University of Surrey

Business & Economics Foundation Year

Writing an effective blog

Skim the three blogs here and rank them in order from highest to lowest marks.
 What were the problems with the weakest blog? How could these have been addressed?
 What were features of the strongest blog that made it so effective?

Blog 1

The iPhone XR, a flop?

This year in September, Apple announced the launch of their new flagship phones, the iPhone XS
and the iPhone XS Max. These two new phones have seen great early success with them flying off
the shelves. So far, they have sold 45% faster than the previous generation of the iPhone 8.
However, how has their “budget” option the iPhone XR handled after the launch.

The inspiration for this came from 5 years earlier, where they released a cheaper version of the 5S
known as the iPhone 5C. The sales of the 5C were in some ways, a moderate success, selling 13
million of these devices in the first year. Compared to the devices of the competitors it outsold even
Samsung’s flagship phone of the time, the Galaxy S4. However, the cost of this new model comes in
at £749. Even though this is still a lot cheaper than their other models, the price means that it is even
more expensive than some other competitors’ flagship devices.

Apple have addressed the issues from their previous “budget” phone by replacing the cheap feeling
plastic with more durable and higher quality glass, it is still of no aid. Recently, Apple have had to call
its Chinese assembler of Foxconn and Pegatron to cut down on the production of the XR
immediately. The original amount Apple were going to produce at Foxconn was around 100,000 per
month.

Since these production numbers were publicly stated by Apple, they have decided that in the future,
no sales figures will be released. This does suggest that Apple are trying to focus more on elsewhere,
rather than just their shipping volumes.
University of Surrey
Business & Economics Foundation Year

Blog 2

BA-BLING!
Can the home of luxury grow further?
Who are LVMH? LVMH stands for, ‘Louis
Vuitton and Moet Hennessy’. They are a
conglomerate headquartered in Paris.
Christian Dior is the most prominent part of
LVMH holding a staggering 40.9% of its
shares. (Youtube.com, 2019)

Now the main question, what is happening

with LVMH? You would think, being the well-known prestigious conglomerate, it is, they would not
need anything else. What more could these luxurious brands need? However, LVMH have declared
that it was taking over Tiffany & Co.

To understand how well this takeover will go we need to

understand the economics behind it. A conglomerate is
when a firm merge or takes over another firm which is in a
different industry. LVMH has a broad number of firms from
different industries. However, a conglomerate, just like
everything else, comes with its fair share of advantages and
disadvantages.

Advantages
If one company or market fails, then LVMH
have firms in different industries which they
can fall back on.
By joining Tiffany & Co, a very reputable firm,
they become more respectable against their
largest competitor, Kering.
Disadvantages
If Christian Dior fails, there will be a problem
since they own most of the shares in the
conglomerate.
If one firm fails, it could result in other firms
doing worse off than they already may have
been doing therefore unexpectedly firms may
decide to leave LVMH impacting them
negatively.

I believe that the luxury industry is very risky since the demand for goods are very elastic. The
takeover of Tiffany & Co could be a fantastic opportunity for the short run. However, if demand
changes due to fashion and tastes then will LVMH still be around in the future?

Sources:
Youtube.com. (2019). YouTube. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=TZG8gv9hRpI [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].

The Economist. (2019). LVMH tests the limits of luxury. [online] Available at:
https://www.economist.com/business/2019/11/28/lvmh-tests-the-limits-of-luxury [Accessed 30 Nov.
2019].

Logos Download. (2019). LVMH logo, logotype – Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. [online] Available at:
https://logos-download.com/7939-lvmh-logo-download.html/lvmh_logo_logotype_moet_hennessy_loui
s_vuitton [Accessed 30 Nov. 2019].
University of Surrey
Business & Economics Foundation Year

Blog 3

A storm ahead for the German car industry

https://www.ft.com/content/5c304e72-120a-11ea-a7e6-62bf4f9e548a

This week, Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler heaped more misery onto the German car
industry, calling for more than 10,000 cuts in the next 2 years (Ft-1). The news is following
the 40,000 job losses (Ft-2) recently announced from other German companies such as Audi
and car parts supplier Continental. The sad truth is this is only the beginning with it being
predicted that 70,000 jobs (ft-2) to be lost in the
near future. Why?
The answer stems from the decision to gradually
transform the industry from combustion engines to
electric vehicles. If they are to do so then they will
have to pump 40 billion Euros into battery-powered
technologies in the short space of 3 years (Ft-2),
leading many workers employed in the automotive companies to be made redundant in order
to cut costs to fund this vast project. Sounds fair, right?
The fact that EU regulations has set a carbon emission target of 100g CO2 per km by 2021
(Ft-1) has caused companies to accelerate the rate of conversion of manufacturing
conventional vehicles to electric cars and consequently have caused such drastic cuts due to
this ticking time-bomb. If this objective is not met by its deadline then companies could face
upwards of a billion euro fine from Brussels which companies just simply cannot afford to
get during this economic crisis.
However, not all hope is lost for workers with German labour unions acting as the last barrier
to cutting their jobs. These unions have demanded and successfully made the likes of Audi
and Continental provide job guarantees until the end of 2030. They have also made them
instate a pay of estimated 100,000 Euros (Ft-1) per employer if employers are to be cut,
disincentivizing companies to lay off workers and instead give thought to reskilling
programmes.
Sources:
1. https://www.ft.com/content/e2e7ddaa-129a-11ea-a225-db2f231cfeae

2. https://www.ft.com/content/5c304e72-120a-11ea-a7e6-62bf4f9e548a