Leading a Massive Shift in Innovation - TED

          TED is one of the best and most inspirational organizations that exists. We always try to go and see well known international figures whenever given the chance to hear them speak. TED gives the chance for individuals to speak about their thoughts, ideas, and creations that I argue are more innovative than many of the ideas and creations of extremely successful business men/women that we know of. Not only does TED give the chance for people to gain awareness, but it also gives the global community a better and more inspirational way of communicating. As TED continues to grow and more innovative ideas are spread by people who have never been given a proper opportunity to speak about their ideas, the world will experience a massive shift in innovation.
          Below is the link to TED's main website and a few links to incredible TED talks with individuals talking about their innovative ideas and creations.

TED Main Website: http://www.ted.com/

Ludwick Marishane - A bath without water:  
http://www.ted.com/talks/ludwick_marishane_a_bath_without_water.html

Amos Winter - The cheap all-terrain wheelchair:
http://www.ted.com/talks/ludwick_marishane_a_bath_without_water.html

 

Ethics Like You Have Never Seen Before

          Ethics and social responsibility plays a major role in the business world today. It is interesting to see how companies differentiate themselves from competitors and other companies in general through their social responsibility and ethical practices. It is nice to see when companies try to be as ethical and social responsible as possible, but it is incredible to see companies try something different to truly show their passion for social responsibility and ethics.   
          Patagonia is a company that is based in Ventura, California that sells outdoor apparel. The company decided to launch an ad campaign that many thought was a crazy and that it would significantly hurt its annual revenue. Although many thought they were insane, Patagonia released an ad advertising one of their jackets titled "DON'T BUY THIS JACKET" on November 25, 2011 during Black Friday. Regardless of what would happen, Patagonia wanted its customers to know that to manufacture this jacket was very harmful to the environment and that they should only purchase one if needed. They also advocated customers who have already purchased these jackets in the past to recycle them when they are not needed anymore.
          Not only was this ad respected by many consumers, but Patagonia's sales skyrocketed. Click the link below to check out the advertisement!    

http://www.patagonia.com/email/11/112811.html

Are Robots Already Taking Over?

          I almost had to look at this a second time because I had a hard believing what I was seeing was real! Audi just took the auto industry to another level. For years auto companies have been trying to find out how to solve one problem that may drivers have in common...parking. We have seen auto companies install cameras and senors in the front and back of cars, and other tools to help drivers park. Audi thought that was not enough and created a complete automatic parking system. With a touch of your smart phone, you can either command your car to park itself or leave the parking lot to come and find you. I will let Audi explain the rest! Click the link below to watch this amazing piece of technology in action!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_m8DqTlOLE

Operation Guerrilla

          One of the best ways to get the name of your company out their is through guerrilla tactics. Not only are guerrilla tactics inexpensive compared to other forms of advertising, but once when you get the word buzzing in the neighborhood, it will soon be buzzing over the internet!
          Here is a fantastic guerrilla tactic that was organized by TNT. Wanting to increase their viewership in Bulgaria, TNT came up with an amazing idea to capture the attention of people walking by an everyday town square.
          Not only did it generate buzz in the neighborhood, but it also generated buzz on the internet getting over 42 million views on YouTube. Click on the link below to go and watch the action!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=316AzLYfAzw

Have you Ever Dropped Water on your Phone or Beer on your Computer?

           I am sure that all of us have had an experience of dropping liquids on an expensive electronic or an expensive electronic in liquid. Tell me if this sounds familiar; we will take a cell phone for this example: Phone gets wet....start freaking out as it turns off....get a bowl of rice to throw it in or a blow dryer to dry it...hope that we won't have to spend money on a new phone....hope that we won't loose all of our contacts/pictures.
          Well if you are just like me, this has not only happened once, but it has happened more than it should have. That is why I can't wait for NeverWet to come out with their new Super Hydrophobic Spray product. You can apply this product on anything and it whatever you spray it on will never get wet. Don't believe me? Click on the link below to go and check out the videos they have posted showing the product in action!
          Amazing innovative idea that I believe will explode when this product hits the market! 

http://www.neverwet.com/applications.php

Where Customer Service Creates Value

          Although consumers may rate the value of a company through the product(s) and/or service(s) that are sold, customer service and how the company treats its consumers on a day-to-day basis also plays a large part in determining the overall value of a company. One company that comes to mind which provides great products and that truly cares about its customers is Zappos. Not only is the customer service known for being extremely respectable, but they will do whatever they can in their power to help the customer get what they are looking for. Situations have occurred where customers have called customer service looking for a certain shoe product that Zappos did not have. Even though Zappos was not carrying the item at that particular time, customer service found the shoe being sold in one of its competitors stores and directed the customer to the store to make sure they got what they wanted. With over 19 thousand online reviews these past twelve months, Zappos has achieved an almost perfect ranking of 4.8 stars out of 5. If you don’t believe me, check out the link posted below! 

https://www.google.com/products/seller?zmi=zappos.com&hl=en&sa=X&ei=drb9UMHrLYvuqAGy3IGIDA&ved=0CDsQwQY

The Day of the Case

First major assignment done! I am happy we did the assessment of the case online…writing out the short answers would have definitely taken me a little while haha! Splitting up with half of our pods to further assess the case was fun; one of my favorite ideas that we came up with was the “Parents Corner.” Along with videotaping the campers enjoying themselves at camp, the camera crew would make a special video that recorded the positive remarks that parents had for sending their children to WC; this would hopefully catch the attention of parents who are planning to send their children to camp during the summer months.

Fun class, fun discussions, can’t wait to see what is in store for next week! Enjoy the long weekend everyone! 

What is the Sports Pod Looking to Do?

It is pretty exciting to see where things will go with the Sports Pod especially since there are many directions that we can take. After getting together last class, we all decided to reach out to people that we know that work in sports hoping to find a cool gig to work on whether it be working with a company/organization, team, and/or professional athlete(s). We talked about potentially being able to work with ESPN which was pretty exciting. If we can’t find something throughout the people that we know, we will look for a local company to work with. But who knows, maybe we can get Colby Bryant or Lionel Messi in the class…I wish!!

Sports Pod Cracking Down on the Value of Marketing

It was nice to see familiar faces and meet new people last Thursday in Integrative Marketing Strategy; I can already tell that this is going to be an awesome class! After grouping up with the Sports pod (let’s do this team!), we discussed about our thoughts on the value of marketing. Each person had really good thoughts and points about the value of marketing and how significant it is in the business world. One point that was made that I found interesting was that the value of marketing and marketers themselves is many times undervalued. Some examples of what we hear people say is that “marketing is a very easy job” and/or “you can’t do too much with a marketing career”. Well, as my pod and I discussed…people who say that are WRONG! I can go on for paragraphs about the importance of marketing but for the sake of your time and not wanting you to bore you with my babbling I will just say that without a business having some sort of marketing, whether it is positive word of mouth or advertising, achieving success is next to impossible.

I am not the only one saying that businesses need marketing to be successful…there are many other individuals, specialists, and companies who are saying it as well. Below are two links. The first link will guide you to a page that will ask you to download a PDF file. The PDF file consists of an article that was published by McKinsey Quarterly in July, 2011. The article mentions Steve Ridgway (CEO of Virgin Atlantic Airways), John Hayes (CMO of American Express), and Duncan Watts (Principal research scientist at Yahoo! Research) talking about their view on marketing and sales practice. The second link will guide you to an article published on Houston Chron about the importance of marketing in order for a business to gain success.     

  

Link 1: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CEAQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fducareerclub.net%2Findex%2Fdownload%2FThree_senior_executives_on_the_future_of_Marketing.pdf&ei=hmLzUI_aGoKm9AS2toHoBw&usg=AFQjCNFr6DQTpVxgLnHoZJlA2rumGD7xNw&sig2=AmUKwSDiFpCofOD9F8QfQA&bvm=bv.1357700187,d.eWU

Link 2: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-marketing-success-business-589.html

The Value of Marketing in a Nut Shell

            The value of marketing is probably one of the most important concepts that individuals and companies must understand in order to be successful. What is marketing in a nut shell? It is effectively communicating to the audience what you are trying to promote, hoping to catch their attention and future business. When the term marketing is heard, many individuals immediately think of companies and what they do in order to win business over their competitors. Although this is a part of marketing, what many forget is that marketing is around a person’s everyday life, from their personal life to their professional life.

Examining how the value of marketing is around a person’s personal life, let’s say that John goes out to lunch with some friends and one of his friends invites Joe, a person that John has not met before. John introduces himself to Joe and throughout lunch talks and exchanges laughs with Joe. In essence, what is John doing? Whether John knows it or not, he is marketing himself to Joe. Through verbal communication, body language, and other actions, John is communicating to Joe some of his personal characteristics of who he is. If Joe feels comfortable and likes the characteristics that John is expressing, he will continue talking to John throughout lunch and potentially connect with him again in the future. Similarly to a company advertising a product, if an individual is interested in a product that a company is advertising, he/she will listen to the message and qualities that the product consists of and will potentially purchase it in the future.   

Along with a person’s personal life, the value of marketing plays a major role in a person’s professional life. When a person is looking for a job, he/she must usually go through a job interview before they can be hired. So what is a job interview? Is it a place where a person goes to meet an employer and learn more about the company? No, it is place where a person has a chance to communicate to the employer why they fit the job description and how they will better impact the company with their skills compared to all of the other job applicants. In other words, during a job interview, a person is trying to effectively communicate to the employer their skills and experience hoping to grab their attention and win over their business.