Zagat Is Right. Southwest Is All We Look For In an Airline Now

Posted by & filed under Part 4: Marketing Management.

Description: OK, boys and girls, it’s time for oxymoron 101: Airline food, Customer service,
Ontime performance. You get the drill. And yet, as bad as air travel can seem sometimes (and it IS bad sometimes) there are some airlines that continue to win our loyalty, our trust, and our goodwill.

Source:  BNET.com

Date: 12/03/2010

Link: http://www.bnet.com/blog/travel-detective/zagat-is-right-southwest-is-all-we-look-for-in-an-airline-now/186?tag=mantle_skin;content

Questions for discussion:

  • What are the basic arguments presented by this reporter?
  • Do you agree with his assessment and analysis of the research findings?

The Food Cycle: Recall, Forget, Repeat

Posted by & filed under Part 4: Marketing Management.

Description:  Memories can be short when it comes to food recalls. Surveys show that Americans are concerned about food contamination, but experts say that recalls have only a short-term effect on consumers.

Source: NYTimes.com
 
Date: 12/04/2010

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/business/05metricstext.html?ref=business

Questions for discussion: 

  • Summarize the report findings about consumer behavior and the reasons suggested for them?
  • Are you surprised by any of the report findings?
  • What are the implications for the food producer and the distributors?

Macy’s: They’re buying; we’re hiring

Posted by & filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 6 Managing Financial Resources.

Description: CEO Terry Lundgren says Macy’s has taken on extra staff to cope with holiday demand and expects to create permanent positions as well.

Source:  CNNMoney.com – video report

Date: 11/26/2010

Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2010/11/26/n_co_macys.cnnmoney/

Questions for discussion: 

  • How well is Macy’s shopping season going so far?
  • Why is the business activity at Macy indicative of economic activity in general?
  • How is employment in the economy related to the success at retailers like Macy’s?
  • Do you share the optimism that the results at Macy’s suggest?

Rosenberg Interview on Holiday Shopping, U.S. Economy

Posted by & filed under Part 4: Marketing Management.

Description: David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff & Associates, talks about the outlook for the holiday-shopping season. Rosenberg, speaking with Sara Eisen and Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack,” also discusses the prospects for the U.S. economy.

Source: Bloomberg.com – video report
 
Date: 11/26/2010

Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/64814870/

Questions for discussion: 

  • Summarize the opinions presented in the report.
  • Do you agree with them?
  • How do they compare to those of CEO Terry Lundgren of Macy’s?

A Celebrity Bank Card, if Not the Bankroll

Posted by & filed under Part 4: Marketing Management.

Description:  THEY’RE the faces of everything unapologetically excessive about pop culture: from Rodeo Drive shopping sprees to sex tapes to Nascar. So why wouldn’t the Kardashian sisters, nouveaux-celeb stars of the reality show “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” promote a prepaid debit card?

Source: NYTimes.com
 
Date: 11/26/2010

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/fashion/28noticed.html?ref=business

Questions for discussion: 

  • What are the ethical and legal issues related to the promotional strategy presented in the article?
  • Who are the target customers?
  • What is the appeal of this product?
  • Why do you think there has been a backlash to this strategy?

Alec Baldwin for Wegmans’ Supermarkets: Now It’s Hip to Be Unironic

Posted by & filed under Part 4: Marketing Management.

Description: Upstate New Yorkers are agog at Alec Baldwin’s completely unironic TV ads for a local grocery chain, Wegmans. There’s a cute backstory about why Baldwin is doing these ads — his mom shops there — but they illustrate one of the more charming new trends in advertising: to cast a famous person against type in a commercial, have them play it straight, and then leave consumers to guess what the heck is going on.

Source:  BNET.com

Date: 11/24/2010

Link: http://www.bnet.com/blog/advertising-business/alec-baldwin-for-wegmans-8217-supermarkets-now-it-8217s-hip-to-be-unironic/6693?tag=mantle_skin;content

Questions for discussion:

  • Who is the target audience for these advertisements?
  • What message are they sending out about the business?
  • Do you think the advertisements are successful?
  • What is it about using a celebrity in this way that works?

Pirate Bay appeal falls on deaf ears

Posted by & filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 2 Starting and Growing Your Business, Part 4: Marketing Management.

Description: In another blow to online file-sharing, a Swedish appeals court upheld on Friday the copyright convictions of three of the four founders of The Pirate Bay–perhaps the world’s most well-known and notorious file-sharing Web site.

Source: CNET.com
 
Date: 11/26/2010

Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-20023915-93.html

Questions for discussion: 

  • What are the legal and ethical issues surrounding file-sharing?
  • Do you agree with the comment made in the article suggesting that file-sharing will be finished in a couple of years?
  • What drives file-sharing?
  • What solutions are available to copyright holders?

Investors cheer GM debut

Posted by & filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 6 Managing Financial Resources.

Description: The automaker’s stock debuted at $35 a share, a 6% premium from the offering price, raising investor hope that GM will become a Wall Street darling.

Source:  CNNMoney.com – video report

Date: 11/18/2010

Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/markets/2010/11/18/mkts_gm_ipo.cnnmoney/

Questions for discussion:

  • Was the government’s decision to re-finance GM a good choice financially and socially speaking?
  • Do you think the government will recover all of its original $50 billion investment?
  • Would you be an investor in GM today?

digits: The Beatles Invade iTunes

Posted by & filed under Part 1 Business in a Global Environment, Part 2 Starting and Growing Your Business, Part 4: Marketing Management.

Description: Beatles songs are finally available in Apple’s iTunes store. But ATD’s Peter Kafka says that iTunes is all about apps these days, while digital music sales have flattened out – and even the Fab Four may have a hard time changing that.

Source: Marketwatch.com – video report
 
Date: 11/16/2010

Link: http://www.marketwatch.com/video/asset/digits-the-beatles-invade-itunes/874EB528-ED14-44A4-B14E-2529BB1659DC

Questions for discussion: 

  • Who do you think will benefit more by the distribution of The Beatles music on iTunes?
  • Who is the target customer for these songs?
  • In the second report on iPads: how would you characterize the different groups of customers?
  • How do you think customers will choose amongst the brands?

Unions Yield on Wage Scales to Preserve Jobs

Posted by & filed under Part 3 Management: Empowering People to Achieve Business Objectives.

Description:  Organized labor appears to be losing an important battle in the Great Recession.

Source: NYTimes.com
 
Date: 11/19/2010

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/business/20wages.html?ref=business

Questions for discussion: 

  • According to the report, how have unionized workers adapted to the economic conditions at their places of employment?
  • Do you think this change will impact aspects in the workplace such as motivation and productivity?
  • How should management react to these circumstances?
  • Do you think these changes are likely to be long lasting?