Chapter 14: Product and Price - McGraw-Hill Introduction to Business

Online Retail Sales Soar After Singles Day in China

November 17, 2016

While the holiday shopping season in the U.S. doesn’t officially kick off until next week, Chinese retailers are already counting their profits from the phenomenon known as Singles Day. Founded in the 1990s by a group of college students celebrating their bachelorhood, the November 11 holiday has since morphed into a nationwide shopping spree. This year the online retailer Alibaba brought in nearly $18 billion in sales, far more than what the entire American retail industry earns during Black Friday Continue reading →

Marketing, Global, Promotions, Retail, China, Black Friday, Singles Day, Alibaba

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion

Cell Phone Numbers Become Key Pieces of Personal Information

November 15, 2016

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From a young age Americans are taught to keep a close eye on their Social Security number. After all, this unique code acts as an identifier for everything from bank accounts to medical records. If it falls into the wrong hands, all of your personal information could become compromised. To prevent this from happening, the government requires companies to keep Social Security numbers private while advising individuals to reveal it only to trusted parties.

But in today’s digital age there’s Continue reading →

Ethics, Social Security, Security, Mobile, Personal Information, Identity Theft

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media, Bonus Chapter D: Personal Finance

[VIDEO] Inside the Factory Where Robotic Dinosaurs Come to Life

November 10, 2016

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When a group of Australian special effects artists were having trouble finding work, they decided to pool their resources together and create their own animatronics company. Most had planned to return to working on movies and television once they’d made a splash with their enormous, lifelike representations of dinosaurs and monsters. But Creature Technology wowed the world with their creations, leading to the bustling and almost magical workshop shown in the video below.

Questions:

Why must Creature Technology keep Continue reading →

Operations Management, Global, Entrepreneurship, Product Development, Entertainment, Creature Technology, Special Effects, Australia

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media, Videos

Companies Blame Poor Performance on Presidential Election Interest

November 8, 2016

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No matter which candidate you support, it’s safe to say that the 2016 presidential election has been absorbing to watch. According to many executives, however, that’s been a bad thing for business. In a recent study conducted by Bloomberg, more than 500 corporations blamed their poor performances on the presidential race or some form of “political uncertainty.”

In fact, even the NFL claims that obsession with the election has led to a drop in viewership. Ratings for Monday Night Continue reading →

Management, Motivation, NFL, Politics, 2016 Election, Performance

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 10: Motivation, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution

Patagonia: Attempting to Operate Ethically While Pursuing Mass Appeal

November 3, 2016

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Since its founding in 1973, the outdoor apparel brand Patagonia has strived to make quality goods in an ethical manner. This combination of strong values and superior products has allowed the company to grow into an $800 million brand. But over the years Patagonia has run into a number of roadblocks in their quest to “build the best product” and “cause no unnecessary harm.” For example, in 2010 an animal rights group revealed that the company had been buying goose Continue reading →

Ethics, Clothing, Product Development, Branding, Supply chains, Sustainability, Patagonia, South America, Taiwan, Apparel

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution

Improving Conditions at Bangladesh’s Garment Factories

November 1, 2016

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In April 2013, more than one thousand Bangladeshi garment workers died when the Rana Plaza building collapsed. Considered to be the deadliest garment factory accident in history, the tragic event led to worldwide condemnation of many Western clothing companies. After all, brands like H&M, Walmart and Zara had long pushed producers in Bangladesh’s growing garment industry to make clothes faster and cheaper. While this allowed retailers to set low prices at their stores, the focus on efficiency forced Bangladesh’s factories Continue reading →

Ethics, Manufacturing, Labor Relations, Clothing, Zara, Walmart, H&M, Bangladesh, Human Rights, Garment Industry

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

Americans Expected to Spend More than $8 Billion This Halloween

October 28, 2016

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For most people, the Halloween season is about creepy costumes and candy rather than shopping. But even though the retail sales of All Hallow’s Eve can’t compare to the December holidays, Americans still manage to spend a scary sum of money at the end of October. The National Retail Federation estimates that this year consumers will spend as much as $8.4 billion preparing for Halloween, amounting to an average of $82.93 per shopper.

Costumes account for $3.1 billion of this Continue reading →

Marketing, Retail, Product Distribution, Halloween, Christmas, Seasonal

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion

Meal-Delivery Startups Aim to Change America’s Eating Habits

October 7, 2016

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For those who have spent years ordering items from online retailers like Amazon, setting foot inside a store can sometimes seem like taking a trip back in time. But while the shift away from brick-and-mortar locations has utterly changed industries like music and clothing, grocery stores have remained largely the same since the dawn of the digital revolution. After all, most people still prefer to examine food in person before they buy it.

But that hasn’t stopped a collection Continue reading →

Ethics, Food, Labor Relations, Product Development, Retail, Product Distribution, Agriculture, Supermarkets, Blue Apron, Online Retail

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Formerly Fashionable Retailers Lose Ground with Teens

October 6, 2016

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In the 2000s, clothing brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle and Aeropostale were kings of the mall. These retailers rose to prominence by making preppy clothes with large logos that broadcast a certain prestige to the world. After all, teenage customers wanted to make sure everyone knew that they shopped at cool stores. Companies made this message easy to receive by placing an enormous emphasis on branding, thus making the logo even more important than the design of their Continue reading →

Marketing, Clothing, Branding, Retail, Fashion, Abercrombie & Fitch, Aeropostale, American Eagle, Logos, Malls

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion

Hollywood Turns to Documentary Films for Blockbuster Inspiration

September 27, 2016

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In recent years Hollywood has watched its dominance over entertainment decline as new forms of media like streaming video become more and more popular. As a result, today’s movie studios don’t take many risks when they’re planning the next crop of summer blockbusters. That’s why remakes and sequels appear so often now in multiplexes: Hollywood hopes that the public’s previous knowledge will encourage them to buy tickets to familiar franchises.

This plan didn’t exactly work in the summer of 2016, Continue reading →

Marketing, Product Development, Entertainment, Movies, Hollywood, Documentaries, Reboots

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion