The Chopped Leaf aka Steal Your Money Food Place

Come on…we all know them. Those food places that steal your money. I’m sure almost every place in Canada steals your money when you buy food. I still can’t get over how the same products in one country are one fifth of the price of that same product in another country. When I refer to this, I am largely referring to produce. 

These places are nicely decorated, serve you your salad in an over the top bowl, play hard to listen to music, and are usually empty. Exactly like The Chopped Leaf. WAIT, I know why they’re empty, because they only need 3 customers to make a million dollars!!!

  
Now, people will say, “why do you eat there if you don’t like it or it’s overpriced?” It’s not that I don’t like it-I do. Plus, what’s my alternative? McDobald’s? This is why obesity is an epidemic. 
It just floors me how when I lived in Mexico I could buy just over a pint of raspberries for about $1.50 Canadian. Here, I can buy exactly a pint for about $6.00. I get it, we have to import them and blah blah blah but guess what? It’s all just PROFIT. 

My issue with profit in the food industry is, when is it too much or too far that it makes it difficult for individuals to maintain a healthy lifestyle? To me, there needs to be some type of regulation because the fresh foods industry has no code of ethics I guess. 
One of the shittiest parts is that the mark up on some of this stuff is 200,300,400%. Like, wouldn’t you be okay with 250 percent mark up instead of 300 percent, mister big business? 

I understand that prices are market influenced to an extent and subject to economic conditions as well BUT maybe if we could all afford fresh fruits and vegetables, we would be just that much healthier, and happier and in turn our economic conditions would be just that much better. 

PS-by the time all of the produce gets here from Mexico and the United States it’s probably lost a lot of nutritional value. Moral: go to Mexico eat, eat the INCREDIBLY fresh fruits, vegetables, and seafood, enjoy the beaches and be 10 times happier and healthier. I speak from experience when I say, it rules. 

Mary-kate VS. Ashley

Wow! You know.. that is just unreal. They look completely different, and I totally see how the iPhone 6 is not aesthetically pleasing, it would slip out of your hand, and has sharp edges. Now, when I look at the iPhone 6s..that is a masterpiece. It is so cutting edge, and just..innovative! Apple does it again.

As a marketing grad (I can say that now), this is purely good outstanding, and raise deserving marketing. I’ll be honest, there are some upgrades, like always. We’ve got a better camera, and some better speeds, but let’s be real..they could put an EVEN BETTER camera and make speeds even faster. It’s all a game! The marketing game. Okay..so they made some features bigger and better, oh but let’s not forget the 3D touch (that is super cool though). HOWEVER, not only does the phone look essentially the same, it is heavier, thicker, and the battery life is WORSE…YES, I said worse. I’m sorry, but Apple is moving backwards, and they beat their iPhone 6 launch weekend.  In the article, you will notice that it speaks of the adoption rate of the “S” series of phones Apple produces. Historically, the “S” series are adopted at a lower rate than the 5 or 6 series. Why is that? How is it that Apple might be the best unintentional (or maybe intentional) marketing company in the world, and their “S” series phones have a lower adoption rate than non “S” series? Is this calculated by Apple?

When you think about it, it’s genius. Apple really only needs to come out with non “S” series phones (i.e.: iphone, iphone 4, iphone 5, iphone 6 etc.) BUT they probably sat around an itable (I promise you I had an idea like that throughout my education), and someone from the marketing department, naturally, said, “hey, to make more money…we should introduce the number series that we have planned, but in-between each of those we should introduce an “S” series model, make the target market believe that it has some serious additional benefits, and increase sales! In reality, the logistics, and production of the phones will be almost the same, causing very little engineering and increased manufacturing costs to us! Oh, and the “S” will signify “suckers” as in, we got you again suckers!”.

On the flip side, it could be that Apple’s target market has caught on to the “S” series pattern, and have decided to wait for the iphone 7, which will hopefully have a battery life that progresses as opposed to regresses.

The point is, Apple is beyond wonderful at marketing. This product is not groundbreaking or even totally innovative, but Apple has still found a way to emotionally and rationally appeal to their audience to break the launch sales for the iphone 6s. In totality, Apple and their products and services, are extremely innovative, and have given to the world, some very groundbreaking technologies.

 

Thanks, Apple!

 

P.S.- if you have a second please check out the blog post just prior to this one for my GoFundMe page              (who knew school could be so expensive?)

 

References

Smith, C. (2015, October 2). IPhone 6s adoption seen as lower than the iPhone 6 – but what does that really mean? Retrieved January 28, 2016, from http://bgr.com/2015/10/02/iphone-6s-iphone-6-sales-2/

[Iphone 6 vs. iphone 6s comparison]. (2015, September/October). Retrieved January 28, 2016, from http://www.mobile-t-mobile.com/mobile-network/iphone-6-vs-ipone-6s.html

Education, education, education

Basically, you can read the entirety of this on the GoFundMe page, but in a nutshell: school was a little bit very expensive for me, and 99% of it was paid for via student loans. I am super grateful for my education, and I am so happy I did all of it, even the program I finished and didn’t love. I am also super grateful for any additional help, so thank you in advance!GoFundMe here 🙂

 

I am super, super grateful for any help! Thank you, dankie, shukran, muchisimas gracias, merci, grazie, arigato, tack, and sukria!

New blog post coming tomorrow

Earthquakes

The groundswell can be energized. Energizing can be fun.

Note first, that when you want to energize, think about energizing your most enthusiastic customers (the base). What energizing can do is get your base super pumped up about your brand that every time they utter a word about using the brand or doing anything with your brand, it’ll be so good that others will want to listen and maybe even continue to share that (self-spreading). Again, the idea of people talking to people as opposed to a firm talking to people (believability).

Remember, people>media when it comes to believability.

In terms of ROI, one way to figure out how much an energized customer might be worth would be to find out how much of your business comes from word of mouth. Then, determine the value of one customer. Then divide the earlier by the latter and you can figure out roughly how much each promoter’s positive word of mouth is worth.

Teach me how to energize teach me teach me how to energize..

Ratings and reviews-good for retail companies because of direct customer contact.

Create a community-but if the community is already there (like LEGO) don’t try to replicate it!! It is about people’s need to connect not your need to control (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. K145).

Participate in and energize in online communities created by your brand enthusiasts (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 145).

Remember, how you energize will depend on how you want relationships to change. Communities can be very involved and those involved in promoting can become very integral to your operations: different than using ratings and reviews.

It’s important to fight out a few things. Determine if you want to energize the groundswell, refer to your social technographics profile of your customers, determine what your customers problem is, align your strategy with your customers profile, don’t start unless you’re in it for the long term. Those are all important because they’ll help you determine if 1) energizing is for you 2) how and what type of energizing would be appropriate which will ultimately help you succeed (Li & Bernoff, 2011, p. 148).

This is a screenshot of the infamous LUGNET Lego online community forum discussed in this chapter.

References

Li, C. & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Harvard Business School Publishing: Boston, Massachusetts.

Hey goundswell..I’d like to talk with you

The chapter talks about different techniques for communicating with the groundswell, measuring the results of participation in social networks, when brands should use social media, blogging tips, how marketing changes once a firm thinks of a conversation instead of shouting.

I think the last point I mentioned is probably the most important point from this chapter: firms typically shout at their consumers through print ads, radio/TV ads, PR etc. instead of listening to what their consumers are saying, and joining the conversation. This, I believe, is important.

The process for pulling consumers through the marketing funnel (if you are unfamiliar it moves from eyeballs entering at the large end of the funnel where they gain awareness of a product or service, and then move through consideration, preference, action, loyalty and come out the narrowed end of the funnel as a buyer) is archaic to a degree. Firms can’t shout at their consumers the whole way in order to influence consumers. The middle of the funnel is where the consumers are most influenced by the groundswell, so it is in that area, with those people, where a company would want to ensure an appropriate social media presence.

The chapter gives great examples of firms, both small and large, that engaged in conversations with their audiences. For example, global accounting firm, Ernst & Young, was in need of hiring 3500 new college grads every year. They decided to meet them where they live: Facebook. At that time, 85% of all college students had a profile. Ernst & Young realized that the individuals they were looking for engaged in student-to-student communication, and that’s what set Facebook apart for them. Then, they engage in dialogue with the students and answers questions or comments. Back to the funnel, Ernst & Young makes the students aware of their firm through advertising on campus and Facebook. To draw them in further, Facebook also serves the purpose of conversing with the students to help them further along the funnel, instead of shouting at them.

One other point from the chapter I will speak on is the blogging. It is important to be aware that before starting a blog, a firm or individual must want to engage in a dialogue with their audience and customers in order to be successful. Some more suggestions given for beginning the dialogue are:

Start by listening* think of this as listening to a conversation you want to join first, to get a feel for what’s being talked about, and then jumping in.

Determine a goal for the blog

Estimate the ROI

Develop a plan

Rehearse

Develop a marketing plan

Remember that blogging is more than writing

BE HONEST

Retrieved from: http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/

Here is a screenshot of a blog (orchestrated by the NBA, actualized through an individual like those they target) discussing all matters NBA related.

References

Li, C. & Bernoff, J. (2011). Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Harvard Business School Publishing: Boston, Massachusetts.