Facebook IPO Gearing Up

As many of you know, Facebook, has been planning its IPO for the last couple months. This week they had just halted all private market sales of their stock. There are a couple ways to buy stock before it goes public but you have to know someone at one of the investment banks that is doing the underwriting for Facebook, or have a lot of money (to receive special treatment). For the most of us we have to wait for the IPO date that is supposed to be sometime in early May. The fact that Facebook has stopped all private sales means that they are getting ready for their IPO and may even happen a little earlier that anticipated.
The company shares have been soaring in the private market at around $44.10 per share. This gives the company a total market value of $103 billion. This means that investors are really expecting a huge increase of sales revenue in the next few years because this valuation is half the amount of Google's market share with only 1/10th of Google's revenue. This should be a very exciting IPO and could generate a lot of income for some people especially those who got in early with private sales of shares.
Does anyone think their IPO will flop? Do you think their shares are going to skyrocket?

In response to Tyler post about the use Behavioral Characteristics in Marketing

I think that this is diffidently a grey area for advertising because it certainly works, in terms of getting us to buy their product, but its also kind of tricking us into buying a product we might not need. They play into our basic human needs of being social creatures that feel a need to be part of a group. There is nothing wrong with it right now but I feel like there are lines that could easily be crossed. I really like the point you brought up though about the cologne and finding a mate because in nature some female animals only will mate with the male that is putting off the "best" or most desirable odor or the one with the "nicest" feathers. It a really interesting point of how marketers use basic animal instincts to get us to buy their product without us even really noticing it. Do you think that further research on animal characteristics and instincts could lead to better marketing or in some cases more manipulative Marketing? Is their already a field of marketing that may do studies like this and correlate them to marketing products?

Kraft Attempting to Rebrand International Image

Kraft has been known as a household since the early 1900's so it is a bit confusing to me as to why they would try and rename a brand that is over 100 years old. The company wants to change their name to Mondelez. A business insider article said that one of Kraft's executives thought of the idea and figured it would be a great name to use to re-brand Kraft international. The company will still be called Kraft in the US, but it is going to be called Mondelez everywhere else in the world they distribute to. ""Mondelez" (pronounced mohn-dah-LEEZ') is a newly coined word that evokes the idea of "delicious world."  "Monde" derives from the Latin word for "world," and "delez" is a fanciful expression of "delicious.""(Business Insider). I have read a couple articles on this and it seems that they are being met with a lot of negative reactions to this decision. The first complaint is that the word Mondelez sounds similar to a vulgar German term for oral sex, this is also according to another business insider article. Whether or not the the largest snack distribute in the world is going to make such a huge change to its image is uncertain at this time. It would be sad to see such a huge campaign like this flop on its face. Can anyone think of any other re-branding fails? Does anyone think it is a good idea to change their international name?

In Response to Chris's Post Much snow this winter?

This really has been a crazy winter in terms of the amount of snow we have gotten. I can imagine how hard this season must have been for companies that rely on winter. If I were a company, like the hardware store owner, I feel like I would have to stock up before or else you could run out stock and possibly lose customers. It would be more afraid of losing my steady customers than losing money for being over prepared. Also I can’t imagine how much money the ski resorts lost this year with there not being much snow. I know they must have huge overhead cost that they usually make back but I'm not sure about this year. There were only a few weeks that had good conditions this year. Also a company I intern for paid for snow removal up front to get a better deal but it turns out that they are getting a much worse deal because they have only needed snow removal twice all year. Environmental conditions will always be factor when planning ahead you just have to hope for the best and plan for the worst. Does anyone know how bad the ski resorts were hurt this year? Does anyone else have similar stories about over preparing?

Red Bull Founder Dies but Leaves a Great Legacy

The founder of Red Bull, Chaleo Yoovidhya, recently died at the age 90, but has a very interesting story about great marketing caused him to rise to be 205th richest man in the world with an estimated $5 billion. It is well know that red bull dominates the energy drink industry with a much larger market share than anyone else that is around 40%. It all started when an Austrian entrepreneur named Dietrich Mateschitz was sitting in a bar in Hong Kong and learned about a popular tonic that was used by night workers and such to get energy. It was created by Chaleo Yoovidhya's small pharmaceutical company and was called Krating Daeng. Materschitz thought it was such a great idea that him and Chaleo Yoovidhya started the company Red Bull with plans to bring it to the western market. The company used marketing tactics like publicity stunts and contest that have been made popular by the company in recent years. They became very popular with extreme sports and the counter culture. Also red bull cost twice as much per can as a normal soft drink but not because it cost more to make but because they wanted to stand out and becuase their product did things that others did not. The company one a formula one team, a Nascar team, a hockey team and a few soccer teams. The company did such a good job branding that they brought a product that was struggling in Thailand and created one of the most popular drinks in the world just by re-branding it. Does anyone else think this is amazing how your style of marketing can have such a huge impact? Can anyone think of any other examples of this?

In response to Alex Purdy's post...

I think that companies use these different strategies depending on their target market. The annoying Geico commercials seem to be directed more towards younger people while their are more serious commercials that really display what their products are and how they will help you aimed at older more mature audiences. I think that these "goofy commercials" will continue to get even weirder as more and more companies use them so they can really stand out and stick in your mind. We all know what Geico does and what their products are so they don't really need to tell us over and over all they really need to do is have their name fresh in are heads when we are thinking about insurance. Do you think these are effective commercials? or are they too annoying?

Apple worth half a trillion dollars

It is amazing that Apple is now worth over 500 billion dollars or half a trillion dollars. This is the companies market value and yesterday their market cap reached over 500 billion dollars. There has only been 4 other companies that have ever done reached over that half trillion line. Microsoft, ExxonMobil, Cisco, and General Electric are the only other companies that have done this. The company had 127 billion dollars in sales last year which is higher than Qatar's GDP. I find it amazing how a company that was started in a garage can grow to be worth that much in just 30 years. The stock price is over 500 a share, which is pretty crazy because it is more expensive to by 1 share of stock than it is buy a brand new iPad. Do you think they will sustain thier growth further? or do you think they will slip back down like the other 4 companies that reached that half trillion market cap?