FlixBus & MeinFernbus Are Offering Spotify

Week Beginning: 18.01.2016

The companies „Mein Fernbus“ and „FlixBus“, which recently have merged to form a partner-company have now Spotify on board. All around Europe, especially in Germany, these two bus companies have become a replacement for the train. On one hand, because they are much cheaper, but also because they offer free-wifi in their busses. With their newest marketing strategy, the company is trying to attract more customers.
Wifi was always offered during the bus rides, but it used to block Spotify, in order for everyone to have the same amount of data volume and therefore the same access to the internet. These times are now over since the company offers the access to Spotify now for their customers. Furthermore Spotify and FlixBus are offering a playlist for their customers too.

With this strategy the company hopes to attract more customers and maybe one day even become the market leader for transportation in Germany, since they are already the market leader in the bus transportation market. Since the company has a high number of younger people, often university students, as their customers, it makes them their target audience with their marketing strategy. Especially because Spotify is very popular within this specific age group.
This the links to Strategy of the CUEGIS, since the company has developed this certain marketing strategy to attract more customers. As mentioned above, they are trying to attract this special age group and are hoping to create brand loyalty within this age group. Furthermore it could create brand recognition, since more people would be thinking about using FlixBus instead of Deutsche Bahn. Furthermore it links to Change and Innovation of the CUEGIS, since it is a change for the company, since they never offered something linke that before. It might also link to Innovation, since no other transportation company/method offers a service like that, which makes it something entirely new in the market.

Microsoft is Opening Windows Store to Businesses

Week Beginning: 16.11.2015

Since early October, however, Microsoft has opened up about its plans a bit more. One of the big changes coming in Windows 10 is that the firm will allow businesses to customize Windows Store and manage the delivery of apps to their users.

This is a big deal for the company. When you consider how consumer-focused the Store was in the initial Windows 8 release two years ago, it becomes obvious that this change is in many ways an even bigger deal.

That is, in Windows 8 Microsoft introduced a safe, reliable and consistent apps platform. But it limited the reach of that platform by forcing those apps to only run in full-screen, by limiting the interaction these apps could have with desktop apps, and by pushing a touch-first user experience that isolated over a billion users on traditional PCs.

Microsoft started to break down the wall between these new apps, and the desktop. In Windows 8.1, it added a title bar with standard controls to these apps, making them easier to use with a mouse or other traditional pointing device. And in the initial Windows 10 pre-release builds, we've seen the next step, where these apps can run in windows on top of the desktop and alongside your other apps.

But the back-end changes are even more important. In Windows 8.1, for example, users can browse through the Windows Store and find a fairly middling collection of mostly consumer-oriented apps, and while Microsoft does let some desktop applications be advertised in the store, you have to download them and install them from the web, and those apps do not come with the liberal licensing found in Windows Store. Furthermore, you need to use a Microsoft account to even download an app from Windows Store.

Here's what's changing in Windows 10.

First, Microsoft is allowing business customers to use their domain accounts as connected accounts that work just like Microsoft accounts from the perspective of app acquisition and licensing. This means that highly managed businesses that wish to retain control over which apps their users install on work PCs and devices can now do so, and they no longer need to worry about users with their own Microsoft accounts on those machines.

Second, Microsoft is letting businesses modify Windows Store on their users' PCs so that they see a custom version of the store than highlights work apps and, if desired, those publicly-available apps that the business approves of. There will be a web-based portal for IT administrators that let them assign apps to users and user groups in Microsoft Azure Active Directory, Microsoft says.

Third, Microsoft is adding Windows Store management capabilities to System Center and in tune, and opening up these capabilities to third-party Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions. This will allow businesses to manage the installing and uninstalling of apps, app updates, app licensing, the addition of apps to Windows install images, the deploying of provisioning packages, and the ability to automatically install apps from an on-premises-based server.

This article links Strategy of the CUEGIS, since this is a marketing strategy of Microsoft to aim the new update of Windows directly to Businesses. The company tries to find a new market for its product by advertising their product directly to this market. In this case it also links to Market Development of the Ansoff’s Matrix, since the company is introducing an existing product into a new market. However since it is an update of the existing product with new features directly addressed to the new market, it is more Diversification of the Ansoff’s Matrix, since it is a new product in a new market. Therefore it is also very risky for Microsoft to do this step, since they are the market leader for computer softwares, but not for their App Store. Furthermore it also links to Change and Innovation of the CUEGIS. Since Microsoft has never advertised their software directly to businesses it is a change for the company. Adding to that, it links to innovation since there is not really a product (software) which is directly customized for a business use. Most softwares like (Microsoft), iOS or linux are customized for an average person, in order to attract a large customer base. Since Microsoft is the market leader in their market, they will have the possibility to attract a large customer base. They are also benefitting from their brand image and brand loyalty of their customers.

This startup just raised $81 million to sell your used clothes

Week Beginning: 07.09.2015:




The company ThredUP was founded six years ago, but with a totally different business model. Back then their idea was to let adults swap their used shirts over the internet, but soon realized that it was more efficient to let them swap kids clothing, since they grow out of it faster. They then received the attention of few investors. In 2009 the company was probably one of the first to tackle the second hand market and therefore this idea was new. When the company switched fully to second hand the revenue increased. They have about 1.8 million visitors to their site each year. And process more than a million items a months. The business is now worth $81 million round led by Goldman Sachs, bringing its total funding to more than $125 million.
ThredUP noticed that it was better to do the selling for the customers and not have them worry about it. The sellers receive a clean out kit and customers fill it up with the clothes they want to sell. The bag already includes postage address; all the customer has to do is drop it off at their local post office. The items are then being priced and photographed by the company and for any item that is worth less than $60, the seller is instantly paid.
Any items they don't accept are sold in bulk for scraps and the money goes to charity. Any money that goes to a seller can be used instantly for store credit or be cashed out to PayPal two weeks later.

This article links to innovation of the CUEGIS, since ThredUP was one of the first, if not the first, company which focused on second hand selling/swapping online. It was something new in 2009, especially because it was easy, simple and comfortable for the customer since it works over web. Although ThredUP offers a service and not a product, it could be referred to as having a unique selling point, which made it so successful in the last 6 years. 
It also links to Change of the CUEGIS, because it is an online thrift shop. This is as already mentioned something new, since it did not exist before, but also a change for local thrift shops. They might not make enough profit anymore and might have cash flow problems. If no one buys or sells their clothes to a secondhand shop anymore, these kinds of shops will eventually disappear, because people will sell/ buy their clothes from online thrift shops, since they are more accessible. 
The article also links to Strategy of the CUEGIS, since the company has established a certain strategy to attract customers. Online when they focused on children clothes and then fully on second hand, they started to become more successful and therefore had increasing revenue. Furthmore the company uses different pricing strategies to sell the incoming clothes. 

The article also links to the current topic of break-even-analysis and costs and revenues in the finance chapter. First of all the company uses different pricing strategies, when they receive the clothes but also for the sold clothes that is worth less than 60 dollars, where the customer is paid directly. It also links to the Break-even-analysis, because the company was at their BEP when they first started. Furthermore it also links to revenue streams, since the company will receive interest earnings from selling the clothes for their customer. It could also have a revenue stream from transaction fees, for offering PayPal.

Four Alabama teams win share of $240,000 in startup business funding

Week Beginning: 24.08.2015



Last week there was the Alabama launchpad competition in Birmingham, Alabama. Two team, winners of the latest round of the competition, split $240,000 in startup business funding. The program of the Economic Development Partnership of Alabama was created to help entrepreneurs get capital in order to launch their businesses. The competition is committed to help entrepreneurs succeed, so that their businesses create jobs for the public and grow Alabama’s economy. Different teams compete by giving their pitches before a panel of judges. These judges include investors, entrepreneurs and industry experts. All judges fall under the category of business angels. They all determine the amount of funding for each winner. The latest round, which ended last Thursday, has the following winners:

EditBIO, LLC ($25,000): Based in Hoover, this company aims to create an efficient, web-based marketplace to connect global biological and medical scientists with freelance editors to communicate clearly their science through English publications.

IllumiCare, Inc. ($100,000): Birmingham-based IllumiCare is a non-intrusive ribbon of information that hovers over a hospital's electronic medical record, showing physicians real-time, patient-specific costs and risks associated with tests and medications when they are about to order the next test or medication.

Open Frame LLC ($75,000): Open Frame LLC, based in Mobile, has created NitroPCR, a mobile electronic patient charts for Emergency Medical Services.

SimplyProse ($40,000): Based in Opelika with an Auburn University affiliation, this is a collaborative writing platform that affords all writers a space to create critique and market their work for profit or personal enjoyment.

This article links to Innovation of the CUEGIS, since all the businesses competing in this completion are startup businesses and most of them brought something to the market, which did not exist yet or not very much. This can be a product or a service. It also links to Change since these business innovations change the economy, which is what the competition is trying to do. They want Alabama’s economy to grow. Furthermore it also links to strategy of the CUEGIS. Since there are 13 different sources of finance, from which some are internal and some are external, the startup businesses receive aid from the judges, which are business angels and venture capitalists. If a business has cash flow problems/no capital, even at the start, this is strategy of solving this problem, by attracting these investors.