablet by B&N and Apple’s iPad. Kindle Fire is sold in the market at much cheaper price, $199, than that of iPad, $499, and Nook Color, $224, an effort by Amazon to make its own product to be attractive and valuable to customers. By definition, operational effective is achieved when a business implements practices similar services,  which already exist in the market, in different ways.  Also, Amazon’s selling the tablet computer at a cheaper price can be categorized as cost leadership as well.

In order for Apple’s iPad and B&N’s Nook Color to be able to win over the competition with Amazon’s Kindle Fire is to concentrate on maintaining their customers who have loyalty to the brand. Amazon’s Kindle Fire, however, has disadvantages in terms of having less loyalty than those two businesses. Apple and B&N, if there is no way to reduce their prices, have no other choice than improving their products and gain more loyalty.

http://www.economist.com/node/21530980

We learn from the class 4 that there is now inevitable competition on price between two companies, Lieber Light of Fraser Co. and Vancouver Light Co. Both companies are in business of production of skylights. Lieber light Co. recently celebrity its 50th anniversary,  beating that of Vancouver Light in experiences, quality of services and quantity of loyal customers. However, the uprising of Vancouver Light is becoming a threat to Lieber Light because of its strategy in targeting customers with much lower price. Although there is still a considerable gap in the quality of services from two companies, customers and remodellers of houses now shift their purchases towards Vancouver Light. This shifts in customers’ minds finally broke out a crisis and Lieber Light is negatively reinforced to lower greatly to be able to compete with Vancouver Light. But the weakness of Vancouver Light is that it does not emphasize on quality of services and possession of loyal customers who have dealt with them for a long time, which Lieber Light has succeeded in for the last fifty years. I think Lieber Light must keep on emphasizing the production of quality service over that of Vancouver Light to win this competition.

The Madison Ave. spa Wellpath in New York strived to attract loyal customers by running discounts on the “deal-of-the-day” Web sites. Wellpath spa provides women who look for health and beauty that are gentle and highly effective to become better and more beautiful looking women. Their service includes Zerona laser treatment, radio frequency using Velashape and Carboxytheraphy etc. Wellpath cooperated with the biggest dealmaker, Groupon, making better daily deals on Website to attract and intensify the number of customers to the place. This drew women from places to benefit from coupons to get their wrinkles removed but only temporarily. This marketing instantly draws and catches the eyes of customers to come to the place once but does not make them their loyalty.

“The consumers were being told: You will never pay full price again.The merchants were hearing: You are going to get new customers who will stick around and pay full price. Disappointment was inevitable.”

From my point of view, since merchants seem to expect to prosper afterward their having invited customers for once, they should be satisfied to have benefits of spreading awareness of their brand because the input for this output is undoubtedly high and risky.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/02/business/deal-sites-have-fading-allure-for-merchants.html?scp=1&sq=wellpath&st=cse