| Overall Holiday Season Retail Grows 3.6%, MasterCard SpendingPulse ...
Data Source: SpendingPulse, MasterCard Advisors. A macro-economic indicator, SpendingPulse reports on national retail sales and is based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments network, coupled with estimates for all other payment forms, including cash and check. MasterCard SpendingPulse does not represent MasterCard financial performance. SpendingPulse is provided by MasterCard Advisors, the professional services arm of MasterCard Worldwide. MasterCard Advisors� SpendingPulse, a macro-economic report tracking retail sales nationally, today provided summary results of the 2007 Holiday shopping season. This year, for the period between Black Friday and December 24, retail grew by a seasonally adjusted 3.6% over the same period in 2006. �Overall, sales came in just above the lower end of the range we were expecting, maintaining the slower, modest growth we�ve been seeing throughout the year,� noted Michael McNamara, vice president of research and analysis for MasterCard Advisors.
Survey: Experts tell how to get the word out and bring business in
"Public relations" can encompass investor, employee and community relations. Many use it to mean media relations, or generating news stories. Having a third party talk about a company, service or product gains credibility. But there's no guarantee the message will get picked up and no control over what the media says. PR works best when the message is truly newsworthy. Advertisements, on the other hand, transmit the message exactly how the advertiser wants it -- the advertiser has complete control. By paying for a spot, the advertiser ensures it is featured where it wants to be seen. A bigger news story won't bump it off the page or off the air. Often, both can be used. Media relations and advertising support each other and achieve greater results when used in concert than they ever would on their own.
Web Design Firms Can Now Offer Free eCommerce by FastCommerce.com as ...
Traditionally, web design has been only a part of a total ecommerce operation, a small part of the total software needs of the small business entrepreneur looking to sell online. Small business online retailers have traditionally used a number of diverse software programs to successfully run an ecommerce company. As e-commerce applications move to the web small business online retailers have greater access to single-system e-commerce services. FastCommerce.com is a powerful, low-cost Web 2.0 version of this new model.FastCommerce.com has all the tools a small business needs to sell online. By simply signing up, online retailers have access to a full suite of tools that include an online store, online product catalogue, shopping cart, auto-email responder for order and shipping confirmation, as well as back office tools for order capture and processing, account maintenance in addition to automatic shipping calculations for USPS, USP and FedEx.
Persona-lizing a site
A lost wallet lies on a Manhattan street, stuffed with cash. A white middle-income male New Yorker, between 30 and 44, picks it up. Will he look for the rightful owner, or pocket the cash? Who knows? But if George Costanza, the white middle-income male New Yorker between 30 and 44 from Seinfeld, picks it up, everyone knows exactly what he�ll do. He�ll almost certainly keep the money, yapping endless self-justification to his friends at the coffee shop to conceal his feelings of guilt. George is one possible human face for his demographic group, but hardly the only one (thank goodness). Demographics�age, race, sex, income, location�don�t go very far in explaining and predicting human behavior. That�s why marketers increasingly use personas�named profiles that represent members of each key customer group, and describe their characters, personalities, tastes, and quirks.
Tesco puts broadband in trolley
Tesco is to become a provider of broadband Internet access, playing on a down-to-earth approach, customer loyalty and its ability to cross-sell other branded services. The retailer is billing Tesco Broadband as both the "cheapest full 512K (sic) speed, unlimited service on offer in the UK from any major service provider" and "designed by children so adults can understand it". It was developed using a panel of parents and their children who attend Ripple Infant and Junior School in Barking, Essex. The company's communications partner in Tesco Broadband is NTL. A spokeswoman said: "In a family, people use broadband in different ways. It's the kids who typically deal with bigger files, with things like games and video, but with a capped service parents are worrying all the time." The service costs �19.97 per month, compared to around �25 for similar offerings from the likes of AOL, BT and Tiscali -- though Tesco is aware this is a market changing fast and is being careful about claiming to be the cheapest anywhere.
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