Things to think about... |
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As power slowly shifts from West to East, Tata Motors, the Indian tea and steel maker has emerged as the front runner to buy Ford's European brands, Jaguar and Land Rover. A successful deal by Tata would mark the first takeover of a Western car group by an Indian company. Ford bought Jaguar in 1989 for £1.6 billion and paid £1.7 billion for Land Rover in 2000. The company sold Aston Martin for £450 million in March and is conducting a review of Volvo to improve its performance. |
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The recent promotion of James Murdoch, the rising son, to chairman and CEO, Europe and Asia, News Corp, sees him head up a larger media empire than most of the world's media companies. He will be delivering The Marketing Society's Annual Lecture on April 24th. |
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Exclusive research for Think reveals that internet searches for debt consolidation outweighed searches for this Christmas's most desired gift, the Wii, by 6:1. ISM, the online market research company, monitored internet search activity in the UK across all search engines and discovered that in November almost 1.5 million searched for 'debt consolidation', 'debt consolidation loan' or 'credit card consolidation' compared with just 240,000 searches for Nintendo's Wii. |
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Four out of five children have a TV set in their own room and 63% will watch TV in bed before going to sleep, according to the annual Childwise survey. The Simpsons remains children's favourite TV programme for the third year running, followed by Eastenders, Hollyoaks and Tracy Beaker. Meanwhile over one third (and a quarter of five-to-six year olds) have a computer or laptop of their own and 23% have internet access in their own room. On average they go online four times a week, spending two hours each time. |
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Even gadgets are striving to become green. The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas showcased a number of innovative technologies that reduced damage to the environment. The Nokia 3100 Evolve is a mobile phone made from recycled and reused parts, while the Green Plug will switch itself off if your handset lets your power supply know that it needs no more charge. Or there's the Fujitsu Biblo, a Japanese laptop which is moving away from plastic with a case made partially from corn oil. |
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The Marketing Society's new professional development programme, Marketing Fast Track is launching its first series, Marketing Accelerators, for senior marketers in April. The day-long workshops will focus on insight and have been designed to equip you with inspiration and practical advice that you'll be able to apply immediately. |
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One in three financial officers do not believe marketing to be crucial in determining strategy, according to Marketing in 3D, a sobering report by Deloitte. And around one third of CFOs do not believe marketing is a key driver of growth. Fortunately, 81% of chief executives believe marketing is a key driver of growth and 85% believe it's crucial to devising strategy. Read Hugh Burkitt's six steps on becoming a better marketer on our new website to ensure you're rising to the challenge. |
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Facebook has been asked to ditch Scrabulous, one of its most popular applications, after Hasbro and Mattel, the owners of Scrabble said the online game infringed their trademark. More than half a million Facebook users play Scrabulous against one another daily. |
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The number of consumer products recalled amid health and safety fears rose by 22% to 192 lines in 2007. An influx of cheap goods from China was to blame for the increased number taken off the shelves, according to city law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain. Recalls included Mattel's 2m Chinese-made toys, decorated with toxic coating from Britain and Chinese toothpaste from BA's in-flight pouches. The 'Made in China' brand is becoming tainted by the withdrawn products. |
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Continuing the theme of language, we were delighted to discover that Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words. How appropriate. |
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