Strong Switch Console Sales Drive Nintendo Profit Outlook Higher

By Lumar LeBlanc

The Nintendo Swith is a new game console that was released earlier this year. The demand for the Nintendo Switch was way better than the company expected. Throughout the year the device became hard to find and every store that sold the device was sold out consistently. With the help from Nintendo’s suppliers, more production lines were made to meet the demand for the Switch. All of the recent unexpected success has impressed investors. Being that the device can be used as a game room console and a portable device changed the game. The fast success has also made it hard for video game developers to get the games out in time. With sales on the rise, Nintendo has a lot in store for the Switch.

Nintendo has done a good job advertising the Switch for there intended market. But being that they had unexpected success, Nintendo will have to come up with a good plan to get the product out quicker. With more production and great promotion, Nintendo will have success with there game console.

nintendo-raises-expectation-for-switch-console-sales-1509349227
Posted: October 30, 2017 By Takashi Mochizuki

Hershey Sales Rise Despite Growing Competition

Hershey Sales Rise Despite Growing Competition

Oct. 26, 2017 12:40 p.m. ET

As society changes, companies must remain in the game. For Hershey, it has been a true challenge to adapt to America’s desire for less-processed foods and the growth of health-focused snack brands. Nevertheless, Hershey is holding up its own weight. Sales rose 1.6% to $2 billion in the last quarter. They are taking measures to ensure they do not fall behind. First and foremost, the company developed a new chocolate recipe to use real vanilla flavoring and remove high-fructose corn syrup to satisfy the people’s desire for simpler ingredients. Since the snack category continues to grow reasonably well, Hershey is also expanding its portfolio. They have branched out beyond candy by buying a beef-jerky brand and high-end sweet snack makers such as BarkThins. Hershey has also created chocolate covered pretzels and Reese’s snack mixes to shelf the brand in the snack aisles. Apart from product competition, Hershey is facing a great deal of pressure from retailers. They will also spend money on improving the ability to get products to these retailers on time and reduce instances where they run out of products.

Hershey dangerously lingered on the line between market maturity and sales decline, as America’s growing health-conscious population threatens the candy category. When sales began to slightly decline, Hershey was effective in defining their problem and identifying a solution. The family brand has been able to keep up with the changing society by listening to customers and considering their competitors to generate new-products. A problem still waiting for a solution is their physical distribution; however, they are planning to take measures to fix this. They might consider multiple transportation methods considering the cost, delivery speed, and dependability of the different modes.

No one company can truly escape the changing market. It is rarely taken into account that the existence of companies as big as Hershey can be threatened. Companies must be able to adapt to the needs of people and respond quickly. Hershey was effective in keeping an close look at the market.

Wall Street Journal

Saudi Arabia Opens Stadium to Women

      Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has fought to steer Saudi Arabia in the direction of a more "tolerant, moderate Islam". This direction includes better positioning and opportunities for Saudi Arabian women. The most recent change comes in the form allowing women to attend sporting events in stadiums. The change will come into effect sometime early next year in Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam. The last time women were allowed into stadiums was last month in September during the anniversary of the founding of modern Saudi Arabia.
     Although they will be allowed to attend, women will not be permitted to mix with single men. There will be separate entrances and ticket booths for women. Inside the stadium there will be a specified "family section" reserved for women and their family. Female security guards will also be instituted.
     Saudi Arabian women have been recently allowed to serve their country on a legislative body appointed by the king as well as in municipal councils. Last month, Saudi's King Salman removed the ban that prevented women from driving starting from June 2018. Opening the stadium to women is only the latest step to loosen the country's strict social rules.
Many citizens applauded the effort their country's government is making towards gender equality. Other's are not as welcoming with one citizen tweeting out "Faith is lost. Judgement Day is coming".
     These efforts are very important to all aspects of Saudi Arabia such as politics, economics, and social life because women are receiving more and more opportunities. In marketing specifically, branding and advertising will have to change and evolve as women receive more and more liberties. Companies will begin to hire more female employees that will offer a new perspective on their marketing process as well.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudis-open-stadium-doors-to-female-sports-fans-1509379912

Yes, Toys ‘R’ Us Is Still Open for Business

By Lumar LeBlanc


Last week Toys R Us filled for Bankruptcy protection. The company's sales have been suffering, because of there competition. Millennials have been choosing to shop at competitors stores over the last couple of years. Company's such as Walmart and Amazon Inc., have taken most of Toys R US's customers. Toys R Us has decided to file for bankruptcy protection before the major shopping season.  Consumers are estimated to spend 682 billion during the shopping season. The plans that Toys R Us have in place should bring back there customer base.

The marketing plan Toys R Us has in place, contains multiple steps to bring back all the business they once had. The first step was hiring Carla Hassan as Chief Marketing Officer. Within the target market and the four P’s, Hassan is focusing on promotion. In-store marketing and upgrading the virtual app, will drive more sales. With plans of upgrading two major parts of there business,Toys R Us will be far away from bankruptcy.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/yes-toys-r-us-is-still-open-for-business-1509329281
Posted: October 29, 2017 by Suzanne Vranica

New Home Sales Growth Surges to 25-Year High

New Home Sales Growth Surges to 25-Year High 

The housing market in the United States during September was successful even though the country experienced two hurricanes. The purchase of new built homes for this month rose to 18.9 % as compared to the sales in August. Before the hurricanes, the sales for new built and existent homes during the spring and summer were not very successful due to experiencing scarcity of homes available and increasing prices. People expected that following the hurricanes, sales of homes would continue to be not that good, but as people were left without homes, the markets in Florida and Texas have experienced a 25.8 % increase in the number of sales during the month of September. On average customers during this month bought a brand new home for $319,700. 

The fact that people continued to purchase homes, suggests that they were influenced by the need to find a new home as soon as possible because they were affected by one of the two hurricanes.  Individuals were purchasing homes because their homes were damaged to a certain degree  that made them unlivable or simply because they did not want to return by having to rebuilt and preferred to start over in a new area. The hurricane season with the arrival of two hurricanes in the United States caused some families to loose their homes in some areas that experienced flooding. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-new-home-sales-surge-in-september-1508940822

Amazon looking to become your pharmacy

Amazon looking to become your pharmacy 

                The widely known e-retailer, Amazon, is thinking about entering the Health Care market by selling prescriptions directly on their website. This would mean no more having to take a trip to the pharmacy, no more waiting in line either in the store or the drive-thru, no more having mix-ups with the medicine (or at least we hope). None of that would need to happen thanks to the click of a button. While this idea may sound very good, Amazon will have to jump through hoops in order to achieve this and make it a reality. The problem at hand is that drug prescriptions have a different way of being sold than books, toys, electronics and all the other items Amazon has to offer. They are highly regulated and aren't merely sold directly to the customer, as is custom on Amazon.com. You would need a state-issued license in order to sell any kind of drugs. This probably means that Amazon will need permission from every state to sell prescribes drugs. Not to mention, if Amazon wishes to expand this idea to the few other countries where it exists, all of the research and licensing they will need to confine to that country's pharmaceutical regulations. However, what is fascinating about this idea is the birth of a new way to get one's prescribed medicine.   

                The perks of this potentiality is, as a consumer, being able to order your medicine through Amazon instead of having to personally go to the Pharmacy. It will also help the market. We all know there are a few pharmaceutical giants who rule over the medical market. This is quite a bother to consumers since it is not a buyer-dependent relationship. Nevertheless, if Amazon were to enter the market, it would no longer be a major Oligopoly competition, which would change the market drastically. In addition, this idea by Amazon is even more interesting in a Marketing point of view since it is a change in the Target Market without really changing it. Your marketing strategy is bound to be modified however, everyone needs medicine at some point. Amazon is known for its wide array of targets. Anyone and everyone can use Amazon, thanks to its prices, the inventory, the availability... This means that the targeted consumers will not change. Forevermore, we notice that this is a diversification strategy Amazon is thinking about making. They never were apart of the medical market which means they are diversifying the products they offer. We can see that marketing wise, this new idea will take a lot of work to achieve, however with Amazon being so big, it would come to no surprise if they succeed.

                While Amazon hassles with its idea of whether or not they should enter the Health care market, there is one idea we cannot help but ignore. Amazon has already bought Whole Foods, another sector that is new to them, and now with the talk of the medical market we notice that Amazon is opening their horizon. This may seem fine at first and helpful to the consumer but if Amazon keeps going it might one day become a monopoly for the e-commerce.

Mexican TV Mogul Steps Down as CEO Amid Programming Struggles

Friday October 27, 2017
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mexican-tv-mogul-leaves-amid-programming-struggles-1509037669

     An era for Telenovelas has come to an end recently. For the past 20 years, Emilio Azcarraga Jean has been the CEO and led the Mexican television giant Televisa. He has now decided to step down due to decreasing advertising sales and increasing competition that he feels that his company cannot compete with. He will continue to be a part of the company as chairman but feels that him stepping down will allow him to focus on the company's long term strategy.
     Mr. Jean's family has been running this company since it was first created and enjoyed a near monopoly on it for almost a decade. Since Mr. Jean is resigning his position, it will be an end to his family running the company. When he first took over the company, he was able to get control and get a financial turnaround of the company while it was highly in debt that was bleeding cash.
     Since that time, there have been many competitors in the internet age such as Netflix that offers fast paced television series in Spanish. They have no use for watching telenovelas on tv anymore. With this market challenge, Televisa's revenue has dropped significantly. They are trying to appeal more to modern audiences and market differently so that they will be able to get a bigger audience than before and compete with Netflix and their other competitors.
     This is a clear example of marketing structure because Televisa was not thinking of the different age and time that was coming and thinking ahead, they stayed with their old school traditions. When they realized that they were losing sales and their audience, they knew they had to market better in order for them regain their revenue again.

Unexpected Growth

The U.S. has relentlessly been struck by extreme natural disasters in the past couple of months. The results were devastating and catastrophic for some, but have somehow brought "good news". Despite the destruction that hurricane Harvey and Irma brought, the U.S. GDP was able to grow at 3% in the 3Q -  Something that hasn't happened since 2014.

Contrary to popular belief, the hurricanes did not hurt the economy but have somehow boosted it. This isn't an indication that we should therefore have more hurricanes, it was definitely an unexpected byproduct of terrible disasters. Economists believe that the effect of the hurricanes is impossible to be calculated, but they have come up with some statistics that indicate the growth was mostly a result of consumer buying products and businesses restocking. Probably because they weren't able to get supplies for a prolonged period of time.

Notably, this unprecedented GDP growth is shocking because of the events that happened prior to it. However, economics do believe that it's a sign of hopefulness from the american people in the economy and the U.S. economy to be able to rebuild, metaphorically and literally, the things they have lost, the economy, and their community.

The Link

Trump Planning a Bailout for Coal and Nuclear Power Plants?

Trump Planning a Bailout for Coal and Nuclear Power Plants?

               It is known that when it comes to the market, the government should not be involved. In fact, the whole idea of the United States being a capitalistic country depends on this rule. However, in Washington, the Trump administration's Energy Department came up with a proposal to "shore up" coal-fired and nuclear power plants across the nation. This, of course, was responded with a wide array of objections and protests by a variety of groups. These groups include oil and gas companies, wind and solar power producers, some public utilities, electricity consumers and environmentalists. Ironically, most of these groups are usually found on opposite sides of arguments, however all seem to be on the same side of this one: no hurting the competitive market. Mr. Perry responds with: "Overregulation and over-subsidization in many areas have distorted the market. We're trying to get the market back in balance." Nevertheless, many don't believe it is the government's job to do so. Executive vice president of the petroleum group, Marty Durbin, comments: "Competition in power generation over the past 25 years has brought enormous benefits to the consumers. We've got to let the markets continue to be the driver."

               Why does this pose such a problem? Why are people so upset about this potential bailout? There are two ways to answer. First, there is a question of innovation and progress. With Trump's help to the Coal and Nuclear Power Plants, this prevents the country from moving forward onto newer and better things such as alternative energies. Second, the competitive market weeds out businesses who are too unstable or ill-developed in their field. If the government proceeds with its plan in order to "stabilize the market" then the benefits from the competitive market would be lost. As such, we see that the government is leaning towards helping the seller more then the buyer.

               However, we cannot deny looking at the point of view of the Trump administration. They believe this to be quite beneficiary since helping a business means the workers keeping their jobs which won't make the rate of unemployment plummet more than it already has. In a way it helps the economy, nevertheless what does it say about the government? Is it unwilling to progress into tomorrow's energy generation? 

iPhone 8 vs. iPhone X

     iPhone 8, Apple's latest phone, is experiencing weak sales mostly because of the presence of the iPhone X.  At the 2017 Keynote, Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, announced that Apple would be releasing the iPhone X on November 3, about a month after the release of the iPhone 8. Many Apple consumers have skipped the 8 and plan to purchase the X once it is released.  The X does have a higher price tag, but it actually has a much lower mark up, meaning that Apple will make more profit by selling the iPhone 8s then Xs.  Based on this, it looks like the iPhone X represents an investment for Apple.  This situation can also explain Apple's recently low stock values.  Investors know that selling many iPhone Xs will not necessarily translate to huge profits.  As consumers wait for the iPhone X's release, iPhone 8 sales stay low.
     Apple is doing as much as they can to make the iPhone X a success.  Tim Cook is apparently trying to take advantage of the dedicated Apple consumers who are willing to pay a premium price to keep the newest iPhone in their pockets.  He hopes that they will buy the 8 now and purchase the X as soon as its released.  Another interesting marketing strategy used by Apple is their numbering of the phones.  Apple will not release an iPhone 9 and is calling the next iPhone X, the roman numeral for 10.  Most likely this is because the Japanese word for 9 is unlucky as it sounds similar to the word that means pain.  This technique was also used by Microsoft when they went from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10.  Apple is definitely using some interesting strategies to insure that the iPhone X becomes a successful device.




https://www.wsj.com/articles/iphone-8-posts-weak-initial-sales-pressuring-iphone-x-1509010201

iPhone 8 Posts Weak Initial Sales, Pressuring iPhone X

Weak Initial Sales for the iPhone 8 & Their Consequences

Apple has reported low sales as the new iPhone 8 has been released. The company fears a decrease in income and its investors are also all at the edge of their chairs. The company reported that 16% of all iPhone sales were iPhone 8 and 8 Plus phones. This turned out to be lower than the 43% that took place in the release of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus. This percentage is also lower than the 24% which occurred during the release of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. 

The company predicts that the reason behind a lower sales rate for the iPhone 8 may be that customers believe the new features are not worth the price so they would rather invest in the iPhone 7 which includes the majority of the features that the iPhone 8 has. Their alternating hope is that customers are waiting to invest in the iPhone X instead because even though the price is greater, it has more features to offer which make it worth it. The company is now hoping to get a higher amount of pre-orders for the iPhone X, than the iPhone 8 or 8Plus because that would be a “good sign” for investors. Otherwise, investors “will fear the worst.” 

This relates to our marketing class because demand is a predictor for the target market of a company. In this case, Apple should now be targeting users who have not purchased the iPhone 8 to lead them to invest in an iPhone X. This is where advertising kicks in, Apple needs to do better advertising for the iPhone X than they did for the iPhone X, or come up with a better idea altogether for a new iPhone.

(https://www.wsj.com/articles/iphone-8-posts-weak-initial-sales-pressuring-iphone-x-1509010201)

Impulse Shopping for Groceries Online

        Now more than ever, consumers are buying their groceries online but are only sticking to their lists of necessary items. Food companies are trying to find methods to persuade consumers to impulse shop like they would in an actual store. Hershey Co. now asks online shoppers picking up their groceries in stores if they would like to add candy or gum. This mimics the traditional grocery shopping experience “where 56% of shoppers always or often purchase a snack.” However, this is only one challenge, as new companies emerge online and easily build a large customer base without much marketing. The food purchasing industry is changing to make any product available to consumers whenever they want it. Big grocery companies such as Campbell Soup Co. and Kraft Heinz Co. are now investing and delving into increasing online sales. Their biggest challenge is in physical stores where their products dominate the shelves, but online consumers are finding newer brands. People tend to buy perceived healthy products online, such as granola bars. Since processed food and candy are typically bought impulsively, they sell better in stores. InConstext Solutions is currently looking towards virtual reality shopping as an option in the future. Instacart is placing samples inside online shoppers’ carts in order to promote online consumers buying and trying new items in the future. Best-selling online products tend to come up early in the online shopping search results and people rebuy for the sake of convenience. Brands can pay for placement and advertising to drive up online sales. 

        As a grocery shopper, I have noticed the new focus on online shopping. The place function has shifted from brick and mortar to online as customers place a higher priority on convenience.  This is changing the way brands market to online consumers to drive up impulse buying, which consumers should be aware of as they purchase groceries online. Grocers are providing samples of products and paying for top search results to get consumers buying their products. As times change, it is interesting to see the shift in online consumerism for groceries. People want convenience now more than ever. As a millennial, I am open and interested in trying new to the market brands rather than the tried and true.  With a level playing field online, big brands are having to work harder to compete for consumers’ attention.

By: Megan McKee

https://www.wsj.com/articles/can-food-companies-get-people-to-make-impulse-purchases-online-1508119561