One should do following things in 2009….

January 26, 2009 at 3:08 am (Readings)
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One of my friend posted a link in the facebook about the do’s and dont’s in year 2009. When i went through the points i was really impressed i would like to share this in my blog. Here the points

Health:

1. Drink plenty of water.
2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm, and Empathy.
5. Make time to practice meditation, yoga, and prayer.
6. Play more games.
7. Read more books than you did in 2008.
8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
9. Sleep for 7 hours.
10. Take a 10-30 minutes walk every day. And while you walk, smile.

Personality:

11. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
12. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
13. Don’t over do. Keep your limits.
14. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
15. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
16. Dream more while you are awake.
17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
18. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.
20. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
23. Smile and laugh more.
24. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.

Society:

25. Call your family often.
26. Each day give something good to others.
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. Spend time with people over the age of 70 & under the age of 6.
29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
31. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

Life:

32. Do the right thing!
33. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
34. GOD heals everything.
35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
37. The best is yet to come.
38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

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Hospitality Industry (Travel and Tourism) – Predicted to grow in future ( Research Findings)

January 17, 2009 at 3:56 am (Uncategorized)

Recently I was trying to identify the industries those are going to survive in the hard economic conditions. Based on the Mintel,AC Nielson research reports I found travel is a fastest growing sector in the world. The growth is highly healthy. Here some insights I came across.

1 – The travel taste are always changing, the trend is away from “sun , sea and sand holidays but cultural and natural heritage, education , health and medical tourism are becoming the major driver in choice of a destination. So the opportunity lies for the firms here.

2 – According to Mintel report in March 2008 that economic slowdown have so far less impact on holiday growth but a strong growth predicted in future. Because nowadays holidays are increasingly seen as necessity rather than a luxury and people want to ensure they get the break they need.

3- Online bookings are increasing very fast, and in UK internet holiday bookings have been growing by 30% since 2004. The proportion of the UK total holiday market is currently estimated at 35 Million holidays worth GBP 10.8 Million. Also in UK 16% of the population 25% of internet users bought holidays online in the first quarter of 2008. The average amount spent on holidays is GBP 535.

By 2012 UK holiday market predicted worth of 95.5 Million both domestic and overseas, this shows a 122% growth when compared to year 2004 (43Million). Also in UK 50% of the overseas holidays are booked online and 33% of domestic holidays are booked online.

Based on Mintel indexed comparison of holidays expenditure and other areas of discretionary spend shows that travel overseas is one of the fastest rising sector of the consumer economy, up 35% since 2002.

In simple the current economic slowdown is likely to have a less impact on secondary holiday’s expenditure.

4 – A very similar trend in USA also predicted and total US sales were worth US $ 144.6 Billion in 2004 with a growth rate of 50%. The trend is predicted to grow much higher than this.

5 –The rapid growth of Social network sites have strengthen the role of friends on viral effects on travel and people always look for recommendations, travel tips and advice. In the last few years Web 2.0 use of internet has led to the creation of popular social networking sites.

Eg – Doyoutravel.com attracted 2,000 members in jut three week of its launch in January 2008.
Virtual Tourist a fastest growing travel social network now with approximately more than 900,000 members from 220 countries. The site also claims around 400 new members a day and five million unique visitors per month.

The travel is growing also in the long run apart from Social networking sites mobile technology evolving as a powerful medium in the travel. Already most of the travel firms are using mobile application for the flights check in and check outs. I will do a post soon here on mobile technology and its impact on other industries.

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The 11 immutable laws of internet branding

January 14, 2009 at 9:17 pm (Online Marketing)

The marketing success of online firms are totally depends on how they do their online branding. Not only offline branding you can find laws for online branding as well. They are
1 – The law of either /or
The internet can be a business of a medium but not both
2 – The law of interactivity
Without it,your web site and your brand will go no where.
3 – The law of common name
The kiss of death for an internet brand is a common name
4 – The law of the proper name
Your name stands alone on the internet, so you’d better have a good one.
5 – The law of singularity
At all costs you should avoid being second in your category.
6 – The law of advertising
Advertising off the net will be a lot bigger than advertising on the net.
7- The law of globalism
The internet will demolish all barriers, all boundaries, all boarders.
8- The law of time
Just do it, you have o be first, you have to be focused.
9 – The law of vanity
The biggest mistake of all is believing you can do anything.
10 – The law of divergence
Everyone talks about convergence, while just the opposite is happening.
11 – The law of transformation
The internet revolution will transform all aspect of lives.

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Brand Value- Cash is King

January 12, 2009 at 7:36 pm (Brand)

Recently I went through my monthly marketer magazine and found this interesting article written by David Haigh. The points he mentioned here are simply suits to the current world and I also thought to share this with you.

Warren Buffett, “ the Sage of Omaha” once remarked that “you only know who’s swimming naked when the tides goes out”. Well, the tide has now gone out to reveal that many apparently reputable brands have been swimming naked for year. The banks, insurance companies and ratings agencies were the first to bare all. Cynical disregard for customers and staff have led to disaster, and many of these brands have paid the ultimate price.

Now brands in the “real” economy are also blushing. Over geared, over hyped and over priced brands such as Starbucks, Coke,BMW are all suffering as recession – hit consumers reappraise the benefits of conspicuous consumption. Their value has plummeted because they have fallen out of touch with consumers’ wants and needs.

In contrast, brands such as Wallmart, McDonald,Avon,Ford and HSBC are doing well.

Its no coincidence that they’re all middle of the road brands that have had to reinvent or reposition themselves in tough markets. All have re-evaluated customer relationships, products and services and the price-value equation.

In the last big recession many brands were badly hit as consumers switched to cheaper alternatives. In 1993, Marlboro realized it had stretched consumer loyalty too far and dropped its prices overnight by 25 percent.

While this caused short-term panic on wall street, a huge fall in Philip Morris’s share price and suggestions that this was “the end of branding as we know it”, it simply rebalanced the price-value equation and consumers flooded back. A salutary lesson for out of touch brands.

In recession, price elasticity curves shift. Functional attributes, including price, rapidly come to the fore. Image attribute decline in relative performance. Conduct attributes remain critical but not any price. Getting the balance rights is vital in a recession.

But in the struggle to adapt, only brands with strong values maintain their brand value. Consider Innocent- an expensive brand, but one that delivers on function, image and conduct. I expect it will adapt sensitively to allow for thinner purses, while maintaining its value system, and so hold up well in the recession.

There are a few simple rules to surviving the downturn. The first and most important is that cash is king. As one “witty” accountant once remarked “turnover is vanity; profit is sanity; cash flow is reality”. Without cash flow, brands will simply not survive.

This forces many finance officers to consider cutting marketing budgets. These are often poorly justified and so it may be the right thing to do. But when marketing communications are well defined there is strong evidence that maintaining marketing budgets in recession leads to greater value.

In 1998, consultancy PIMS showed that of 1,000 consumer brands surveyed, those that cut marketing spend during the 1991-93 recession made higher profits during recession but lost market after it. Maintainers ended up with higher brand value after recession.

Brands must maintain their values and investments if they want to emerge unscathed from the recession. Just be sure you have to cash to keep your brand live.

So marketer need to consider the following key points

1 – Make sure you keep in touch with consumers’ wants and needs

2 – Re-evaluate products, services and the price-value equation.

3 – Maintain band value and brand investment

4 – Ensure you have the cash to keep your brand afloat.

Thanks – themarketer.Dec-Jan 2009 p.p 15

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