In response to Jordan

I think they might, Japan is a far more health conscious country then we are clearly. But when all of the sudden these people are exposed to the same kind of crap we eat problems start to rise. In today's culture everyones looking to save money, and once they save that money they want whatever they payed for that instant. It's no longer about quality and craftsmanship it's about how fast can we as a company shove stuff down peoples throat. How can Japan ever hope to have a chance if McDonalds a company known for being unhealthy is suddenly spending millions to try and figure out how to make them eat? I think if not careful then maybe Japan could have obesity issues like we have in the states. Do you think Japan is doomed or do you think they have a chance to not become the next obese country?

Bi-Winning

Some people might think it's more important to have people see them as a shining example of good. Charlie Sheen however is quite content with people seeing him for the way he is a recovering addict. I chose this to blog about because it's a great example of the social networking phenomenon and because it's relevant i think to marketing ones self. Most companies go out of there way to ensure they have a shiny sparkly image that no one could slander. However Sheen is here telling the world that "he bumps seven gram rocks". You would think that this would ruin his career but it's doing the opposite. Sheen has become more popular after this interviewed aired then I think anyone thought he could or would. He recently set the world record for fastest time to reach one million followers on twitter when he did it in 25 hours and 17 minutes. He plans to pitch products on Twitter now because of this which i'm sure he'll get paid for. This approach obviously couldn't work for everyone but it has for him and he's making the best of it. What do you think after seeing this interview are you more of a Sheen fan or less? Just incase you haven't had a chance to see the interview I've included a link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5aSa4tmVNM

In response to Nicole Perry

I agree with you, I think sometimes people often look past the benefits of things just  because of some other factor that is probably less important to the general public but more so to them. In your case a wind farm I think is a great idea. I'm all about trying to lower global carbon emissions and trying to get to a state where we can be carbon neutral. I think another example of something like this is the electric car, sure they're good for the planet but people think they look bad and who wants to drive a car that sounds like a hair dryer? I think people as a whole are opposed to change and often find excuses to delay it, but as times things must change as well.

We want it now

This weekend my roommates and I decided to get Netflix. Netflix is a service that allows you to stream movies instantly from home with out having to buy or rent it.  I'm sure most people are aware of this however most people aren't aware of what it can do to your life. Since my roommates and I got Netflix we've done nothing but sit and abuse it all day long. Most of us had homework but found it impossible to get anything done with Netflix now in out lives. After a few days of this we decided that it wasn't the movies we were addicted to it was the fact that we could watch whatever whenever. The more I thought about it the more it made sense, how often do you pick one thing over another because of how fast or convientent it is? The faster cell phone, faster car, faster internet service which would you choose the faster and more convenient or the slower more time consuming one? Don't get me wrong not all things are supposed to be fast but in some industries its important, and this trend of being able to deliver instantly is taking over. Netflix almost put Blockbuster out of business because people preferred to have the movie now and not have to go and pick it up. More and more banks are offering online bankins which gives users more options and abilities then they did before. This new trend is becoming a must for some businesses we as american consumers are no longer happy with services that can't keep up with our busy lifestyles. The internet has changed the world allowing us to pack more into less time and making it easier to do so. As technology changes and becomes more advanced we want or businesses to advance too. Are you happy with this change in business or do you prefer to go out and do your shopping, banking, or socializing?

In response to Kayle

I agree, I think people who publish books are often looked on as very smart successful people when in fact you're right anyone can publish a book. The problem with this is that since anyone can publish, anyone can put any kind of crap that they consider helpful material into the hands of people who more often then not think its genius. That's a problem because then you have all this info floating around that may or may not be relevant. On the marketing side of things though it makes perfect sense to publish a book. Like you said it build credibility and depending on the book does these people gain fame. This in turn results in sales and customers that hang onto every word that the author says. So if were up to you would publish something that may be less then accurate to get the benefits?

Man vs. Machine

Recently Ken Jennings and Watson a super computer went head to head in Jeopardy. Your classic man vs. machine, david vs. goliath. Unfortunately or not depending on how you look at it the machine won. Watson  the super computer made by IBM beat the jeopardy champion. Now this is big news for the company that's had commercial's talking about the project. The project was supposed to be ground breaking a computer designed to be able to compete in the game jeopardy that requires quick thinking and smarts. The company that designed Watson IBM also makes computers, now in my mind this great publicity why not buy a computer from a company that designed that? It makes perfect sense, if i was a customer looking for a good computer I would choose the company that designed the computer that beat Ken Jennings. IBM's marketing in this instance was great in my opinion. Air commercials that show what the company is doing and how it's advancing. I'm sure you've all seen the commercials from IBM showing how exactly they're making the world a better place.  They're effectively building a reputation for themselves which in turn is building customer confidence in the company which results in more sales hopefully. All in all it was a great move by IBM another story about letting the technology do the hard work.

In response to Erica Murray

I think that with the internet being such an integrated part of most peoples lives now a days using social networking sites as marketing tools makes a lot of sense. How many people can you think of off hand that are either on Facebook or twitter and how many of those people use or visit that site everyday? With that much traffic it makes a lot of sense for companies to advertise on Facebook or twitter. If I was a company looking to get customers I'd be sure to try and post something on a site that see's something like a million visits a day. With that in mind does it make sense for companies to eventually phase out older methods of advertising and focus more on internet users?