Week 3 EOC Making Money For Good

DiscoverThis.com is a woman-owned business providing quality educational products at affordable prices. As a parent, owner Marianne Cursetjee, who started her business in 2001 after leaving the corporate world to start a family, continually seeks out the most engaging, entertaining and educational science toys and kits for children of all ages, including many that have won awards from science and parenting organizations. Marianne is committed to making a difference in the world not only by encouraging children to enjoy scientific discovery through DiscoverThis.com and nurturing early childhood development and literacy through her BabyClassroom.com, but also by supporting educational organizations, including the Clackamas County Library in Oregon, SMART (Start Making a Reader Today) and others. Her personal values shine through in the promises she makes to customers, most notably that she won't sell toys that promote violence and she won't sell toys she wouldn't buy for her own children. Over the past nine years, her business has grown tremendously and is a force in the online toy industry. Now, not only does she offer quality toys and educational products for children, but she's expanding into unique gifts for the whole family, too. Scandinavian Child began shortly after the birth of founder Brenda Berg’s first child, and Scandinavian Child officially launched in the spring of 2003 with its flagship product, the Svan High Chair. Brenda quickly found high demand for high-quality children's products that emphasize beautiful design, functionality and safety, and continues her pursuit of designs without compromise. The "designs without compromise" philosophy means every product must meet demanding criteria and be stylish, safe, multifunctional, eco-friendly, superior in quality and superior in service. From the start, Brenda had a multi-brand strategy, expecting that she would find ‘neat little brands’ in Scandinavia to add to the collection. That didn’t quite happen, as wonderful brands from across the globe started finding her. Scandinavian Child currently represents six brands from Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom, France and New Zealand.

Week 3 EOC My Demographic

I am a member of generation y, also known as the Millennials. My demographic was born between 1977 and 2000. We are the children of the baby boomers, and we are estimated at being numbered at 83 million. We have a purchasing power of 733 billion which makes my group a very attractive market. We are a group that embraces technology because we are the first generation to be raised with computers, cell phones, satellite TV, iPods, and online social networks. “A recent study found that 91 percent of Millennials are on the Web, making up 32 percent of all U.S. Internet users. According to another study, 77 percent of Millennials frequent social networking sites and 71 percent use instant messaging.” http://digitalbookshelf.artinstitutes.edu/#/books/9780558851903/pages/16446470 I definitely agree with many of the attributes that are used to describe generation y. I was born in 1981, and I came up in the explosion of the internet in the 90’s. My upbringing was a lot different from my baby booming parents. Both of my parents are from the south…Louisiana to be exact. They were not raised texting, emailing, face booking, or tweeting. They grew up using type writers and word processors not laptops and iPods. Things were a lot different for me than it was for them. I already see the changes and differences between my generation and the younger one coming after me. They will have advantages and new technology at their disposal that I did not have. A persons demographic is a huge part of who they are. It can be a extremely helpful tool for marketers to determine who their target audience is. If you don’t know your target audiences’ demographic you will be missing out on a lot of crucial information that can be helping your business further succeed.

Week 2 EOC Boston Consulting Group-Video Games

It was another less-than-stellar for the gaming industry, but new innovations in gaming accessories may lead to a better 2011. It was another year of declining sales for the gaming industry. “Video games sales fell for the second straight year in 2010, according to a new report by the NPD Group. Sales of gaming hardware, software and accessories totaled $18.6 billion in 2010. That’s a 5.7 percent drop from $19.7 billion in 2009, and a further decline from 2008′s figure of $21.4 billion.” http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/video-game-sales-down-in-2010-but-xbox-360-sets-record/ Console sales in 2010 fell to $6.3 billion, a 12.5 percent decline from 2009. Software sales reached $9.4 billion, a 5.6 percent decline from 2009. There were a few bright spots, however. “Sales of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 actually rose in 2010 — the only console to show a gain from its 2009 figures. The holidays were particularly good to the Xbox 360. The five-year old console posted its best sales month ever in December with a 1.86 million units sold, a 42 percent increase from December of 2009.” http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Midmarket/Video-Games-Sales-Fall-in-2010-But-Bright-Spots-Emerge-Report-733945/ The Xbox 360′s rebirth can be mostly attributed to the success of the motion-sensing controller Kinect, which launched in early November. Microsoft says that it sold 8 million Kinect units during the accessory’s first 60 days on the market. “The Kinect and the Playstation’s Move fueled a 13 percent increase in sales of gaming accessories in 2010. PC games also were up slightly in 2010, with a 3 percent increase in sales from 2009. The NPD Group expects that 2011 will likely be kinder to the gaming industry.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703950804575243020491776534.html The report cites the explosion of mobile games and social media-based games as key players in the gaming industry’s future. In the hardware category, NPD said both Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 increased their monthly sales compared with a year earlier, but those gains were eclipsed by a 71% decline in Nintendo's DS sales. The DS, however, was still the best selling platform in April. Overall, hardware sales fell 37% in April to $249.3 million.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703950804575243020491776534.html#ixzz1CBmaVG9V

Week 1 EOC Customer Service

Good customer service can be hard to come by. One instance where I received good customer service happened when I went to Lexus of Las Vegas. I went there to get my mothers vehicle serviced. Her car had a tail light that had gone out, and it needed its’ regular maintenance services. As soon as I arrived representatives at Lexus greeted me. With hardly any time at all elapsed they had taken the invoice of what I asked to be done to the vehicle, and had to taken the key to pull it in and get started on the work. Before I could get in the door to go to the waiting area I was offered an assortment of refreshments. Fresh bagels, orange juice, coffee, donuts, fruit, and even their own Lexus labeled bottled water. The waiting area in the lounge is extremely comfortable. They have very comfy seating with an enormous flat screen television to view while you wait for your car to get worked on. While I waited for them to finish, the customer service agents where constantly coming to let me know what was going and letting me know how much longer it would be before they were done. Another characteristic of the good service I received was the amount of time it took them to work on my vehicle. It seemed like hardly anytime at all had passed by the time I was being told that I was ready to go. Overall I thought the service at the Lexus of Las Vegas dealership was great. I have gone to many other places to get vehicles repaired but none of them had the high quality service that Lexus gave.