Tag Archives: Environment

by | Thursday, March 2, 2023 · 7:36 am

Consumer Electronics Show 2023

If you love technology and new gadgets, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the place to be. CES is one of the largest and most influential showcases in the world for introducing innovative technology products from around the globe.

This year the Las Vegas-based show brought in 115,000 industry professionals, making it the largest audited global tech event since 2020.  With more than 3,200 exhibitors, including 1,000 start-up companies, CES 2023 gave us new innovations in mobility, health, transportation, sustainability, and more.

A diverse group of companies from around the globe showcased the latest innovations in the technology industries to attendees from more than 140 countries. In all, 60% of the Fortune 500 companies were represented.

The show also provided looks at products in the marketplace as well as products-yet-to-be-launched highlighting key trends such as:

  • Human security for all
  • Automotive and mobility
  • Electric vehicles
  • Digital health
  • Sustainability
  • Web 3 and Metaverse

New products demonstrated how technology can conserve energy, increase power generation, address food shortages, create sustainable agricultural systems, power smart cities, support access to clean water, and improve life for people with physical challenges.

The last category – physical challenges – may be one of the most innovative as companies worked on technology to improve lives of people who may often be overlooked. Some of the highlights include power wheelchairs, augmented listening, new earbuds, speech amplifiers and more. It’s one of my favorite categories.

What’s your favorite innovation from CES?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:  

  1. Discuss the purpose of CES show and how innovation fits into it.
  2. View the CES Web site: https://www.ces.tech/
  3. Also discuss the use of trade shows and exhibits as part of a marketing plan.
  4. Show a video overview of CES 2023: https://youtu.be/fAJ1LCO4cV4
  5. Show a summary video covering new innovations for accessibility: https://www.wsj.com/video/series/dalvin-brown/ces-2023s-most-innovative-assistive-tech-jabra-whispp-and-more/F7DEC067-2116-4C51-A173-E0A071E28EEA
  6. Divide students into teams. Have each team select a product featured at CES.
  1. Scewo Bro: https://www.scewo.com/en/  (Power wheelchair)
  2. L’Oreal Hapta: https://www.loreal.com/en/articles/science-and-technology/hapta-ces-2023-lancome-innovation/  (For beauty lovers with limited hand and arm mobility)
  3. Xander Glasses: https://www.xander.tech/  (Augmented listening for people who are hard of hearing)
  4. Jabra Enhance Plus: https://www.jabra.com/hearing/enhance-plus?gclid=Cj0KCQiAiJSeBhCCARIsAHnAzT_SGnooIY_nEW554M23GwsvGWKrIKnazpnbsvmc1Rh1Gi87YUm8kQsaAhwGEALw_wcB##21879090  (Earbuds for enhancing your hearing)
  5. Whispp: https://whispp.com/?lang=en  (Speech amplifier for people with a voice disorder)
  6. Instruct students to research the products online, and define a target market for the product?
  7. Which ones do they think will be winners in the marketplace? What products miss the mark?
  8. Discuss the use of trade shows and exhibits as part of a marketing plan.

Source:  C/NET; TechRadar; The Verge; Wall Street Journal; other news sources

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by | Thursday, January 5, 2023 · 7:37 am

Forever Ware to Cut Take-out Waste

Take-out containers and cups account for a large percentage of trash in the U.S. And according to the Energy Department, only 5% of plastic waste in the U.S. is recycled. During Covid, even more take-out containers were needed while restaurants were closed for in-person dining. More trash.

Although we would all like to use recyclable containers for our take-out orders, most of the time we don’t have that option. We don’t mean to cause excess trash, but it happens. Perhaps the solution to that problem is to encourage restaurants and cafes to place take-out orders into reusable containers that can be returned and used again, and again, and again.

This is the basis of Forever Wear – to provide recyclable containers to businesses for them to use with their customers. The restaurant is the point of contact and offers the containers to customers for a fully refundable deposit.

It works like this – restaurants and cafes pay a monthly fee to license Forever Ware software that in turn, allows the restaurant to checkout and track stainless steel containers and mugs. Customers pay a refundable fee to use containers that can be returned to the store, where they are then provided with clean, sanitized containers for their next order.

The restaurants benefit by saving thousands of dollars on disposable containers and decreasing landfill trash. The customer benefits from the clean healthy containers while also doing good and lowering their carbon footprint. 

Sign up and do some good for the environment!

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Poll students: How much do they think their takeout food containers contribute to a trash problem?
  2. How would use a different system if it reduced waste?
  3. Show Forever Wear website: https://foreverware.org/
  4. Videos are available at: https://www.youtube.com/@foreverware9208
  5. Discuss organizational buying compared to consumer buying.
  6. Divide students into teams.
  7. Have half of the teams develop a marketing program directed at getting restaurants to sign up for Forever Wear.
  8. Have half of the teams develop a promotional campaign to convince customers to use the containers.
  9. Debrief the exercise.

Source:  Williams, N. (9 November 2022). Putting a lid on takeout waste. Minneapolis Star Tribune.

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by | Thursday, December 1, 2022 · 7:55 am

Contagions Apply to Both Sickness and Health

Trends are contagious, both when they are growing as well as when they are declining. Think about it. We see new trends nearly every day, adopt them, but then just as often we quit those trends. This is not just a lone event of one person though. Social networks are strong components in helping us decide what to adopt.

According to research, many health behaviors are fundamentally contagious ideas. Basically, your social network can predict health, weight, and exercise (even stock prices). A timely case that illustrates this movement is Peloton, which reached a high during the pandemic, only to plummet a year later as the pandemic waned.

How do we get ‘infected’ with the contagion? Social networks lead consumers to catch the trend, live with it, and then move on to new trends. During the pandemic, it was all about fitness at home, online training, and connected exercise equipment. We couldn’t go to the gym and many sports were suspended, leading to more investment in home-based fitness. However, now that pandemic restrictions have been removed, we’ve gone back to the gym and sports teams.

Research conducted by the American College of Sports Medicine shows us how trends move in cycles: Pilates, Zumba, Cross Fit, spinning, and boot camps are all examples. Even exercises with staying power, such as yoga and running, move into new variants and practices to survive. Some of the top fitness trends for 2022 include:

  • Wearable technology
  • Home exercise gyms
  • Outdoor activities
  • Strength training with free weights

What trends do you think will stick around?

Group Activities and Discussion Questions:

  1. Divide students into teams. Have each team list past fitness trends they have tried?
  2. What helps a trend stick around?
  3. What leads trends to quickly fade out?
  4. Using Peloton as an example of trends, show video about Peloton’s life cycle: https://www.wsj.com/video/series/wsj-explains/why-peloton-spun-out-what-happened-to-the-bike-and-treadmill-firm/30FEB49E-85EE-4719-9B6D-F7E44D195CE5
  5. View ACSM report on fitness trends: https://journals.lww.com/acsm-healthfitness/Fulltext/2022/01000/Worldwide_Survey_of_Fitness_Trends_for_2022.6.aspx
  6. Discuss the stages in the product life cycle. What are the marketing objectives in each stage?
  7. Divide students into teams. Have each team draw a product life cycle and place various fitness and health trends into each stage.
  8. Next, have students brainstorm on how to reposition or revise products/services to that they can move into an earlier stage of the life cycle.
  9. Have teams draw a product life cycle. Place different fitness and health trends on the PLC.

Source: American College of Sports Medicine (30 December 2021). Wearable tech named top fitness trend for 2022.; Zumbrun, J. (9 September 2022). Both sickness and health, it turns out, are contagious. Wall Street Journal.

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