To My Bargain Hunters (# 8)

Season’s Greetings!

Tis the season to be shopping, yes as we all know it’s that time of year again, Thanksgiving is down the street and Christmas is right around the corner.  For businesses this means it’s time to make the real dollars and end the 4^th Quarter on a strong not, for consumers this means Black Friday deals.  Around this time of year businesses present what we call Seasonal Discounts, the technical definition is lower-than-normal prices offered as incentive to buyers to make out-of-season purchases for seasonal goods or services.  Retail stores are ideal to this type of discounting; they make their largest profit throughout the year during the time ranging from Thanksgiving to New Years. 

The National Retail Federation’s Holiday Consumer Spending Survey estimates that American shoppers are likely to spend $804.42 each this holiday season, and nearly half of those surveyed say they will spend some of that money shopping online.  These bargain hunters don’t play any games during this time of year.  It makes you wonder if the purpose of the actual Thanksgiving holiday has gotten lost in the propaganda that is big business.  Moving on now, one company that is notorious for success during this time of year to the point where other companies are going to mirror their techniques this season is Walmart.  Last year they administered this technique where they had multiple sales throughout Thanksgiving day into Black Friday to prevent stampeding in their stores.  Let’s not forget about Cyber Monday, to eliminate so much chaos on the streets Cyber Monday was invited.  For those who don’t know this is the Monday right after Black Friday where online discounts will make your credit card say enough is enough. It is estimated that Cyber Monday will be more successful than Black Friday this year because the transition from in store shopping to online

http://www.wbir.com/story/money/personalfinance/ways-2-save/2014/11/17/matt-granite-cyber-monday-knows/19157621/

shopping is at a steady growth.  So go find those bargains and get that Christmas shopping out the way this Black Friday slash Cyber Monday because the deals are there.

Today's Promotions

For all my sneaker heads out there, I know you all know what's dropping this Black Friday, probably the main reason I'll be out and about myself.   Those Black Infrared 6's are definitely making an appears in stores this Friday.  Now for all of my none sneaker wearers who do like the style and are looking at possibly splurging by getting a pair of these please be mindful that there are some fake's lying around out there.  I urge you not to go to just any back store, specially my people out in NYC because any good sneaker head knows all too well that you'll first get beat over your head for the price, and second they're probably some B grades.  So make sure you go out with someone who has experience in this category of shopping,  yes the world of sneakers can be a dark place so know what your getting yourself into.  

http://sneakernews.com/tag/air-jordan-6-black-infrared/

  

In the Mix (#7)

Reporting Live from Fashion Week,

Yes indeed, in this segment we will be talking about fashion, something that I like to think I have a little experience with.  We aren’t going to be talking about just clothing here, the purpose of this is to look at brands and how they operate in order to gain a larger outreach with the hopes of gaining a larger profit.  First vocabulary term that is to be learned is Mixed Branding, here a firm markets products under its own name and that of a reseller because the segment attracted to the reseller is different from its own market. A good example of this would be Marshall’s, for those of you who don’t know Marshall’s Inc. is a chain of American off-price department stores that is owned by a company called TJX, they are the second largest off-price family apparel and home fashion retailer behind its sister company T.J Maxx. The slogan that they go off of at Marshall’s is “Never Pay Full Price for Fabulous,” some of their departments include clothing, shoes, home furnishing, cosmetics, luggage, and tech.  Some of the brands that collaborate with Marshalls are Adidas, American Eagle, Coach, Express, Forever 21, Kenneth Cole, Polo, True Religion etc.  All of these top name brands are willing to mark down their prices for the sake of expanding their market for example if you were to go to the Polo store you spending at least $25 for a shirt were as if you find that same shirt in Marshall’s it will be somewhere along the lines of $12. 

The next term to take note of is multibranding which involves giving each product a distinct name.  I have a really good example for you guys for this one; this actually blew my mind when I discovered this.  We all know Volkswagen, the German automobile manufacturer; they’re also the biggest

German automaker and the second largest automaker in the world.  What I discovered when looking at their ownership slash multibranding status is that they hold ownership of Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, and of course Volkswagon. Audi has been a majority owned (at 99.55%) subsidiary of Volkswagen Group since 1966, Bentley is a British Luxury automaker who started out under Rolls-Royce Limited in 1931 but then was taken over by Volkswagen AG in 1998, now they hold all rights to the automotive company.  Bugatti was founded by Italian-born Ettore Bugatti in 1909 who then sold the company to Hispano-Suiza in 1963 who then sold the company to Volkswagen Group in July of 1998.  Lamborghini is an Italian brand and manufactuere of luxury sports cars and formerly SUVs, their back drop is a bit different they were actually acquired through Audi in 1998 which means they are technically owned by Volkswagen as well.  It seems to me that Volkswagen is trying to snatch up all of the top name luxury car companies any chance they get, can you say monopolistic (cough cough).

Today’s Promotions

It’s the final season and Sam Crow is unleashing hell in poor little Charming California, I don’t know how much more of this that town can take.  After last season shocking season finally (no spoilers for those who watch and aren’t caught up) know Jax and the rest of the gang have got themselves in some situations that don’t look too promising for them but we know the Men of Mayhem will find some way to slip through the cracks as they always do.  I just hope there aren’t any casualties.  This show is featured on FX for those who don’t know, and tonight is the premiere of the 9^th episode at 10pm, the way the last episode ended the suspense is killing all lovers of the show.  I can’t wait to see what Jax and the rest of the Redwood Original Reapers have up their sleeves as their timeline comes to an end.  You can start your crusade from the first season on Hulu.  

What's New (#6)

Hey All,

So today’s segment is going to talk about what’s new but first there must be an understanding of the product life cycle.  The life cycle describes the stages a new product goes through in the marketplace first is the Introduction stage which is pretty self-explanatory note that during this period sales grow very slowly and profit is definitely at a minimum because your product hasn’t earned it’s strips yet.  Next is the Growth stage, this is when your product has made a name for itself and there is rapid increases in sales (whoop whoop),  next is the Maturity stage which places your product in veteran status as a slowing of total industry sales or product class revenue occurs.  Last is the Declining stage which like the introduction stage is pretty self-explanatory, your sales begin to drop.   This is the Product Life Cycle in a nutshell if I do say so myself, all managers must be aware of what stage their products are in, in order to keep a handle on how much profit they should be making. 

On to business, I’m sure most of you have heard about livestream, if not they were formerly known as Mogulus, their purpose is streaming video platform that allows users to view and broadcast video content using a camera and a computer through the internet.  Livestream has been making some real noise in the business world as of lately, they were recently featured on Forbes list ranking in at #86 on America’s Most Promising Companies (2013), I feel confident that this number is rising to the occasion.  In another more recent article from Forbes titled “How to Reach the Six Billion Customers You’re Missing” Livestream is featured as a high-growth company.  In the article is says “Livestream, which counts Facebook and The New York Times among clients, has boosted sales by 613% over the past three years.  The company is at the forefront of streaming content via the Internet.”  613% is a hell of a number to boost sales in the course of three years.  Because Livestream is an internet based business reaching international customers is a natural extension of their business, the article goes on to say “Its two marquee clients alone allow the company to reach millions of international viewers,” so the question that lays in front of the company now is: Where should go next?  This is probably a question that every company wishes they were asked, the growth of Livestream shows us how consumers are shifting away from television and more towards live internet broadcasting, my god how scary technology is now-a-days.  This company is an innovator who is powering through the livestream industry; you can practically say that they are the creators of this fast growing industry. 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2014/04/01/how-to-reach-the-six-billion-customers-youre-missing/

Today’s Promotions

So if you’re a video gamer you will fall under the category of a Call of Duty (COD) person or a Battlefield.  For me personally I am definitely a COD guy and I know all of my fellow COD players enjoyed double XP weekend that just past, I definitely peaked in Ghost this weekend.  But the most important thing you should know if you don’t know already is Call of Duty Advanced Warfare has been released today! Advanced Warfare is the eleventh primary installment in the COD series and the first developed primarily by Sledgehammer Games but unfortunately they didn’t develop for the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360.  Those who pre ordered were rewarded with a Day Zero Edition that released yesterday; it featured double XP for the first day and two exclusive guns.  Here is the commercial advertisement to get you all excited! And just so you know, yes that is Kevin Spacey you hear and see.