Sunday, February 25, 2007

Restaurants With Touch Screen Menus

When we go to restaurant and there is a lot of people and few waiters, we have to wait forever to place our order. Well, this would not be the case anymore if all restaurants implement a system where people can use touch screen menus to place their order. Some of the advantages of the touch screen menus are the following. First, people would not have to wait to order their food until a waiter is available; in this case people can place their order at any time without having to rush, or without having to wait. Second, if people need to order something else they have to wave and wave to their waiter and wait until he/she goes to their table. With the touch screen this would not be a problem any more because people will not have to wait for the waiter to place their order. All they have to do is press a couple of buttons and wait only for their food, dessert or drink.

When I thought about the touch screen menus, I did some research to know if this idea or something similar has being implemented and where. I found out that Japan does have this technology, and it does not only allow people to place orders, it also allows them to play games and read the news. Well, probably if you go by yourself this would be great, but if you go with your friends this would not be necessary since you will probably prefer be talking to your friends. After finding this out, I thought that these extra features could be added to some of the touch screen menus and not to all of them. One area of the restaurant can have touch screens with the extra features, and the other area of the restaurant can have touch screens only to allow people to place orders. People should be able to choose which touch screen menus they prefer.

The touch screen menus can make restaurants to run more efficient and effective in different ways. First, if one waiter is helping in two tables, he/she would not have to go back and forth predicting who is ready to place their order first. Second, this would avoid confusion between waiters and customers by ordering the right food and not the one that the waiter though he/she hear. Third, if customers want to order something else, they don’t have to wait for the waiter to go to their table and place the order. Last, but not least, people will not feel pressure by the waiter to place their order.

I think that this technology is not too far from us. Probably in a couple of years, we will be using this touch screen menus in our favorite restaurants, or something similar to this.

Thursday, February 22, 2007

“Writing that Works, And it Works!

Thinking about what is the best way to start to write a paper such as an essay and or research. Well, here are some steps to follow to have a good start. Based on what I read in “Writing that Works”, the first think you should do when writing a paper is to do some research about the topic if you don’t know anything about it. But don’t spend too much on doing research; this should only take you a couple of minutes. Next, you should construct an outline. There are different types of outline, but one of the most common is to have “main points” and 2-3 levels on each of the main points. Then you should have one sentence under each level, this should be facts that would support your writing. Once you finish with the outline, your next step is to write the first draft using the outline as your main tool. When writing the draft, make sure you don’t do any editing because writing and editing are separate steps. Don’t worry about the grammar, spelling, and punctuation; the first draft is considered free writing. Write whatever it comes to your mind based on what you know about the topic and based on any information that you gathered. As soon as you finish with your draft, take a break of at least 2 or more hours so you can go back and do some corrections. It is recommended that you edit your draft after one or two days because it would allow you to think yourself as a reader and not as a writer. This would give you better results when editing since you would consider yourself as the audience and not as the person who wrote the paper (writer). Have in mind that your draft would probably not end up looking as your outline, and that is ok since the outline is only a tool to help you star. When you are editing, make sure the order of your paper makes sense, if not, then this is the time to move things around. If needed, take some breaks in between the writing and revising so you don’t get too frustrated and or tired. Once you review your draft and made corrections; it is a good idea to give it to someone else so they can read it and give you some feedback. You can give it to your professor, friend or anyone one who you think it would give you good feedback, but it is recommended that you give it to someone that is related to whatever you are wrote so he/she can give you better feedback.

There are different ways to organize your paper. For example, you can have your paper in decrease order of importance, this means that you would start from the most important to the least important fact. Another option is to organize your paper by increase order of importance, this means to start with the least important and finish with the most important. When I read this, I kind of know that there was the options were, but reading more about them would help me to better organize my writing.

A good part to start your paper should be with your body and live introduction and conclusion to the last because some people like me don’t know how to start the intro, or what to include in the intro. So, it is recommended that you start with the body, and then it would be easier to start your intro and conclusion. Although, this is not the case for everyone, some would feel better to start the intro then the body followed by the conclusion; anyway you want to start would be good as long as you mention everything that you introduce or vise versa. If you already know what to write in the intro, then start with the intro, but if you don’t know what to write in the intro and conclusion, then start with the body.

Source: Writing that Works

Toyota’s Scion Plans To Sell Fewer Cars

According to the author, the Scion brand it’s being such as a success brand that now the company is planning to have its own clothing line and its own music label. The brand is on track to beat its 150,000-car year sales goal by 25,000 vehicles in 2006, and Mr. Peterson has predicted a 250,000-car year sales if the brand keeps its advertisements the way it is now. The xA and xB have contributed to this success of the Scion.

The qualities of Scion’s vehicles that have contributed to the brand’s success are the interior, the CD audio system with 160 watts through six speakers and a mini-jack for the MP3 player, and WMA. Besides that, I think that other qualities include the sport looking of some of the vehicles inside and outside, exterior ground effects, choice of multiple accessories, and last but not least, you are able to configure your own Scion car the way you wand by visiting Scion’s website. Not only had the qualities of Scion’s vehicles contributed to the brand’s success, but its strategies too, such as whom to market, when to market and how to market. It is very important not only to predict the target size, but to know whom the market is going to be and when would be the best time to market.

Scion decided to suspend production of certain models. Based on what I read on the article, I think there are a couple reasons for the decision made by Toyota company. First, to make new models that are even more attractive to customer’s eyes, relying on the old models. Second, to create customer satisfaction and predict what customers might want their next Scion to be, something that differentiates the old models from the new ones. According to the author, Scion not only eliminated production, but also eliminated TV advertisement and dropped their presence from “My Space”. I think that one of the reasons they made this decision is because their goal to create awareness of the brand has being accomplished. Scion was concerned that people would get tired and bored with the brand if they hear too much about it or see it too much. Also, I don’t think Scion is too worried about dropping their presence from TV advertisements, “My Space” and any other type of media because they still rely on one of the most important strategy to create awareness, and that is word of mouth. And instead of “My Space”, Scion is concentrating in different social websites such as secondlife.com, which allows users to create a car culture on their own.

It is a great strategy to attract customers by allowing them to create their own car style. Scion is differentiating its self from other vehicle companies by allowing people to create their vehicle any way they want. In the other hand, I was surprised when I read that Scion wanted to do less advertisement so people don’t get bored of the brand. I thought that the more advertisement companies do, the more people know about the product, and the more people know about the product, the more they would buy, but this is not Scion’s case. Sometimes it is good to do different things so people don't get bore of the same things they see every day and everywhere they go. Being different is the key for any business who want to enter the doors of the success.

Source
Gina, Chon. " A Way Cool Strategy: Toyota's Scion Plans to Sell Fewer Cars. The Wall Street Journal