Response to Cigarette Flavor Names

I personally think that the old school cigarettes look cooler, and are vintage, that's why we may think that they are better. I personally don't smoke, but I would  be the type to collect old posters of cigarettes, just because they look cool/ 

http://clagerberg.blogspot.com/

Response to BlockBuster VS Netflix

http://alliemarieray.blogspot.com/
Do you think Blockbuster gave up when Netflix was invented? Do you think they could have come out with some type of new product or marketing tool to stay in competition?

I think that Blockbuster tried to stay afloat when Netflix came out, by trying to have order online DVDs. But yes, there did come a point in which they did just give up. 
In this small town of Keene there were two video stores, one was Blockbuster, and the other was a locally owned store. When Blockbuster did go out of business, I was thankful that it was BB and not the other store. It just shows that we should shop locally, and it will bennefit the community around us when we do. 
I think that it was fair for BB to get out of the market, and Im not sure if there was anything they could have done to stay in business. 

cyber intelligence.

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tekknotes/2013/apr/25/cispa-it-good-or-bad-house-passed-it-week-ago-most/
CISPA is the Cyber Intelligence Sharing Protection Act that would allow the government to share internet traffic with the technology and manufacturing companies. They passed this law just in case of any cyber attacks from different countries on those companies. Its just set up there just so they can react quickly to attacks. This is a pretty good idea but the power can be abused it seems like.

Response to Marketing Strategies: new tactics

Should more older businesses today re vamp their marketing strategies and goals or should they stick to what has worked in the past?

I think that businesses should revamp their marketing strategies, because I think the tatics that they have today relay too much on social media. and people are too inflluenced by changing who they want to be, to be the people in the commercials, and I think that this is unheathy for society. 

Facebook increasing profits!

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/big-data-download/facebook-facetime-investors-175408255.html?vp=1

Facebook is working with its investors to look at their numbers of users, to install a new asset- facetime.

Facebook has really started to work towards becoming a multipurpose site. This article tells us that they are starting to put their focus on mobile users. They are still working to keep a profit for their investors, with a contuined growth rate. And continue over the next year. They have kept this gain by increasing their mobile advertisements, and this is helping their profits increase. 

Response to Fenway Park Lowers Beer Prices for Fans

http://hbannon90.blogspot.com/

Have the high prices at big events ever kept you from purchasing beer? Would you be more apt to buy them now that the price has gone down?

I think in any public place the prices for any type of alcohol are too high. And yes, this has stopped me from purchasing any type of alcohol even from bars. Its so much cheaper to just watch the game at your own place, and buy your own beer. Even at weddings! The drinks are so expensive! and not even that great! I wish there were ways to make it cheaper for ourselves. But then it would suck for the vendors, because that's where they make the most money and business. 

Big Data

http://deloitte.wsj.com/cio/2012/06/15/big-data-goes-to-work/?KEYWORDS=olap
Big data issues and concerns for business today because companies will need to decide where to focus, what capabilities to build, and what talent to pursue and develop. The biggest impediment to firms accessing big data analytics is that big data needs to be agile. 
Big data investment is a goo thing for businesses today because Businesses can glean powerful new insights, with the most value realized by those who learn to detect signals from the noise, derive meaning from the signals, and turn meaning into action. 

Amazon.com

http://plus.url.google.com/url?sa=z&n=1367862243948&url=http%3A%2F%2Ftcrn.ch%2FVkbH35&usg=9el7Ibo8YRQh-xooVwz-ho3Rw_8.
Amazon has done it again. The question now is how are other companies offering similar services going to compete? Physical data warehouses charge ten times as much for similar services. Not many other companies have the resources to compete with amazon in this new endeavor of theirs. Now that Redshift is global, it almost seems like a certainty that they will drive other companies specializing in data warehouses out of business. With Amazon seemingly getting stronger all the time, the gap continues to widen between Amazon and everyone else, will anyone compete?

Response marketing tools!

I find that it is too much when Facebook starts using facial recongntion when it comes to posting pictures, or even when trying to log in. In the past, I have tried to log on using a different computer, a bunch of other people's pictures pop up, and I would have to name them all, in order to log in. I understand the theory behind that, but I honestly don't know some of the people that I'm friends with on facebook, whether its people  that I've met only once through vacations or from high school, because I wasn't really friends with them, or just had a class or something. I understand why companies are using this, but we really should be concerned with how much informaiton we personally post, so we start to protect ourselves.
http://mo-blog-kjohnson.blogspot.com/

The world is Flat.

The first three flatners were the fall of the Berlin wall, Netscape going public, and work flow software.

I believe that while these flatners have had a large impact on our society and have changed society, the printing press has had a larger influence on history. One factor is because the printing press was more of an instant transformation, while the flatners Friedman suggested were a long, drawn out transformation. Also the printing press was transformational in all aspects of life, including business, education, religion, and many more.

I think the most surprising aspect  process of Friedman's book was the development of the title for the book. I found the comparison between Columbus's search for India and instead finding the world was round with Friedman's trip leading to the discovery that the world was flat very interesting.

cyber attacks

 http://on.mash.to/YEZzxM
The big story behind this attack is the scope of it. The first company that was attacked basically provides a black list to other companies to block them from spamming them. Evidently the Cyberbunker company was upset about that they were on the list and they initiated this distributed denial of service attack. As the article says and as we'll discuss in her in further chapters thousands of computers are harnessed together to flood the website of the attacked company. The interesting thing about this is that a security company was hired by the attack company to help fix the problem. When that occurred the denial of service company attacked the security company. These are vicious and very destructive attacks and can have devastating economic effect on the companies. You may know that recently the North Koreans did a similar thing to the South Korean banking system.

In response to Gina's post; buying decisions.

I think that reference groups reduce the search and evaluation of decisions for myself, if I am looking for a high priced item to buy, I know who I normally go to, and ask their opinion of what products. But I feel like there are types of people that love the evaluation of products making the decisions themselves. They love to do research on products and evaluate how each one compares. In conclusion, it depends on the person.

Robots in classrooms.

The little boy in this news clip has an awful allergy, and is unable to attend school. His mother pleaded with the school board to have them purchase a traveling robot, that is controlled by the boy at home. He has a tutor that helps him side by side with class work, but he is able to interact with other students, instead of being home schooled, and having no interactions.

Do you think this is benefical? How do you think his relationships will be when he goes to highschool? Do you think that we'll see this more over the years?

Check out the clip: http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/02/15/Robot-Attends-School-For-Second-Grader?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+BreitbartFeed+(Breitbart+Feed)

Rebooting Hotmail.

Microsoft is looking for change. The change hasn’t been made for decades. Outlook is still very basic. The use of email has changed, commutation is done through texting, and social media sites. Microsoft is looking to update them to be applicable to more smart devices like tablets. Social media today is more popular than ever. For businesses it is almost a free type of marketing and for people, it’s a way of communication and self expression. Today, many people are using facebook messaging, as email. It is important for Microsoft to keep up with these updates because this innovation will keep progressing. The future could be more popularity of Google plus. Google plus , I feel, is a business version of facebook, circles allow groups of people to commutate with each other, and the option to have chats, are basically like reply-all emails. When Microsoft doesn’t keep up with these updates, that’s when they are forgotten, and get taken out of the picture. The personal repository is important to MS email, because they want to be used. They want their users to have one place to see facebook updates, and other social networks, plus a well managed email database. They want to make it simple for users. By including online storage space, they are changing to make be like other email services.

Would you use a service more if all of your updates were in one place? 

How do you think your use of social media will change when getting to the real world? 

Read the article here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444226904577561050747041874.html?mod=technology_newsreel 

Lean In

Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook  has gotten a lot of attention recently for new practice of “Lean-In Circles”. The purpose of these groups of women getting together to talk about when they “leaned in” or didn’t in the work place. A group of woman get together to inspire one another. Considered a new type of club, “Oprah session” and corporate pep talk.

I saw this article on Bloomberg Business week, along with a section of Cosmo. I think it is a great idea to have a book club sort of meeting where you reflect with other woman in the same positions as yourself, and how you could be a better employee. While the norm of more women working in a men’s world, I think it is important for women to reflect on their jobs, and allowing themselves to reflect with other successful women where they could have done better in their job, and where they did do well.

Do you think it is important for woman to be working together to make a stand in a man’s world?

Business week article- http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-05/facebooks-sheryl-sandberg-whos-in-your-lean-in-circle#p1

More about “Lean In” Circles. http://gma.yahoo.com/video/gma-sheryl-sandberg-creates-lean-080000753.html

Men’s nail polish hitting the market place.

Men’s nail polish we often think is out of the question, but is starting to show up in kick boxing and martial arts, to cover up banged up nails. Its started with Former Ultimate Fighting Championship star Chuck Liddell, he started to sport a pink polish during fights. He said that it would occasionally help him chat up women, along with seeing polish on famous actors. AS a retired fighter, he started his own cosmetic line, which included polish paint that were named “manly colors” Such as “burnin rubber” and “gasoline”.  His website he says is way over the top, pointing out that it’s just for males. After he saw his sales increasing to males that aren't into fighting and don’t have ruined nails, “just looking for a bit of flare” he softened his marketing approach. The company sells about 400 pens a month.  Female nail polish industry is still at an all time high, but because of the flexibility of social norms, male nail polish is being accepted into the market. In the years past It was thought as less masculine because you were taking care of yourself, but today, men are seeing the importance of taking care of yourself. I think this website proves that we are pressured by celebrities to use certain products. Have you ever been more likely to use a product that you've seen a celebrity use? 

Alpha Nailart official website- http://www.alphanail.com/#starterkit

Alpha nailart Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujPBA2HKPus

Article- http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-03-14/mens-nail-polish-joins-the-cosmetics-market#r=nav-f-story

What managers do

Leaders are different from managers in many ways. The article made a list of these differences between managers and leaders. I think the most important difference between the two is that managers focuses on the systems and structure of their organization and leaders focuses on the people within the organization. It's good that managers want to make sure their organization is running smoothly but making sure their employees are happy is more important. When the employees are happy, the customers are satisfied. Managers just want to make sure their organization is controlled, and reaches the goals by doing things the right way. As a leader, they want their employees to feel they can be trusted, to excel in their work by giving them confidence and to make sure they do the right thing, for example, business ethics. 

Response to Lindsey's post about Value and Service.

After reading Lindsey's article on Customer's value and stratification  it made me reflect on who I am as a consumer. I am a college student, so I try not to spend money, because I simply don't have any! There are certain products that I buy because I like how they work and they are just the products that I buy. So yes, I base my value of a product more on the physical product. I base the value on what it does for me, where I find the product, and sometimes the ingredients. The service that I get at the the place of purchase doesn't normally affect if I buy the product again. If it is a product that I buy normally then the service doesn't matter, but if I am at a specialty store, and the attitudes are bad, and the service is bad, than I would probably not go back to that location. 

OraBrush Marketing Stratergy

This is a response to an article about Marketing a new product for battling dog breath. Found on Yahoo Finance.com

Through the research of the mouth, it is said that bad breath comes from bacteria on a the toungue rather the teeth. Tongue scrapping is a common practice in other parts of the world, but in the US, the CEO of Orabrush admits that it’s not common in the US.  So, one thing people hate more than  their own bad breath? DOG BREATH. Instead of focusing on marketing to people, they would market to dog owners, making a tongue scrapper for dogs. By creating a scrapper with a beef flavored paste, the dog just licks the scrapper. Instead of struggling with your pet, you are giving them a treat. And in the long run, you are benefitting. The result of this product is a happy owner! No longer nauseating dog breath.

I saw this Youtube marketing video a while back, I don’t even own a dog, and I thought it would be a fantastic idea. This company took orders for their new idea, instead of just putting it on shelves.  And this worked for them!

This is the Human orabrush that didn’t catch on in the US.

 Article: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/million-dollar-idea-battling-dog-161209227.html

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E96EbDtMptU

In response to regulation

I also don’t believe that regulation is effective, as the government would like to think that it is. An example would be alcohol… Touchy subject… But on the other hand I definitely think that there should be regulations in the work place, and I think that is important to have a minimum wage. I think that the work place would take advantage of not having one. I know that being a small business owner is hard, and there are struggles financially, and if there is anywhere to cut corners, those corners will be cut. I can also see there being a mess in bigger companies, over working their employees, and taking advantage of all of their hard work, just to make an extra buck.

http://pocketwaffle.blogspot.com/

In response to Collaboration and Creativity.

I feel like Facebook has almost changed everything about daily activities. It has changed how you are hired, when applying for a job, and especially how we meet people. I know its not good for us to be so open online. What would be so different about our culture if there was no Facebook? I feel like I would be emailing a lot more to keep in touch with my grandmother. I digress. I’m not one to have a creative mind, and thinking about how much more collaborative Facebook could get, are just in my wildest dreams. If we compare Facebook and Google plus, Google you can have hang outs and do a lot more with, but why isn’t it as popular? Maybe they will upgrade, buying more of Google’s technology. http://mo-blog-kjohnson.blogspot.com/

(RED) Marketing details.

After the launch of (RED) it was stated that $100 million was spent on marketing, while only actually a quarter of that was given to charity. The industry should realize that this is not good advertisement for the company. I think that there is no reason for the criticism to be justified, because they should have seen this coming. I understand that Oprah was supporting the cause, but there was no reason to spend way more on a "good" cause than what was actually given. My thought is that they must have assumed that there was going to be a time where they wouldn't have to spend a lot on marketing, and they would have gotten the funds to donate, but when will that time come? If I was a personal supporter of (RED) then I would stop supporting the company, because their mission behind the marketing that they have done doesn't seem credible to me. Unfortunately, there is a part of their supporters (ones who buy their product) that will never know how much they spent on marketing, and how little was actually given to charity. They will continue to buy the (RED) symbol, thinking that they are doing well. When really the facts don’t match up.

The benefits of (RED)

As a consumer, looking at Gap investing time and money for a cause, Does benefit Gap. As a young consumer, I want to know where my money is going and hope that it's doing good. The fact that I am not the only person that wants that opportunity to mean well is where Gap benefits. To me, Gap has the same ideas about giving back to the world.

On the other hand, I do not agree that the founders of (RED) said that they would only accept 50% of profits, I think is unacceptable. In this case I think that they are making too much for being involved with the company. The fact that they are making money from the sales of (RED) does not seem like corporate responsibility to me, but only to the consumer.

In response to Will Redding, GE and marketing.

The question asked is why don’t all companies market themselves like GE? After not reading the article that is being talked about( not provided) But from informal knowledge, I do know that GE is a very broad company, while first starting with a few products, has had the opportunity to be a jack of all trades sort of company. The only reason why I can think of, is bigger companies send their marketing business out to marketing companies because they haven’t been successful in the past and they put more trust into someone that has done the research, and has the cliental to advertise effetely.  Then with other companies that might be smaller, just don’t always have the resources to have a marketing department. The Research and Development department sometimes take up the most resources and if not done right they could be wasting money. 

Consistent market growth = Successful market concept

With the Market at  consistent growth with products creates more wants and needs. The continued growth of products is successful in the marketing concept. The definition of marketing is the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling. While developing products does make a successful market and marketing strategy. The increase of products goes with the philosophy of production orientation. The more the manufacture develops, the more needs need to be filled. Customer satisfaction is important to maintain for a company, and for a customer to be loyal to a company. In my mind, the marketing concept will always come from a production marketing point of view. This is the type of philosophy that focuses on the internal capabilities of the firm, rather than the needs of the customer. The production way, is not bad, when the economy is doing well. If we didn't have this type of philosophy than there would be no new products for the consumer to indulge in.