Under Armour Competes with Nike

For the past few years, Nike has dominated the basketball shoe market. Their control of the market has grown from 89 to 95 percent. Now, Under Armour, a sports retailer based out of Baltimore, is planning on competing against Nike in the basketball footwear market. Their focus will be building a relationship with customers, rather than looking for market share.

This article was interesting to me because I plan on entering a career in merchandising or marketing. People always think of their dream job as working for the top company at the time, but it’s also important to think about competitors within the same market, because the job could potentially entail so many different things. Nike has been on top for so many years now, and I would assume their focus is how to STAY on top. Working for them would be great, but working for a company like Under Armour or Addias would shift an employee’s focus on what they can do to get better. Being the underdog would be difficult, but it would be a great challenge to take.

I think it is a really great idea that Under Armour is shifting its focus on consumers in order to have more success as a brand. They plan on being more compelling for high school and college teams, which is a great target market. With Nike Basketball having endorsement deals with some of the top athletes in the world, such as LeBron James, it’s clear that Under Armour would have to step up their game and endorse athletes that their target market can look up to. Fortunately, they have done just that, by endorsing younger athletes who are fresh out of high school and college, but still extremely well-known.

This aspect of the retail industry has always struck my interest. I have taken a few marketing classes that actually focus on topics just like this. I would love to work for a popular retail company and have a job as someone who focuses on the consumer’s wants and needs. The main question I have at this point is: what are the different job titles within the marketing and merchandising industry of a retail company?

Jamaica Terry

http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2010/10/upstarts_aiming_at_nikes_baske.html

Teaching Abroad

This article summarizes a few Americans' experiences teaching English abroad in Spain. The article discusses a few problems and expected credentials to have.

This article is relevant to me because after graduation I would like to work abraod and teach English. This article surprised me because it was fairly negative to the idea and programs in Spain. Through the article I learned that recieving a TEFL certificate is recommended, but not requirred if one would like to teach in Spain. The article also stressed that being from an EU country will improve your chances of finding a job rather than being a citizen of the United States. This article furthers my understanding of the industry by informing me which TEFL schools have accreditation and which schools do not. After reading the article I wondered how objective the author is. I would like to know if he had a poor experience in Spain or if this is the case for the majority of people who teach in Spain?

www.spainexpat.com/spain/information/teaching_english_in_spain_tefl/

Many Law Firms Catching on to CSR Policies

A major law firm in London, called Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, is starting to implement various CSR policies into their law firm. For example, instead of using styrofoam cups, they now use mugs. They even give their excess cooking oils from their in-house restaurant to taxi services to use in their hybrid cars. The company stated that they felt that customers were increasingly looking to work with companies that cared about the environment. This will most likely lead to a trend of law firms and other types of companies starting to care more about CSR, not just to help the environment, but to gain customers.

I think that this really cool in that it correlates to my groups proposal. We proposed to Dutch Bros. that switching to compostable cups would help them gain more customers due to the focus on CSR. This article proves this point in that people care about how companies contribute to the environment, even law firms. Someday I plan to work for and eventually own a law firm so it is encouraging that my field of work is already starting to focus on corporate social responsibility.

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202422753677

Walmart Pharmacy

Walmart has one of the top Pharmacy chain in the country. they provide medication of millions of people with affordable prices. Walmart has the deal where patients can get their prescription drugs for $4 a month. This is avery good deal for the patients who can not afford a lot of money.

Right now, my major is pre-pharmacy so someday I want to be a pharmacist, and I would consider Walmart as one of the places I would like to work for. They have very good salary and benefits. My cousin, who just graduated from pharmacy school, got a job offer at Walmart down in California. She told me a lot about their company, and a lot of it are really good feedbacks.

On the other hand, there are patients who can not stand Walmart pharmacy. their reasons would be that it takes too long to get the medications. In this review article, a pharmacist, who works at a Walmart pharmacy, defend the pharmacy with the argument of a lot of people go there to get the drugs because the price is very affordable so it takes a little longer than other pharmacies. If one is there to get the drugs because of the price then why can't they understand that others would do the same thing. She aslo argue that people think all they do is to put the drugs in the bottle but the truth is that they need to contact the doctors and do all the paper works before they can deliver the drugs.

In conclusion, Walmart pharmacy is very good place for both the employees and patients. Everyone will get treated with respect and professionalism.

Question: Would you get your drugs at the Walmart pharmacy?

this is the article
http://mw8xt6bj7r.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info:ofi/enc:UTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=news&rft.atitle=DMH+teams+up+with+Walmart&rft.jtitle=Herald+%26+review+(Decatur,+Ill.+:+1989)&rft.date=2009-11-24&rft.pub=McClatchy-Tribune+Information+Services&rft.externalDBID=n/a&rft.externalDocID=212771681

NFL Reinstating Players with Bad Pasts

This article is about how the NFL reinstated Michael Vick, a convicted felon after hosting and harboring illegal pit bull fights where he was responsible for the murder of numerous dogs. Vick spent a year in jail and was released on probation. Soon after he was reinstated to the NFL and is now soaring as quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles. Playing some of his best football ever. The article pretty much talks about how the stigma of Vick's horrible past is fading now that he is doing well in the NFL.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/sports/football/19vick.html?src=mv

As my future aspirations pertain to becoming Director of Public Relations for a NFL team, I feel like this is right down my alley. The NFL suffers from this type of bad publicity all the time. There are NFL players getting shot, getting in bar fights, and being accused of rape almost annually. And the problem with this is usually it's the star athletes who get into this type of trouble. Athletes who are making millions of dollars and who fans pay to see that are creating this debacle for the NFL. Now most people with a solid moral compass would say, if convicted of any of those said crimes, let alone killing innocent dogs like Michael Vick did, than they should be permanently banned from the NFL. Well I believe that every deserves a second chance, unless the crime committed is severe enough to get jail time of 5+ years. The reason for this being is because most felonies if convicted have punishments that fit the crime. And after 5+ years of being out of the NFL, you drop off the radar and that is enough time for you to lose any sort of appeal to the sport. Again, this type of problem is something that I will be learning how to manage in the future. To keep a positive image for a company while maintaining or increasing their profits off of someone like Michael Vick. It's a lot of teeter tattering, but in the end like the above article has shown, time will usually fade out any bad doings of a misguided or unfortunate player.

Coldwater Creek Clothing Store Decline in Sales

Coldwater Creek is a clothing store. As of October 2010, after a three month observation of a period, their sales went from $225 million to $230 million. This unfortunately, was a decline of about 18-20% since last years amount for this same time period. On the bright side, total inventory at quarter end is expected to increase in the mid-single digit range as compared to inventory at the end of the third quarter last year.

This article, truly reflected the extreme highs and lows that any retailer can experience during tough times in the economy. It is important that companies have knowledgeable buyers so they do not over buy with the money that they could potentially lose if they don't meet the sales goals. As a Merchandising Management major, these aspects of any business are crucial when it comes to sales, cost, and the sales history. This information can help us forecast trends for the future and tell us how much to buy for the retail store. It is especially important during recessions because it is unfortunate when major stores have to shut down because they do not look to the future and lose all of their money.

Desirae MacGillivray

http://www.fashionnewspaper.com/articles/6752/1/Coldwater-Creek-Updates-Third-Quarter-2010-Earnings-Guidance/Page1.html

Director in Bronx Zoo does more than Direct

To James J. Breheny the Bronx Zoo is more than a work space. Starting out working with ducks and goats his dreams have furthered to being the director of the zoo. But being the director is not just about business to be done. Breheny shows the fun and games that come with the job.

I am not totally sure what I want to do in the future but I know I would like to be in a zoo. This article shows that even with one job in a zoo one may have many opportunites to be involved with other departments. Breheny has been given an chance to expand his knowledge in the zoo with the 600+ species he is around on a day to day basis. I would love to have the opportunity to experience working with more than one type of animal, even though I would like my main focus to be on primates. There is a section in this article where they do not want people to experience the animals by looking down to them but rather close up and eye to eye. I believe all zoos should go this direction, allowing visitors to come rather close to an animal that one would normally never run into in their lifetime.

Question: Being that James Breheny is in charge of such a large amount of species, how much interaction does the director of the zoo have with the keepers and other staff in the zoo? and how does he allow knowledge of others to grow within the zoo?



http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/nyregion/21experience.html?_r=1&ref=bronx_zoo_wildlife_conservation_park