Chipotle Founder to Step Down as CEO

     The founder of Chipotle Mexican Grill will step down as chief executive. He started the company back in Denver, Colorado 24 years ago and now you cannot even walk down the street without even seeing one. He revolutionized the fast food industry. You can still get a good fast meal, but you don't have to deal with tips. He challenged major chains such as McDonalds with all natural/organic ingredients. Leading to a lot of fast food chains to change a lot of their processed foods. 

     Lately, Chipotle has been dealing with a lot of criticism after the E.coli, salmonella, and norovirus outbreak. A lot of customers have not returned to the Chipotle chain due to the fear of the viruses. Some investors are also worried due to Chipotle being replicated by others. Chipotle is having a hard time staying in the spotlight. Chipotle does not have certain reward systems compared to other fast food establishment like Starbucks. Corporate employees such as CEO's are also stepping down from their position to give the companies opportunity to grow financially through stocks and so other employees grow as well. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/chipotle-founder-to-step-down-as-ceo-1511962551

BuzzFeed Plans Job Cuts, Business Reorganization After Revenue Miss

   Buzzfeed's revenue this year declined causing for the company to cut short it's staff. They are planning to at least cut 8% of their employees along with international employees.“As our strategy evolves, we need to evolve our organization, too—particularly our business team, which was built to support direct-sold advertising but will need to bring in different, more diverse expertise,” Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a memo to staff. 

   Some employees are even including themselves in the cut of staff, by becoming advisors rather than having high-profile positions in the company. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that BuzzFeed had put its plans for a 2018 initial public offering on hold and was on pace to miss its revenue target of about $350 million this year by some 15% to 20%. The company said it still expected to show revenue growth for the year, up from $250 million in 2016.In its early years, BuzzFeed found great success through its innovative use of “native” advertising—a high-cost, labor-intensive marketing format in which advertising is custom-made for brands to resemble editorial content.

   BuzzFeed is trying to also reinvent and budget its company. It is focusing on it's most successful segments like Tasty or TryGuys. BuzzFeed is trying to focus on more advertising models such as product placement and sponsored content. Company is trying to go bigger also by rebranding themselves from, BuzzFeed Motion Pictures to BuzzFeed Studio. The company will also try to expand toward different TV networks. BuzzFeed is definitely going from Facebook to bigger and better things. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/buzzfeed-plans-job-cuts-business-reorganization-after-revenue-miss-1511972228

Impulse Purchases Online

Can Food Companies Get People to Make Impulse Purchases Online?

Posted: October 15, 2017 by Annie Gasparro and Heather Haddon

As technology expands, consumers are tending to shop online for many products. One of the biggest concerns that major companies have is trying to get consumers to make impulse purchases before they checkout. The idea of last minute online purchases is to "mimic the experience in the checkout lane." At a physical store, the checkout line primarily consists of shelves filled with individually packaged goods that are easy to grab right before checkout. On the online website, it's much harder for companies to get consumers to "throw in a piece of candy or a pack of gum at the last minute." Because consumers are more likely to shop online, companies need to keep up with the consumers and drive more online sales. Companies are racing to find new ways to drive impulse purchases online. One idea could be using virtual reality to provide a virtual shopping experience to consumers. They could virtually look inside boxes and unpack goods. 

This article deals primarily with internet retailing in Chapter 12. Internet retailing is a convenient way for consumers to have an unlimited assortment of goods at their fingertips. But a huge disadvantage that it has over brick-and-mortar stores is last-minute impulse purchases. Companies are finding it hard for consumers to add in last minute products to their cart before they checkout. At a physical store, these customers are forced to enter a "maze" of goods before checking out. Companies are trying to find a way to make an online "maze" where customers would tend to make more impulse purchases.

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

Blame Netflix for your Depression

Why Personal Tech is Depressing 

 Blame Netflix for your Depression 

In today’s society technology is a luxury that was unimaginable by our great grandparents. Now, with a few clicks on technological devices we can watch a movie at home and have food delivered as well. Although this has a great aspect because of how convenient many things have become, this is also the root of depression. Unfortunately, these advancements also have their downsides which include lack of socialization, or isolation.

Three in every ten people experience depression and although the antidepressant intake in the U.S. has increased, the rate of depression has also increased and this not just in America but worldwide. These technological advancements are time savers which people aren’t taking advantage of. Rather than going out with friends and having a volleyball match or even just playing bingo, people are sleeping in, scrolling on their social media pages, or watching Netflix. We may think that social media is the best way to stay connected and socialize, but screen time is not the same as face to face interaction.

To fight depression the University of Kansas has come up with a system of three simple steps; “Get (Properly) Lit,” “Don’t just sit there,” and “Power Down Correctly.” By “Get Lit” they mean to sit in front of Artificial light box for at least 30 minutes a day at around the same time. (But couldn’t we just sit outside where the real sun is?) Their second step means to exercise, even just walking for 30 minutes three times a week is a good way to fight depression as well as antidepressants but without side effects, and lastly turning the thermostat down five degrees before going to bed, dimming indoor lighting, and placing our electronics in night shift, helps reduce depression.

This article may affect electronic sales especially for children because parents reading this article are becoming aware of the negative effects of technology. However this article’s target market is anyone and everyone who uses electronics because it wants to make us aware of the negative impact of overuse.

(https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-personal-tech-is-depressing-1509026300)

Battle Between Police and Tech Firms Intensifies Over Smartphone Access

Battle Between Police and Tech Firms Intensifies Over Smartphone Access 

 

Are you okay with the law having access to your smartphone?

Police are now looking for a “backdoor” into mobile devices. Mr. Vance, a Manhattan District attorney has called for a legislation that grants this power to the police. To do so he created a report in which he targeted Apple and Google, specifically saying there should be laws they need to follow to allow them access to smart phone during criminal investigation. He also stated that supervision and home targeting are not enough to conduct these investigations. 

Although Donald Trump first judged Apple for the lack of collaboration, now that he is in the white house he hasn’t made any efforts to weaken smartphone encryption. The law has actually successfully used hackers to their advantage before, but now that there is new technology that is getting harder to do. In addition to that, the costs for hacking services are very pricy. Mr. Vance’s attempts to put in place a law has only resulted in law enforcement working harder to unlock mobile devices while phone companies work to make them even more secure. In his report he also includes cases in which access into a smart phone has allowed them to have successful prosecutions; i.e. videos of child abuse, photos and texts linking murder suspects and victims. 

This relates to our marketing class because both sides of the argument have customers to keep happy. Apple on one end wants to continue giving its users complete privacy and security, while on the other end the law wants to be able to have access to these smartphones to solve important cases and make justice. But which of the two out rules the other? Does the police need to stop being lazy and work their way around smartphones or should Apple give the law what they want, which could potentially lead to them losing customers? 

(https://www.wsj.com/articles/battle-between-police-and-tech-firms-intensifies-over-smartphone-access-1511827189)

Nokia Shares Plunge on Downbeat Outlook

Nokia has spent the last three years transforming itself from a cellphone maker into a company that sells equipment that enables modern communications to wireless carriers and cable operators. It sold its cellphone business to Microsoft Corp in 2014 and beefed up its equipment offerings by acquiring Alcatel-Lucent in 2016. About 87% of its sales comes from selling telecommunications equipment, with additional revenue coming from patent licensing. Selling equipment for cellular towers and other communications infrastructure—to be worse than it had expected for the rest of 2017 and to fall 2% to 5% in 2018. In addition, all telecom-equipment makers are dealing with a pause in spending because wireless carriers largely have all the equipment they need. 

https://www.wsj.com/articles/nokia-shares-plunge-on-downbeat-outlook-1509010064

Apple’s Cash Pile is Approaching $300 Billion

Apple, technology companies continue to boast strong cash flow generation, leaving a select five companies atop a corporate cash heap that will only grow more this year, Moody’s Investors Service data out Monday showed.According to the Moody’s data, total offshore cash held by U.S. non-financial corporates will reach about $1.4 trillion, or 72% of total cash, in 2017, up from Moody’s estimate of $1.3 trillion, or 70% of the total, the previous year. With $252.3 billion in cash held outside of the U.S. (almost all of its reported $268.9 billion in total cash at the end of fourth quarter), Apple stands to be among the biggest beneficiaries of the House version of tax overhaul, which proposes cutting the one-time tax rate on overseas cash to 12% from 35% upon repatriation.

https://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2017/11/20/apples-cash-pile-is-approaching-300-billion/