How HMV fell down

It’s impossible that a company with no understanding of the market, customers or even their employees could sustain for a long time. Here the British’s famous entertainment retailer HMV illustrated how an empire fell down because of such ignorance. 

The first mistake they made is they were so involved in their core products that ignored the growth of the digital download market. What made the situation worse was that they were still confident in their customers’ loyalty. They never thought that customers’ behavior might change one day when better alternatives come out.

If this reason made HMV begin to fall down, the following mistake destroyed the company. As is known to all, Twitter works like double- bladed swords. Companies using content marketing could win brand recognition but if use improperly, a disaster may happen. You should be very careful in tweeting because you’re what you published. If you don't understand Twitter, Don't Tweet. (Mediabistro) Having fired 60 HMV employees, the company’s markers even didn’t know how to shut down Twitter. While who knows one of the fired people taking charge of the social media used it as a tool to beat the company. A live broadcast pushed the company to die finally.

I don’t believe HMV is salvageable especially in this situation. As the Hijacker suggested, this is the company whose leader never believed the importance of the social media. Now apparently they were destroyed by the inevitable trend.   

When a brand is more than the product it's selling

In today’s retail world, we have hundreds of thousands choices than ever before. As the E-Age comes to everyone, people make decisions via various channels: search engines, blogs, customer reviews, WOM and etc. Even in the same category with a comparative quality, there are tons of brands available in the market. In this stiff competition, how to stand out and appeal to the prospects is a big issue for a brand. What’s more important is how to make a connection with customers and develop a CRM in the long run?

The book Believe me just points out the answer: a well-developed storytelling is the key to win the customers. As the book says,

            “Brands have become personal totems and value expressions for our lives—defining who we are, or who we aspire to be.”

Here I would like to share my own experiences illustrate how Starbucks developed their Empire as the most well known coffee brand in the world. I’m not a coffee drinker and prefer to drink hot water, but in U.S. this basic requirement seems much more difficult. The iced-drinking culture makes me embarrassed to get hot water, but Starbucks opened the gate for me, I’ll never have to worry about the scornful eyes by the baristas while at the same time it makes me feel very grateful about Starbucks that I feel sorry to just take free hot water away, therefore, for most times I take a piece of snacks.

Starbucks achieved extraordinary success in China. Even it is the world’s largest and oldest tea-drinking culture country, many are willing to go to Starbucks, sitting with snacks or fruit juice, chatting with friends or surfing the Internet with free wifi (few public places have it). People would like to pay for the premium non-coffee products in this global coffee chains. 

Apparently Starbucks just meets the demands of Chinese customers: Good taste and cozy environment.  People going to Starbucks is to get the "experience" not just the coffee. 

NYC MAP--My favorite iPhone App

My favorite app on my iPhone is NYC MAP, I got it by a friend’s referral and it works really well. I would say it is one of my top suggested apps to New Yorkers especially to those who just arrived in the city. I have two main reasons to support.

1) Multi-Functions

Unlike Google map, this featured maps has multi-functions that direct you exactly to wherever you want to go. You are able to “Jump To” the main spots of the city by just clicking on the lists you are provided and get a closer look. Then you may use “Filter” to navigate exclusively on shops, restaurants, hotels or bars on the district you located. Or if you have no idea where to go, the “Featured Maps” with the tagline “Discover Your City” is waiting for you. From there you could pick up one of the best hot spots they suggested.

2) Easy-to-Use

What is nice of this app is all about its easy-to-use. Unlike Google map, NYC MAP is featured with easy-to-recognized logos and names of the stores. How fantastic it is! I’ll never forget how upset I was when I first came here, wandering in the streets and lost in the hundreds of stores and rush crowd. But now with the NYC MAP I can easily find where I would like to go. I even don’t have to worry about the transportation since they did all the work for me no matter how I want to go (walk, transit or drive). The other great thing is I can get all the store information I’m interested: menus, tips, photos, parking locations, rates, and etc. I could even get complete movie theatre information and daily deals from a real time display.

I cannot wait to suggest this great app to everyone around me! The last but not least secret is this NYC MAP is not limited to NYC but other six cities. Ready for it?