In Response to Nikki Perry...

Nikki posted about how new research has come out about Facebook fan pages and how they aren’t very effective for marketing products or services and I agree with her opposition to it. People use Facebook more so to find other people than products but newer, especially smaller, companies really can benefit from it. I usually use restaurant fan pages to find out the latest deals and what’s new on menu and I feel that many others do too. Mike Vatone could really benefit from an organized fan page with information about how his laundry service works and the details behind it such as pricing. He could have short term deals on his service and put them in his status so people become more aware of it. Right now Facebook is one of the most popular websites that people look at daily and if college students become more aware of a product or service they are more likely to use than not. So why not market your product?

Blood Diamonds: Why aren't they branded?

Imagine growing up in an area where you and your entire family are kidnapped to become soldiers in a mine. In this mine you are treated extremely poorly and frequently loose your limbs, die or watch your family member die to prevent competition against other groups doing the same thing. That is exactly what is happening in Sierra Leone, Africa, even years after an apparent settlement was made to prevent this from happening anymore. There are rules set in place so this does not happen anymore but these rules are not enforced and blood diamonds, also known as conflict diamonds, are still being shipped to countries all around the world to sell to people like you and I. These diamonds generate about $7.5 billion dollars annually and have contributed to over 4 million deaths in the process.

After watching a presentation about blood diamonds in one of my classes, I wonder why jewelery companies aren't branding their diamonds as NON blood diamonds. I realize they are more expensive but where are our morals if we can't pay a little more for the rock on our finger in order to save a life?

There are papers you can ask to see at the jewelers to prove that a diamond isn't a blood diamond but a majority of diamonds are. So why not start a company called Conflict Free Diamonds? Or at least advertise more that all the diamonds purchased by the company are conflict-free? I know it's not the most romantic thing in the world but I bet that sort of branding would be popular. Brand to save a life.

To the right is a video and song by Kanye West promoting conflict-free diamonds.