Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media - McGraw-Hill Introduction to Business

The Golden Arches Begin to Rust

January 7, 2015

For decades it seemed like nothing could stop McDonald’s march towards total fast food domination. By the time 2011 rolled around, the company was boasting eight consecutive years of same-store sales growth while also holding the title of top performing stock on the Dow for five years running. But just when everything seemed to be going right for the chain, the golden arches started to lose their shimmer. Changing consumer tastes and a rocky transition between CEOs are leading towards Continue reading →

Marketing, Food, Product Development, Branding, Promotions, Pricing, McDonald’s, Demographics

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

AMC Tests a Monthly Movie Pass

January 5, 2015

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Movie theaters have worried about being phased out by home entertainment even before the VCR started dominating living rooms in the 1980s. While Hollywood has largely continued to thrive over the decades despite these fears, today the rise of streaming video presents movie theaters with their greatest challenge yet. The industry is especially afraid of losing touch with young moviegoers who are growing up with on-demand services like Netflix and Spotify. The cracks may already be showing: attendance of movie Continue reading →

Marketing, Promotions, Entertainment, Innovation, Product Distribution, Movies, Subscription

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Bloomingdales Makes Fitting Rooms Smarter

December 19, 2014

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Fitting rooms provide brick and mortar clothing retailers with one of their few advantages over online outlets. After all, consumers are more likely to purchase an item that they have actually tried own versus something they’ve only seen on a screen. But that doesn’t necessarily mean people will buy everything they bring with them into the changing room. In fact, many consumers will simply give up on an item if it doesn’t fit them immediately.

In order to reverse these Continue reading →

Social Media, Product Development, Retail, Innovation, Bloomingdales

Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Medical Histories Turned into Marketing Data

December 16, 2014

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Americans have a tendency to over share information through social media, which can lead to some off-putting online revelations. However, there’s one group of people out there who doesn’t mind reading a detailed status update about your cold symptoms: advertisers. In today’s increasingly personalized marketing landscape, companies are desperate for data about their customers. Along with standard stats like age and income, consumers’ medical histories have now become tools for target marketing.

While data miners can’t legally access confidential medical Continue reading →

Marketing, Ethics, Data Mining, Health

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 13: Marketing, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Accounting for Time in Online Ad Pricing

December 15, 2014

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In the world of online advertising, the “click” is king. That’s because nearly every major website bases its ad rates on the number of hits it receives over a specific span of time. The idea is to attract potential clients by emphasizing how much traffic the website receives. But just because clicks act as currency in mobile marketing doesn’t mean that they’re reliable indicators of an ad’s effectiveness. After all, a person could have spent ten seconds or ten minutes Continue reading →

Marketing, Pricing, Innovation, Advertising, Data Mining

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Spokesbots Start Connecting with Consumers

December 13, 2014

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In past posts, we’ve taken a look at the rise of mobile ads and how they were starting to beat out older forms of media for marketing dollars. Despite this growing dominance, however, the overall effectiveness of mobile ads remains suspect. For many they’re little more than a nuisance, something along the margins of the screen that can be easily ignored. Others see them as an intrusion on their privacy given the way that many mobile ads target certain Continue reading →

Marketing, Social Media, Branding, Innovation, Automation, Kik

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Pivoting from One Business Plan to Another

December 10, 2014

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When Michael Garrity founded CommunityLend in 2010, he thought his company was in a perfect position to capture an untapped market. After all, the 2008 financial crisis made many banks wary of lending too much cash, presenting a golden opportunity to non-traditional operations like CommunityLend. Plus, the company’s peer-to-peer model was the first of its kind in Garrity’s home country of Canada, marking a major advantage for the startup.

Despite these benefits, though, CommunityLend had trouble finding qualified borrowers for Continue reading →

Entrepreneurship, Social Media, Retail, Innovation, Finance

Chapter 5: Forms of Business Ownership, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 8: Organizational Culture and Structure, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Home Depot’s Massive Security Slip Up

December 2, 2014

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With companies both large and small becoming increasingly dependent on technology, it’s important for these firms to make sure that their information is secure. But businesses need to do more than simply install anti-hacking software and hope their defenses hold. For instance, earlier this year Home Depot faced two small security breaches before getting hit with a company-wide hack that made national news. Following the minor incidents, security contractors urged executives to implement a few unused features in the anti-hacking Continue reading →

Management, Ethics, Innovation, Security, Home Depot

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 10: Motivation, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Capturing Value: Innovation’s Vital Second Step

November 13, 2014

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When it comes to innovation in business, creating a viable and valuable product is just the first step. After all, the arrival of the portable MP3 player made many companies stand up and take notice of this revolutionary device. One of those firms was Apple, who soon came to dominate the market with the iPod. Although the signature MP3 player was released later than its competitors, the product’s dependability and stylish design quickly allowed it to capture the bulk Continue reading →

Ethics, Product Development, Innovation, Value, Corporate Social Responsibility, Lifestraw

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, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Mobile Advertising Overtakes Print and Radio

November 6, 2014

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By the end of the year, mobile advertising spending will eclipse the amount of money that companies spend on old media like radio and newspapers. This historic shift shows just how far smartphones and tablets have come after less than a decade of existence. In contrast, newspapers have been in circulation for centuries while radio has been a media fixture for nearly 100 years.

Analysts estimate that companies will invest nearly $18 billion in mobile ads this year while newspapers Continue reading →

Marketing, Social Media, Innovation, Advertising, Smartphones, Old Media

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media