WTF Wikipedia #j18 #SOPABlackout

Posted on by
Reply

Tweets
robey roberson @robey01 4m

WTF Wikipedia you only had 13,000 articles when I was in college, now everyone uses you for hw? bit.ly/zZtMHF #j18 #sopablackout

Jon Burkhardt @ChaosD1 12m
Wikipedia has a bunch of text explaining what’s going on. I guess all these “WTF Wikipedia” people can’t read. They can only copy/paste.
Retweeted by robey roberson

robey roberson @robey01 18m

“Like OMG Professor Robey, I couldnt do my hw because the internet/wikipedia/google was like down, can I have an extension?” Me: “No.”

robey roberson @robey01 23m

I think (wtf) wikipedia blackout is single handedly most informative action anybody could have taken to inform people about #SOPA

robey roberson @robey01 40m

When I was in college #wikipedia only had ~13,000 articles, learn to use a library. #SOPA

Miguel Rios @miguelrios 47m

Yeah… this is GOLD: https://twitter.com/search/realtime/wtf%20wikipedia

PetSmart’s Viral Coupon Campaign

Posted on by
Reply

As an employee for Mars Petcare, we’ve been given the opportunity to spread a coupon around for PetSmart. Better act fast, the coupons are only good Sept 22nd – 25th.

Here is the email:

Dear Valued Vendor Partner,

As a way to thank you for your contributions to PetSmart, I wanted to extend an invitation to you and your employees to participate in PetSmart’s Friends and Family Appreciation Event on September 22-25. With the attached coupon sheet, you can save 15% on your entire product purchase, $20 off pet training, 15% off your PetsHotel Services, and 15% off $60 or more at petsmart.com.

This program is designed to be viral, so please encourage your employees to forward the coupons along to as many friends and family as they’d like.

As one of our Top 60 vendors I wanted to ensure your teams have the opportunity to benefit from this discount.

Thanks again for being a valued vendor partner.

Best regards,

Joe O’Leary
EVP, Merchandising, Marketing and Supply Chain
PetSmart, Inc.

You can benefit from me by retrieving the coupons here. All I ask is you link back to this post instead of re-posting elsewhere.

The stock market goes BOOM, I go POW!

Posted on by
Reply
portfolio11102010

Outperforming the market is always a nice feeling. The Fed will have us believe the recession is over and now they taking preventative measures to guard against a double dip recession. I could care less what they have to say. My investing strategy, while affected by what the gov’t does, is not determined by the gov’t.

I try to make sound investments using financial analysis techniques learned in grad school. Does that work? Maybe. Do I actually do the due diligence on half my investments? No. For my investment research I merely read. 95% of my research comes from reading material off of the internet, 2% from looking at the stock’s performance charts, 2% from a quick look at the industry performance, and the 1% from other sources. All the research I do, still doesn’t always result in a decision, many of the best performing stocks I looked at, I chose not to buy. “Why?” you may ask, because many of the worst performing stocks I also chose not to buy. The research methodology laid out above is only a piece of the decision making process though. I’m interested how do you make stock portfolio decisions?

GTA IV Revisited

Posted on by

Now that I am done with school, I have had some more free time. This is good for both me and you. For your enjoyment I present the maps again. Previously deleted for bandwidth reasons.

Here they are again – Enjoy.

Red Pigeons Map 1 – Go Shoot’em

Red Pigeons 2 – Happy Hunting

Text Cars (you know, the cars that you get a text telling you to go steal)

Jumps – All the special jumps you need to land

Strangers – Go Find them for special quests

 

There are more for some cars, armor, weapons but I’ll bet if you made it here you already got the cheat codes for those. That said, there are a few of you who want to make it through the game with out cheating or tired of coming here to look at the pictures every time you play some GTA IV then downoad the entire map pack here!

 

Discraft v Wham-O

Posted on by

Discraft and Wham-O:

A brief history and explanation why one is better than the other.

everyone-loves-ultimate-though

Wham-O is the patent holder of the Frisbee and created the first disc, and Frisbee is just one of many brands from Wham-O.  Wham-O discs (from the Master Model through the 82E model) were the official discs of Ultimate from 1969 through 1991.  It is also important to note that Wham-O has been sold several times over the past few decades causing the Frisbee standards to be largely inconsistent.

It is not surprising but people like consistency, and as a thrower myself, I’m sure I could get used to the flight characteristics of any mold, but Discraft will reign supreme unless another company can create a huge incentive to switch over. The differences are subtle, but certainly noticeable with a different feel on the grip and thickness of the disc. In general you’ll throw further, more accurate, and have much more control with Discraft disc especially if you’re having trouble in windier conditions.

Wham-O, for their part, has been trying to play catch up ever since the Ultimate Players Association decided to switch from Wham-O to Discraft 18 years ago. We have seen multiple attempts by them to reverse engineer the Discraft mold and from the casual look over of our Fresh-Life disc (a Wham-O disc marketed by a local Rogers, AR company), they might be getting close, but getting the mold right is only part of it.  It is more than just a mold, so Wham-O has to get the right plastic and processes (heating, cooling, chemical composition, time in the mold, storage, etc.) too.

The crew at Discraft is great and they’ve been there for 18 years now making great discs for the sport and supporting the sport, UPA, and Ultimate championships around the world. It seems like one of the first things were taught when we first start playing Ultimate is that Wham-O is bad and evil and tried to change the sport and won’t let us use the word Frisbee.  Wham-O’s not bad – they are just contradictory in their support for the sport and sometimes the plastic they use isn’t as consistent as the plastic used in Discraft discs.  Who knows?  This may change someday.

So in conclusion, if you are just looking for a disc to toss around a few times in the back yard, I suggest you try the Fresh Life disc priced at $14.95, they are made by Wham-O from 100% recycled materials. You will legally be able to call your disc a Frisbee (provided you have the Frisbee model) and they’re good for your image too!

finishedfrizbee1However, if you are even slightly concerned about quality, performance, or value then I highly recommend you go with our Discraft Ultrastar disc for $13.95. You may not be saving the environment initially, but you get a better disc and save a buck. As for the saving the environment, if you would like to donate the dollar you saved to the environmental cause of your choice, then the price becomes even, eco-systems are either restored or saved, and you still get a disc that will out perform your less-informed counterparts.

Monsanto Case Analysis

Posted on by
2

a) Provide a very brief summary of the case.

Monsanto is analyzing the Water Treatment Industry as a potential new market. They discuss in detail: applications, types of products, and services already provided during that time. The industry can be somewhat difficult to define. It seems better to determine the industry by the customer, in this case it is the end – user or consumer of the drinkable water. Then in 1999, as a result of increased demand for safe drinking water globally, Monsanto acquired a few firms that had experience in the water treatment industry, with specific knowledge and technologies, which subsequently would better enable Monsanto to break into the water treatment market and be competitive immediately by offering a broad complementary package of water treatment products and services.

b) Consider the domestic drinking water segment of Monsanto’s business. How best can that industry be defined? What are other ways of conceptualizing that industry? Will different conceptualizations lead to different strategies?

The domestic drinking water segment of the water treatment industry is extremely diverse and fragmented with many different firms operating in a wide variety of ways to get water into consumer’s hands. The case really breaks the drinking water segment down into two different categories, municipal and residential water treatment, the segments are determined by the delivery method to which consumers get drinkable water. Monsanto has already positioned themselves, through a series of acquisitions, to be on the clean water treatment side of the industry, as opposed to waste water treatment. More specifically, to easily compete in the municipal drinking water segment. Further development and focus is still needed on the residential water industry. For instance, Bottled water is considered a substitute for both municipal and residential water treatment products, but 1 in 4 bottles contains water from a municipal source. Furthermore, the bottled water industry has conglomerates from the beverage industry competing in the market. This signals to me that the domestic end user doesn’t mind as much about the delivery method of clean water, just so long as there is clean water available. Also of importance is the International markets, there is potential for greater growth globally it would seem, specifically, in the municipal water treatment industry through the sales of equipment and chemicals to treat water.

Keeping in mind also that the discovery of new water sources has been slowing down, a different way of conceptualizing the industry would be to consider water speculation and discovery. Monsanto could invest in R&D to pioneer new ways to find and collect clean water. This could develop into a much different strategy considering it could also include possible entry into the waste water treatment industry. There are also the geographic hurdles to getting drinking water to inhabitants to consider, and not all water treatment processes are best suited for every environment. Monsanto does have the advantage of operating in many different countries, and one possibility is to supplement its municipal water contracts is by also supplying bottling water, possibly turning a threat into a potential opportunity.

c) Pick the definition of the industry that is most appropriate above. In that industry, what are the three key drivers of success? Explain your answers.

The industry definition to best describe Monsanto’s water treatment segment is the clean water treatment industry. Key drivers of success would be vertical integration from water source to market, patent technologies, and consumer trust. Monsanto has the ability to transform an industry with the new acquisitions in patented technology. They want to touch that water as many times as possible in the treatment process, to let the water flow through its equipment. This means they should integrate the new technologies that they have acquired into the water treatment process, either by replacing older technologies, or integrating it into existing systems to work in conjunction with their chemical treatments plants. Furthermore, acquisition of water sources could play a key in developing competitive advantage.

Neopets Case Analysis

Posted on by
Reply

NeoPets, Inc. Case Analysis

NeoPets, Inc. is an internet start-up that had struck gold in a time when many of its sister companies were feeling the pain of a market correction from asset hyper-inflation and subsequently shutting their doors. They clearly have the competitive advantage by being first to market with “immersive advertising”. Immersive Advertising is a key factor that has helped lead to their success over other online advertising firms that just used traditional banner and pop-up advertisements. Their website is #1 for “stickiness”. The data from Nielsen/Net Ratings showed the amount of time users spent on the site was over 7 hrs. So now, not only have they developed a new proprietary advertising model, but they had also developed an online environment that captured a non-typical massively multiplayer online game, or MMOG that created a loyal online social community. Finally, the nature of NeoPets audience was very unique. NeoPets audience consisted of predominantly older youth and younger teens that had to be knowledgeable or computer savvy to some degree in order to be able to interact on NeoPets website. NeoPets also was unique in the fact that the majority of their user base was female, which was unusual for many online gaming communities. The combination of their audience and advertising model made NeoPets a very attractive service for firms looking to market their products online using an industry that had pretty much collapsed from within.

Also a very important issue to NeoPets, for a number of reasons, was globalization. First off, they have created a niche marketing strategy in an IT based industry and developed a very large and loyal user audience which they’ve managed to keep to themselves, so far. One of the threats posed by globalization is that there are already other media companies that have similar product offerings already out in the offline market in other countries that haven’t developed their product into an interactive online media such as NeoPets. Similar kinds of games and/or cartoons in the offline markets already exist that, in essence share several similarities to NeoPets in terms of storylines, characters, and play style. These included Tomagotchi or Giga pets, both a hand-held game with similar a similar play style to that of NeoPets in that the player had to take care of a virtual pet. Also, Dragon Ball Z which was an anime cartoon that consisted of collecting pets with special powers and has a large fan base following, the cartoon has spawned the creation of a plushies, a card game, and movies; much like NeoPets’ Doug Dohring hoped to do with the NeoPets. Albeit these few examples do not use an as enriched or as dynamic gaming/advertising medium as NeoPets does online, but they could pose a threat if they moved over to the internet arena because of their already existing popularity offline, they would be in a position to compete directly with NeoPets for internet users.

Mr. Dohring wants to control the growth of the company and the image of NeoPets. One of the biggest opportunities for NeoPets is that the company is still young and in a rapid growth stage. NeoPets is still reinvesting its profit back into the company to fund growth and is very agile, and even though it is self funded at this point, due to the competitive nature of the internet industry and rapid rate of technological change, they could easily be in international. Furthermore, a joint venture might not be what is best for long-term growth, remember Dohring also sees potential by expanding globally into markets where his current multinational corporate customers are already doing business and has a strong desire to turn NeoPets into a franchise and in that aspect to bring Green Dot on as a minority equity holder would also allow NeoPets to continue to control its own growth and intellectual properties as it sees fit. Globalization, does offer another option there is an opportunity for merchandising and/or co-branding further, to take the Kraft Mac’n’Cheese print ad even further, to continue to expand “virally” through companies that they already work with. The company, again, is very young and spread mostly through the internet by word of mouth but has already achieved so much popularity. Apply the same viral principal to NeoPets international growth strategy, greater advertising revenue could be generated through co-branded merchandise launch with a multinational firm that 1 is already a client, and 2 also operates in the same geographic markets that NeoPets wishes to enter into as well.

Monkeybulbathon…

Posted on by
Reply

Maybe it is because I am feeling sentimental, maybe it is because I am tired of working on the same 5 different posts for this website (curse of a perfectionist), or maybe it is because props are way past due to my friend Chris over at Monkeybulb.com. I always love reading his take on special advertisement and marketing campaigns. So in the spirit of the holiday season, I bring you not one, but two ad reviews from yours truly as a tribute to Monkeybulb.
First up, Jones’ Big Ass Truck Rental and Storage.

The funny thing is, everyone has to have an old printer stored at their house. I know there is one at mine, maybe I should give him a call later. To further add proclaim to this ads effectiveness, I challenge you to find me anyone who would turn down a drunk sale? After all that, the ad really took it home with the pitch “If you got weed, I’ll store anything offer.” I couldn’t believe my eyes or my ears! Great job, now this ad applies to so many different demographics at once it was almost perfect, you’ve got anyone who’s not dukes of hazard also. To say the least the replay value of this spot was delightful. If only Cox Communication ran this ad as many times as they ran their own shameless self-promotional ads for their cable to which I was already subscribing too, I might still have cable today (but that’s a topic for a later discussion).


Next up, and on a more serious note, This Is Reality, this ad was very well done. I’ve gotten pretty tired of all the “green” marketing that is going on right now. Retail is the worst of it, believe me (again another one of those posts I was telling you about). So the fact that this spot takes a shot at the fabricators of clean coal advertisements reality got me into it. It even made me check out their website, sign up, and write this post to inform you about it too. Well done indeed if it can motivate even me to put this much effort into it. Hopefully it did for you also.Oh and if you are curious about whether or not the website for Jones’ BA Truck Rental & Storage was real or not, you can check it out here too.

Monetary Unions and the Future…

Posted on by
Reply

Speculation on the North American Monetary Union, aka the Amero, has been increasing in recent months. This may just be a result of the economic recession that the U.S. is facing, but regardless, more people are talking about it almost a decade after it was first proposed in 1999 by Canadian economist Herbert G. Grubel. Mr. Grubel introduced the idea in the release of his book, which it’s release was the same year that the European Union implemented their currency, the Euro.

With the growing notion that corporate globalization, is the way of the future it makes perfect sense as to why the Amero would be a good thing. With the US economy in a state of financial turmoil it seems to make sense that the Fed could be using an invisible but guiding hand to lay the ground work for a majority to willingly accept the Amero proposal, and minimize any opposition.

Introducing monetary unions can do some amazing and unique things. It alligns countries political ambitions and requires them to work together in the interest of everyone’s financial well being. It could be said that in the future, it may not be a country that is considered a world super power, but a monetary union. Creating a monetary union in North America would ad some liquidity for the citizens by allowing them to use the same currency in a larger geographic area. Furthermore, strength in numbers, China is often viewed as a friend best kept at arms lenght. Their population is driving their economy right now, and by implementing the Amero, it would put more people under the Amero “flag”, China and Mexico both have inexpensive labor forces, the Amero would allow the US and Canada to take advantage of Mexico’s labor and help level one of the strategic advantages that China has.

The US trade deficit with China is a cause for alarm and Americans pray that they don’t call on our debt, but if we were to implement the Amero, even though the debt is the US’s to pay, it would severally stress the US’s economy which subsequently would be under the Amero. The pressure which would be put on the Amero, instead of a US dollar, is divided amongst 3 political borders instead of just one. Sort of a cushion… for Americans anyway. Or maybe a parachute to save ourselves from crashing completely, then again it could be the anchor that drags Canada and Mexico down with us.

1 month updates

Posted on by
Reply

At least, I write something on here once a month. Not a good practice for building a user base or community, but then again, I write for a more therapeutic personal purpose than for an anonymous spammers enjoyment. Be prepared though, I just enrolled in Advanced Corporate Finance even though I did not need it. I figured it would be good preparation for a PhD program. I also have a couple drafts waiting for final review before I publish them. The stock markets suck as everyone might already know, so I applied for a couple jobs. Already had a phone interview for one, and will have a face to face in about a week with them.