Has anyone noticed how many new McDonald's commercials are coming out these days?? And that's not the worst part, they're all very good commercials. As soon as Burger King started targeting the breakfast meal, McDonald's came out with Monopoly last month, now this month the famous McRib is back. It seems as if McDonald's has a bag full of commercials and they just wait for the right time to pull one out.
If I were betting, somebody in 30 years is going to say McDonald's had one of the best marketing campaigns during this time period. Is their food really better than Burger King, Wendy's or any other fast food restaurant?? I personally don't believe so, but I do know that I can get to two McDonalds quicker than one Wendy's or Burger King. I also know that I have seen three different McDonald's commercials highlighting three different items at McDonald's before I see one from Burger King or Wendy's.
And guess which restaurant I'll go to when I want a quick meal...
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The Business of Fantasy Football
If you're like me, your Sundays start at noon with the first NFL game and goes until 1030 when the Sunday night game ends. I do love football, but with the added incentive of multiple fantasy teams I find myself glued to a television almost all day waiting on Arian Foster to score another touchdown or Peyton Manning to throw for three or four. While earlier in this decade fantasy football almost seemed like a fad, it has become, with the NFL's help the 800 lb gorilla in the room. The is an entire channel dedicated to fantasy football stats and information, the bottom line of the game on CBS no longer says "NFL update", instead it says "Fantasy Update". Who you're starting has become a talking point at any function that you attend on Saturday and how you did is the focus on Monday. The NFL announcers on ESPN, FOX, NBC and CBS all mention fantasy points that people are earning while calling the game. And sportscaster commonly use who they draft in their regular daytime talk.
With all of this focus on fantasy football, is there money to be made on this new industry? If so, who can step in and control this area along with the NFL? Will you start paying for Fnatasy Football advice just as you pay for stock advice?? What does the future hold for fantasy football?
With all of this focus on fantasy football, is there money to be made on this new industry? If so, who can step in and control this area along with the NFL? Will you start paying for Fnatasy Football advice just as you pay for stock advice?? What does the future hold for fantasy football?
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Online Test Drive
Has anyone else seen this new service Mitsubishi is offering? For a new car model they are giving everyone a chance to test drive it online. This an amazing new feature that opens up a whole new world of opportunity.
But is this a good idea? How safely can someone drive a car online? Is this something likely to catch on or not?
But is this a good idea? How safely can someone drive a car online? Is this something likely to catch on or not?
Friday, October 1, 2010
The Real Health Care Overhaul
McDonald's will be dropping it's insurance plan for 30,000 workers if there isn't a change in the health care overhaul according to Wall Street Journal. Now that all of the politicking of the Health Care Overhaul is done, the real effects are beginning to appear. I don't think anyone which a conscience can say they would like to deny anyone health care who really needs it. And I also think no one can say they'd wish a horrible cancerous death on anyone, but are we plucking the cigarettes out of American's mouths?? No we are not, in fact the cigarette industry is still one of the most powerful in the nation and coincidentally has one of the biggest lobbying groups in Washington. So obviously, if you want something done, you need a lobbyist. Then how did the poor Americans who couldn't afford health care find a lobbyist? They voted one into office, which is the American way. They wanted a change and did something about it, and this separates our country from many others around the world. The people truly do make things happen.
So, I believe it is good that these people finally have a voice in Washington to look out for them. And now that Health Care has been lobbied for and won over in Congress all the work is over right?? Wrong, the real work starts now because no one in Washington actually read the bill, it is up to the American businesses and American people to learn this bill so they can be prepared for the effects. Those in Washington and also Nebraska(because of some great politicking by the Nebraskan politicians), aren't going to be paying for this bill and probably won't have to receive the service that results from this bill, we are. McDonald's biggest issue, is that they have to pay 80-85% of premium revenue on Health Care according to the bill. So since it is their choice they can just pull the health care coverage they give to their employees. That's 30,000 people who were already covered now in jeopardy of losing their current coverage, and now must join the U.S.A. health plan. They were previously paying McDonalds $14-$32 a week for coverage up to $10,000. Now they are paying who knows how much in taxes they must pay to join this coverage.
So McDonald's is dropping their plan, why do we care?? Well also in the same 80-85% bracket as McDonald's and other large corporations are colleges. I'm sure by now you've heard of LSU's budget cuts. I think the last thing they need now is to have to worry about is how much more they will have to spend on medical benefits or face the choice of cutting them altogether. Obviously this bill is not going to go over well with everyone in the country. It may be a stretch but is it possible we just appeased the 30 million Americans who didn't have health care by "change"ing the coverage of the other 300 million Americans??
My issue isn't with the idea of the bill, my issue is with the bill itself. Instead of forcing it down and passing it as quick as possible to add another notch to your politicking belt I wish we would have spent time making sure this bill was passed correctly. And we are paying congressmen and women $174,000 a year not to mention all the other perks they receive(such as being immune to this bill which they signed), they should at least be doing a good job with legislation correct?? They said publicly they had not even read the bill. All I ask is that if you are going to pass a bill, read it!
Friday, September 24, 2010
Change: Your Platform for Success
There was a recent person, whose name I cannot recall at this moment, who used "Change" as his major political platform to catapult him into the Presidency. Obviously change is a powerful tool, but why did it work so well for him? There are many Presidents or CEOs of major companies who get their job not because his or her predecessor stepped down and rode into the sunset, but because they did something wrong and the stockholders/USA citizens wanted someone new.
So why is it that some companies are so averse to change?? Is it because the ones at the top have the most to lose if the change works out(or if it does sometimes)?? It could be because they believe their business model is working and hold their hat on the old cliche, if it aint broke... What the smarter companies are realizing is they need to see the change coming before it is too late. Even if the system isn't broke it still may be about to lose value because of a new trend which could change the landscape which the company operates.
I was working for a company which had just been bought by another major company in the same field. It took about 5-6 months before even the smallest changes took affect, such as integrating employees into the company that had been bought out. A year and a half later the buyers changed the system of the old company to theirs. No one took this very kindly because not only did they have to refigure out how to input their hours and other tasks that took little time before, they had to figure out the new employee benefits, go through hours of new online training and attend endless meetings to figure out how the changes would affect them. The place I worked at luckily did not have very many layoffs but the atmosphere had still changed dramatically. People were angry about the changes, which they believed didn't have much of a purpose on what the employees did every day for their job. They believed that corporate was just shoving all of this new information down their throats so they can now be considered Company X employees instead of Company Y.
Change is never easy, but if done in the correct way at the correct time can have a tremendous positive impact on the people involved. If done in either the incorrect way or time it can have a detrimental and sometimes even final effect on a company. That is why so many companies are averse to change
So why is it that some companies are so averse to change?? Is it because the ones at the top have the most to lose if the change works out(or if it does sometimes)?? It could be because they believe their business model is working and hold their hat on the old cliche, if it aint broke... What the smarter companies are realizing is they need to see the change coming before it is too late. Even if the system isn't broke it still may be about to lose value because of a new trend which could change the landscape which the company operates.
I was working for a company which had just been bought by another major company in the same field. It took about 5-6 months before even the smallest changes took affect, such as integrating employees into the company that had been bought out. A year and a half later the buyers changed the system of the old company to theirs. No one took this very kindly because not only did they have to refigure out how to input their hours and other tasks that took little time before, they had to figure out the new employee benefits, go through hours of new online training and attend endless meetings to figure out how the changes would affect them. The place I worked at luckily did not have very many layoffs but the atmosphere had still changed dramatically. People were angry about the changes, which they believed didn't have much of a purpose on what the employees did every day for their job. They believed that corporate was just shoving all of this new information down their throats so they can now be considered Company X employees instead of Company Y.
Change is never easy, but if done in the correct way at the correct time can have a tremendous positive impact on the people involved. If done in either the incorrect way or time it can have a detrimental and sometimes even final effect on a company. That is why so many companies are averse to change
Friday, September 17, 2010
Social Networking: Get Used to It
My Space, where all the high school kids can post pictures of themselves with their favorite music hoping that the right girl or guy will look at their page and like what they see. Hopefully their page will make them more popular or attract their secret crush or someone new that they hadn’t even given a chance until seeing a great My Space page. It was the beginning of the social networking phenomenon. It starts with high school kids trying to advertise themselves, and then came Facebook. The more professional page for college students who were basically doing the same thing. Once facebook realized they could use their wide consumer base and make big dollars by advertising, the days where social networking was just an after thought were over. Now we have Linked In Twitter and all sorts of other networking sites. Companies realize this is the perfect way to advertise for themselves, as well. Firms can make their own page, post daily updates and send ads throughout the internet to millions of users just by updating a Facebook page or Twitter.
I think the mobile market just amplified the social networking market and took it to the next level. Now you can reach people that much faster through social networking. Whereas before you needed people to be online, now you just need people to have their phone on them. It just means that if your company is not on social networking and accessing the mobile web you are many steps behind your competition in the race to reach consumers. Once users are able to create their own apps, companies will need to spend more time searching what is out there to find what and who can help the company grow. Even the current employees will be able to create apps and add-ons to help their company increase their reach.
As I was writing this blog, CNBC had someone from Netsuite on and he said how his company, which is centered around cloud computing has grown rapidly over the past few years. Cloud computing is real and it is here right now. It all has to do with this idea of sharing knowledge and ideas. As we move forward the more technology is used to share knowledge and ideas and connect people together, the more valuable it will be. Cloud computing is just the newest way to share knowledge and ideas, but I believe there is room for many other ways to share and network. Could the next, newest and better, way to share knowledge and ideas be the next multi-billion dollar industry??
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
New Age of Technology
The New Age of Technology, I believe one of the most redundant phrases that is being tossed around today. 50 years ago we had a "New Age of Technology" and 50 years from now we will have a "New Age of Technology", but what I am interested in is This Age of Technology and how it will affect the next New Age of Technology.
To me it seems that in the not so distant past technology was driven by the need for companies or industries to redefine how they produce and sell. The automotive industry because of the necessity to mass produce cars popularized the assembly line method which was recreated for years to come. While television had already been created at this point, it wasn't until companies realized they could advertise better on Television that shows starting reaping more benefits, and more channels were created thus beginning the boom of television. The internet can be seen the same way. It wasn't until people and companies realized they could start sites for free, by advertising other internet sites on their webpage, that the real internet boom of the 90s occurred. I would like to call this whole era, "Companies Reaching the Customer." Companies were doing everything they could to just communicate and reach out to the consumer, so the consumer would know the company. Well because of all these technologies companies are now easily able to reach out to the consumer.
I believe we are in a "New Age of Technology." I would like to name this age, "Consumers Informing the Companies." The consumer knows the industry in which they are shopping very well these days. I believe the internet is the reason for this new era, because it is the first communication space in which there is two way communication from sender to receiver and back again. With the advent of amazon and ebay and other online sites which let the consumers voice their opinions and reviews of items. I believe one of the first companies to listen to the consumer was Apple. They popularized the new trend of phones with consumer applications on them. They listened to the consumer and put devices on phones to make life easier for the consumer. Apple didn't just say I believe each phone should have a GPS. The consumers wanted a GPS on their phone, and now that is a standard application on the I-Phone.
In the future I think the consumers will have an even greater control over the marketplace. The telecom industry is booming because of how much input consumers have, such as creating apps and sending in requests to phone companies on how to update their new mobile phone. I think it is now time for us as consumers to realize our potential and all start reaching out to companies and to governments. We need to let them know what we want, because we are the ones who they ultimately are working for, and we pay their salaries. I think it's time we let them know how to earn their money.
To me it seems that in the not so distant past technology was driven by the need for companies or industries to redefine how they produce and sell. The automotive industry because of the necessity to mass produce cars popularized the assembly line method which was recreated for years to come. While television had already been created at this point, it wasn't until companies realized they could advertise better on Television that shows starting reaping more benefits, and more channels were created thus beginning the boom of television. The internet can be seen the same way. It wasn't until people and companies realized they could start sites for free, by advertising other internet sites on their webpage, that the real internet boom of the 90s occurred. I would like to call this whole era, "Companies Reaching the Customer." Companies were doing everything they could to just communicate and reach out to the consumer, so the consumer would know the company. Well because of all these technologies companies are now easily able to reach out to the consumer.
I believe we are in a "New Age of Technology." I would like to name this age, "Consumers Informing the Companies." The consumer knows the industry in which they are shopping very well these days. I believe the internet is the reason for this new era, because it is the first communication space in which there is two way communication from sender to receiver and back again. With the advent of amazon and ebay and other online sites which let the consumers voice their opinions and reviews of items. I believe one of the first companies to listen to the consumer was Apple. They popularized the new trend of phones with consumer applications on them. They listened to the consumer and put devices on phones to make life easier for the consumer. Apple didn't just say I believe each phone should have a GPS. The consumers wanted a GPS on their phone, and now that is a standard application on the I-Phone.
In the future I think the consumers will have an even greater control over the marketplace. The telecom industry is booming because of how much input consumers have, such as creating apps and sending in requests to phone companies on how to update their new mobile phone. I think it is now time for us as consumers to realize our potential and all start reaching out to companies and to governments. We need to let them know what we want, because we are the ones who they ultimately are working for, and we pay their salaries. I think it's time we let them know how to earn their money.
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