This post from Maclean’s Business Blogs comments on the continuing fight between shopkeepers and credit card companies. Because credit cards from various companies, and sometimes even different types of credit cards within the same company, charge different rates for the usage of them in shops, we are approaching an era where only certain cards will be accepted at certain shops.

I find it ironic that both sides are claiming that they are putting “consumers first”, as the result of them doing so has done nothing but inconvenienced us. Credit card companies charge high rates to gain higher profits and shopkeepers accept various cards to tend to a larger number of customers. There is no “consumers first”. Especially with some shops turning surcharges into their own profits by charging a higher rate than the credit card companies do.

I personally believe that them claiming that they put “consumers first” is unethical and quite immoral. If they wanted to place consumers first, they would either ban surcharges or give discounts to customers that pay via cash or debit as the blog post suggests.

Source:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/10/08/credit-card-fees-too-high-give-us-a-discount-for-paying-cash/

In Riley Guttman’s blog post, he writes on how Netflix, an American DVD rental and online video streaming company, has taken up a strategy of restarting previously discontinued T.V. series.

His post piqued my interest despite the fact that I hardly watch American T.V. shows. Having lived in Asia for most of my life, the concept of a T.V. series getting prematurely cancelled was something fresh to me.

As Riley states, I agree that it is a cost-efficient method to gaining new Netflix subscribers. The reason being that compared to producing a brand new T.V. series, continuing a discontinued one allows for Netflix to tap into its already existent fan-base. And by only distributing the continuation on Netflix, fans are forced to subscribe in order to watch the show.

However, Riley linked his blog post to the activity that was done in class where students gave advice on possible strategies adoptable by Netflix. I would like to question his classification of reviving discontinued T.V. series into “producing original content”. Despite the original story-line, can it truly be considered purely original given the already existing settings and characters? I personally do not think so.

Sources:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/merrillbarr/2013/11/15/is-netflix-playing-a-tv-game-of-moneyball/

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/netflix-publishes-isp-speed-index/

Becky Chang’s post sheds light on the failed attempt by Facebook to purchase Snapchat for three billion dollars. Snapchat’s CEO stating that the company would be worth more in the near future

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Facebook is without doubt the most popular social networking site as of this date and has kept its status of being so via merging with rival companies. An example being Instagram. However, with the emergence of applications such as Line, WhatsApp and Kakao, Facebook has been undergoing problems in acquiring major market share in the mobile messaging market. This is due to the fact that while Facebook was originally a social site aimed for desktop use, the other applications were specialized for mobile use from the start and have greater expertise regarding the mobile messaging field.

Hence, I partially agree with Becky on her opinion that Facebook should stop acquiring social services such as Snapchat and instead work on ways to provide users with a better desktop experience. However, I disagree with her in the fact that the acquisition should only be stopped with regards to mobile messaging applications, and that Facebook should continue merging with desktop-based applications.

Sources:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-13/snapchats-3-billion-rejection-and-the-great-facebook-unbundling

http://socialmediatoday.com/amy-birch/1402306/how-use-snapchat-part-your-marketing-strategy

Megabanks in Japan have long since suffered from problems involving the lending of money to Yakuza. Yakuza being Japanese crime syndicates. For many years, Yakuza have been borrowing money from banks for their operations through means such as indirect borrowing or the purchase of “properties that has been put up as collateral for bad loans”.

The article cited shows how megabanks in Japan are now taking new extensive methods to prevent money from landing into yakuza hands. I believe this is an ideal example of Corporate Social Responsibility, the principle that states that companies have a responsibility to not negatively affect society, but to contribute to it. Through methods such as extensive loan screening and the construction of new clauses that allow termination of contracts with members of the Yakuza upon discovery, the number of cases of money lending to Yakuza will undoubtedly fall. I truly applaud them as they are not only sacrificing their business by not lending money, but they are also showing courage as many cases with terminating contracts with Yakuza have resulted in violence which required police intervention. This step that the megabanks have taken will contribute to the decreasing of crime rates in Japan.

Sources: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/11/16/business/mega-banks-struggling-to-shut-out-mobsters-amid-anti-social-loans-scandal/#.UooAlsQz0Tc

Diversification is one of the growth strategies stated in the Ansoff Matrix and it involves expansion into new markets through the development of new products. It has often been referred to as the “suicide cell” due to its low success rate. Though it may result in high returns, diversification involves high risks and many companies have failed at it.

MMI, being an insurance company, purchased Guardrisk which focused on retail and telecom regarding insurance. It was a good move as it provided them with new channels to sell their existing products. Many company mergers are accompanied with friction due to the combining of two companies with different cultures. However, MMI’s decision to leave Guardrisk as a separate unit has allowed it to expand into the insurance retail market without the negative consequences that usually follow a merge. MMI’s example shows how diversification can be more successful if the good or service that is added is related to the current good that the company deals with. In this case, the making of insurance and its selling.

Source: http://www.bdlive.co.za/business/financial/2013/11/04/mmi-buys-guardrisk-to-diversify-business;jsessionid=C78E1D9DE71D2F23186E92E60982D509.present1.bdfm

Not too long ago, the hashtag was merely a button on a phone. Then it appeared on the internet in the titles of IRC (Interenet Relay Chat) channels. However it only truly became viral after Twitter adopted it. For a while, hash-tagging was a Point-of-Difference for Twitter compared to other social platforms. It was the perfect way for people to see what others were posting regarding a topic, from politics to music to even things like pictures of hot girls.

However, it did not take long for other social platforms to also start incorporating hash-tagging. Shortly after, Facebook, LinkedIn and Flickr all brought in hash-tagging to their system.However, I think Twitter benefited the most from the hash-tagging system. As the SWOT concept would say it, they were accurate in identifying their strengths and opportunities. The hash-tagging system was suitable as it played on Twitter’s strength being a mainly mobile platform, making use of the fact that tweeting was something very casual and hence people tweeted many times a day, unlike Facebook where people only posted a few times each day. Hence incorporating hash-tagging brought a huge opportunity to them known as the firehose, public data that can be sold.

Sources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24397472

http://www.copypress.com/blog/the-hashtag-a-history-deeper-than-twitter/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24802766

Since we covered points-of-parity and points-of-difference last week, I thought it would be relevant to do a post about it. In the article, Apple and Samsung are compared in terms of switch-over rates, customer loyalty and the choice that first-time smartphone users would pick. In the comparisons, Apple won in terms of switch-over rates and customer loyalty, however, Samsung won in terms of customers changing over from a basic or non-feature phone.

From the article, we can tell how important brand image and brand loyalty is to both these companies. Apart from advertising, what makes these products so distinct is their points-of-difference (PoD). While sharing many similarities (points-of-parity PoP) such as both being smartphones having basic features such as video and music players, Apple attracts users by its easy-to-use instinctive system, the basic functionality of iTunes and its simple sleek design whereas Samsung boasts the highest resolution rates in the market as of now, higher customizability for the tech-savvy and a more sophisticated design.

From the demand of goods from each brand, we can see how diverse and spread out the tastes and preference of consumers are.

Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2013/08/20/apple-and-samsung-who-could-win-the-smartphone-war/

Crypton Future Media definitely hit the jackpot when they synthetic voice software Hatsune Miku. Making use of Yamaha’s Vocaloid (voice+android) technology, aspiring producers were able to get an artificial idol, Hatsune Miku, to sing their songs for them. This created a whole new market in Japan, as the program was unlike no other. The Vocaloid series has since then boomed in popularity, sprouting more than a million derivative artworks and more than a hundred thousand fan-made songs.  Holographic images of the Vocaloids actually even perform concerts all over the globe, with heaps of people swarming to see them.

I was fascinated at the Vocaloid series just due to the sheer genius of Crypton Future Media that created the idea. I believe that this level of popularity would not have been born with just the voice-synthesizing software, it was the idea of packaging it with its own character that spawned the franchise that is now known as Hatsune Miku. Because she is not a real idol, Crypton is also able to save tremendous amounts of money as even the concerts that are held mainly consist of virtual data. A true example of how innovation can change the world.

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/music/2013/09/29/hatsune-miku-vocaloid-singer/2877767/   (video on link for reference apart from article)

Originating from Japan, the girl band was produced by Akimoto Yasushi in 2009, where they started performing in a theatre  in Akihabara, hence the naming AKB. Since then, the group has sold over 20 million records within Japan and has also gained global recognition in some countries as a raging sensation, sprouting out sister units in various countries such as JKT48 (Jakarta), SNH (Shanghai).

One would wonder the reason behind the success of AKB48, despite mostly singing mainstream bubblegum pop and mediocre dance moves compared to their Korean counterparts. I believe that it is due to their producer, Akimoto Yasushi, who saw an unfulfilled niche market in the idol industry. He produced the group with the concept “idols you can meet”. Unlike most idols in Japan who are unrealistically portrayed in the media, fans actually have many chances to meet members of AKB48 through the many popularity poll performances, handshake meetings and sign sessions. Such events were hard to come by in Japan before AKB48’s debut.

From the above facts, we can see just how important it is to have a keen eye to spot possible unfulfilled niches. Only with a keen eye, can we seize opportunities when they come to us.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57371627-1/otaku-band-akb48-morphs-into-$200m-business/

Much drama has gone down these past few days regarding Sauder Frosh, an orientation program designed for first year students at the Sauder School of Business. It was broadcast on national television that froshees, students attending frosh, were seen in public chanting cheers that encouraged underage sex with minors.

After reading about what happened, I was personally shocked to know that the chant had been a part of frosh culture, being repeated at every years frosh event. While I do agree that sometimes slightly course language is conducive to ice-breaking and bonding, I have to say that the pro-rape chant was extremely inappropriate and uncalled for.

It was also reported that some student leaders had mentioned how the chant was not supposed to be done in public places. I personally found this the most unacceptable part of the article. A pro-rape chant is still a pro-rape chant, whether done privately or in public. And thanks to this, the reputation that took the Sauder School and UBC many years to build has hit the dust. And though as a Sauder student I should not be saying this, but I am glad that this chant has come to light and I sincerely hope that the people responsible for the promotion of this chant have learned their lessons.

Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/09/09/bc-ubc-frosh-rape-chant.html