Central Perk

miercuri, 15 februarie 2012

Why Your Voice Matters

Your Daily Snapshot for
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012

Why Your Voice Matters

Yesterday a number of Americans who answered the President's call to share stories about what an extra $40 in each paycheck means to them visited the White House to hear the President speak on this important issue.

Afterwards some of them spoke to us about their experience, and why they thought it was important for other Americans to speak out.

Find out what they had to say, and why your voice matters:

Valentine’s Day Marketing Strategy – Did Your Brand Get it Right?

Posted: 14 Feb 2012 06:00 AM PST

St. Valentine's Day has become one of the biggest events in the retail calendar. Second only to Christmas, it is a huge money maker for brands, with 32% of gifts being bought online. In America, it is expected that a whopping $3.5billion will be spent on jewellery alone. Men are the biggest spenders, buying all sorts of gifts for their loved ones, from flowers, to chocolates, to dinners out and weekends away – and they are more likely than women to buy elaborate gifts. With such huge revenue opportunities, ask yourself… how well did your brand perform and what can be done to improve performance for next year?

1. Planning

People start searching for Valentine's Day gifts around mid-January, with momentum picking up pace at the beginning of February. The biggest sales days are the 5^th and 6^th of February, with the week running up to the 14^th February characterised by frenzied and frantic last-minute gift buying. This means brands have to get their thinking cap on and start planning well in advance. Think about what worked well the previous year and act on it. The earlier you start, the wider the audience you will reach.

2. Segmentation

Not everyone on Valentine's Day will be expecting to receive a gift. Not every woman is going to appreciate a 'Perfect Earrings for the Lovely Lady in Your Life' branded email. Segment your market by the gifts they may buy. A Facebook ad campaign is a particularly good way to go about this, as they have the ability to target your audience by their age, location, gender, relationship status, etc. Also, look at who bought from you last year and be sure to target them with a special message.

3. Sending Out The Right Message

Once you've segmented your audience, it's time to create a customised message for their wants and needs. People are price sensitive and they're looking for a good deal and great service. An Email Marketing Campaign can be a great place to start. Make sure you have a punchy subject line, that you feature suitable products for the segment you're targeting and include other special deals you might have on. Use a range of social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to promote your offering and utilise your blog if you have one. Solve the problem for those who don't have a clue about gift buying for their lover and encourage them to strike while the iron's hot.

4. Your Website

Now that you've made sure you're getting the message out to your contacts and social media followers, it's time to target anyone visiting your site. Make sure your homepage clearly promotes your Valentine's Day offering. Give the landing page a makeover with red, pink and beautiful hearts and be sure to include on every page of your website information about delivery and shopping cut-off dates.

5. Get Creative

You don't need to be in the chocolate or flower industry to benefit from this holiday and reap the financial rewards. You will, however, have to be creative if you are not in the traditional industries associated with this romantic holiday. Create a video. Use Valentine's Day inspired discount codes. Partner with a company that offers complimentary products to yours. Create a special Valentine's Day product. Run a Valentine's competition on your social media platforms. Use this holiday to drive traffic to your site and increase engagement.

Seth's Blog : Time doesn't scale

Time doesn't scale

But bravery does.

The challenge of work-life balance is a relatively new one, and it is an artifact of a world where you get paid for showing up, paid for hours spent, paid for working.

In that world, it's clearly an advantage to have a team that spends more time than the competition. One way to get ahead as a freelancer or a factory worker of any kind (even a consultant at Deloitte) was simply to put in more hours. After all, that made you more productive, if we define productivity as output per dollar spent.

But people have discovered that after hour 24, there are no more hours left. Suddenly, you can't get ahead by outworking the other guy, because both of you are already working as hard as Newtonian physics will permit.

Just in time, the economy is now rewarding art and innovation and guts. It's rewarding brilliant ideas executed with singular direction by aligned teams on behalf of truly motivated customers. None of which is measured on the clock.

John Cage doesn't work more hours than you. Neither does Carole Greider. Work/life balance is a silly question, just as work/food balance or work/breathing balance is. It's not really up to you after a point. Instead of sneaking around the edges, it might pay to cut your hours in half but take the intellectual risks and do the emotional labor you're capable of.

• Email to a friend •

marți, 14 februarie 2012

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

EU to Punish Spain for Delaying Austerity Measures, Playing Games with Deficit Projections; Unprecedented Spanish Bond Front-Running; European Job Losses Accelerate
Ceridian Fuel Index Down 1.7% from December, Down 2.2% from Year Ago; Delay in Trucking Activity or Global Trade Slowdown?
Time For Some Honesty: No One Gives a Rat's Ass About Greece

EU to Punish Spain for Delaying Austerity Measures, Playing Games with Deficit Projections; Unprecedented Spanish Bond Front-Running; European Job Losses Accelerate

Posted: 14 Feb 2012 10:02 PM PST

The EU has accused Spain of overstating its 2011 budget deficit thus making it easier to make progress in 2012. Furthermore the EU is upset about delays in austerity measures ahead of regional elections next month.

According to Reuters, EU to punish Spain for deficits, inaction

The European Union is likely to take action against Spain's newly installed government by May for delaying austerity measures ahead of a regional election next month, sources familiar with the situation have told Reuters.

Three senior EU officials told Reuters that a final decision still has to be made, but the European Commission believes the new government overstated the deficit figures for 2011 so the current year's data would look better. Spain is also not addressing quickly enough the deterioration in public finances expected in 2012, risking the country's longer-term growth, the officials said.

Asked if the European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, Olli Rehn, would take action and recommend that the bloc's 27 finance ministers adopt sanctions against Madrid, one of the officials said: "It is very likely."

"It is not that we want to. But if there is a deviation, and it is almost inevitable, then we will have to," added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

With the economy heading for recession, Spain's deficit commitments of 6 percent for 2011 and 4.4 percent for 2012 -- based on a 2.3 percent growth in 2012 -- look unattainable.

Fantasyland Growth Projections

2.3% growth in Spain in 2012 is pure Fantasyland material. A 2.3% contraction is more like it.

Regardless, any contraction means Spain will miss its targets and in turn Germany will demand more spending cutbacks.

With unemployment at 22.9%, how long will it be before we see Greek-style pushbacks?

Unprecedented Spanish Bond Front-Running

Please consider Spain risks choking market with bond supply glut

Madrid is running far ahead of the euro zone pack in terms of 2012 sovereign debt issuance, smashing its funding targets by cashing in on strong demand from domestic banks flush with money borrowed from the European Central Bank.

To date, Spain has raised 29 percent of the 86 billion euros it needs in 2012 compared with 18 percent of planned bonds sales by this time last year. In contrast, Italy has raised 10 percent and Germany 11.5 percent.

"They see an open window and are trying to secure as much liquidity as they can... Everyone was expecting some front-loading but this is unprecedented," said Michael Leister, strategist at DZ Bank in Frankfurt.

"The glut of liquidity put in by the ECB is trumping fundamentals...which is why we believe that Spain and Italy are getting away these auctions at the levels they are. We believe it isn't sustainable and the effects of the LTROs (ECB long-term refinancing operations) will begin to wane," said Rabobank strategist Lyn Graham-Taylor.

The decision by rating agency Moody's to cut Spain's credit rating underscores the country's fundamental problems, which cannot be overcome by the provision of cheap cash to banks.

Spanish Farmers Protest Morocco Trade Deal

With unemployment at nearly 23%, one can expect protests over trade agreements. Consider this a start: Spanish farmers protest over EU-Morocco trade deal

Spanish farmers pelted the European Parliament and Commission office in Madrid with tomatoes on Tuesday in protest against a trade agreement with Morocco that they say could put fruit and vegetable growers out of work and add to high unemployment.

The reciprocal agreement lowers trade barriers on the entry of primary goods - mainly fruit and vegetables - into the European Union from Morocco in return for allowing processed goods into the North African country.

Farmers from the COAG union plan to turn up with 500 tonnes of oranges to another protest on Wednesday and further action is set for Thursday, when the European Parliament is due to vote on prolonging the agreement.

Europe Job Losses Accelerate

Bloomberg reports Europe Job Losses Accelerate

Global companies from NEC Corp. (6701) to PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) and AstraZeneca Plc (AZN) are chopping jobs more than three times faster than in 2011 as they brace for recession in Europe and a slowdown in China.

Announced workforce reductions surged to 94,369 through Feb. 10 from 26,561 a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Employers based in Western Europe accounted for the biggest group of job-cut disclosures, threatening to add to unemployment in the euro area already running at a 13-year high.

Such firings are now running at the quickest pace to start a year since a 2009 peak, when the European and U.S. economies shrank amid the deepest slump since World War II. Now, Europe's debt crises may help spur a 0.5 percent contraction in the euro- area economy in 2012, based on economists' estimates.

Signs point to a deep and lengthy recession, not the shallow recession forecast by economists. I seriously wonder what the heck they are looking at.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Ceridian Fuel Index Down 1.7% from December, Down 2.2% from Year Ago; Delay in Trucking Activity or Global Trade Slowdown?

Posted: 14 Feb 2012 02:09 PM PST

In a video, Ed Leamer, Chief PCI® economist hypothesizes "delay in trucking activity".

Chief PCI® economist, Ed Leamer, explains the disappointing month-over-month and year-over-year numbers for the January PCI in the face of other indicators that suggest that the economy is turning around. In this month's report, Ed explores several hypotheses for the disconnect and concludes that trucking activity is delayed, expecting to see a surge in the coming months.

Ceridian Index vs. Industrial Production

Ceridian Index vs. GDP

Ceridian Index vs. Retail Sales, Inventory, Industrial Production

Year-Over-Year Diesel Sales

For more charts and commentary please see Ceridian-UCLA Pulse of Commerce Index®

Global Trade Slowdown

I do not buy the economy is turning around and the falloff in diesel demand represents "trucking delayed" any more than I believe the overall plunge in petroleum is "driving delayed".

Instead I propose something far more serious has started - a global trade slowdown. For details, please see Petroleum 3-Month Rolling Average Turns Sharply Lower; Negative Shipping Rates; Collapse in Global Trade

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Time For Some Honesty: No One Gives a Rat's Ass About Greece

Posted: 14 Feb 2012 12:41 PM PST

It's high time for some honesty. No one cares about Greece, except Greeks. Greece is a mere 2% of Eurozone GDP..

All this fantasyland talk of Armageggon if Greece exits the euro is total nonsense. The world will not end when Greece defaults. Indeed, the world might breathe a sigh of relief.

So Why the Fear-Mongering?

That answer is easy. Bureaucrats have said for too long and in too many ways that "no one can leave the euro".

This is not about what is best for Greece. Is is about "face saving" of bureaucrats whose collective faces deserve to be dipped something far more smelly than mud.

Rather than let Greece default gracefully, all the nanny-zone fools cling to false hopes, while Merkel blatantly lies about wanting to keep Greece in the nanny-zone.

It was in the best interest of Greece to not let them in the Eurozone in the first place. Then it was in the best interest of them to default 2 years ago, 1 year ago, and 6 months ago.

Instead, because Merkel does not want to take the blame for kicking Greece out of the Eurozone, we see all the extra impossible-to-meet demands that have Greek technocrats jumping through hoops backwards to meet.

It is a travesty of justice what the technocrats, the nanny-zone supporters, and the politicians have done to Greece.

Anyone with any common sense knew Greece would default. Furthermore, if you are going to default anyway, then the earlier the default the better. In the name of stubborn face-saving Greece was destroyed.

Portugal and Spain better pay attention because they are on deck for the same treatment. As soon as Germans have to pay up, patience with those countries will wear thin as well.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Damn Cool Pics

Underwater Dog Photography By Seth Casteel
The 411 on Flower Etiquette [Infographic]
The History of Thomas Edison
Strange and Funny Vintage Valentine Day Cards

Underwater Dog Photography By Seth Casteel

Posted: 14 Feb 2012 01:40 PM PST

Seth Casteel, a famed pet lifestyle photographer for Little Friends Photography, is giving pet photos a whole new look with underwater photography.

The photographer was able to capture the dogs swimming underwater while playing fetch. The composition of each image is perfect, and each photo is lit so that the camera captures every detail of the dog as he or she plunges into the pool. The dogs' faces and expressions are priceless.

Check out the Little Friends Photo Album on Facebook for hundreds of amazing animal photographs and plenty more underwater dog shots. There's over 600 and counting!

The 411 on Flower Etiquette [Infographic]

Posted: 14 Feb 2012 01:33 PM PST

Buyers just accept that flower prices increase tremendously around Valentine's and Mother's Day. And it's funny that only 30% of annual flower purchases are made for "no special occasion" yet women surveyed say they prefer getting flowers unexpectedly or on non-holidays. For those of us who need to know how to make our floral gifts more meaningful and surprising, this latest infographic serves as a guide.

Check out this helpful guide to buying flowers if you're in the market to buy some Valentine's blooms:

Click on Image to Enlarge.

Via: frugaldad

The History of Thomas Edison

Posted: 13 Feb 2012 09:26 PM PST

Today would have been the 165th birthday of Thomas Edison and, to celebrate, Jeremiah Warren whipped up this brief biography, which pretty much sums all of the things he improved upon, rather than invented.

Strange and Funny Vintage Valentine Day Cards

Posted: 13 Feb 2012 04:11 PM PST

Artist Mitch O'Connell has assembled top 100 most strange, odd, perplexing and unintentionally funny vintage valentine cards all collected in one place ...for YOU (with love)!