A worm in the Apple

       We live in an age where technology has become a standard in our lives, especially within the younger generation. One thing often overlooked is how we obtain such devices. Apples factory Foxconn is in the public eye recently for its treatment of workers. According to Forbes.com there are 235000 workers at this facility and the average wage among workers is about $1.78 per hour. They live in crowded dorm style rooms after working 10 hour shifts in silence. Also suicide nets had to be put up around the building because workers were jumping out of the building and falling to their deaths due to such conditions.

Do you think it is the worlds fault for the demand of these high tech items or do you think it is the business men in america and china for forcing these people to work like this so they can reap all the benefits? Also Should we limit the amount of money individual humans can absorb so that others may benefit from more income?

why is Starbucks invisible in Italy?

Starbucks the world wide coffee company got its humble roots in Italy but it still does not yet have a store in Italy. The marketing man behind the empire Howard Schultz got his idea for the company by walking around the streets in Italy. Starbucks is such a large global company that their marketing plan obviously works but not in italy. He keeps saying he will eventually put one in italy but has yet to do so.  I think it is because the coffee Shops in Italy are breed from the history of the country, but Starbucks has separated from the traditional Italian design and went Global, so the Traditional coffee shops view Starbucks as a sell out.

Do you think Starbucks is a sell out? Also do you think Starbucks would have to develop a custom marketing plan for Italy?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/grounds-zero-a-starbucksfree-italy-02092012.html

Response to The Popularity of the Produce Aisle

The primary purpose of this trend is the Halo effect, the placement of products around products of interest in the hopes that the products in question will be pulled in by the gravity of the products interest. The risk of this philosophy is that stores are combining items that are not fresh produce with fresh produce, but also consumers buy more items here because they associate them as being "fresher" because they are so close to the fresh produce. The risk for competitors is they can lose sales because since the produce is located so close to the front of the store impulse buys can take place here. Also since the average shopping budget is spent within the first 20 minuets of the trip the risk of losing business to the halo effect is much higher. For consumers they could be losing out on quality of goods due to the Halo effect, the items could possibly be not as healthy as the items around them. When layouts of stores become slightly underhanded such as the halo effect, it seems as if the companies are relying not only in their products but the gravity of an entire section to sell said items. It seems the Halo effect is here to stay because the problem is a social constraint not a physical one. If people knew that it was simply for this reason that they feel compelled to buy lesser products then it might change the perception of the halo effect and the produce isle.

Does this Halo effect lead to an unfair competitive edge?

I have notice that i look at commercials and advertising in general with a different point of view  now. I can barley sit through a commercial with out feeling I had just had valuable time taken from me. A small amount of commercials seem to be passing their ideas across in a reasonable manner but for the most part they seem to be more or less annoying gimmicks. As time goes on I fear commercials will continue to decline and become more pointless and longer and unable to watch.

 Do you think commercials will continue  to rely on gimmicks to push their products because the products are not good enough on their own or do you think they have good products and use the gimmick to stick the idea in peoples head?

Car Companies' getting a jump start on their Super Bowl Commercials...

In response to

Car Companies' getting a jump start on their Super Bowl Commercials...

I think the companies are relying  on the "punch line" of the commercial. Yes they have important information but they need to relate that information in  a way that grabs the peoples attention. So i would say that it is close to 50/50 when it comes to flashy sales pitch and idea behind the commercial. The idea needs the flash and the flash needs a point and one without the other would just be either a boring commercial or a pointless commercial. But what if it is a case by case basis? Do you think it would be a 50/50 split all the time?

Response to Georgianne L

I think that people have certain talents but takes certain situations to bring them out. so depending on what situations a person is in will determine when their talents come to use.  some people develop talent over time and some people are naturally talented at things that they do not really enjoy and spend their time working at a different talent. But for the lucky few they are talented at what they love. sometimes it just takes people to experience some event and their talent comes out. Is it possible that some need to learn a skill or do people posses the ability with out any prior experience?

" People do not know what they want; they only know what they know."  when thinking of this from a marketing point of view one can only gain the assumption that marketers direct the desires of people. That is, they make things that people do not necessarily need look irresistible, in such ways that people will feel technologically left behind or of a lesser social value by which they wear. The cars they drive to the phone they have, are all social markings and all how marketers get people to buy from them. Buying the attention of people is in someways easy. lets say you want to sell sunglasses, and these sunglasses are a crazy style and difficult to market. Now take those sunglasses and put them on a reality tv star and have them run around and define them as part of a lifestyle. Now that they have that lifestyle associated with them, selling them to people who want to mimic that lifestyle will be easier. That is why companies have endorsements.