AU Blogspot

               Thanks to Kit Kowan for permission to use this Photo.

Seth Godin’s ability to reinvent conventional perspectives in an original framework has earned him celebrity status in the marketing world.  Praised for his seemingly prophetic insights into developing digital trends, Seth is the kind of entrepreneur who doesn’t find it necessary to break the rules in order to generate consumer attention; he simply  interprets the rules in ways that the “experts” had said were too undefined, open, and ironically enough: consumer-centric.  The communications channels that Seth proposes to reach customers (get their attention) should be understood by any entrepreneur trying to make it in online marketplace, which is already yesterday’s— a reality that has informed Godin’s strategic principles throughout his career.  The following video is a nice introduction to the sometimes bizarre, but always inspiring perspectives of a truly creative business mind.  Click on the image above to watch this video.  We encourage you to share your thoughts with the community afterwards.  Take care.    

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

“Fashionista” here at my fabulous local library again.

That’s right, I took another test and completed Lesson 3 on consumer behaviour.  I am on a roll… 

It was another informative chapter on the consumer buying habits—the “why, when, and where” of it all. This lesson really gave me a better understanding for and a direction of who I want my target consumer to be. I already had a good idea, but this lesson REALLY helped me to better understand my target consumer.

So, what are my dreams, goals, and aspirations?

I WILL become the successful owner of a small specialty store that caters to the more curvacious women in the nation. Yes, I said the NATION.  

Starting with one store here in my new home city, I plan to make waves that will eventually lead to a tsunami.  I’d like to open chain stores in not only the major cities like Atlanta, Miami and New York, but smaller cities too.  

Even small towns have divas…

My chain stores will carry clothing that I purchase carefully as a buyer for my target market.  Once my chains are up and running, I will then open up a few boutiques featuring custom designs by myself and other fashion minded designers.

I want to be a Brand. Clothing, shoes, accessories—the works!  

Fashion week! Global recognition!  Non profit organizations for the empowerment of young women!

I guess you could say I want it all. But hey, why want less if I can strive for much more? 

Evita a.k.a. “Fashionista”
Student
Ashworth Fashion Retailing Program

 
               Thanks to Chris Metcalf for permission to use this Photo.

In the hyper-competitive business environment of today, there are millions of dollars invested and mistakenly often wasted by companies looking for the “next big thing,” the elusive innovation that will electrify the marketplace.  When most people think of innovation, they automatically consider it in the technological sense, but innovation means much more than producing a faster computer or a telephone that doubles as a home entertainment system; innovation is ultimately about ideas.  In the following video, innovation expert Charles Leadbeater discusses how innovation isn’t just reserved for the corporate giants with infinite capital, but rather how independent thinking entities, people like you and me with a vision, are now empowered like never before to compete in the marketplace on our own terms.  I found this presentation both informative and inspiring.  I hope you feel the same way after viewing it and approach your next lesson with a sense of enthusiasm.  Click on the image above to watch this video. 

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

              Thanks to Mzelle Biscotte for permission to use this Photo. 

Any organization in which you find employment will have a variety of managers who have a variety of responsibilities.  A typical business will have sales, operations, financial, and other types of managers, each with a different viewpoint on what it takes for the company to succeed.  In smaller enterprises a manager may wear several of these hats.  In a large corporation managers tend to be more specialized, either as to their duties or their geographic area or product line. 

These managers speak different “languages” and sometimes the result can be a virtual Tower of Babel.  For an example of this, you might try sometime asking an accountant, a plant supervisor, and an engineer what it costs the company to make a particular product.  Having completed this course you should now be able to communicate effectively with a financial manager, and you should also know how to read and interpret financial statements, determining what they’re telling you and what they aren’t.  Armed with these skills you now have the ability to ask the right questions to make better decisions both as a manager and as an investor.  And you can appreciate why the accountant, the plant supervisor, and the engineer would look at “cost” differently.  You needn’t expect them to all agree, so long as you recognize how you need to view the cost of a product. 

Whatever profession you choose, if you’re not already tied to one, you’ll need to master its language and those of professions tied to individual departments, as well.  These could include production, purchasing, materials management, human resources, sales and marketing, and even corporate legal disciplines.  This is the purpose of a general business education such as the one you are pursuing at Ashworth University. (more…)

           Thanks to Richard Summers for permission to use this Photo.

Sometimes technology is driven not out of necessity or productivity, but simply in the name of technology. I will let you decide on this one. Earlier this year, Papa John’s Pizza initiated a partnership with a private firm called trackmypizza.com. Drivers carry GPS-enabled handsets that feed location data to a TrackMyPizza server. There, the data is coupled with the customer’s phone number, providing location updates every 15 seconds. Customers simply go to www.trackmypizza.com, order their pizza and can then watch their delivery in real time.

Not all franchises have adapted it as of yet, but an eleven store chain in Alabama that did the initial test roll out experienced a 100% increase in online orders, which provides substantial savings to the chain versus the traditional order taking. Not to be outdone, Dominoes is supposed to unveil its own on-line pizza tracking system which will even track the pizza through the kitchen as it is made. One can only imagine what is coming next.

Brad Rudisail
Computer Network Technician-Network Security Instructor
Ashworth University

Consumer confidence (the term used by the Conference Board) and consumer sentiment (the label used by the University of Michigan) are not quite at their all-time lows, but they are very close to them.

This seems a little odd because two of the biggest elements of consumer attitudes, unemployment and inflation, are quite benign.

Unemployment, at 5.5 percent, is a hair below its long-run average (5.6 percent).  Inflation (all items) is 4.1 percent, only a little above its long-run average of 3.7 percent.

Why the doom and gloom? (more…)

                          Image courtesy of Mike Maddaloni.

There’s that store over on the corner.  It is one of your favorite stores or you just go there once in a while.  But the next time you go by, it’s closed.  Not just closed for the day, but closed for good.  You feel bad as you liked going in there, but you may not have gone in there that often.  You think to yourself if you only knew that they were near that point you could have done something – blogged on them, told your friends or simply went in there more.

For me there were 2 such places, an awesome Vietnamese/fusion restaurant and a coffee shop.  Now a jeweler and a check-cashing store stand in each respectively.  But what if each owner reached out to its customer base for help, would I have responded?  I asked myself as I read about Toscanini’s, an ice cream shop I have visited in Cambridge, MA in a recent issue of Inc. magazine.  In this case, getting behind on paying their taxes resulted in the store closing, and after an Internet appeal they were able to raise enough money to reopen.

As I said before, you can’t mess with the numbers.  However, they did and paid the price for it, literally.  Had they reached out earlier to their customers, how would they have reacted?  How would I have reacted? (more…)