Chapter 18 - Store Policies and Procedures

http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/blog/2010/02/what-no-haggling-on-my-logitech-warranty.html


Summary
A man bought a new set of speakers over Christmas. After the failure of the speakers after two weeks, he returned to the store in Toronto where he purchased the speakers. Nicely enough, when this man didn't have his receipt, the employee there printed him a new one and told him good luck without hesitation. He went home and decided to call the customer service for Logitech and the man asked him a few questions such as the model he was using. He didn't know it at the time and the employee from Logitech said he would open up an account for him so he could use and also gave him a different number so he wouldn't need to go through a lot more of the other troubles.
After his second call, employee from Logitech listened to the problem and told him that he would send over a new set of speakers immediately. But because the model the customer had, he sent over a slightly better model of the speakers. The customer received the new speakers in two days.

Connections
Some of the connections we could spot out right now is the customer service and the warranty. First of all, the employee that worked at the store the customer bought was nice enough to print out a new copy of the receipt and wished him luck, making the customer feel like they are important. Another connection is the warranty. The company didn't neglect him and actually listened to the customer's needs and gave him a warranty that was "promised" when the customer bought it. Another good connection here is that the company didn't argue with the customer and gave him a new product within the two days! That's what I call a good company.

Reflections
Even though I have never used my warranty, I am happy with the policies they have. Somtimes I wonder how the person on the other side of the phone trust that customer whether or not the product is broken or not working if they don't ship it over to the actual company.
On the other hand, sometimes, I think the warranty thing is just there so you feel like the company is behind you 100% if it breaks. What I've heard from my parents, cars that say that they have warranty for that amount of time, it doesn't break during that time! It usually breaks or have problems right after the warranty is over! Maybe warranty is just another way to lure the customers into believing that the company will recover any loss. That's just my opioions, but maybe it's true. I have yet to experience it.

Chapter 9 - Viurtual Shops Winning over Bricks-and-mortar shops?

Summary
In America, the holiday shopping season is on November 27th of this year and customers were outside the stores before dawn to be their first to lay their hands on heavily discounted merchandise. The recession appears to have accelerated the pace at which shoppers are abandoning bricks and mortar and turning to online retailers. Due to this problem, many conventional retailers attempts to regain the initiative.
Online retailing has its positive side, in which buyers could avoid paying local sales taxes and shipping is often free. Thanks to online retailing, America are expected to decline more than 3% this year compared to online sales, which grew by 13% in 2008 and are predicted to grow by 11% in 2009, according to Forrester, a consultancy. Online retailing counts as 6% of all retail sales, and it is expected to reach 8% by 2013. E-commerce is also growing in Europe, Asia and Britain with Internet shopping now accounts for nearly 4% of total retail sales.

Many online-only shopping sites such as Amazon and eBay have thrived in the downturn. Amazon's sales rose and eBay crashing due to many customers surging really rapidly. It is also that Amazon is starting to sell groceries. Many consumer-goods companies such as Procter & Gamble (P&G) are encouraging the sale of things like nappies (diapers) and laundry detergent online. Internet is also being used to sell luxury goods. Some stores even decide to not open any shops but instead operating a shop online.

One of the major problems for brick-and-mortar retailers, whose prices are often higher than those of e-retailers, since they must bear the extra expense of running stores. Some stores, such as Saks and Target, have recently reported rising revenues and margins.

"Multichannel" shopping is where people can buy the same items from the same retailers in several different ways-online, via their mobile phones and in shops- and they are gaining ground and retailers are trying to encourage users to use one channel to try another. Due to online retailing is growing, it may cause increase in sales for stores as well. according to a spokesman for Macy's, a department-store chain, every dollar a consumer spends online with Macy's leads to $5.70 in spending at a Macy's store within ten days. Retailers are also trying to make shopping seem fun and exciting to counteract the economic gloom. One common one is to set up "pop-up" stores, which appear for a short time before vanishing again, to a foster a sense of novelty and urgency. Jack Anderson of Hornall Anderson, a branding and marketing firm, and are no longer interesting in purely "transaction-based bricks and mortar stores". Apple, which encourages customers to try out its devices in its stores, is considered a pioneer of this strategy,and has attracted many imitators. the Walt Disney Company, for example, is rumoured to be redesigning its stores to attract shoppers looking for entertainment, which new features such as "magic mirrors", which will allow children to play with Disney characters.

Many stores are also trying to lure customers by offering services that are not available online. Best Buy, for example, is a consumer-electronics retailer has started selling music lessons along with its musical instruments. Luluemon athletica, which sells sports clothes are starting to offer free yoga classes. The idea is to bring people back to its shops regularly, increasing the likelihood that they will develop the habit of shopping there.

Another idea is that mobile phones will be used as another way to purchase goods. Some consumers already use Internet-enabled handsets to shop online. But many analysts think a technology called "near-field communication" (NFC) might boost sales at stores, by allowing shoppers to scan products with their phones to learn more about the, and then to pay by swiping their phones at the till. Sadly, they these devices will not widely available for some time.

Connections
Some connections would be the location because if these stores were to be in a very small town which contains small amount of population, they couldn't take the advantages of Black Friday. Another would be Internet retailing which haven't been mentioned in the text book because online retailing was invented in 1995; a year after the textbook has been published. Online retailing's popularity has been increasing and just the thought of it has been increasing and reaching older generations, such as the baby boomer. Because Internet retailing has been going around, many stores has stopped opening stores and just have them done online, such as general merchandises, which consist of department stores and general stores. Another connection would be different types of retailing because stores such as telemarketing has been decreasing and are doing even worse because Internet retailing has been taking over. Another retailer that might be in danger would be the itinerant stores because many of these stores doesn't have a big market and they don't take part in black Fridays, so Internet retailing has also effect them.

Reflection
Even though Internet retailing is a lot cheaper than shopping retails in the malls, I still enjoy shopping in the malls because of the "touch and feel" phrase because I would like to see the clothing's the material and if it fits me. Another thing is that I could see this good in person so I could see the exact size, even though the measurements are told on the website, I would like to see the actual size, because measurement isn't my speciality.

I think when it's boxing day in December for Canadians, is when our black Friday starts. That's when all the department stores have a huge discount and lure their customers in by giving them many advantages. But because I know that many people would be there, each year, I would never shop there. I'd rather go a bit earlier than boxing day, or afterwards and get lesser advantages, than to be in the rush.

Even though I've stated that I'd rather go shopping in a mall than online, I have bought many things from the Internet because there are things in Canada that couldn't be found on the Internet. I've ordered something all the way from Singapore just because I never saw these goods being sold in Vancouver. I've got to admit, shopping online is great because it is cheaper than purchasing in stores, probably free shipping, no taxes and because there are more things to offer on the Internet than in stores.

Chapter Two - Shockvertising

Summary
A woman sued Toyota, a car company, because she thought she was being stalked which was actually a complain ad for this new car. It showed e-mails and videos of this woman. She made a $10-million lawsuit against Toyota.

Technology today makes it a lot easier to advertise also a new way to advertise. Lindsay Meredith, a marketing professor at Simon Fraser University said that you have to be different to get their attention. Marketers have to be unique but to be careful or else they'll get hurt.

Shockvertising has been shown around such as these ads: Boost mobile have pigs eat pigs, Diesel having a woman breast feed a baby made from rotting meat and Aylmer breaking into people's house telling them to "try the sauce".

Many people watch or listen to ads, but at least 10 thousand people won’t get offended but it only takes a few people to get offended and cause a wave.

Connection
The connection is with niche marketing because these companies or brands are unique and they are only selling their own goods to customers. They are also connected with freedom of trade because they could trade goods without the government in the way. I also think that it is connected with demographics because they are only targeting a specific group. Like the Toyota commercial, those who are old and probably doesn't even have a valid license wouldn't get attracted to these commercial but to young adults that just came out of high school, not only this commercial is funny, but also it reels them into buying that car even more.

Reflection
Even though some commercials these days are a bit more chaotic, I still find them entertaining to watch and it actually catches my attention. I remember this one commercial that I really hated because it was trying to target teenagers, it actually made me upset. It was a Kraft dinner commercial where this teenage boy that looked like he dropped out of high school and worked at the gas station and he started to eat one of those instant cup Kraft dinner and he got all popular with the customers; he got the girl and got one of the man giving him an extra tip for wiping his windows. My point is, even though I hated this a lot, it is burned into my brain and the next time I visited Super Store or London Drugs, I would look at that Kraft dinner and actually purchase it because I wanted to try it out. Sometimes I wonder why I would purchase it even though I hated the commercial. Is it because I wanted to see if it actually tasted as good as the commercial made it to be?

Chapter One-Debate eBay versus Amazon

http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y07/m05/i23/s01

Summary

This article is about whether ebay or amazon is better. Ebay started in the year 1998 which started out as a trading assistant. Ebay has always focused on selling posters. Both Ebay and Amazon has up to one thousand orders each day. On the internet, Ebay seems to be more of a site for collectibles. But owners of Ebay say that they could get the exact same thing on Amazon, but cost a lot more. They even said that for customers being on Ebay looks for value and also features. Obviously, Ebay and Amazon seems to be rivals.

Connections

To me, the connection they have is that both Ebay and Amazon is a website where they sell the stuff consumer wants, but can't seem to find in normal retailers. Many people go on Ebay or Amazon to buy something they really want or has caught their attention. Ebay is almost like a place where you would have to auction in order to get this speical something you wanted. Same goes with Amazon. It's really hard to categorize Ebay and Amazon because they sometimes do get their supplies or valuables from other people. My opioin is that it's a producer-retailer-consumer. But because they happen to get their supplises from consumers too, so then it moves on back to consumer-retailer-consumer.

Reflection

Personally, I have never tried using Ebay or even Amazon. I remeber the years where Ebay was really popular. I don't understand why people would even go on Ebay or even Amazon because the auctioning is really pointless. They have to auction for something that is already expensive, but they have to bid even higher than it was supposed to be. But oddly enough, Ebay and Amazon changed how they were supposed to be and ended up selling something that doesn't involve bidding. Again, I've never tried that. Sometimes, I'd wonder if I would ever go on one of these sites and actually purchase anything.