The Carphone Warehouse in London has released a new mobile phone which they claim to be the UK’s cheapest pay as you go mobile phone, the phone is brand new and is made by Samsung - B130 Black, and at less than a fiver they are saying you cant go wrong with the product. 

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Posted by admin on November 14th, 2008 :: Filed under Power Brands
Tags :: Credit Crunch, Mobile Phones

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Sony Computer Entertainment UK boss, Ray Maguire, has admitted that Sony needs to improve the marketing of PS3-PSP functionality, improving the ways in which they explain cross-platform features to the consumer. A recent interview by gamesindustry.biz made Maguire admit that his team needs to work harder to promote the message of how the Play station 3 and the PSP consoles can be used together.

The play station boss said “When we first started, because all the functionality on the PS3 was radical we talked about that functionality, at the same time though, because we have been out for a couple of years now, people are starting to understand and discover the functionality of things like PlayTV and that has created the desire for people to upgrade to larger hard disk sizes, I just recently put a 320GB drive in mine”

And in a display of being very honest he also admitted that people know very little about the relationship between the PS3 and PSP and the Remote Play functionality – “Those are the things we need to work a little harder on, the GPS functionality, the camera functionality, all those elements which give us content to sit on the PS3.”

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Posted by admin on November 11th, 2008 :: Filed under Power Brands
Tags :: Computers, Marketing, Playstation, PS3, PSP

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Cutting the luxuries in business depends on your interpretation of a luxury.  In the credit crunch more and more essentials are getting misinterpreted for luxuries and are being removed from what is in essence an important survival strategy. Training and Marketing are prime examples of essentials.  These budgets are often one of the first to be cut during hard times, but are actually key to ensuring a steady pipeline of business leads.  Business cannot rely on existing customers alone.

So many businesses cut their marketing budget along with their Duchy Originals biscuits at meetings, committing potential brand suicide in an economic slowdown.  History has shown that those brands who commit to pushing through recession with clear and consistent marketing campaigns emerge as the strongest survivors.

Tim Lindsay, Chief executive of advertising giant TBWA says, “There’s tons of evidence from the last 2 recessions showing that brands which continue to invest in marketing communications during a recession prosper mightily afterwards.  The tea market is often cited as an example: PG continued to invest last time round and grew its share.  Tetley and Typhoo didn’t, and are much diminished as a consequence.”

Robert Hall, founder of Loft Interiors, which supplies furnishings to buy-to-let landlords says, “It is companies that maintain a strong brand throughout a recession that emerge on the other end far stronger as a consequence.  As their competitors melt into the background, businesses that have maintained visibility and credibility can steal market share once that market becomes buoyant again.”

Pepsi and Coke are another example of where handling a recession in the right way can make a huge impact.  During the last recession, Pepsi massively increased its marketing during the downturn while Coke decreased its spending on advertising.  As a result, Pepsi managed to increase its market share, and has held onto it.

Companies need to get creative. PR can be a cheap way of keeping your company profile high.  Networking and online marketing come into their own, as outlay is minimal.  With a sprinkling of creativity, the impact can be huge.

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Posted by workhouse on November 10th, 2008 :: Filed under Power Brands
Tags :: Advertising, Brands, Recession

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A North-East SMS and mobile marketing firm landed a contract to run the text messaging service for Hillary Clinton’s Democrat nomination campaign and the company may have played a major role in the outcome of the US election. Mrs. Clinton made reference to the success of the service in her first speech on the campaign trial, and this led Barack Obama to employ text messaging during his successful presidential election campaign.

Colin Stewart is the UK account director for Interlinked Media and has said the contract came about when the company had opened an office in Dallas and met members of the Clinton campaign team. Colin has said “Having seen what we had achieved in the UK, we had some backing because mobile marketing wasn’t widespread in the States at that time, and with our previous track record we were able to negotiate the contract, we got a lot of positive feedback and it had an effect on the Obama campaign because they had seen it was so successful and started their own text marketing”

Mobile phone marketing is a major method and not just a form of communication, but it is perfect for marketing to the public as it is communicating to the public through a device that people have in their pocket 24/7 and is always switched on. 95% of text messages are read, and only 25% of e-mails are always red.

As campaigns were sent overnight, the team managed and analyzed responses during UK working hours and subsequently provided the Clinton camp with real time reports at the start of their working day. “Winning the pitch for the Hillary Clinton election campaign was a massive coup for our business.

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Posted by admin on November 7th, 2008 :: Filed under Business & Finance, Marketing
Tags :: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Media, Text Messaging

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Jerry Yang, Yahoo! SEO has stated that a partnership with Microsoft may be coming up as Google knocked them back in an advertising deal. The reason the Yahoo! Google partnership didn’t happen is because it received notice from the US Department of Justice stating they would be filing an antitrust lawsuit if they went any further.

This is because they account for number 1 and 2 in their market so merging together would result in them holding over 90% of the market share making it almost impossible for any competition to rise and prevent any from starting up.

Based on that, Jerry Yang stated that he would be happy selling the company to Microsoft if they were interested. He refused the bid from Microsoft about a year ago as they wanted to buy the company last May so this may have an effect on the current deal.

Microsoft offered $31 per share last year which has been dramatically reduced to $13.92 per share. Yahoo! stated that they still believe in the benefits of the agreement and is disappointed in Google for refusing it opposed to trying to defend it in court.

They did try to negotiate with the US Department of Justice by reducing the minimum length from 10 years to 2 years and by having it possible for Google advertisers to opt out from appearing in Yahoo! if they wished. They also suggested a cap of 25% of revenue that could be accumulated from Google.

David Drummond, Google’s senior vice president stated that they were disappointed that this deal will not go any further but they feel it’s better to opt out than have what could be a lengthy legal battle which could take the focus off of their own plans.

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Posted by admin on November 6th, 2008 :: Filed under Advertising, Marketing, Power Brands
Tags :: google, Yahoo!

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The recent credit crunch has forced Marks & Spencer’s to review their marketing budget for next year as they are taking a plunge in their profit levels.  It has been said that their £144 million marketing budget will be slashed by up to 20% in the year 2009 to account for the loss of profits.  This budget reduction could mean that the top models currently in their campaigns such as Erin O’Connor and Twiggy could be dropped.

 

The Daily Telegraph reported that the profits levels have fallen by a huge 44% taking them to £307.8 million per year for the high street chain.  It has not been finalised that the drop in marketing costs will result in high profile models being dropped first, Steven Sharp, the executive director of marketing stated that they have a lot of options which need consideration.

 

Over the last 6 month period the overall local sales actually rose by 0.8% and rose 23.9% for international sales although other areas of their trade took a massive plummet.  On a like for like basis general merchandise and food sales fell 6.2% and 5.3% respectively.

 

Marks & Spencer’s chief executive, Stuart Rose said that the current economic situation is making retailer’s face the hardest time they’ve seen since the early 1990’s.  He also stated that he has no concerns for the long term growth of M&S as they have a number of ideas in development, including the improvement of international sales.

 

In related news is what reported that the retailer Primark has been on a constant rise since the credit crunch and have stated a profit rise of 17% taking it to £223 million per year.  This is probably due to the fact people are beginning to be weary of their spend and are choosing the cheaper brands to save money.

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Posted by admin on November 5th, 2008 :: Filed under Marketing, Media, Power Brands
Tags :: Profit Loss

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With the recent credit crunch the housing market has taken a huge impact which could lead to over 3 million homeowners (more than a fifth of households) facing negative equity as their outstanding mortgage will be higher than the value of their property.

 

The statistics given by Bank of England stated that the people facing negative equity would rise from the half a million (at present) to over 1.5 million in just a few years.  Many professionals have stated these are way too optimistic as previous research has shown that people valuing their own properties tend inaccurately value their home and add around 20% on average on to the real value.  They also understate their debts by up to 15% in the worse case scenarios which would throw their estimates way off.

 

It was Michael Saunders from the Citigroup who has calculated that between 2.5 – 3 million will be facing the negative equity which will peak the previous record of 1.8 million back in the early 90’s.

 

Prices of property have actually dropped around 3.9% since last month according to the estate agent, Knight Frank.  This was based in London but other areas are in similar predicaments as no one wants to buy property with the current market as it is.

 

For the very few people that have not been financially struggling throughout this credit crisis they will be able to pick up property at good prices.  Banks or building societies will be expecting a larger deposit which is deterring many people from buying, this will then reduce the demand forcing people into more negative equity if people are desperate to sell their property.

 

Companies such as Marks and Spencer’s and British Airways have also released figures showing they have been hit by the financial crisis in the UK.

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Posted by admin on November 3rd, 2008 :: Filed under Business & Finance, Latest News
Tags :: House Market

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Jamie Oliver, the famous chef has plans to reach out to the crowd by releasing his new magazine by the end of 2008. This will disclose a number of his recipes, information about his current campaigns and other features written by Jools, his wife. Whilst the information stated was vague about anything else you can be sure it will be of use to any inspired chef as Jamie has always enjoyed running restaurants, writing cook books/recipes and revealing all of his tips and tricks in creating the ‘perfect’ dish.

His new computer game, available on the Nintendo DS will be an interactive cook book which also includes a series of cooking games. These will put you against the clock to shop, chop and cook various recipes of his. The game will also include recipes that Jamie recommends. His angle is that not only is cooking healthier for you, you will also save money instead of buying set meals or eating out – it shouldn’t be ignored with the economy the way it is for many people.

An insight of another one of Jamie’s food campaigns was also revealed on his Channel 4 documentary ‘Jamie’s Ministry of Food’ where is intends to improve the conditions in chicken farming.

Channel 4 has recently extended Jamie’s contract for a further 2 years which was reported at being valued at over £2 million.

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Posted by admin on October 27th, 2008 :: Filed under Business & Finance

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A recent competition by the 118 118 service was claimed to be the hardest time to actually give money away completely free of charge – without any strings attached.

Everybody that used the 118 118 service from October 1st-12th was automatically entered into the competition and the chance to win £118. In total there were 288 winners and after contacting them individually it turned out that 89 people refused to claim their prize as they didn’t believe it was a genuine offer.

William Ostrom, the company’s spokesman said that he was surprised how hard it was to give the money away, especially with the UK’s economy as it is. It just goes to show you how people have become weary about unsolicited phone calls claiming they have won a prize. Perhaps in the past they have been a victim of fraud in the form of these ‘too good to be true’ offers.

They have the right to be weary, earlier this year ITV actually received a fine for over £5 million in result of a fraudulent scandal involving a phone in competition held by a number of broadcasters across the UK.

118 118 has taken all of the 89 names that refused to claim their prize and uploaded them to their website, this is to try and convince them that they did actually win a genuine competition and £118 is waiting just a phone call away. If you have used the service between October 1st-12th then be sure to take a look, you may have been a winner and refused your prize!

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Posted by admin on October 24th, 2008 :: Filed under Business & Finance, Media
Tags :: Media

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eBay has introduced a new fee structure to help sellers offer a wider range of goods, but which threatens the position of small traders. The re-jig effects fixed price goods, which will benefit from a 25-50% cut in listings charges, but will incur higher charges for a successful sale. The system has been designed to attract more entrepreneurs to eBay, and offer greater buyer protection.

However, the moves have been criticised for muscling out small and sole traders, and giving larger retailers greater opportunities. eBay aim to phase out cash and cheque payments, making credit card, PayPal, and ProPay the only acceptable methods of transaction. Changes to search, shipping and seller standards are also expected. Sellers will have to comply with stricter minimum standards to reduce buyer dissatisfaction rates: eBay intend to lower exposure levels of sellers with poor customer feedback ratings. While sellers with better ratings, will be more favourably exposed in listings.

Small traders, and sole proprietorships who were doing well, do not expect their prior success to continue. The new challenge they face against the advantage of bigger retailers is that they are not well-branded. To compete, many small traders feel additional interactive advertising will probably be needed, however, they do not have the resources available to bridge this gap. Attracting traffic is said be the main problem. Critics say small business web presence will be diminished under the shadow of larger companies, and in the current economy, small traders will have to generate sales by developing into a niche, or by cutting prices. This situation is further compounded by 88% of all internet searches comprising of branded keywords (data from Experian).

The new system implementation follows a series of adjustments to eBay’s fee structure, search results, and feedback system. All of which have been introduced to improve the buyers shopping experience with better value from “trusted sellers”. Claire Gilmartin, director of marketplaces for eBay in the UK said: “There’s no doubt this year has seen some very, very bold changes - necessarily so and entirely reflective of what our buyers and sellers want.”

Lorrie Norrington, eBay’s president of marketplace operations, admits the changes may be disconcerting, but maintains that the company have not imposed changes without the backing of solid research that revealed the need for change. According to eBay, sellers favour the structure because it lowers the financial cost of not selling a listed item. This means eBay’s success will now be defined by the success of it’s sellers.

eBay sales are worth over £30bn a year, and hooks the attention of two out of every three internet UK shoppers. Despite these impressive figures, eBay has not achieved notable growth, with previous quarter figures showing a rise of only 1.4%.

The new fee system will be operational on 16th September.

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Posted by admin on September 24th, 2008 :: Filed under Power Brands
Tags :: ebay

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