Monday, April 11, 2011
Nintendo Wii Successor on the way
Monday, April 4, 2011
Response to Brittany's post on Wendy's New Fries
What do you think about the new fries? Will they be successful or not? Why the change of having unhealthier fries? Will this be bad for Wendy’s look?
Brittany's post talks about Wendy's recently adding new fries to there menu for the first time in 41 years to "natural cut fries with sea salt."Although i have not personally tried the fries i know people that have and like the difference. There seems to be more flavor and a different taste then before. The taste is different but it also increased calories and sodium then before which wont help with our health and obesity problems are country is facing. I think that the new fries will be successful because customers like change and when people drive by and see a new product at a successful chain like Wendy's they want to stop and try it especially when it is getting positive reviews. The name of the fries having the word "natural" will definitely trick customers into thinking that it is healthier but it is actually not. This happens a lot with marketing but people need to take the time to actually look into what they are eating to reveal the true facts about the food. Do you think other fast food restaurants will follow Wendy's lead and start changing there menu around?
Brittany's post talks about Wendy's recently adding new fries to there menu for the first time in 41 years to "natural cut fries with sea salt."Although i have not personally tried the fries i know people that have and like the difference. There seems to be more flavor and a different taste then before. The taste is different but it also increased calories and sodium then before which wont help with our health and obesity problems are country is facing. I think that the new fries will be successful because customers like change and when people drive by and see a new product at a successful chain like Wendy's they want to stop and try it especially when it is getting positive reviews. The name of the fries having the word "natural" will definitely trick customers into thinking that it is healthier but it is actually not. This happens a lot with marketing but people need to take the time to actually look into what they are eating to reveal the true facts about the food. Do you think other fast food restaurants will follow Wendy's lead and start changing there menu around?Subways $5 Footlong
Stuart Frankel's story about how he transformed Subway from two small stores in Miami to 32,000 outlets worldwide is very interesting and based upon the famous $5 foot long. This could very well be the idea for a chain restaurant in a long time. The $5 foot long has been around for several years now and it doesn't seem to be any need to change anything because it still appeals to consumers based on the statistics. Just from the $5 foot long alone Subway rakes in $3.8 billion in sales every year. Frankel thought this was just going to be a short term gimmick until lines were continuously out the door and turned into a national phenomenon. American's seem to just like the whole number 5 for a 12 inch sub. The idea was based upon a healthy alternatives for other fast food chains and you could eat one half of the sub and save the other for later or share with someone else which is something you cannot do with other popular items like the Big Mac. What surprised me the most was that Frankel's profit margins never declines. You would think that with all the production and food cost that are necessary to produce a mass amount of sandwich's that some profits would be lost at first, but that never happened because of the high demand right from the start. He never lost any money on a $5 dollar foot long. Everything seemed to fall right into place with how Subway's business was run as far as marketing and the company as a whole. It started up when the need for a fast healthier alternative was rising and a Subway customer Jared lost 250 pound by eating Subways subs everyday and he eventually became the face of the franchise. People saw how much weight he lost and jumped on the bandwagon. The catchy $5 dollar foot long song also made it popular because it stuck into people's head and often times the people in the commercials were athletes making people think that they got into shape by eating there favorite sandwich. Some people think that Subway is "riding the pony" on the $5 foot long to long, but why would they change something that has about $4 billion in sales every year? What other ideas do you think subway could come up with that would be successful?
Monday, March 21, 2011
In Response to Kayle's post
If we start sticking puppies and lions on Kashi and bran, will our younger generation catch on to a healthier lifestyle?
Kayle has a very interesting post about a recent study that was conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Anneburg School of Communication. They gave 80 four to six year olds 4 different boxes of cereal. Two of the boxes were called "Healthy Bits" with one of them having no picture on them and the other having animated characters. The other two boxes were called "Sugar Bits" with the same scenario, one with no picture and the other having one. The study showed that more kids today chose "Healthy bits" over the less healthy sugar favored bran and this could be due to the fact that over the past couple years more and more food industries are shifting there marketing strategy to promote healthier products because more people are watching what they eat compared to how people had no idea what they were eating. Kids have always been attracted to pictures on certain products because it catches there eye when there at the grocery store with there parents and most the time they are able to convince there parents to buy them especially at the age of 4 or 6. I believe that if healthier bran names like Kashi or Bran change there product to have animated pictures in them it will help kids buy the healthier foods and catch on to a healthier lifestyle at a early age unlike most generations. If this occurs it could potentially reduce obesity rates and lead to a healthier lifestyle for future generations.
Kayle has a very interesting post about a recent study that was conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Anneburg School of Communication. They gave 80 four to six year olds 4 different boxes of cereal. Two of the boxes were called "Healthy Bits" with one of them having no picture on them and the other having animated characters. The other two boxes were called "Sugar Bits" with the same scenario, one with no picture and the other having one. The study showed that more kids today chose "Healthy bits" over the less healthy sugar favored bran and this could be due to the fact that over the past couple years more and more food industries are shifting there marketing strategy to promote healthier products because more people are watching what they eat compared to how people had no idea what they were eating. Kids have always been attracted to pictures on certain products because it catches there eye when there at the grocery store with there parents and most the time they are able to convince there parents to buy them especially at the age of 4 or 6. I believe that if healthier bran names like Kashi or Bran change there product to have animated pictures in them it will help kids buy the healthier foods and catch on to a healthier lifestyle at a early age unlike most generations. If this occurs it could potentially reduce obesity rates and lead to a healthier lifestyle for future generations.
Pizza Patron keeping up with demographics
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204204004576049952412468360.html#printMode 
Pizza Patron has proved to be a successful business for over two decades they once again are adjusting to there demographics by focusing on more English speaking cultures. Today most young Hispanics are bicultural and are very adopting to American culture without letting go of there Spanish roots so Pizza Patron is re- allocating its advertising budget, changing commericals, and opening new restaurant in new areas. Next years plans inclide completely flip flopping its marketing mix by allocating 70% of its advertising budget to English language television and radio stations and the remaining 30% to Spanish media outlets. This is a risky change because they have never focused on another culture more then there traditional Spanish based customers so this could potentially loose some devoted customers.To try and eliminate this potential problem Pizza Patron is adding more Latin- themed specialty pizzas and are planning on posting in-store graphics honoring hispanic holidays, such as Day of the Three Kings. Although it is risky for a business to completely change the way they do business when there has been success I believe it is a good idea because the up and coming teenage population is often bilingual and bicultural and most of there customers now do speak English. It just makes sense to attract a broader demographic because statistics show that virtually every ethnic group has largely integrated into American culture by second and third generation. From a business perspective you have to adjust to where the demand is even though you may loose some customers. Do you think it was a smart choice for Pizza Patron to completely change there Marketing Strategy?
Im writing this post on the above article
A Dallas based restaurant chain called Pizza Patron sets a great example of what a successful business does to increase profits by adjusting there marketing strategy. Pizza Patron is a 100-unit restaurant chain that has catered to Spanish speaking customers since the beginning of there business, but due to changes in demographics and demand by the English speaking population they are now setting there focus on English speaking clientele. Pizza Patron first opened in 1986 without the intention to target Hispanics but most of his customers were and placed orders in Spanish. This made Pizza Patron very unique in the way they marketed there products especially being in America, they began re-arranging there menu to offer more Spanish based foods and as the Hispanic population grew so did there Revenue.Just this year alone they expect to make over $40 million in revenues. It came to a point in 2007 that they begin accepeting Mexican pesos as payment. Typically, Pizza Patron opened Pizzerias in locations where more then half the population was hispanic and nearly all the ads were on Spanish-language media outlets.
A Dallas based restaurant chain called Pizza Patron sets a great example of what a successful business does to increase profits by adjusting there marketing strategy. Pizza Patron is a 100-unit restaurant chain that has catered to Spanish speaking customers since the beginning of there business, but due to changes in demographics and demand by the English speaking population they are now setting there focus on English speaking clientele. Pizza Patron first opened in 1986 without the intention to target Hispanics but most of his customers were and placed orders in Spanish. This made Pizza Patron very unique in the way they marketed there products especially being in America, they began re-arranging there menu to offer more Spanish based foods and as the Hispanic population grew so did there Revenue.Just this year alone they expect to make over $40 million in revenues. It came to a point in 2007 that they begin accepeting Mexican pesos as payment. Typically, Pizza Patron opened Pizzerias in locations where more then half the population was hispanic and nearly all the ads were on Spanish-language media outlets.
Pizza Patron has proved to be a successful business for over two decades they once again are adjusting to there demographics by focusing on more English speaking cultures. Today most young Hispanics are bicultural and are very adopting to American culture without letting go of there Spanish roots so Pizza Patron is re- allocating its advertising budget, changing commericals, and opening new restaurant in new areas. Next years plans inclide completely flip flopping its marketing mix by allocating 70% of its advertising budget to English language television and radio stations and the remaining 30% to Spanish media outlets. This is a risky change because they have never focused on another culture more then there traditional Spanish based customers so this could potentially loose some devoted customers.To try and eliminate this potential problem Pizza Patron is adding more Latin- themed specialty pizzas and are planning on posting in-store graphics honoring hispanic holidays, such as Day of the Three Kings. Although it is risky for a business to completely change the way they do business when there has been success I believe it is a good idea because the up and coming teenage population is often bilingual and bicultural and most of there customers now do speak English. It just makes sense to attract a broader demographic because statistics show that virtually every ethnic group has largely integrated into American culture by second and third generation. From a business perspective you have to adjust to where the demand is even though you may loose some customers. Do you think it was a smart choice for Pizza Patron to completely change there Marketing Strategy?
Monday, March 7, 2011
In response to Sylvie's Post.....
Do you think that with all the pressure that the president is under and trying to revive the economy that he should be disturbed by such inconsiderate idiots?
I have always thought that politics and sports should not intervene with each other because there is obviously more important things for the president, congress, and senate to worry about. This is not the first time that this has happened, a few years ago when all the steroid allegations were happening in baseball congress jumped in and i thought that was just unnecessary and should not have been handled that way. Former senator George Mitchell was assigned to investigate for 20 long months possible steroid allegations on over 80 different players, a lot of them being star players. I believe that people should know the truth about what was going on during that point in time but i didn't think it had to go to congress on national television when there are far worse things going on in our country then proving or not proving steroid use among million dollar athletes. The same goes for football. There is no reason for the President of the U.S. to have to intervene because owners and players can't work out a deal because of selfish greed. These players are already making millions this shouldn't be a ongoing issue. Do you feel that there is any reason for the politics and sports to have anything to do with each other?
I have always thought that politics and sports should not intervene with each other because there is obviously more important things for the president, congress, and senate to worry about. This is not the first time that this has happened, a few years ago when all the steroid allegations were happening in baseball congress jumped in and i thought that was just unnecessary and should not have been handled that way. Former senator George Mitchell was assigned to investigate for 20 long months possible steroid allegations on over 80 different players, a lot of them being star players. I believe that people should know the truth about what was going on during that point in time but i didn't think it had to go to congress on national television when there are far worse things going on in our country then proving or not proving steroid use among million dollar athletes. The same goes for football. There is no reason for the President of the U.S. to have to intervene because owners and players can't work out a deal because of selfish greed. These players are already making millions this shouldn't be a ongoing issue. Do you feel that there is any reason for the politics and sports to have anything to do with each other?
America's Happiest Careers are Not About The Money
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41890356/ns/business-careers/
I recently read a article about a survey that was conducted revealing America's top ten happiest careers based on a variety of different questions that were asked to over 200,000 independent employee reviews from over 70,000 jobs all over the country to collect 1.6 million data points on nine different factors of workplace happiness.These included the employee's relationship with their boss and co-workers, their work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, daily tasks and job control over the work that they do on a daily basis. These numbers were collected and averaged out to come up with a employee happiness rating for each job site. The results were very clear that even in tough economic times like were are in today happiness on the job does not just come from a big paycheck or even up there in the top three of what people find to make them happy while working. The top three things employees are looking for on the job are....
1.The specific tasks a job entails on a day-to-day basis.
2.How much control the employee has over his or her daily tasks.
3.Relationships with co-workers and customers, including supervisors and colleagues.
How much money a job offers obviously is a important factor when deciding on a job but it is clear that even with a big paycheck it is not enough to consistently satisfy workers. Careers in biotechnology were ranked number one followed by customer services and education employees. "In biotech, the people that they work with, and more specifically the person that they work for, tends to rank higher in terms of importance, and employees are overwhelmingly happy with those conditions," says Heidi Golledge the CEO of CareerBliss. Biotechnology offers a lot of control over what they do while on the job which is also an important factor. I was pretty surprised with customer service being number 2 on the list as the happiest jobs. To me that line of work tends to be more stressful and doesn't pay that well but being able to talk to people everyday and valuing co workers more then other industries led to that ranking. Education was another occupation that caught me off guard in contrast to biotech in education employee boss relationships were not important. Teachers value the work they do, the way they work, and the people they were with. The final 7 jobs that closed out the top ten were administrative, purchasing, accounting, finance, nonprofit, health care and law. A lot of these types of jobs surprised me a lot because i thought most of these were high stress low paying jobs, but i guess that shows to prove that money isn't the only thing people look for in a job. What are your most important factors when looking for a job? Is money on the top of the list?
I recently read a article about a survey that was conducted revealing America's top ten happiest careers based on a variety of different questions that were asked to over 200,000 independent employee reviews from over 70,000 jobs all over the country to collect 1.6 million data points on nine different factors of workplace happiness.These included the employee's relationship with their boss and co-workers, their work environment, job resources, compensation, growth opportunities, company culture, company reputation, daily tasks and job control over the work that they do on a daily basis. These numbers were collected and averaged out to come up with a employee happiness rating for each job site. The results were very clear that even in tough economic times like were are in today happiness on the job does not just come from a big paycheck or even up there in the top three of what people find to make them happy while working. The top three things employees are looking for on the job are....
1.The specific tasks a job entails on a day-to-day basis.
2.How much control the employee has over his or her daily tasks.
3.Relationships with co-workers and customers, including supervisors and colleagues.
How much money a job offers obviously is a important factor when deciding on a job but it is clear that even with a big paycheck it is not enough to consistently satisfy workers. Careers in biotechnology were ranked number one followed by customer services and education employees. "In biotech, the people that they work with, and more specifically the person that they work for, tends to rank higher in terms of importance, and employees are overwhelmingly happy with those conditions," says Heidi Golledge the CEO of CareerBliss. Biotechnology offers a lot of control over what they do while on the job which is also an important factor. I was pretty surprised with customer service being number 2 on the list as the happiest jobs. To me that line of work tends to be more stressful and doesn't pay that well but being able to talk to people everyday and valuing co workers more then other industries led to that ranking. Education was another occupation that caught me off guard in contrast to biotech in education employee boss relationships were not important. Teachers value the work they do, the way they work, and the people they were with. The final 7 jobs that closed out the top ten were administrative, purchasing, accounting, finance, nonprofit, health care and law. A lot of these types of jobs surprised me a lot because i thought most of these were high stress low paying jobs, but i guess that shows to prove that money isn't the only thing people look for in a job. What are your most important factors when looking for a job? Is money on the top of the list?
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