Marketing Blog hva

[michellekrevetzky-deactivated20]

Put that frown upside down

Everyone now knows that sales and marketing is everywhere. Hidden in every picture, integrated in every message. Last week I took the wrong tram, I know right?! how on earth did that happen? I thought that that would never ever happen to someone who is born and raised in Amsterdam.  I found myself grumpy in the back of tram 4 instead of heading home in the 14. The tram lady on the other hand, woke up on the right side of her bed that morning. 

“She gave us a proper one-man stand-up comedian show via the intercom. It only took a few not-so-funny-jokes, and my frown was upside down.” 

I thought: How nice that this lady makes the best of her day and she really seemed to enjoy her job. Then I thought, could it be that the GVB asked her to do so, for good publicity. Well thank you very much, even though our lecturer warned us for this, I now look at everything wearing my marketing goggles. 

What I am trying to say, yes indeed we cannot avoid marketing and yes sales is integrated in a lot of things. But sometimes we still need to believe in the good of people and companies. 

Maybe I am an optimist or maybe I am just naive, but I like to think that not everything in (work)-life is about making profit. And just as that lovely tram lady, enjoy your day and try to have fun in your job! 

[tenhooryacine]

Oh my god Michelle I think we all have the “marketing goggles” on nowadays. I also think very differently about adverts, I try analyzing them: whether they are good/bad, misleading and if they have an informational or emotional appeal. I also never though about the amount of work that was behind all the different marketing campaigns.  

[mariesd]

Good post Michelle! I also have marketing goggles, I definitly do.. But you're right sometimes I also just want to think that people are good and they also want my own good without any financial or vicious thoughts. And even if nowadays people tend to be more and more suspicious and distrustful, I still believe that sometimes I can be lucky and find some good souls. And i don't think it's being too optimistic, I just think it's being human.

[michellekrevetzky-deactivated20]

Nature vs. nurture

I wondered whether Gledwell’s ’10000 hour rule’is applicable for sales. This rule states that everything, including more in depth issues like communication skills for example, can be mastered when someone spends over 10.000 hours on it. Michael Jordan is a perfect example of the effectiveness of this rule. He wasn’t that good at Basketball when he was younger. After practicing this sport  for numerous hours.. Well we all know his excellent achievements..

For this week’s blog I asked Wouter Bredeveld about his expertise. Wouter Bredevels is the CEO of Lazy Bird. Lazy Bird is specialized in training and consulting sales people.Entrepreneurs can even outsource their sales activities to this company. I asked his opinion regarding my topic of this week: is a sales person born with his/her skills or can those be trained? He assured me that ’ it’s in someone’s blood and for sure cannot be taught.’ Authenticity, daring to ask certain questions and being able to quickly create passion for a product are traits that cannot be trained according to Wouter.

I do believe in the 10.000 hour rule, however I don’t thinks that it is applicable for sales professionals, because being great in sales does not consist of simply being an expert in one thing. Take the aspects Wouter points out. In order to master all those traits, one should spend over 30.000 hours on them, and these skills are only the tip of the Iceberg. After our casual conversation, Wouter and I agreed that someone can be trained (nurtured) to become a mediocre sales professional. A great one on the other hand, has the required skills in their nature.

[danielstockhva]

First off, I think it’s great you talked to a specialist in this field to get an expert’s perspective on this matter. I have never heard of the 10,000 hour rule before, however, it sounds convincing enough to me. I do agree that great sales people cannot simply be trained if they don’t bring what it takes to be better than just good - and reading that a business insider thinks the same way is quite nice! 

[mariesd]

You approach someone that is a professionnal and that is a good point for you! I also agree with the fact that a great sales person has some skills in the blood, they naturally will come up with right behavior. Although I also think that someone that is from the start really not good at it could learn and practice really to become good.

[alizeemarques]

The End

And here we are! This blog post will be the last one as the title can let you imagine.

Before studying Marketing I had no real concrete ideaof what it was. After 8 weeks, I think my knowledge improved a lot and I can clearly see what is marketing about.

I am still really unsure if this could be my future career path. I liked some parts but not all of it. I still have a year before deciding what I want to focus on and having other marketing courses will probably help me with my choice. I really liked the Marketing Communication part, it was my favourite one. Analysing ads to determine the company’s objectives, if they achieved it and what techniques they used is truly interesting. It made me more aware of what companies are trying to do in their ads. When I watch TV, I now try to analyse it to see what technique they used desire, awareness, interest etc.

Source: Business News Daily

However, I am definitely sure that sales is not for me. I never really thought about having a career in sales but now it is completely clear. Even though there are many advantages of being a salesperson such as the money earn with all the commissions (if you are good of course), travel around the world or meet different people, it is not for me. I do not like to approach people to convince them of something in general and I know I would not be at ease. Being a good salesperson also comes from the experiences and the trainings but it is not for me. I think some people are born with some characteristics that make them at ease and better sellers.

So I am still unsure of what I want to do in the future, but at least I have one less possibility on my list!

Source: Shutterstock

Together with the marketing plan that we are creating for the course, this blog has really been helpful in my learning of marketing as it made each weekly subject clearer. Thank you to anyone that read my blog posts and have a good weekend!

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[danielstockhva]

Alizée, very interesting to read your closing thoughts on this subject! I have a somehow similar experience - where the subject of marketing was not quite clear to me before taking this course. It had always been this ominous subject  that I knew about, and mostly connected to advertising in my head. Funnily enough I was interested in it and even considered it as a possible future career path - without even having a clear idea of what marketing entailed. 

Now after this course, this is a lot clearer defined - and I’m still interested in marketing. Sales …. not so much. I’m sure you know the feeling! 

[mariesd]

It was nice to read about your reflection. As for me I am not sure if marketing is the right way for me but I know that I like it and would like to go deeper and see if i could fit with it. Indeed I don't see you in the sales but therés nothing we cannot learn right ? Maybe in the future I will surprised and see you as a great sales person! Good post

[pfaffiii-blog-blog]

Blog #8 Review on Marketing

Over the past two month I blogged about different aspects of Marketing&Sales this will be my last post. 

I will start with a reflection on my perception of marketing. Before I started this blog I perceived marketing to be just about TV commercials and Billboards. But I learned about so many different marketing techniques. Marketing certainly is an interesting and diverse topic but I am still in the opinion that it is not my goal to end up in a marketing department.Though I still think all the knowledge I attained about marketing is going to help me out somehow on the labor market. What I did enjoyed was the Sales part of the course. I always believed that sales is the right thing for me and the lectures and guest lectures confirmed that. All of the traits and characteristics as salesman has to have are applying on me to a certain degree. Furthermore I already have several contacts to salespeople in interesting companies and my internship/thesis will be about sales somehow.

Blogging was fun, some topics were really interesting and it was even fun to read the blogs of my colleagues. Maybe I will continue my blog someday when I have an idea what to write about

[alizeemarques]

Hey Marvin ! I really liked all your post and this post is a good end to your blog. To answer your question the question mark at the end was to enable the feedbacks to my post. I think you are pretty open with people and that you’re at ease in general and I would not be surprised to see you in sales ! It’s nice that you confirmed that you like that path. It’s nice that you liked posting blogs every weeks, I think a lot of people including myself liked to read them.

[mariesd]

Hi Marvin. Good post and I think I would see you in the sales as well. I don't know you that well but according to my first impressions you could make it as a good sales person. I also thought that marketing was about commercials and publicity etc, but it's actually way more than that and I enjoyed learning all of that as well. I wish you luck in your sales career :)

[mariusczyk]

JUST DO IT.

In the past eight weeks of our marketing course, we came across several companies and their specific marketing strategy. There is only one company which inspired me and kept stuck in my head. The athletic sports company NIKE.

Source

If I ever will work in a marketing area of a company, I hope I will do an exactly great job as Nike does it. NIKE does not only produce and sell sport products, the company wants to inspired people and make a change in the world. Considering the mission statement (picture above) of the company you can see that NIKE does not wants to promote itself, it wants to make a movement. This can also be seen in the following commercial of NIKE for the World Cup 2014.

Source

I am not a big supporter of any of these players shown in the commercial, however, I like the message which NIKE wants to sent with their ‘Risk everything’ campaign. With the help of the idols of many people, NIKE is more likely to address them and are able to deliver their message in an authentic way. NIKE wants to inspire people and show that sometimes you need to take risk in life in order to achieve something. Therefore….Just do it.

[gregorycbs]

Don’t touch my nikes! I like the fact that you feel inspired by Nike, but i do not agree with the part you say nike doesn’t want to promote itself. For example the video has players in it that all have a contract with Nike, none of them has a contract with another sports brand. the mission statement of Nike is cheesy in my eyes, ‘’if you have a body, your an athlete’’ so a 200kg person that can’t come out of bed without a towingmachine is an athlete? thanks for your blog!

[mariesd]

I like your post and I like Nike so good job :). I think Nike is getting better and better regarding their marketing, and ues they ate promoting themselves and that's why they are so popular and they make profits. I think the brand is thriving and they are on the right way.

[marshmarketing]

The hover board is here!!

The Hover Board, something kids have been waiting for, for generations! The prototype has just been created!

The new mega popular fundraising website known as Kickstarter, has enabled to young inventors to raise enough capitol to produce a working prototype!

The idea first captured the attention of people world wide in the film ‘Back to the future’. Since then we have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this futuristic skateboard.

The Kickstarter has produced 3,169 backers, with a total of $510,590 raised! They have doubled their target goal of $250,000.

They use a new technology that utilizes the magnetic fields within the board and the ground below, this enables the user to hover above the ground around 1 inch. This technology is a big breakthrough and is a similar technology to the Maglev trains now being used for public purposes, a super fast train that hovers above the tracks slightly.

The future uses of this new technology are limitless, however for now, we can rejoice in the fact that by October 2015, US, the public! Will be able to own our very own hover board!

The Hendo team were even able to secure THE Tony Hawk to give a live demonstration, in the process of making an advert for promotions purposes!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-hoverboards-worlds-first-real-hoverboard

[gregorycbs]

I want that hoverboard Marty has,  those nikes Marty has, That jacket looks cool too. It’s crazy what Kickstarter can do for startups, but also for shabby companies wanting a quick buck, I guess we’ll have to see if this hoverboard will ever be released, or if the Hendo team is drinking cocktails on the cayman islands with the money of their backers.

[mariesd]

Nice Jamie! Your post is funny, as a fan of Back in the future I can tell. Back in the days I was kind of hoping that one day that kind innovations would be available on the market but I also thought that it would be late in the future because the movie was only fiction. But you just made my day! Good innovation :)

[sofiabjorkholm-blog]

Why Marketing is important in our society

It is believed that trading has existed for 15 000 years on our planet, and where there is trade there has to be marketing. In today’s society businesses’ revenues reflects on our own well being and without marketing businesses would fail to make profit.

Many companies take advantage by manipulating people and using their persuasion skills in order to generate profit in a non-ethical manner. However, marketing is beneficial for the society when the businesses inform and educate its consumers. Marketing identifies a consumer’s need and explains how the products or services meet that need. It provides learning about a new innovation and what that can do the consumer.  

For the society marketing creates job opportunities, increased tax revenues and an overall economic growth. Additionally, the marketing industry itself creates jobs and wealth to the businesses, when individuals have to use their creative mind how to promote companies and use innovative and new ideas to fit the market. It creates growth of innovations of products; marketing researches are made to get an idea of what would meet consumers need in today’s society and with that develop products that fit consumers needs. 

Three successful companies that have developed their services with the great help of marketing research is Youtube, Twitter and Instagram. 

I believe marketing plays an important role in the society for further development and is a key to economic growth. 

What do you think?

Further reading:

http://blog.marketresearch.com/blog-home-page/bid/334826/How-3-Companies-Used-Market-Research-to-Pivot-their-Businesses

[mariesd]

Hey Sofia, I like your post and how you described how marketing if useful to our society. I agree with you and think that marketing represents a source of inspiration and build a base for the futur. With new technologies and innovative ways to reach the people, marketing is more than ever an important key to business. Good job :)

[mariesd]

Marketing

Source: shutterstock.com 

For the first time I had to follow a course of marketing and sales for my first years in Amsterdam. I have learned how to promote, value and sell a product on the market through different techniques. I cannot say that marketing is the subject that I like the most, but I cannot say that I do not like it either. In my opinion, marketing is a way to enhance creativity and promote products or services regarding the customers’ needs. Marketing is a way to analyse the behaviour of the consumers in order to adapt the products and services of the companies in a way to make more profits. To value these products and services the companies have to value their product and target a particular market.

For this course I had to design a marketing plan in order to help an entrepreneurship that had problems. I realised that Marketing and Sales was not as easy as I thought in the first place. We had to pay attention to all the details and all the factors related to the business. Moreover we had to be creative and think about new ways to make the company promote itself or sell its products and services.

Marketing is around us all the time. In the street, at school, at work, in the hospital. It is a part of our lives and it make us buy things. Marketing is a way to get in contact with the public.

I still have some things to knowledge to get about marketing. I am willing to cover it in the future during my bachelor.  

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[mariesd]

Made or not made

Source: alenmajer.com

The recruitment and selection of an employee has been estimated to cost between fifty and one-hundred and fifty per cent of the employee’s annual salary. Yet, this cost does not take into consideration the major risk when sales people are involved. The massive sales that can be lost when an average salesperson is selected over an actual good performer. This can go up to an opportunity cost of millions of dollars for an organisation and highlights the importance of finding methods to determine what makes a good salesperson.

There is this technique that seek to select the good sale person: composite testing. This consider each job as unique, in need of different required skills, considering the random characteristics somebody have. Rather than fitting with attributes associated with a particular job or industry, it is more about the characteristics of the sale person that could be merged for each differing sales job. And, some people might just have the chance to have the characteristics that fit and others might just wait for their turn.

To become a good sale person, training is still a fundamental step to excellence. Learning, practicing and repeating are the key to reach the top through the harsh competition of the sales world. Is selling a skill comparable to engineering or accounting? I think it more about specific actions specially applied in a particular situation. When selling a car you do not sell a house, when selling a bicycle you do not sell a family travel pack to Australia. Sales require a lot of self-discipline to be able to say the right word to touch a certain kind of buyers. And because it is quite fastidious to adopt the right behaviour at the right moment, being a sale person depends a lot on personal characteristics combined with knowledge.  

Being a salesperson often is associated with the following characteristics: need to be competitive, hold the affection of others, high level of energy, self-confidence, and enjoy encountering new challenges. I personally do not think that those characteristic are naturally given to some and not to others. I think we build our personality through different experiences, different stories. I do not believe that someone is just made to be a salesperson when just out of the belly. Basically everybody could be able to learn how to do something, even if some circumstances could be more advantageous for some.

References: 

http://www.alenmajer.com/2012/03/are-sales-people-born-or-made/, Are Sales People Born or Made?, 2012

http://www.anzmac.org/conference_archive/1999/Site/S/Sardar.pdf, what makes a great sales person? Link between our heritage and the future, Aslam Sardar, Mark Allan Patton,nd

http://www.highprobsell.com/html/born_to_sell.html, Are Top Salespeople Born or Made?, Jacques Werth, nd

[mariesd]

What is bad ?

Source:  creativebloq.com

I have never really questioned myself about what could be a good or a bad advertisement but I can say for sure what I like and what I do not like in an advertisement. This is really subjective of course because sometimes I don’t like the music or the story they want to tell but maybe my friends do and it is their opinion. But sometimes some advertisements are not just bad because it doesn’t fit with what you could expect, sometimes it just doesn’t fit with some norms of the society.

In the picture above you see an ad for dunkin’ donuts that has been made in Thailand. In the picture we all can see a woman with a donut (which is probably a chocolate donut), and it is quite obvious that the woman is not originally black. She has been painted in black. That is a fact that annoyed a big part of the population of Thailand for one particular reason: it seems racist. Why? Well, because she reminds some of them the stereotype of black people in the 19th/20th century. At that time the ad would have probably never chocked anyone but nowadays a lot of people just raised the fact that it is actually racist.

I think the fact that people think it is racist could be quite personal. Let’s take the example of Black Pete. It’s very popular here in the Netherlands and most of the Dutch people I have met so far do not think it a racist image. Yet, there is a big community not only in The Netherlands but also outside of the boundaries that actually think that it is racist. I don’t want to debate about what is racist or what is not. I just would like to enhance the fact that things can be really subjective sometimes and cultural, you cannot judge something only according to your own preferences, you also have to see further and make sure that the results are the one expected and that they are appropriate. And this advertisement from Thailand has bad results and bad feedbacks because of the ethical aspect of it.

But does it mean that it won’t be popular? I think the thing I have heard the most in the media are the things that have a bad aspect. Bad music, bad politics, bad ads… I remember them because they actually had this bad side. So it is probably inappropriate or racist, sexist, or so whatever, but sometimes it has its impact on the people, and more often on the social media.  

Reference:

http://www.creativebloq.com/advertising/10-controversial-ad-campaigns-2013-12135346, 10 controversial ad campaigns of 2013, 2013

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[mcampman]

When bad stays bad.

Annoying commercials, they are virtually everywhere. You might watch TV (which, to the surprise of some of us, is still done regularly by a number of people) and not get that particularly annoying tune out of your head.

I find it funny how its much easier for me to come up with an ad that annoys me than the reverse. The same holds true for a lot of Dutch people, that gladly participate in voting for the most annoying commercial of the year.

source: nos.nl

Meet the Loden Leeuw, or “Lead Lion.” Since 2005, the Dutch TV programme Radar has been handing it out to the commercial that viewers find the most annoying.

Although the reaction to receiving this award differs per winner, most agree that they’ve done their job well, and that most “annoying” is synonym to most “talked-about.” 

But is publicity, bad or good, really better than none?

Some research seems to suggest that bad publicity only works if the company has little to lose, because it does not have an established presence anyway. According to the same research, a well-known brand or company, however, might incur heavy losses from an ad campaign.

Still, I couldn’t find clear indications of any company filing for bankruptcy following an unsuccessful or controversial as campaign. (I am interested to know about them, so feel free to comment)

But there are certain ads where bad…. clearly just stays bad. Take for example this commercial by Frisia Financieringen from 2003:

(Whether you’re able to speak Dutch or not, I dare you to watch and remain focused for the entire 45 seconds.)

Felt challenged by that? Yeah, that was long -_-”

[mariesd]

Good post! I didn't know at Dutch could vote for that kind of thing, the most annoying ad.. I think it's funny because now that you said it, I also only focus on ad i don't like more than the reverse.

[danielstockhva]

Bad advertisement

Thinking of ‘bad advertisements’, there are probably a few campaigns that come to mind instantly.

It might be cringe-worthy ones like the Ryanair CEO’s press photos:

It might be obviously sexist ads like this Burger King one:

You might think of (un)intentionally racist ones like this one by Nivea:

However, as awful as these ads might be, they are actually bad enough so that people start talking about them. They stick out from the mass of advertisements around us, they provoke reactions from the public. In line with the saying ‘There is no such thing as bad publicity’, no matter how awful these campaigns are, they successfully but make the company a subject of public dialogue. Remember, not all advertisements are meant to directly push sales of a product, some have the simple purpose of reminding potential customers that the brand exists, and these advertisements are doing a good job at this.

Furthermore, having news outlets and private people talking about a campaign, linking it on their social media - this is basically free advertising for the company concerned.

In conclusion: I believe that a truly ‘bad’ advertisement is one that you don’t remember. One that doesn’t stick out, one that you forget right after seeing it. Hence it is hard to give a good example, since if it was memorable enough to recall it, it’s probably not that bad after all.

[mariesd]

I agree with your conclusion, a bad advertisement would more be the one you cannot remember than the one that is categorized as "bad" according to the way it is. And I think that more and more purpose in our century of freedom and expressions can be "bad" or inappropriate , especially with media. Nice post :)

[alizeemarques]

Apple and the continuous improvement

Apple has been known for itsinnovation computers, phones, music player and tablets. The company innovateseach year with new generation of products with new features. From September2013 to September 2014 the company made a profit of almost $40 billion, evenmore than the year before ($37 billion).

Source: Apple

The company released its first iPhone in 2007. Since that release, the company does not stop to innovate and improve the product. Every year, a new improved version of the iPhone is released. In total, 10 versions of the iPhone have been created since 2007, the 1st generation, the 3G, the 3GS, the 4, the 4S, the 5, the 5c, the 5S, the 6 and the 6 Plus. The last two have been released on the market since September 2014 and rumours are already talking about an iPhone 6S that could come on the market this year.

Source: Apple

Electronic products are quickly improved and new features are added. Apple knows it well and due to all those changes in technology, the company must constantly improve its products to keep on being a leader on this market.

Being innovative, Apple does not stick with the only type of products they are selling. In 2010, Apple released the iPad, an innovative tablet that was very profitable for the company. Since then, the company improves it and creates new generations and also created it in a smaller size in 2012 (iPad mini). Moreover, the company is going to release on the market its first Apple Watch this year to compete with these new “intelligent” watches that came on the markets the last months.  

Source: Apple

For further readings:

https://www.apple.com/watch/timekeeping/

https://www.apple.com/iphone/

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2014/10/20Apple-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-Results.html

http://www.android.com/intl/fr_fr/wear/

http://appleinnovation.blogspot.nl/

http://www.ibtimes.com/google-smartwatch-release-date-approaches-lg-nexus-watch-specs-leak-android-wearable-sdk-coming

[mariesd]

Apple is a brand we all know for its innovation and its advertising performance. I am personally an Apple buyer although I am not buyer the latest innovation, I just like to be aware of the changes and the way the brand is going to approach its customers once again. Good job

[sofiabjorkholm-blog]

Gray market

In this blog post I willtalk about Gray Market. First of all, what is gray market?

Lets assume that you are amanufacturer, the gray market is referred to the merchandise that is imported and sold by methods other than your own distribution channel. (NikonUsa.com) A common example is the vehicle market. If a car is normally sold in the United States but has been imported through a different channel other than the manufacturer’s authorized distributor, take for example the warranty, and the warranty is therefore not valid in the United States.  This is common in U.S where dealers buy discounted cars in Europe and then sell them for a higher price on the U.S market. 

Lets move on, imagining that you bought a car, would it be legal to buy a car that is produced in Europe but sold in U.S? yes, but only IF the car is brought up to U.S legal standards before the car is sold. European cars are built for European standards and do not usually meet the needs of U.S standards. Therefore, the sellers need to adjust the car to meet legal needs. This kind of market can be an issue for the manufacturers. For example, the second seller needs to adjust the car to meet the standards in U.S, which might violate the actual car and its actual brand, as it is converted from its original state to a different car.

(source)

Another issue for manufacturer is that the gray market provides lower prices on the actual products. This resulting in companies having to compete against their own product that are sold by other distribution channels for a cheaper price. Many cases have been discussing this issue and there have been many cases where manufacturers loose profit because of the gray market.  

(source)

On the other hand, it might also be profitable for the businesses if the prices do not differ dramatically. More people are buying the product, will also make others who are not price sensitive to buy the product from the actual distributor as a result of the trend. I for example, always buy from the gray market on ebay and for me if the manual is in Chinese it would not matter too much because for me the price matters more. For others who prefer the comfort, convenience and quality before price would then buy the product from the actual distributor to save the hassle and in order to be sure of getting the complete package. The more people buying it, the better for the company even if it is from the gray market.

[mariesd]

I also tend more to look at the price before evaluating the convenience of the context in which I am purchasing a product. Yet, you said it right in your article, it is not an advantage at all for the companies themselves. I guess a lot of people would rather purchasing something cheap even if it is an illegal context. But for me it also depends on what kind of thing I wanna purchase.. The grey market is kind of complexe I think because often we tend to think about our ourselves more than other factors..

[abm9521-deactivated20160424]

The Grey Market

Generally, a manufacturer works with a single importer who can sell and support their products in a given region. The importer usually has local dealers and distributors who resell the imported products; this is called a distribution channel. The grey market refers to merchandise that is imported and sold by methods other than these normal channels.
 Gray market items are not designed to be sold in a particular market and cannot be supported by the authorized importer because they may not meet mandatory safety and certification codes. Because these items are not designed for a particular market they may not function properly, or the authorized importer may not be equipped to provide service, support or software. With the opening of international borders and the use of the Internet to sell goods, gray market equipment has become extremely common in the photographic and consumer electronics markets. Many different types of equipment are brought into North America for sale without the proper documentation and US consumers do not always know what they are purchasing. Not only that, European travelers that go to the US usually take advantage of exchange rates so that they could get a fair (cheaper) price for many different products (such as clothes, for example).
 This is similar with cigarettes. In Spain, people travel to Andorra because of it’s duty free allowance. This enables consumers to buy alcohol and cigarettes at half price of what they would normally pay in other places that have regular taxes; which clearly contributes to Spain’s grey market.
 By the end, this is a negative consequence of globalization. The lesser the national boundaries, the more possibilities that people have to find fair prices around the globe. There will always be someone out there selling cheaper clothes due to different factors; such as regulations, laws, taxes, labour costs, etc. As long as the world does not become a whole big unit, having equal prices for everything, the grey market will always perdure in almost every living society.

[danielstockhva]

I wouldn’t necessarily see only the negative aspects of grey markets though. While I do agree with the issues stemming from health and safety aspects, consumers choosing to buy products in another country due to different models of taxation (alcohol, cigarettes) or exchange rates (electronics, clothes) is something that I certainly welcome. I think as informed consumers having that choice is an important positive aspect of globalisation. And while one government might loose out on tax revenue, another one gains in the same domain from foreigners shopping in their country. I definitely believe there are two sides to this story, a positive one as well as a negative one.

[mariesd]

Good article Daniel. I agree with you, there are two aspect of this grey market. And as you said the more the boundaries will open the more people will tend to benefit the most from products and services by getting for example cheaper cigarettes or clothe!

[mariesd]

The E-bay ‘grey market’

Source: adopsbuzz.com

E-bay is a well-known multibillion grey market and the largest online marketplace that provide a C2C and B2C services. The website offers to its customers the possibility to purchase all kinds of things online within their own country or from the other side of the world. I personally do not use this online market. I do not know why, but I have always thought that it is not safe. I have always been scared of losing my money. Yet, the American e-commerce company is the most famous marketplace and have many acquisitions such as Skype, PayPal or Craigslist. This company is a real giant that have succeeded in spreading around the whole world.

Whatever you want E-bay has it for you, or can provide an alternative. And surprisingly, you can purchase an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle as easy as purchasing one of those expansive Chanel bags. However, the E-bay policy regarding weapons does not put it like this of course. The e-commerce used to be a place where people could legally buy ‘part or accessories for assault weapons’ but since 2012 when an Elementary School girl have been shot, it was a must to reinstate the ban of this e-bay filter.  Unfortunately people can still purchase that kind of item nowadays and because of the company’s automated filters user-flagging system, it has failed to strictly control this kind of sales. I knew we could find anything on this website, and I kind of could have expected this, but it makes me think of this world we are living in. We have been talking about ethics in class, we face ethic aspects quiet often in our everyday life I think, and this is really scary. How terrible is the fact that tomorrow you can purchase a gun before going to class, receive it within a month and just shoot some people that has annoyed you during your day because it was easier than ignoring him and moving on. It is exaggerated and I truly do not think you guys are capable of such a thing, but think about it what if this sort of evil thoughts would grow in somebody’s unstable mind? Of course, the world is full of inequalities and unfair situations, but when I read this article (you can find it below in my references), it just made me think that ‘grey market’ is not for everyone.

Beside this facts, E-bay is growing more and more. In March 19, 2013, the giant received the blessing of the U.S Supreme Court who declared that the manufacturers and the publishers could not block the imports of copyrighted items made and sold abroad. At that time this was a heavy victory for the company helped by retailers, distributors and consumers’ advocate. The expansion of the online giant is so big that ‘grey market items’ start to be a threat for some companies such as Wal-Mart. I personally purchase things on e-bay only. Yet, I don’t know for you guys I almost always purchase online, except for food. I don’t know if it’s because I see the website with a less legal aspect, or because I’m used to another way of purchasing stuff… Or maybe it is because the aspect of e-bay is kind of confusing me, just like the concept of grey market to be honest...

References:

http://www.revealnews.org/article/ebay-sellers-easily-skirt-rules-banning-assault-weapon-parts/, ‘EBay sellers easily skirt rules banning assault weapon parts’, Matt Drange, 2015

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2013-03-19/-gray-market-backed-by-high-court-in-win-for-discounters, Greg Stohr, 2013

[mariesd]

Samsung, an innovative company ?

Samsung expands the search for its next hit with 'innovation team'

The South Korean multinational Samsung is one of the most important leaders of the technology nowadays. We all know the brand for its telephones, its screens technology, or its chip design. It has an enormous influence on the South Korean economy and development, but not only; did you know the brand had a considerable system of life insurance worldwide? Well, I did not. Samsung has weight billions of dollars and has spread its trend all around the world thanks to its powerful engineering framework. The brand is in continuous process of promoting innovation with a patent.  

Yet, the company is often accused to copy the innovations of others. We heard about it especially with the Galaxy S6, with a design strangely similar to the IPhone 6’s. The phone supposed to be launched in April 2015 has made a lot of people talk and mostly the IPhone lovers who instantly made the comparison with the latest Apple phone when the design of the Galaxy S6 went out. And indeed we can be a little bit confused, what do you think? The curve, the color, the size. We actually could say they have similarities. However, is it a reason for blaming the South Korean brand for copying?

guizmodo.co.uk

Among the biggest competitors of Samsung we find on the top Google, Toshiba, and the well-known American brand Apple. These competing brands work hard to be able to promote a new product and put a patent on it. They work hard to reach a particular target market as soon as they can with the aim of making the maximum of profits and be able to invest more in their research department in order to promote other innovations. There is nothing unusual about that, it is a daily struggle for all of them. Yet, Samsung is not a part of this competitive race. Actually the brand is known as to be a fast follower rather than an innovator. And it is doing great, right?

Redmonpie.com

Nevertheless, the brand has faced some crisis in the mid 2000’s with a strategy that was not profitable enough to continue this way, yet the brand has enough talent to keep pushing it and get close to its competitors. It is true that Apple or Google have better innovations processes and better marketing. Apple’s commercials are undeniably successful and Google’s innovation continuously evolve with a particular master of a modern-day marketing that gets and keeps customers. But Samsung has had in the last few years a competitive pricing strategy, which has brought success.

References:

http://bgr.com/2015/03/04/iphone-6-vs-galaxy-s6-design-copy/, Samsung insists that its Galaxy S6 doesn’t look like an iPhone clone in real life, Chris Smith, 2015

http://www.engadget.com/2015/02/10/samsung-expands-its-search-for-the-next-big-thing/, Samsung expands the search for its next hit with 'innovation team', Mat Smith, 2015

http://www.samsung.com/uk/business/insights/others/the-power-of-innovation

http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2013/03/07/why-is-samsung-such-an-innovative-company/2/, What Makes Samsung Such An Innovative Company?, Haydn Shaughnessy. 2013

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