DAEWOO

Daewoo was one of the major chaebol in South Korea. It is important to understand what is a chaebol? It is a business model that emerged specifically in South Korea and consists of large clusters in different economic sectors. And companies that exhibit this business model is because they have strong growth, technological development, diversification and a strong entrepreneurial dimension.

That is why Daewoo besides being known worldwide for its extensive efforts in the automotive industry and have been classified as the sixth largest manufacturer of automobiles in the world, also became known for the construction of defense products, helicopters, civilian aircraft without leaving aside the shipbuilding industry will soon earned a reputation for producing ships at competitive prices.

However in the late 90s due to the Asian financial crisis coupled with poor management of the company made Daewoo went bankrupt, undoubtedly one of the largest corporate failures in history. 

The factors or reasons that led to the collapse of the company is partly due to government intervention, another factor was the labor market as workers began to demand shorter working hours (because years ago the days were long and low remuneration), the operate in a global economy, since they have protectionists laws and asked to include free trade, another point to consider is the quality of the product in Korea and that many products were considered low quality.

In 2005, General Motors announced that Daewoo in Europe change its name to Chevrolet, but in late 2013, the company informed through the media that Chevrolet will leave Europe in late 2015. And unfortunately caused the economic slowdown in 2007 caused a decline in European demand, Chevrolet responded by lowering their prices and introducing more luxurious models that led him to face very prestigious brands.

The strategy adopted by Chevrolet was theoretically correct but in practice the result was the opposite as we again had to be facing another crisis but this time within the European Union.

MWC 2015

This week is celebrated the Mobile World Congress, an international technological event that takes place in Fira de Barcelona. It is the most important event in its industry.

The MWC is usually the place where big companies like eBay, Ford, Fujitsu, HTC, Intel, LG, Nokia, Samsung show their advances in wireless and mobile communications.

Unfortunately Apple is one of the most important absentees. This company never attends international events in order to present its devices. They prefer to hold their own events. However, the company usually posts during those days some news about improvements of their products.

This is an important event for both the companies to see the new products and market trends and for the exhibitors who promote and publicize its latest innovations.

Something to keep in mind is that the cheapest entrance ticket costs 700 euros. For that reason there are a lot of companies who visit the event but hardly any individuals. There are also other rates like the VIP which costs over 5000 euros.

Therefore, Barcelona hosts this annual event which is the most important in this sector with leading companies and professionals .This also has an impact in the economy of approximately 397 million euros, and the creation of 12,361 jobs.

Ronald McDonald loses his smile

Since its creation in 1940, McDonald’s has been growing until becoming one of the biggest companies of the world. But as every product, has an industry life cycle, and it seems that the brand image of McDonald’s is starting to decline. The benefits are a 15% lower regarding the last year and its competitors are catching more and more customers throughout the USA.

To face this situation, McDonald’s focused on international market and tried catching middle class customers in developing countries such as Brazil and China. But actually, the problem of McDonald’s is more complex than this. What it really happens is that the brand image of this company is not enough competitive as it used to be.

McDonald’s means cheap food, however, the new competitors are more attractive to young people who prefer to pay a little more for a better quality product which can also customize as they want to.

McDonald's included chicken sandwiches, salads and fruit in its meal, but the image of the company is built around the burger and fries, which is really difficult to change it.

If the cheap food industry is saturated in developed countries as the market tendencies seem to indicate, what should McDonald’s do?

This is not a problem of sales, intermediaries or price. The problem is about the product and how the brand image is located in mind’s customer.

In order to figure out this problem we suggest creating new products. But we are not talking about salads and fruit. Since the brand image of McDonald’s is too strong to change, we believe they should still making hamburgers but with a high quality. In this way the brand will still being related to the same product with only one difference: the quality would be better. Moreover, we believe that publicity will play an important role to change the mind’s customers.

Summing up, McDonald’s has to face with a new competitive environment with an old brand image that is not efficient any more. In order to be competitive we think they should invest in creating products with more quality but trying not to increase the price so much.

PortAventura will take in a new Ferrari amusement park in 2016

PortAventura is a huge theme park and a resort located between Vila-seca and Salou, in the south of Barcelona. It attracts around 4 million visitors every year and is one of the most famous theme parks in Spain and Europe.

This park includes five different areas based on historic civilizations, it also has an aquatic park called Costa Caribe Aquatic Park and four hotels inspired in its park areas.

One of the most important and so that one of its future objectives is to build up a new resort called Ferrari Land which it will be an hospitality complex set up by some attractions and a five star hotel inspired in Ferrari’s trademark. This is a great example of a technology aspect because they are development some new aspects in a concreted target market.

For instance, PortAventura has arrived to an agreement with Ferrari to build up a new theme park inspired in the car’s brand, this will be a project that is expected to be operational in 2016 and it will be a total investment of 100 million of euros.

Ferrari Land will take up about 75.000 square meter of space and it will also have some rides for all age ranges. The complex will have the faster and higher accelerator from Europe and the biggest roller-coaster from PortAventura park.

Ferrari has its own thematic park in Abu Dhabi city called Ferrari World and PortAventura will take in the first in Europe with the same characteristics.

Andrea Perrone, Ferrari Brand administrator, says that Ferrari World has been successful and moreover they had received lots of petitions to build up new theme parks with Ferrari’s brand. They had selected Investindustrial, PortAventura society, because is the opportunity to bring Ferrari’s spirit to Spain, where that brand has some fans and supporters.

Ferrari is placed as the most valuable brand name of the world and PortAventura Park is the second resort from Europe and the first from the Mediterranean.

In the end, PortAventura has carried out a strategy from expansion and a huge globalization with a total investment of 125 million of euros since 2009.

In 2011, PortAventura build up a children area called Sésamo Aventura; in 2012 the highest roller-coster from Europe called Shambhala and in 2013 they extend Costa Caribe Aquatic Park. 

Have a rest and take a couple of minutes to watch this video from a simulation of Ferrari Land!

http://www.eleconomista.es/mercados-cotizaciones/noticias/5618669/03/14/Ferrari-tendra-en-2016-su-propio-parque-tematico-en-PortAventura.html#.Kku8kAwcZJ4ag6g

Cost leadership Strategy

According to Michael Porter there are two strategies:

· Differential strategy consists in offer exclusives products.

· Cost Leadership Strategy achieved having the lowest prices in target market segment. This strategy is only viable for large firms with huge production of volumes and a big market share.

A good example could be Lefties, from Inditex’s brand, which was created in order to fight with low cost brands. Lefties consists in a clothing brand which offers products to customers from Zara’s previous season. However, they also have their own exclusive pieces.

At the present time the economic crisis has caused not only a 5% decrease on Inditex sales but also a fast growing in low cost brands as Primark or H&M. Whilst Zara’s shops are fading, the openings of Lefties’ shops are frequently. Nowadays, there are 86 shops in Spain and 16 in Portugal.

Besides this, on the last months the locations of these shops have been redesigned. Fortunately, they are not untidy and gloomy shops as many years ago. These days, it comes as enticing shops situated in malls. This is also an important factor because sales in these centers have suffered a drastic descent since 2007. The opening of low cost stores like Lefties causes an increment of affluence on these shopping centers.

Therefore Inditex is willing to expand this brand in order to achieve their objectives and to be a fashion leader in the market. For that reason it is necessary to adapt it supply at the demand and to reduce their prices for beating brands like Primark (their main competitor). As a result, they increase their sales, in order to keep their quality but with lower prices.

To conclude, a cost leadership strategy has the disadvantage in losing customers because of the reputation from poor quality, but if they accomplish that people associated their low cost brand to the current one, as a substitute, is available. Indeed, it suppose the success for Inditex in the current market.

Travel agencies

Travel agencies

Today choosing a travel agency based largely on economic opportunities, managing new technology or customer age. But it is important to consider the advantages of both the one and the other

For traditional agencies we can highlight what is its personalized service, advice on destinations, to pay in hand and allow extra services. Unlike the online agencies where payment is via credit card, prices are cheaper, accessibility and immediacy to book the trip and deals you can get are aspects that differentiate why today are emerging custom agencies.

Surely direct sales is a key to economic recovery in domestic tourism factor. And one of their strategies is to be present in social networks because it is almost indispensable for the travel industry. Among the most popular agencies include Facebook and Twitter. This is not to make a direct sale through the same but that help promote and provide quality image.

With all of this we believe it is important to ask the question. Is there a future for travel agencies?

As future professionals in the industry want to be positive but still be realistic about the great changes that have occurred thanks to technology.

Therefore we believe it does, but only arise that may adapt to new changes and are smaller and above all highly specialized, highly technical and operating as far as possible in internet agencies and a physical location for personalized attention would be ideal.

As encouraging fact none of the travel agencies in Spanish adventure have closed in recent years. As examples we can mention (Marco Polo, Trekking and Adventure, Taranna, Amber Travel).

Not everything is lost and if we put our creativity game having clear our customer segment we want to capture, you can create a small business doing what we like ... go!

Does anyone dare this adventure?

http://www.conectaturismo.com/todo-sobre-agencias-de-viajes/canal-online-presente-y-futuro-de-las-agencias-de-viajes/

Starbucks

Today’s article is for all the coffee lovers. We are going to investigate the strategies of the famous coffee company Starbucks. A vast majority of you has been to Starbucks and has tasted its delicious coffees. This brand is famous all over the world and counts with 21,160 stores in 63 countries and territories, starting out with one store in Seattle. It is even a fashion to drink the “Starbucks coffee”. But what makes a single coffee so special?

Take a minute to think about if you have ever seen a conventional advertisement in the newspaper or television of Starbucks, like from big companies such as Mc Donalds? The answer is no or only very few times. The company has tried very hard to avoid traditional marketing in order to give it a name.

They rely on the excellent quality of the coffee combined with a cosy atmosphere in order to create customer satisfaction. Everyone feels comfortable on the relaxing sofas at the coffee shops, which makes it a good possibility to escape the stress of every day’s life. Even though the price of a coffee is higher than at another coffee store, the customers seem to accept it, without hesitating.

The customer satisfaction is also established by the treatment one perceives by entering the store. You can create your own coffee out of different flavours. At the end the employee asks you for your name to write it on the cup. This way, the customer feels unique and as a participant in the process of making his own coffee.

Every season, they make special offers related to Christmas, summer, etc. So there are always new flavours to discover. Combined with the high quality, it is a good marketing strategy, which produces a customer loyalty. The customers come back regularly and tell their friends and families about it. The company counts strongly on Word-of-Mouth marketing.

Furthermore, they have created a “Starbucks community”, where individuals can register and share their Starbucks experiences with others. The community not only brings people together, but it also helps the company to improve their services, because they are involved actively in the discussions.

In our opinion, the company did a great job to become the Starbucks we now nowadays, considering they started out with a single store and a simple concept. Every company should take Starbucks as an example for its successful marketing strategies. 

www.starbucks.com