The Salak Group : Stragic Communcations and Research
Interesting Reads
There should always be time for a good read. If not, you should consider making some. Here is a selection of articles worth your while. They cover business, culture, sports, politics and entertainment — the elements that make up our world.
No we’re not talking about iPads and tablets as holiday gifts. We’re thinking about their growing commercial impact. In fact, 70 percent of tablet owners say they’ll use them this year to purchase holiday gifts online—that is twice as many as smart phone users. And their impact won’t stop on December 26th. Want more info on holiday shopping and marketing, please read.
A slip of the tongue may be no fault of the mind. But the latest gaffe by Gov. Rick Perry in the recent GOP presidential debate underscores a deeper problem confronting public figures craving attention or constantly playing to opinion polls. They’ve lost messaging focus and themselves in a fleeting attempt to curry public favor. Matt Bai has an interesting take.
Email marketing continues to surge even though open rates are falling and recipients are simply digitally overwhelmed.
Videos are finding new ways to reach targets thanks to a flood of laptops, smart phones and pads. Companies now have to figure out how to tailor and deliver a video message that matters.
Workplace Democracy’s Bottomline
Creating an environment of open communication in an office empowers individuals to contribute and share ideas. Senior executives are discovering that they don't have all the answers and fostering a "demoractic workplace" helps boost the bottomline.
‘Idiot’ Gets Some Smart(phone) Marketing
No business can afford to rely on the ways things have always been done. Broadway shows are going beyond their traditional marketing efforts, by exploring new media strategies.
Partnerships are all the rage—or soon will be. But timing is everything. Opportunities, in fact, present themselves everywhere as this article in Intertribal Times demonstrates. It details one traditional community’s efforts to put aside its historical grievances to cash in on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Not sure what your ROI is for social media? Apparently, you’re not alone. Mashable, the guide to social media, reported recently that 84 percent of social media programs don’t measure ROI. And getting a handle on these programs is no easy trick, but Mashable does its best to provide some direction.
Stuart Frankel undoubtedly knows how to make a decent sandwich. More importantly, this Subway franchise owner out of Miami knew his audience even better. Five years ago he responded to a drop in weekend sales by introducing $5 foot-long sandwiches. Frankels’s 12-inch brainchild is now a national Subway phenomenon that has generated almost $4 billion in sales. The motto? Know Thy Audience.
Using Market Research in a Recession
As traditional consumers are looking for ways to reduce their spending, Harvard's John Quelch suggests taking a more considered and focused approach to marketing. Quelch outlines seven steps for CMO's who want to minimize the impact of the uncertain consumer and business marketplace.
Maureen Dowd definitely writes tight--but that apparently doesn't make her a tweeter as she explains in this column/interview with Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams.
Can Enterprise Social Networking Pay Off?
What's the value of social networking? That's an excellent and somewhat difficult question to answer, according to this article from Internet Evolution. These networks are undoubtedly on the rise but calculating their exact value is no snap. Even the geeks haven't figured this one out yet. This article discusses the problem and explores ways of getting a better ROI on your journey into cyberspace.
Economic recession you say? Not for everyone like the more technologically advanced smart-phones such as the iPhone. They are fuelling rapid growth for applications and software downloads, which is forcing network operators to prepare themselves to share revenue with providers of software and services, such as Apple, Google and Facebook.
How Brands Tap Into Old And New Values
Big well-established brands have decided in times of crisis to accentuate the positive, safe and familiar to make their messaging more optimistic.
A group of leading multinational industrialists argue that old ties are sometimes the most important. In fact, they argue in The Financial Times that the rebuilding and rejuvenating transatlantic business is critical to reversing the current global economic crisis.
A Rich Life Full of Grace and Wisdom
"A cash bar at the wake." That was legendary basketball coach Al McGuire's final joke on life and those who remembered him. New York Daily News sports columnist Mike Lupica's column on McGuire's passing here reminds us of how sports and the individuals that make up the games can transcend the playing field and stay with us for life.
Disney apparently understands asset diversification better than most thanks to Bob Iger, who has his group now focused around its roster of "franchises," like the Jonas Brothers - because he believes these types of franchises can create value across multiple businesses and multiple territories over a long time.
Web Site's Formula For Success: TV Content With Fewer Ads
Less is increasingly becoming more in terms of online advertising. Websites such as Hulu, the online video website, has decided it is better to only show one ad during each segment break because it will make the pitch more memorable. That, of course, allows Hulu and like-minded sites to charge more for the ads.
Old media in the form of newspapers and magazines worked hard this election season to keep pace with the flood of emerging online media options by presenting readers with an array of interactive options. The New York Times asks what old media - including itself - intends to do to keep pace in 2012.
The New Old Big Thing: J.M. Keynes
Desperate times apparently call for old desperate measures, according to The Wall Street Journal. The economies of the developed world, for example, are revisiting high-spending solutions once advanced by economist John M. Keynes to rescue the world from the Great Depression in the 1930's. Keynesian policies admittedly fell out of favor in the 1970s as government spending was blamed for spurring inflation and reducing private sector investment.
CES 2009: Samsung Brings The Internet To The Living Room
The Web just got a bit wider and perhaps more tangled thanks to a new service by Samsung - Internet@TV. This application enables viewers to access the Web on their TVs and in some cases use customizable 'widgets' that would allow them to monitor an eBay auction, for example, while watching a film.
Finding a space for all the news that is fit to print is a bigger challenge than ever in a publishing world that's witnessing the loss and decline of traditional print outlets. The age of digital media is certainly one culprit as younger readers increasingly gather information online. But The New York Times argues that this shift isn't just affecting how we collect information, it may impact the quality of information that's at hand.
How To Tell When The CEO Needs Help
CEOs are people too - at least some of them - according to this article in Forbes. And sometimes, Forbes argues, it is better to lend them some support rather show them the door even in these difficult times.
