Month: October 2017

A new era in Global Marketing Communication
Writer: Shantel F. Mbulo

A question regarding globalization, which we an answer to is. How will the global market look in 10 years? Well that is a question I can answer in a heartbeat.

With the growing demands and emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and last but not least China, call for new marketing strategies. A marketing strategy that works in Denmark might not work in Zambia, caused by language barriers and cultural differences. In order for a Danish company to successfully penetrate the Zambian market, the company must seek above gaining economic surplus. The company might even need to adjust their product to the country in interest.

Communication is key Another important factor to be aware of, is the manner in which you communicate. Before penetrating a market, research is the core of succeeding. Behavioral patterns vary, consumers therefor demand to know why a company belongs in their country, and a company should be very keen on emphasizing this. Hence, hyper-transparency is king, if any failure on this field a company simply gets discredited and weakens its opportunity. As Eminem rapped “You only got one shot do not miss the chance to blow”.

Digitization of globalization The past 5 years there has been huge growth in PR companies. This is caused by the growth in digital influencers such as bloggers etc. which calls for more media awareness. The Internet never sleeps; you therefore need to be aware of the fast changing trends. However, not all get to be a part of the vast change. There are still 3^rd world countries who are left out….

Author: Muhamet Shala from Switzerland

Chaos. War. Anxiety. These are just a few words that might describe the topic. There has not been a bigger wave of refugees since World War 2 as we, in Switzerland, are experiencing it at the moment. People ,especially from the Middle East, are pioneering their way all over European countries. But the real question is: Where can we place the victims? Do we have the needed resources to handle the situation?

The Swiss officials are pretty conservative and blinded by prejudice at the same time. Sure, when I am leaving the train station and travelling to work, I might get somewhat angry when I see a bunch of refugees sitting at the lake and drinking beer the whole day., but I push my thoughts immediately out of my mind. I cannot put every refugee under the same umbrella. There are lots of people that had a real reason to leave their homes, caused by war or being a victim of political persecution, but there are others that enjoy their lives paid from Swiss citizens’ taxes and even commit crimes. Identifying the difference between these two groups of people is the main dilemma.

In Lucerne, where I live, there are lots of refugees. I worked for the Swiss bank called PostFinance. A couple of years ago, the bank used to be in the full possession of the state. Since 2014, PostFinance became independent from the Swiss government. They now have almost every license as a general bank, but PostFinance still needs to follow some regulations from Switzerland. For instance, it is a written law that everyone in Switzerland with a resident permit must have access to financial services. PostFinance is the only bank who opens accounts and makes consultations with the refugees. In these consultations, one can see the difference between the grateful and ungrateful refugees all of whom receive free financial services.

There is a group of young Eritrean activists who want to prove the condemning Swiss citizen wrong. According to the public relations speaker of the group, the dilemma is caused by the very few possibilities for refugees to integrate well in our society. Without a diploma and perfect Swiss and English language skills, the immigrants are not valuable on the job market. That causes lots of problems for refugees, because it is almost impossible to attend school and achieve the required skills. In conclusion, the refugees get the feeling of not being an active participant of society and often become depressed. Instead of staying at home, they try to kill time and make friends with other people of the same origin. As a result of a failed integration, the refugees meet with their friends in public places, cut out of the world and society.

There is one feeling that is spreading more and more in the parliament chamber: Doubt. While the liberal political groups still try to convince the Swiss citizens to help the immigrants to be active and a part of the society, the conservative political groups use blatant propaganda to destroy the reputation of all refugees. To sum up the situation: people are anxious and curious about what is going to happen in the future.

Emma Andersson, SWE, 10/3/2017

In this article I am going to tell you about the Uber Technologies, an American company what business is to pick up people and drop them of where they want to go. Here in Santa Barbara I have been really aware of the company because that’s the only option to go with at nights if you don’t want to walk and I don’t prefer to walk between the places here in Santa Barbara because it is some distance between each locations, like if you are in Goleta for example and want to go to downtown. Bus works also, but they don’t go so late at night.

The company was founded in 2009 by Garret Camp and Travis Kalanick, but then it was called UberCab. It was not until 2011 the company changed name to just Uber. The headquartered is in San Francisco in California but the company is operating in hundreds of cities worldwide. In my city in Sweden it is not so common, but here in Santa Barbara I use it almost every day.

The Uber service is not the same in every city, but here in California it works as simple as this; it’s an application in your smartphone who show a map of you localization and then you just write in the place you want to go to. Then every Uber driver who is close to your localization get a notification about your trip and one of them takes the ride and pick you up and then drop you off at the address you had chosen. The payment works in the way that you have to registrant your bank card in the application and after every ride with Uber, money takes from your account. The amount of money depends on the distance and also if you are on a spot where no Uber drivers is close to, the amount of money increase so Uber drivers wants to choose just your ride. 

Any time, any day of the year is Uber available and you can always see all the details of every driver on your application before you get the ride. After every trip you have taken, you can rate your driver and provide anonymous feedback such as the condition of the car and the driver behavior and so on. You can also choose particular type of car of your unique needs, like if you need to fit a wheelchair in the car or if your are more than 4 persons and need a bigger car.