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Brandz recently published a list of theTop 100 Most Valuable Global Brands for 2010. The study was developed in conjunction with The Financial Times, Bloomberg, Datamonitor and Millward Brown Optimor. You can download a PDF Document with the list of the 100 companies from the Brandz website below.
Here's a peek at the Top 10 Brands:
So... which are your favorite brands?
The Apple iPad generates an amazing amount of positive and negative press.
The day of the first announcement, I went down to my local Apple Retail Store to find out about the iPad for myself. There were hundreds of people in line outside the store waiting to buy an iPad.
However, inside the store, the iPad demo units were not being used. I walked in and spent one & a half hours playing with the iPad. Two Apple Support Reps that were assigned to the demo units answered all my questions and showed me a few tips on using the new tablet.
I also went back to the Apple Store again this weekend to spend more time testing the iPad, asking other people for their feedback and watching how other people were using the new device.
Based on my own experience, the Apple Specialist Tips and all the other reviews, I quickly realized that the iPad packed a lot more into it than what I originally expected.
Without much effort, I was able to list out over $1,600+ of other product purchases that an iPad could replaced this year:
Update: The total savings from NOT buying all these other items is now up to $1,700.
Of course, not everyone will feel that the iPad can really replace all these products. If you need specific features on a laptop or netbook for example, the iPad just won't do the job. However, there are very few other products that can really do ALL these functions in a package the size, speed and feel of the iPad.
As a result, your Mother's Day, Father's Day, Graduation, Birthday, Anniversary and Christmas shopping just got a lot easier this year.
So what do You think?
William Hewlett, Co-Founder of Hewlett-Packard often said: "What gets measured gets done." You can increase Sales Productivity if you focus on Tracking, Reporting and Reviewing these Metrics on a regular basis.
Five Key Sales & Marketing Metrics
Here are the Five Key Sales and Marketing Metrics and their descriptions:
Measures the number of Sales Orders Closed divided by the number of Total Sales Deals that were listed in a Sales Forecast.
Example: It takes 5 Qualified Leads to close 1 Sales Order. This would be a 20% Close Ratio.
Measures the number of Qualified Leads divided by the number of Pre-Qualified Leads in the Sales Funnel (or Sales Pipeline).
Example: It takes 10 Pre-Qualified Leads to get 4 Qualified Leads. This would be a 40% Qualified Lead Ratio.
Measures the number of Pre-Qualified Leads divided by the Total Suspects that responded to all marketing events.
Example: It takes 100 Suspects to get 30 Pre-Qualified Leads. This would be a 30% Pre-Qualified Lead Ratio.
Measures the number of Suspects divided by the total number of contacts sent marketing communications documents.
Example: It takes 1000 names on list to get 20 Suspects to respond. This would be a 2% Marketing Response Rate.
Measures the Date a Suspect has first Contact with a company minus the Date an Sales Order is Closed/Booked by the company.
Example: It takes an average of 6 months for a new Suspect to become a New Customer (or book its first sales order). This would be a 6-month Sales Cycle.
As we start 2015, what are your challenges for the rest of the year? I found two recent reports from the Conference Board and Gartner that share where other executives are allocating their time and resources.
The Conference Board published their latest report on the "Top 10 CEO Challenges in 2015" last month. It is no surprise that many of the issues focus on "Business Growth Basics." Some of the top Challenges include:
The following are excerpts from the articles:
"The critical issues of excellence in execution and consistent execution of strategy by top management have consistently remained at the top of the list. But in the latest survey (which was fielded October-December 2009), such growth-oriented challenges as sustained and steady top-line growth, customer loyalty/retention, and profit growth received higher ratings as "greatest concerns." Also moving up were corporate reputation for quality products/services, and stimulating innovation/creativity/enabling entrepreneurship."CEOs' focus on these challenges suggests that recession-weary customers need to be wooed with significant new value to win back their business," Barrington added." Source: The Conference Board CEO Challenge 2010 Survey - Feburary 2010
A Gartner Report from December 2009, found that a "majority of U.S. and U.K. CEOs and senior executives believe that IT-enabled change will play a significant role in a post-recession economy. While very few executives expect a rapid return to 2007 performance levels, revenue growth has replaced cost cutting as the top priority in large private- sector organizations. In 2010, 71 percent of executives say their focus will be on improving revenues." Source: Information Management
There will be significant change in Small Business Marketing in 2010. According to several recent studies, Small Businesses are planning to increase investment in Web and Social Media Marketing Tactics...and reduce investments in more traditional Print, Postcards, Catalogs, TV, Radio Ads. There are three big reasons why executives are changing their tactics:
...all resulting in faster sales.
The eMarketer chart below is a good summary of the top 2010 marketing tactics:
For those people who can't be at your Party (especially your overseas friends and family), set up a FREE Video Web Conference using Skype — that way they can participate live during the event. Here is how we we use Skype for our parties.
First, you need two Skype accounts. It only takes a few minutes to set up the service if you do not have it. With Skype, you can make FREE voice and video calls over the Internet (Click to set up a Skype Account) You also need unlimited internet connections at both locations to place the Skype Calls (most people have this service these days).
Before the party starts, we set up the webcams and laptops in the locations that you want to connect.
Make sure the Webcam is plugged into your computer, you've installed the webcam software that came with it, and that it's switched on.
Dial each other using Skype and turn on the video. Since the calls are completely free, we just leave the video conference up during the whole party.
Then people can wander over to the camera during the party and talk with each other, make bets on the game, and taunt the other fans that are located in each party.
Have fun and may the best team win!
More Skype Info or Order a New High Quality Video Webcam before the party
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) featured more than 120,000 attendees, 2,500 exhibitors and 20,000 products....over 1.5 million square feet of show space to see. Over the last 2-3 years, CES became boring...with few new exciting products. Apple Macworld had most of the new buzz and fun announcements. Well.. not anymore!
The new decade started off with a bang. Lots of new exciting technology and products for 2010 and beyond.
After attending the show, we are most excited about the following product categories:
Many articles and TV Shows focused on the new 3DTVs. They looked terrific. However, we don't think most people are going to charge up their $100 3D-TV glasses every night to watch TV shows.
We do expect the 3D Adult videos (that are due out in the fourth quarter of 2010) to be responsible for many of the 3D HDTV sales during the next 1-3 years. Over the last two decades, the Adult industry always implemented new video technology products before the mainstream companies.
2010 CES List of Top New Product Updates Our Top 10+ CES 2010 show Products
Everyone is looking for ways to cut costs in 2010 - including us. We are using a NEW mobile service called "Skype to Go" that is very easy-to-use and has been saving us a lot of money each month. The service lets you make international calls from any mobile phone at dramatically reduced prices, compared to typical phone company rates. You do NOT need your PC or Mac to make these calls.
We call London (UK) on a regular basis using an Apple iPhone or a Google Android MyTouch mobile phone. Our carrier, AT&T Wireless, offered us an international discount plan that reduced our mobile phone costs from $1.25 to 99 cents per minute when calling London. That sounded good before we tested the new "Skype to Go" Service.
A few months ago, we switched to using a "Skype to Go" number which dramatically cut our costs to about 2.4 cents per minute.. a 96-cent per minute savings. We talk about 8 hours per month on international calls and now save approximately $460 per month. Wow!
The "Skype to Go" number is very easy-to-use and set up.
The phone service has been wonderful, sound quality has been very good. However, we have heard from others that the Skype customer service could be improved. The good news is that there is NO contract! If you don't like Skype, and the money you are saving, just cancel the service.
My other comment is, if you don't like new technology, and saving money is no big deal, then skip this service... but then again, you probably wouldn't be reading this article... would you?
If you want to instantly cut your monthly international calling costs, get a "Skype to Go" Number for your small business or personal use.
For More info click on this link and Search on: "Skype to Go"
