Consumers have always resold large durable goods like cars and houses. But now almost anything is ripe for resale, from electronics to clothes, and even experiences.

Trendwatching.com recently released a marketing report that explains a new strategy companies, all shapes and sizes are adopting.

Today’s consumers understand that all products have some kind of value. The problem is the inconvenience of figuring out how to get rid of it. Do I post it on Craigslist? Ebay? Facebook?

Companies are now offering “trade-in, trade-out” initiatives to help consumers unlock the value in their old products, while instantly laying their hands on new, improved versions.

Key Drives behind (RE)COMMERCE:

1. Nextism: Consumers will forever crave the new and exciting experiences promised by the ‘next’.
2. Statusphere: The growing status boost that comes from being savvy and shopping (environmentally) responsibly.
3. Excusumption: Cash-strapped consumers embracing creative solutions.

The PDF report will go in detail which companies are practicing this and the incentives behind this strategy.

- JMT

Click the link below to download the PDF report:

2011-10 RECOMMERCE

The National Basketball Association (NBA) and its owners are still debating over issues with the players union. The two parties unwillingness to cooperate has lead many basketball experts to believe the lockout will last another 2 months. NBA commissioner David Stern recently cancelled all preseason games for the 2011 season and expects cancel a good portion of the regular season.

Owners, Players, and sponsors have all prepared for this for the last 6 months, and that includes clothing giant Adidas, who currently sponsors some of the top players in the league. Season or no season, Adidas is still aggressively attacking the market. The international leader in sportswear debuted their newest ad that features last year’s MVP, Derrick Rose as a bull in a  Spanish coliseum somewhere far away.

The main element of the ad: His new shoe, The adiZero

“We wanted to tell a story of Derrick Rose and  get you excited about him regardless of where he plays and when he plays,” Ryan Morlan, Adidas’ global director of brand marketing. “We wanted to show consumers his speed and his skill in a way that’s unforgettable, so we picked a venue that would reflect him as the ultimate bull.”

The ad agency 180La recently released the ad on Facebook and YouTube to give the public a sneak peak at the new campaign. I recently watched it on YouTube and I like it. Its creative and easily captures the users attention with dramatic camera angles and music.

The new shoe ad will make its television debut on Oct. 5 on ESPN and during NFL games on CBS, NBC and ESPN. The spot will also air on Cartoon Network, which provides significant bang for the buck with the target audience, Morlan says.

Here’s the Video:

Carlsberg beer and Belgium agency Duval Guillaume released the beer company’s new TV commercial online  last week. Six days later, 2.5 million views on YouTube and a wave of approval from some of the advertising publications. AdWeek  recently voted the creative video Advertisement of the Week on there website.

Take a look and ask yourself, would you have stayed and will the ad influence your beer purchase next time you visit the store? Something to the thing about.

Either way, this is a perfect example of a Low Cost, Low Risk, High Reward advertisement.

(CARLSBERG stands for TRADITION , QUALITY, GREAT TASTE AND MAKING RIGHT CHOICES)

Its a holiday that seven out of every ten Americans plan to celebrate this year and its expected to pull in 6.9 billion dollars in consumer spending. A recent survey conducted by the National Retail Federation shows that people are ready to celebrate Halloween in a big way.

Here’s a breakdown of the projected revenue:

I personally don’t plan on spending $72.31 (The expected average per person) but I will stop by a few costume parties. What is the max you would spend?

JMT

To find out more information on the survey, click the link below:

http://adage.com/article/news/halloween-spending-expected-scary-good/230071/

It looks like Mark Zuckerberg has more tricks up his sleeve. Facebook is launching a new initiative to educate small businesses on how to use their self-serve ad platform and retrieve better marketing results. Zuckerberg and his team of faithful web developers have partnered with the U.S Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business to launch a 3-phase strategic plan to help increase Facebook’s advertising revenue.

Phase 1: Information Sessions (This Week)

- This week, FB plans on releasing online webinars, case studies and other tips to help small businesses.

Phase 2: Road Tour (October 2011)

- Next month, FB will sponsor a series of road shows across the country to help promote small business growth.

Phase 3: Free Advertising (January 2012)

- In 2012, FB vows to give away $50.00 dollars advertising credit to 200,000 small businesses, totaling 10 million dollars in free advertising.

A new report from eMarketer shows that 44% of small- and medium-sized businesses used social media as a marketing tool in August, and 59% spent less than $100 on social-media marketing.

Facebook has yet to give out any specific information regarding the selected cities for the sponsored road shows or the selection process of the 200,000 lucky companies. I guess we will just have to sit and wait for more details.

To read the full Adage article, click on the link below:

http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-launches-program-small-businesses-pages-ads/230038/

In the last week, Facebook and Netflix announced controversial changes in there business strategy that have both companies experiencing backlash from some of there favorite people, the end-users.

Some consumers would say that the changes the two successful companies made were unnecessary, arrogant and lack real benefits to their customers…And they would be right.

Netflix gave its customers a short ‘heads-up’ notice this summer when they announced a rise in pricing for its video renting service that would start in September. Later that month,  the leading video rental company immediately saw negative responses to there new business model and launched an emergency PR strategy to stop the bleeding from the self-inflected damage.

Netflix reported a $7.40 decline in their stock price and a severe drop in user-subscriptions that is said to be in the millions. And let’s not forget the rebirth of Blockbuster, who announced this week that they will start to offer live streaming and other home video rental services.

To make matters worse, CEO Reed Hastings sent all of his users an apologetic email that tried to atone for the poor communications and reasoning behind the company’s recent decision.  The first line of Mr. Hastings email, “I messed up. I owe you an explanation.”

Click here to read the full NETFLIX letter

Facebook users frustration is more deep-rooted and has more to-do with privacy issues & purpose. Simply put, consumers want an explanation for the frequent tweaks and overhauls that forces them to study up on how their personal information is shared.

Over the years, the leading social activity application has developed a reputation for making unannounced, secretive changes to its web platform without passing it by its core audience. What started as a pleasant distraction for college students has turned into a social communication dependency. How else do you plan on interacting with your thousands of friends at one-time?

Disgruntled Facebook users hope that Google can answer this question with their new social networking platform called, Google +. We’ll just have to wait and see if the new platform is strong enough to give Facebook a real competitor. Something Zuckerberg and friends haven’t seen in years.

To read more about  negative backlash , click on the link below:

http://adage.com/article/news/netflix-facebook-ignore-consumer-gripes-make/230032/

There is a new scam going on at Wall Street and it doesn’t involve bad credit loans or foreclosures.

The big players have finally found a way to make millions of dollars off of education and the federal government is helping them.

How? For-Profit Institutions.

QUICK FACTS

1. While students at for-profit schools make up only 10 percent of the college-going population, they consume almost a 25% of all federal financial aid.
2. The majority of a for-profit school’s revenue comes from federal grants and loans.
3. Critics of for-profit schools say such institutions use high-pressure sales tactics to recruit students, provide easy access to federal financial aid, load them with debt.
4. For-profit colleges spend almost 25 percent of their total revenue on getting people to come to the college and only about 10 to 15 percent on instruction once the student is there.

Have you ever heard of an Educational Entrepreneur? They are investors who look for under achieving trade schools, colleges, vocational institutions who are losing money and they turn them around, for a small profit.

There is an extremely valuable asset that these investors look for when searching for their next investment. Its called “Regional Accreditation” and it allows investors to receive federal loans from the government.

The return on investment for these “Educational Entrepreneurs” are in the millions and they are using our tax dollars to fund their next project.

One person you will meet in the documentary is Michael Clifford, an educational entrepreneur who gives Front line private access to business meetings and how the business works.

Frontline searches for answers and exposes some of the top For-Profit institutions and the people who own them. This video documentary will open your eyes to a new ponzi scheme that is destroying lives of students around the world.

To watch this documentary, please click on the link below:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/collegeinc/

USA TODAY Article:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-09-29-1Aforprofit29_CV_N.htm

———————————————————————————————————————-

TIPS:
Not all For-Profit institutions are bad. Look at these tips below to find out how you can avoid registering with the wrong school.

1. Do Your Research- Check the history of the school, the program  you’re looking to enroll in and the credentials of the faculty members.
2. Stay Away from High Interest Loans- Be very careful when stepping into the financial aid office of for-profit institutions. Ask your financial advisor questions about the type of loan, payment terms, and any other relevant information.
3. Ask Employers- If a school is known for a specific type of job training, ask the employers if they felt the college curriculum was effectively preparing students  for the jobs related in that field.

You can always tell when a company is headed for disaster. How you ask? When the company stops being proactive and looking for new ways to improve. Case & Point. Symbian, Nokia’s out-of-date software that has never been updated since the early 90′s.

The Finnish-based corporation recently announced to its investors, that the company is fighting to break-even and is expecting low sales for another disappointing year.

Nokia, for many years, was the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones. They controlled the mobile market, during the mid 1990′s and continued as a top performer in the industry all the way into early 2001.

Most of this success was due to Nokia’s low cost for manufacturing and their logistics network that placed phones all over the globe. As of today, Nokia is continuously losing its share of the smartphone market to its well-known competitors, Google and Apple Inc.

The root of Nokia’s problem is the out-dated Symbian software that is pre-installed and has never updated to a modern version. The pre-historic software lacks the simple user interaction and phone applications that consumers look for in smartphones.

Nokia Phones using Symbian Software

In February 2011, Nokia finally took steps needed to rectify this enormous problem by entering a profit-sharing agreement with Microsoft Corp. that would allow the company to abandon its Symbian operating system and make smartphones using Windows software on Nokia’s newest smartphones.

This alliance with Microsoft is not expected to payoff for at least a year and some experts are still not sure this will help the company. The partnership will greatly limit the company’s revenue capabilities, considering Nokia can only offer consumers and wireless carriers devices running on its old software platform.

So how to you make up for millions of dollars in lack of sales and bad management decisions? By cutting jobs.

Nokia announced it would shave $1 billion dollars from their bottom line by eliminating 7,000 jobs. Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia and former president of Microsoft’s Corp.’s business division, admits that the process hasn’t been easy.  “A transition like this is difficult. It is the case that certain competitive forces, in particular Android, are really gaining momentum in certain regions.”

The company has 132,000 employees and plans on concentration all of there efforts on the last two remaining markets that they still have a leading position in. Europe & Asia.

Mr. Elop believes the key to resurrecting Nokia’s mobile division is by focusing on the key problems listed below:

1. Inventory Control Issues
2. Global logistics
3. Marketing support
4. Research & Development (Phones & Operating Software)

I believe it will take a miracle for Nokia to catch-up to its rivals. There is just too much ground to make up and the company still has not started to develop the next line of Nokia Phones that will be able to compete with Apple or Google.

In my mind, its time to wave the White flag. Nokia is a sinking ship. It’s struggling to break-even, and the company has no other product extensions or lines to atone for the mobile sector. It’s only a matter of time.

Every CEO should constantly look at his or her business model  to see if it can be tweaked. Especially if the business model has been successful in the past. Don’t become stagnant. Stay fresh and on top of your game.

JMT

It takes a lot of patience and understanding to become a great fisherman.  There are certain techniques and rules to follow in order to score a big catch.

Unfortunately for me, I had to learn the hard way.

My first couple of fishing trips were a disaster because I had no knowledge on how to fish.  I remember fishing for hours and coming up empty handed.

Some of my basic mistakes:

1. Not securing the bait on properly
2. Fishing by too many people
3. Not buying the right equipment
   (Fishing Bobbers, Tools, Weights, Bait, etc.)
4. And other common mistakes.

As I got older, I started asking around for advice. I use to visit the local bait shop before heading out to talk strategy with the clerk or other fishermen. The results drastically changed. I went from coming up empty-handed after hours of fishing to catching a few small prospects.
(Most of them were too small to brag about.)

The point is that I had to learn from my failures. I had to analyze what worked and compare it with what didn’t. Over time, this process would produce a large database of successful techniques and strategies that work.

This information would be viewed as “priceless” to someone who is fishing for the first time. Not only would they probably perform better, but they would also save tons of time in frustration and bad approaches.

The same can be said about business. There are certain techniques and strategies that make some people successful and some bad approaches that will leave you empty-handed.

That’s why experience is so important in the business arena.

• Learn from bad marketing campaigns
• Learn from unsuccessful sales meetings
• Learn how to master Cold Calling
• Learn how to execute a marketing plan.

Yes, it takes time and  it takes patience, but the knowledge you will obtain over the years will be worth it.

- Just My Thoughts

10 Surefire Ways to Land More Customers

One of my good friends, David Brim, took this analogy a step further.

He wrote an excellent article comparing Fishing to Business and gives 10 tips on how to land more customers.

10 Ways to Land More Customers:

1. Know What you’re After:
2. Know Where To Fish:
3. Beware of your competition:
4. Use Good Bait:
5. Setting the Hook:
6. Test the Waters:
7. Forget catch and release:
8. Don’t get discouraged:
9. Partner Up to Catch Bigger Fish:
10. Enjoy the Trip:

For the full article, the link below:

http://www.copyblogger.com/land-more-customers/

About the Author: David Brim is the founder and CEO of Brand Advance, an interactive agency that provides marketing consulting, web design, and marketing staffing to emerging companies. David is also the founder of GroupTable.com, collaborative software to increase group productivity. David blogs at Filled to the Brim, and can be found on twitter @davidbrim.

What’s your purpose in life?

It’s a simple question to answer, but for many of my peers, it was difficult to come up with a list of accomplishments that would bring them personal fulfillment.

I was only asked to name 2 personal goals, but i decided to take it a step further. So I sat down for about 30 minutes in a quite room and wrote down 10 personal goals that I felt would bring me personal fulfillment in life.

Here’s a couple of them:
1. To have a successful career.
2. To maintain a healthy mind, body and spirit.
3. To create generational wealth for my family.
4. To be a good father to my kids and devoted husband to my wife.

To me, fulfillment comes from three things:

1. Defining your purpose in life.
2. Accomplishing a series of connected, long-term goals.
3. Having no regrets with the decisions you’ve made.

Defining Your Purpose:

Efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.
- John F. Kennedy

The best way to find your purpose in life is to figure out what your passionate about.

• Is it sports?
• Is it fashion?
• Is it science?
• Is is dancing?
• Is it working with children?

I touched on this topic already in a previous blog post. To read more about working with purpose, click here.

Achieving Your Goals:

Setting goals is the easiest way to stay on course to the road of fulfillment. The earlier you set  goals for yourself, the less likely you’ll get lost along the way. The longer you wait, the harder it is to figure out your purpose later.

Middle age men often go through a stage called the “mid-life crisis”, when they reach their mid 50’s. They become angry with fact that the days of their youth are now gone and find themselves in a state of confusion and low-ambition.

The main reason for this:  Lack of purpose.

In life, you have to constantly create new goals for yourself and others. The easiest way to become complacent is to start letting your mind get lazy.

Try to set goals that affect the lives of others and not yourself.
I.E. Family Members, Co-workers, Students, etc.

Live with Regrets:

(My Way Song)

“Regrets?   I’ve had a few,
But then again,  too few to mention.

I did, what I had to do
And saw it through without exemption.”

I think Frank would say fulfillment comes from having no regrets. To be content with the decisions you’ve made.

There’s always going to be someone second guessing your decision; especially when you’re a prominent figure in American society. The key is to never waver. If you know that you’re making the right decision, stand behind it with supreme confidence.

History shows us great examples of both men and woman who have showed great bravery, courage and integrity while they served with purpose.
Ex: Abraham Lincoln, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King Jr., Mohammad Gandhi, Joan of Ark, Albert Einstein and many more.

I encourage everyone to write down a list of goals  that will bring personal fulfillment and happiness to their lives.

Just My Thoughts