Marketing - McGraw-Hill Introduction to Business

[VIDEO] The Artificial Flower Factory that Serves Celebrities

January 20, 2023

This video dives deep into the story of M&S Schmalberg, the last artificial flower factory in the U.S. that crafts beautiful blossoms by hand. Located in the heart of Manhattan, this family-owned business serves everyone from top fashion designers and celebrities to individual clients with personal projects in mind. The video below delves into the history of M&S Schmalberg and its artisanal production methods while also examining the rise and fall of the American artificial flower industry over the span Continue reading →

FAA Computer Outage Delays Thousands of Flights

January 13, 2023

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

Last week, we looked at how bad weather and an overloaded scheduling system led to disastrous consequences for Southwest Airlines as it canceled more than 13,000 flights over the holidays. But while this disaster could at least be partly blamed on a rough winter storm, airports had no such excuse on Wednesday when a computer outage led to another massive wave of cancellations and delays. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a damaged database file corrupted the agency’s system Continue reading →

Marketing, Branding, Operations Management, Regulation, Ethics, Travel, Supply & Demand, Airlines

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

[VIDEO] The Multi-Billion Dollar Business of BTS

December 14, 2022

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

The members of the K-pop group BTS are more than just entertainers: they’re financial juggernauts who have contributed billions of dollars to the South Korean economy. The video below looks at how BTS leverages their massive global audience to develop lucrative brand partnerships with everyone from McDonald’s to Louis Vuitton. This bonanza of cash might not go on forever, though, with the group announcing they were taking a brief hiatus that could potentially blunt their branding power.

Questions:

What Continue reading →

Celebrities, Product Development, Branding, Promotions, Marketing, Entertainment, Global, McDonald’s, Music, Product Distribution, South Korea

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

Amazon’s Echo Fails to Live up to Expectations

December 7, 2022

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

When Amazon launched the Echo in 2014, both the e-commerce giant and media observers set the bar very high for the smart speaker. One publication likened the voice-assisted machine to something out of Star Trek while others called it the “computer of the future” that would soon be in every home. These predictions seemed reasonable enough as Amazon sold more than 5 million Echos in the device’s first two years on the market. By 2016, the Echo and its voice Continue reading →

Big Business Gets a Big Boost from Controversial World Cup

December 2, 2022

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

The 2022 FIFA World Cup moves into the knockout stages this weekend, a nerve-wracking time when teams can be eliminated with a single loss. While the tournament’s soccer stars will experience a dramatic increase of tension on the field, the host country Qatar has already faced plenty of global pressure since FIFA awarded them the event in 2010. The Middle East nation has long been accused of using corruption to land the World Cup, leading to a 2015 indictment from Continue reading →

[VIDEO] How Retailers Deal with Returns

November 30, 2022

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

The National Retail Federation says that customer returns are increasing across the industry, driven primarily by online returns that have more than doubled in the last few years. Contrary to what many consumers may think, these products don’t simply boomerang back onto store shelves. As the video below shows, returned items take a complicated journey from warehouse to warehouse that frequently ends either at a secondary resale center or a landfill.

Questions:

Why do many returned products end up in Continue reading →

Operations Management, Product Distribution, Ethics, E-commerce, Product Returns, Supply & Demand, Amazon, Marketing

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Videos

Ticketmaster Buckles under the Pressure of Taylor Swift Tour

November 18, 2022

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

Last month Taylor Swift released her 10th album Midnights, which shocked the recording industry by selling the equivalent of 1,578,000 copies. Songs from the album also occupied every slot of Billboard’s Top 10 singles chart, the first time in history that an artist has achieved this feat. Needless to say, anticipation for Swift’s upcoming tour grew to massive proportions on the eve of a pre-sale event planned for earlier this week. Ticketmaster established a Verified Fan program to keep Continue reading →

Marketing, Promotions, Ethics, Entertainment, Regulation, Music, Product Distribution, Monopolies, Supply & Demand

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 5: Forms of Business Ownership, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

Investors Lose Billions in Massive Crypto Exchange Collapse

November 16, 2022

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

Few financial sectors are as volatile as cryptocurrency, with the price of bitcoin down by more than 60 percent since the start of the year. The coin’s recent drop can be directly attributed to the downfall of FTX, a crypto exchange once valued at more than $32 billion. Founded by Samuel Bankman-Fried, FTX attracted the interest of top venture capital firms who invested hundreds of millions in the seemingly promising project. The company purchased mainstream legitimacy with their immense capital, Continue reading →

Regulation, Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Marketing, Ethics, Promotions, Entrepreneurship, Currency, Banking

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 16: Place and Promotion, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

[VIDEO] How Junior’s Bakes Millions of Cheesecakes

November 11, 2022

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

The New York bakery Junior’s has been selling enormous cheesecakes to customers since 1950, but 2022 has probably been the toughest year for the company since its founding. Along with examining how a cream cheese shortage and skyrocketing ingredient prices have threatened Junior’s bottom line, this video also examines the company’s history and the intricate production processes for its many baked goods.

Questions:

How have rising ingredient costs affected Junior’s business?
What role does automation play at Junior’s Continue reading →

Marketing, Operations Management, Pricing, Entrepreneurship, Manufacturing, Product Distribution, Food & Drink, Supply & Demand

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Videos

Elon Musk’s Chaotic Takeover of Twitter

November 9, 2022

NickelsMcHughMcHugh

Tesla owner Elon Musk has never been shy about seeking the spotlight, and for years he could always find an easy audience by talking to his Twitter following of more than 100 million people. Even that level of attention wasn’t enough for the world’s richest man, however, who purchased the social network outright at the end of October for a whopping $44 billion. That gargantuan price tag now ranks as history’s largest leveraged buyout of a tech firm, although it Continue reading →