Description: Intel co-founder Gordon Moore has died at age 94. In 1965 Moore made a famous prediction that became known as Moore’s Law: essentially, it states that the capacity of computer chips would double every 12 months or so. His rule was expanded to a broader range of technology, sparking the notion that the next… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Marketing & Strategy
Head West for the Summer!
Description: If you ever thought of heading west for a summer job in tourist locations like Banff, Canmore or Lake Louise, this might be the year for you. Worker shortages have employers scrambling to meet their staff needs in the hospitality industry in these Rocky Mountain resort areas. Wages are heading up to help attract… Read more »
Nordstrom Out: Familiar Story
Description: American high-end retailer Nordstrom is pulling out of Canada. The chain started Canadian operations in 2014, but it has not been making any money here, reporting losses of $72 million in 2022. The Retail Strategy Group’s Liza Amlani was not surprised by Nordstrom’s move, noting that it had made the same classic mistake as… Read more »
Starbucks Raises (and Lowers) the Bar
Description: If you’re a Starbucks’ rewards points regular, you may have noticed that the company has raised the bar, now requiring twice as many points for some of the free treat options. Hot coffee, tea, and bakery selections that used to cost you 50 stars (or points) will now cost you double that amount. If… Read more »
Freeze Lifted
Description: High food prices have been impacting Canadian consumers in this inflationary environment, and some are expressing their displeasure via social media in the wake of Loblaw lifting a prize freeze it had set back in the fall of 2022. Loblaw has responded through its own social media channels to defend its actions against consumers’… Read more »
Musk Unloads; Share Price Falls
Description: Elon Musk unloaded another large chunk of his Tesla stock this past week, driving the share price down 16% in a week. Of course, this does not leave investors in a very good mood, and one major investor is calling for Musk to step down as CEO of Tesla. Musk has sold close to… Read more »
Cassettes Anyone?
Description: It may seem a bit strange, but cassettes are now showing up again in music stores. With artists such as Taylor Swift and The Weekend including this retro-form as a medium of distribution for their new offerings, there’s definitely some shelf space opening up for a format once thought to be obsolete. Part of… Read more »
Swift Rebuke
Description: Taylor Swift called it “excruciating.” That’s her take on the fiasco that saw frustrated fans struggling to secure tickets for her upcoming tour after waiting it out for hours. Swift and others see this as a signal that Ticketmaster – and its parent company Live Nation – are broken. Calls are emerging to investigate… Read more »
Facebook Falling
Description: The stock price of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been tanking. On Thursday, the markets wiped out 20 percent of the big tech giant’s market valuation, following two quarter’s of revenue declines. Investors see former Facebook advertisers heading off to TikTok as one of Meta’s problems. Others see the billions of spending on the… Read more »
Health Benefits Bring Workers
Description: Restaurant employees have long been used to working without employer sponsored health benefit plans. But in this time of staff shortages, restaurateurs, such as Calgary’s Antonio Migliarese, are seeing health and dental benefits as way to attract and retain a quality staffers. As line cook Maddy Vine states, in “an industry that’s all about… Read more »