Barclays with Europe’s “First person-to-person” Money Transfer System

Barclays have launched an app-”Pingit”- which will allow its customers to send and receive money via mobile, using only phone numbers and not bank details. As this news broke, there were many opinions among our friends.

“Barclays aims the app for friends, family members and small businesses, and claims that it is Europe’s “first person-to-person” money transfer system.” said a friend working with Flash Organisation Ltd. Continue reading

“A Marketing Profession Which Needs to be Noble Again”

“Marketing has got a real big role to play, if we really believe that corporations have a key role to play in driving social economic and environmental progress.” These are the words of Marc Mathieu, senior vice-president of marketing at Unilever. He stresses the need for businesses to be noble in their approach to marketing as a profession.

He believes in a marketing strategy, where marketers like Web Listings Inc., should get back to the origins of the discipline as a way to drive social progress as well as sales. Continue reading

Dove with a Valentine’s Day Twitter Campaign

Dove’s Real Beauty Campaign, as it can be called. Dove is launching an interactive Valentine’s Day campaign as part of its ongoing Real Beauty positioning inviting people to tweet reflections about the beautiful women in their lives.

My friend who’s working for GDS International told me that the brand is using digital outdoor screens in London’s Victoria station to engage consumers and “spread a little love” around Valentine’s. Continue reading

PepsiCo to Increase Marketing Spend

PepsiCo is going for a complete transition by increasing market spending, cutting costs and reducing agency rosters.

The company plans to increase marketing spend on its brands by between $500 million and $600 million this year. When this news was out, I asked my friend (working with Clover Advertising), why this transition now? As a marketing expert he did knew the reasons and told me that, the changes are part of an effort by PepsiCo to regain its slipping market share and to compete with Coca-Cola. The few days before, the company had announced that it would be making significant new marketing investments of its own. Continue reading

The SKY is no longer the LIMIT – American Airlines staff to be grounded!

Things are beyond control for Tom Horton (CEO, AMR Corporation), as the American Airlines will be forcing out about 13,000 employees.

I am regular on their carriers during my client visits – be it TC World Ltd, or others, but never knew the staff would have such a fate. Alas! Continue reading

‘Consumers Value Brands- Which Means Something to Them’!

Consumers viewpoint of a brand is much higher than what usually a brand’s people think of themselves. Price and quality are the foremost things what usually all brands demand of themselves, and that’s what all brands thinks that consumers will prefer them for. But this is not the case always.

While price and quality have always been considerations for consumers, they aren’t the only considerations. Consumers make decisions based on a much more subjective criteria and they are increasingly looking for ways to distinguish between brands. People value a brand or a service offered by any marketing companies regardless of the country (eg: Appco Group Singapore) they are living in, more highly if it means something to them personally – if it makes them feel better in some way. Continue reading

Apple vs. Samsung – battle for the CROWN!

Steve Jobs’ Apple may lose the crown to Samsung in Q1, 2012 – corroborates, Strategy Analytics.

My friend Patrick who works for Appco Group Australia and I had a strong debate over the net about ‘Samsung-Apple’ lawsuit. Well! Be it LAW-COURT or the MARKET – both it seems would never stop to fight! Smile! Continue reading

Marketers need to understand the Term – “Social Commerce”!

Many marketers have misunderstood the term used by social media- ‘Social Commerce’ in their association with marketing firms. And, Facebook has just initiated this in bid to promote the network’s social commerce in the UK. The network is now trying to correct and make clear to marketers and retailers what actually social commerce meant.

Many of the marketing companies like Magnum Marketing have already linked with using social media or social commerce in their marketing strategies. According to Facebook, defining social commerce, or “f-commerce”, simply as a transactional store is a restrictive way of thinking. And, Facebook is now trying to clear it out with retailers. Now most of the discussions taking place between Facebook and retailers centre are on integrating Facebook functionality, such as a Like or Share buttons, into their own websites. Continue reading

Megaupload is no longer invincible!

Kim Schmitz (famously known as Kim Dotcom) is no longer calling the shots after money laundering and Internet piracy.

I was browsing through the TC World Ltd website, and was sidetracked by a twitter notification from the business world – the news about Megaupload.com came as a surprise. Continue reading