Monthly Archives December 2013

December 13, 2013,  News, Social marketing practice, The Art of Influencing and Selling  No comments

According to a new report by regulator Ofcom, UK shoppers topped the list of those that spend comparatively more money shopping online compared with consumers in other countries.

The International Communications Market Report compared the availability, take-up and use of services in the UK and 16 other countries and analysed the responses of over 9,000 consumers across nine countries.

Researchers found that the UK had the highest per capita spend online in 2012, at £1,175, which was up 16% year on year. It was also 35% more than Australia, the second highest country of the eight considered on this metric, and 77% more than the US in third place.

UK consumers were spending ...

December 13, 2013,  Guru in a Bottle  No comments

You may not realise it but marketing had its roots when we were starting to emerge from the caves! In fact, there have been seven distinct phases of marketing since those times.

Here’s a quick tour of where we’ve come from and also what’s around the corner in 2014.

Simple trade era

This was when everything available was made or harvested by hand and was in limited supply. Here, the main activity was ‘hunter/gatherer’ and basic commodities ruled the day. Nothing really changed from the time homo sapiens first came out of their caves until the early nineteenth century (‘pre-industrial revolution phase’)...

December 7, 2013,  News  No comments

A new report by global accountants Ernst & Young (E&Y) shows India as the most attractive investment destination ahead of China. Researchers point to a number of factors including the recent slew of reforms that resulted in the relaxation of foreign direct investment (FDI) rules that has contributed to a boost in global investor sentiment.

“With sharp currency depreciation and opening up of FDI in various sectors, India has become an attractive destination for foreign investors,” say the report’s authors.

As a result of macro-economic pressures and heavy debt pile, several Indian companies are looking to divest non-core businesses and this has created a large opportunity ...

December 6, 2013,  News  No comments

Hard on the heels of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement comes some welcome news!

Brand Britain is now worth USD 2.3 trillion (GBP 1.4 trillion) to become the world’s fourth most-valuable nation brand, having pushed Japan into fifth place according to new research by Brand Finance, a leading brand valuation consultancy that’s just published the 2013 edition of its Nation Brands report.

Using an analysis more usually applied to companies, the report provides a comprehensive look at the world’s leading nation brands and the impact that a country’s reputation and image has on governments, investors, students and consumers.

The top 10 most valuable nation brands in the world (2...

December 6, 2013,  News  No comments

The European Commission has launched a public consultation as part of its ongoing efforts to review and modernise EU copyright rules.

The consultation invites stakeholders to share their views on areas including:

• territoriality in the Single Market
• harmonisation
• limitations and exceptions to copyright in the digital age
• fragmentation of the EU copyright market
• how to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of enforcement while underpinning its legitimacy in the wider context of copyright reform.

Contributions are sought from consumers, users, authors, performers, publishers, producers, broadcasters, intermediaries, distributors and other service providers, collective mana...

December 5, 2013,  News  No comments

Twenty-four million account holders of the Royal Bank of Scotland, NatWest and Ulster Bank (RBS) who tried to complete everyday transactions like paying for groceries at the check-out got a nasty surprise in the UK earlier this week.

Their credit and debit cards were rejected as a result of a technology glitch.

The error is understood to have occurred after a software update froze part of the banks’ computer systems and although this had been fixed, it created a backlog of more than 100 million transactions that were not paid in or out of bank accounts as they should’ve been...