Addidas or Nike

Definitly Addidas. I read the article Nike Challenges Addisas on its Own Turf at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17282642/ In this article, I read that Addias is a German brand that has payed the German Soccor Association to play with Addias equipment and shoes since the year 1954, but Nike comes in all high and mighty and says they'll pay the association 49 million dollars more a year than Addias pays. Addidas currently pays the German Soccer Federation $14 million dollars and Nike says they'll pay $63 million a year. And they are going to the 'table' to discuss all this, which means they might start bidding. I think this is pretty dumb, quite honestly. They are paying major money for these people to wear their shoes in the biggest sporting event in that country, but still. It's ridiculous. But really, they are being very smart. Nine months after German hosted the 2006 Socccer World Champiionship, the birth rate had increased (positive thing) by 10-15%, the GDP grew 2.7 % and Addidas shares were rising as well. I think this is very interesting. Why is all this being affected by a soccer game? Well.... the birth rate sounds like a baby boomers kind of story (everybody's happy....nine months later there are a bunch of rugrats). I guess all of htis makes me upset becaue I love Addidas. And Nike is such a MONOPOLISTIC Economy. Direct quote here, "Our goal is to dominate the [soccer] brand by 2010," Nike marketing vice-resident Trevor Edwards told Business week.' Well, that doesn't sound at all dominating or scary. Anyway, as of now, the Germans haven't made a decision. They'll discuss it on March 9th.

This really relates to economomics because it is discussing a monopolistic economy. But more importnatly it is showing the impact that marketing can have on the quantity demanded. After all, we see in this article that after the Soccer World Championship, wheere the Germans were wearing their Addidas kicks, the sales for Addidas in that country rose as well. What I think is most interesting, is that the quantity supplied to the Soccer association will really dictate the quantity demanded in a different way than normal. normally, the more that is supplied in the MARKET, the less demand there is for the product, and the less supplied in the MARKET the more demand. In this case, the more soccer players inthe association that are wearing the shoes, the more the people want the product. Now, I know that the quantity supplied I am talking about is not in the market but rather in the marketing, but it's interesting to think about this. I suppose this happens a lot though. The more often you see a commerical on TV for something, the more you will want that product....so what do you think....Addidas or Nike? Is Nike trying to become the next Hitler? And Will the German Association take the Nike's SWEET deal or stick to tradition?

Gather Round the Good Stuff

Well, first and foremost, I will let everybody know that I am a cook at Pizza Hut (actually I am at work right now), and have been for more than a year and a half. I have seen everything there is to see with pizza. Right now, we are running a special on the delicious, but ridiculously hard to make Cheesybite Pizza (seriously, you have to do so much work to make this crust). Anyhow, this is a pizza substitute for the Stuffed Crust pizza, and I got to thinking about supply and demand yesterday at work. Since we are running the special on the limited time only Cheesybite Pizza, there is quite a large demand for this pizza. But, since it is a substitute for the stuffed crust, the quantity supplied for the stuffed crust has decreased, and the quantity supplied for the Cheesybite Pizza increased (technically, it didn't increase since we didn't have it a week ago, and it is a limited time only kind of deal, but since it came from nowhere, i.e 0, I would think that it is technically increasing). However, many people like to eat their Cheesybite pizza with dipping sauce like garlic, ranch, marinara, or blue cheese, there is now a higher quantity demanded for these sauces due to the complementary item (Cheesybite pizza). I guess I'm an econ nerd, just like beth ;), but while I was at work yesterday, making the ridiculously redundant Cheesybite pizzas, I just kept thinking, AP ECON!! AP ECON!!! SUPPLY and DEMAND! But, since I'm on my little blog here, is this right, it would be an increse in quantity supply and quantity demanded right?
Thank Goodness for Pizza Hut!!

MMMMM Coca-Cola

http://http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070201/clth056.html?.v=78www.cnbc.com/id/16924375
http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/business/16597384.htm
http://news.google.com/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&tab=wn&q=%22coca-cola%22

Basically, what we see here is some globalization and some really good trading in disguise. Coca-Cola is picking up this juice and tea company that is bassed in New Jersey. This company is called Fuze Beverage LLC. They are picking up all these different kinds of drinks, enhanced water products and energy drinks. I've given two links to the articles because they are really short, but this is primo stuff right here. It makes me want to go throw money into Coca-Cola stocks. I also added a link to a google search for Coca-Cola in the news because this is a new thing right here and I want to be able to check up on the status of this every so often. I mean they only released this idea Thursday (today) morning. According to one of these websites, Coca-Cola is the proud owner of the title for the world's largest beverage company. They have Fanta, Sprite, Juices, Teas, Coffees, sports drinks, etc. There beverages are enjoyed in more than 200 companies, serving up more than 1.3 billion servings every day. WOW!!! I think this is soo neat, and it really shows globalization. Let's not forget that Wheelen's book opens ujp talking about this wonderful beverage maker.

So we can clearly see why globlaization and Coca-Cola fit together in a neat little package. But, it's also pretty cool to think about how Coca-Cola will be picking up more beverages, which will increase Coca-Sales, but will probably make this juice company so big and so great that they will be hiring mreo employees and expanding. I ahve never heard of these alleged Fuze drinks, but I bet you I will see them in our stores within a month or two. They will have pimped out labels (excuse my language), they will have awesome commercials, etc. Coca-Cola picked this company up and is going to do it right. It's kind of like PepsiCo, which is a great company, I love it. Pepsi owns sports drinks, water drinks, milk drinks, malt drinks, sodas, juices, probably teas and other stuff, they own Fritos and other chip brancds. I mean, you walk into a store to buy a drink, and the probability that you pick up a PepsiCo product is pretty darn high.
Again, this relates to class stuff because it is about trading. Coca-Cola is trading it's brand name for a new product. COca-Cola gains new drinks, Fuze gains a great name for their product.

I think this stuff is great. I love Coca-Cola, I love how the soda companies take over the world, and I am dead serious when I say, I want stock in this company. Live the good life---