Marketing Extra - Sample Issue The Marketing Association Of Australia And New Zealand

Commit yourself to detailed accountability. Record your progress toward your goals every night, and list the six most important things you need to do the next day. Daily discipline is the key to reaching your goals.

Build your efforts on a sold foundation of honesty, character, integrity, trust, love, and loyalty. This foundation will give you an honest shot at reaching any goal you have set properly. And if you don't quite get there in the end you aren't going to be ashamed of your efforts either

Break your intermediate and long-range goals into bite sized pieces or increments. If you can do it overnight it wasn't much of a goal right?

Be prepared to change and be flexible. You can't control the weather, inflation, interest rates, or the stock market etc. Change your decision to move toward a goal carefully--but be willing to change your direction to get there as conditions and circumstances demand.

Share your "give-up" goals (i.e., give up smoking, being rude, procrastinating, being late, eating too much, etc.) with many people. Chances are they're going to encourage you. If they don't, don't listen to them anymore.

Become part of a team with the same sort of goals. Remember: You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.

Visualise your achievement . In your imagination see yourself receiving that diploma, getting that job or promotion, making that speech, moving into the home of your dreams, achieving that weight-loss goal, etc.

Remember, what you get by reaching your destination isn't nearly as important as what you become by reaching your goals

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

Quotes

Were there no fools, there would be no wise men. - German Proverb

Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of could not succeed. - Mark Twain

The one self-knowledge worth having is to know one's own mind. - F. H. Bradley (1846-1924)

I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. - Arthur Conan Doyle A Study In Scarlet

Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success. - Pablo Picasso

Once you consent to some concession, you can never cancel it and put things back the way they are. - Howard R. Hughes

We hardly find any persons of good sense save those who agree with us. - Franqois de La Rochefoucauld

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

From The Media

Illegal downloading on the wane

The Recording Industry Association of America's strategy of scaring college kids with lawsuits may be a public relations nightmare, but some numbers suggest it might also be working.

Illegal downloading of online content has gone down 17%, according to the latest eMarketer report, which cites a study conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of the Business Software Alliance. The BSA, a group "dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world," counts mostly software and hardware companies as members.

Interestingly, the study found that a fear of an RIAA lawsuit is less of a deterrent than the fear of inadvertently downloading spyware or a virus.

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

Yahoo boosts presence in S Korea

Yahoo is looking for growth in east Asia

Yahoo has expanded its interests in South Korea, buying a strategic stake in e-commerce provider Gmarket.

The US internet search and media firm has paid 57bn won ($60m) to buy a 10% holding in the Seoul-based business.

The investment will help Gmarket to grow outside its own market, while giving Yahoo a stake in a potentially lucrative e-commerce destination.

The e-commerce and internet search sectors in Korea are generally dominated by home-grown firms. Gmarket is a mass-market online retailer, selling a wide range of goods ranging from jeans to toiletries.

Yahoo has targeted east Asia as a growth area because of its high level of internet access and rising income levels. More than 60% of households in South Korea have access to broadband internet services, the highest figure in the world.

Yahoo also bought a 40% take in Alibaba, a Chinese online auction business, last year for $1bn - a clear signal that it wanted to challenge eBay in the world's fastest-growing online markets.

Gmarket's strength in e-commerce complements the strong offerings we already provide in Korea

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

Vietnam: A rising sun in high-tech

Vietnam's fledgling high-tech industry got a major vote of confidence with the recent visit of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, whose visit says much about the country's success in establishing itself as a new player on the technology map.

Vietnam has been anxious to jumpstart its high-tech sector, which got a big boost earlier this year when Intel Corp., the world's largest chipmaker, announced plans to build a US$300 million (euro243 million) chip assembly and testing plant in the country.

''The decision of Intel (to build) a plant in Ho Chi Minh City, and now Bill Gates' visit is confirming the recognition of Vietnam's potential for IT development,'' said Truong Gia Binh, CEO and president of the Corporation for Financing and Promoting Technology, or FPT, the country's leading software and computer maker.

Vietnam has signed agreements for Microsoft Corp. to help Vietnam develop its technology companies and train some 50,000 teachers to use computer software.

Vietnam has clear ambitions of becoming another tech mecca like India and, with its young, literate work force.

Vietnam's potential is undeniable, though the country remains at a relatively early stage of development, said Binh, who is also head of the Vietnam Software Association. There are about 800 active software development companies in Vietnam, which range in size from tiny hole-in-the-wall operations to full-fledged companies like FPT with its 8,000 staffers, he said.

Vietnam has also battled a bad reputation as one of the region's worst violators of intellectual property rights. It has the highest percentage of pirated software in Asia.

Vietnam already has some 45 information technology training centres around the country, graduating some 35,000 students a year, but that still leaves the country short of its demand, said Binh. '

www.technologyreview.com

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

The scent of a movie

Two movie theatres in Japan began offering a novel sensory experience to audiences Saturday: smells synchronized to a Hollywood adventure film.

Seven different aromas wafted from beneath the back-row seats during showings of the ''The New World,'' synchronized with the on-screen action.

''This movie depicted nature a lot, so the aromas created the atmosphere of the forest and flowers shown in the movie. It was nice,'' said Asami Osato, who watched the film at Tokyo's Louvre Marunouchi theatre.

A floral scent accompanies a love scene, while a mix of peppermint and rosemary is emitted from special machines during a sad portion of the film.

The service is available for only the back 33 of the 470 seats, according to theatre official Kenjiro Beppu.

''We sold out all of our 'Aroma Seats' for four showings'' on Saturday, he said, adding that the service will continue through May 5.

Movie theatres will be able to download scent sequences for other films from the Internet from NTT Communications, which offers the service to theatres.

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

Standardizing Linux

In a move to make the freely distributed Linux operating system a stronger alternative to Microsoft Corp.'s Windows, a group of major Linux distributors announced Friday they have united on a standard set of components for desktop versions of Linux.

The standard created by the Free Standards Group should make it easier for developers to write applications that will work on Linux versions from different distributors.

Linux has a firm foothold as an operating system for servers -- it is popular for hosting Web sites, for instance -- but has only a few percent of the desktop market.

That is partly because, Linux, created in the early 90s by Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds, is really just the kernel, or core of an operating system. For a Linux computer to perform meaningful tasks, more software needs to be added that does things like presenting a graphical user interface.

Unfortunately, those added software libraries differ among Linux distributors, making it hard to know if an application like a word processor will function on a particular Linux computer.

''One of the big things that's difficult is consistency, and that's Window's biggest strength,'' said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Free Standards Group.

If you buy a Windows program, you know it will run on a Windows computer, and Linux needs to work the same way, Zemlin said.

''If you really want to become a broadly adopted and used technology, you have to have that degree of standardization,'' he said.

The FSG, which counts among its members IBM Corp., Sun Microsystems Inc., Dell Inc. and Red Hat Inc., has previously certified server versions, or distributions, as conforming to its Linux Standard Base. The latest version of the LSB, 3.1, will be the first one to include a standard for desktop distributions.

The first desktop distribution to be certified will be from Xandros Inc. and will ship on May 1. It will be followed by certified distributions from Novell Inc., Red Hat, the Debian Project, Ubuntu and others.

Obstacles remain, however, to widespread Linux adoption. It is still not clear, Jang said, if developers will create Linux versions of all applications people need. For example, tax preparation software, which changes every year, is not available for Linux (though tax preparation Web sites provide an alternative for less complex filings).

Also, most computer manufacturers install Windows by default, and only a few offer to install Linux. Installation by the user is easy, but it is still a step that daunts many, Jang said.

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

Segway scooter making gains in niche markets

Many law enforcement agencies find the Segway to be an ideal vehicle. But it's still too expensive for most consumers.

Although the electric, self-balancing Segway scooter never quite caught on with commuters the way its backers had predicted five years ago, the gizmo has found a growing market among law-enforcement agencies, with more than 100 departments around the world now signed on as customers and many others testing the device.

The niche market, coupled with a burst of interest from Europeans struggling with gas prices much higher than in the U.S., have breathed new life into the Segway.

Segway Inc. President and Chief Executive James Norrod, hoping to parlay the growth into a payday for the original investors in the scooter, has made grooming the company for an initial public offering in the next few years a top priority. Norrod said he was brought in as CEO last year for just that purpose by Segway's principal investors, Credit Suisse Group and the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, best known for its early investment in Google Inc.

''They thought it was the right time to bring me in to really lead this company through this crucial period and to a liquidity event,'' said Norrod, who began his career as a sales rep for IBM and went on to head the dial-up network company Telebit Corp. until it was purchased by Cisco Systems Inc. in 1996.

Gauging Segway's prospects in an IPO is difficult, since the company will not reveal its yearly revenue or whether it is profitable. Norrod will only say that ''tens of thousands'' of Segways have been sold around the world, and that the company's revenue has been growing by at least 50 percent over each of the last few years.

He said high fuel prices have made many potential customers take another look at the Segway, especially in Europe, where gas can be twice as expensive as it is in the U.S.

''That (high price of gas) has been a driver, a real driver of our business over there,'' Norrod said.

International sales were only about 5 percent of Segway's business two years ago, but by the end of this year could account for as much as 40 percent -- much of it from law-enforcement customers and commuters struggling with high gas prices in Europe. The company also recently set up dealerships in Japan and China.

The company says the Human Transporter gets the equivalent of about 450 miles per gallon (0.5 liters per 100 kilometers), based on the amount of gas it would take to create the electricity needed to run it.

For police and security users, many of whom bought the device with grants from the Homeland Security Department and other federal agencies, the fuel efficiency is only an added bonus.

In Los Angeles County, MTA's Blair said officers prize it because it allows them to stand a head taller than they would on foot, so they can see over crowds and cars and project a more prominent presence at events like the Rose Bowl parade.

The scooters, which travel as fast as 12.5 mph (20 kph), also allow an officer on patrol to cover a much greater distance than on foot, and go indoors, onto elevators and other places bigger vehicles can't. Blair said the added efficiency allows a force to cut down on the number of patrol officers on each shift and recoup the Segway's cost in as quickly as a month.

In other applications, several bomb squads such as those in Ventura County, California, and Little Rock, Arkansas, are using Segways to transport officers in bombproof and hazardous-material suits that can weigh as much as 100 pounds (45 kilograms). The Segway allows them to scoot in and out of a scene quickly, without having to waddle in on foot in the bulky suits. Segway marketing Vice President Klee Kleber said emergency workers responded to the London bombings last year on Segways, as traffic clogged the routes for larger vehicles.

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

Inquiry report one small step for CSR

Recommendations from a parliamentary inquiry not to force directors into ensuring their companies behave ethically have earned kudos from business. But corporate social responsibility practitioners say the report does not go far enough, and that the problems confronting companies about CSR will not go away.

Deloitte corporate social responsibility director David Newhouse says companies need more guidance when it comes to the quality and content of their reports.

He also warns that it is just a matter of time before standardised industry-based guidelines for CSR reports are introduced.

"CSR in Australia and globally is still developing and there are a number of steps to be taken for CSR to become entrenched and reliable," Newhouse says.

"The report is the first step on a journey for Australian business to improve CSR, and non-financial risk reporting generally. Ultimately, standardised industry-based reporting guidelines will be needed."

The parliamentary committee is leaving it to the stock exchange to provide guidance. But what if the company is not listed? And how will it be enforced?

"Investors and stakeholders have been left on their own to lobby companies to manage and provide sustainable reports on corporate responsibility," Newhouse says. "The committee recommendations do nothing to resolve the quality and content debate about CSR reports. Companies will still be able to put whatever they want in their CSR report, if they choose to do one, making it very difficult for investors and the community to compare apples with apples."

The director of the Australian Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, Leeora Black, says the report is a "step in the right direction but not enough steps have been taken".

"It's disappointing that more encouragement for sustainability reporting has not been provided."

She says the recommendation to start an Australian Corporate Responsibility Network, modelled on Britain's Business in the Community, a business-led group with more than 750 companies, including 71 of the FTSE 100, is encouraging. "Whether it's going to be a token gesture or something more substantial remains to be seen."

But company secretaries have praised the decision not to change the Corporations Act and impose a requirement on directors to take public interest into account.

Tim Sheehy, Chartered Secretaries Australia chief executive, says tighter regulation would not make Australian companies more socially responsible. "Rather, companies with a high-performance culture will naturally embrace it simply because corporate responsibility is a good business decision."

He also praises the committee's recommendations for voluntary, not mandatory, sustainability reporting.

"Not only does mandatory reporting create a box-ticking, mechanical culture, but the compliance costs, particularly for small companies, would be overly burdensome.

"Providing guidance and models for good reporting is a preferable approach, as it allows companies to tailor the reports to the size and nature of their business."

Tom Honan, national president of the G100, which represents the chief financial officers of Australia's leading enterprises, says the decision to adopt a flexible approach will encourage boards to take interests other than financial ones into account.

"Flexibility is important as approaches to CSR will vary, depending on the nature of a company, its culture and the relationships it has with the communities in which it operates," Honan says.

"In a competitive environment, the practices of leading companies and how they report will encourage improved reporting by others as they respond to changes in community expectations — which is unlikely to occur under a mandatory 'one-size-fits-all' regime."

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

Checking the Validity of Web Sites

What can browsers tell me about how safe an e-commerce site is?

A. Security experts have long recommended that you look for the closed padlock at the bottom of the browser window to make sure your transactions are safe.

Unfortunately, the presence of a padlock is no longer enough.

Sites wishing to enable the padlock must obtain a digital certificate from any number of private companies known as certificate authorities.

In the early days, the certificate authority performed a series of checks to make sure sites were really who they said they were. The authority may have asked for ID or a copy of a business license, or it may have checked information a site submitted against state business databases.

Older authorities still do that, but some newer ones try to cut costs and corners by checking only that the site owns the domain name -- not the business said to run on that domain, said Johannes Ullrich, chief technology officer with the SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center.

The difference in cost can be significant: Ullrich said a site may spend $20 for the domain-only check, compared with $100 or more for a traditional certificate. Consumers have no easy way to tell the difference.

That doesn't mean the cheaper certificates are all suspect -- Ullrich's group even has one. But the variation opens the door for scammers known as phishers to easily obtain one and create a site that mimics a real bank's. Customers can then be tricked into revealing passwords and other sensitive details.

Scammers ''realize that as awareness of phishing increases, one thing customers are doing is looking for a lock,'' said Tim Callan, group product marketing manager for VeriSign Inc., one of the old-style certificate authorities. ''As an anti-phishing measure, the padlock has become increasingly unimportant.''

Melih Abdulhayoglu, chief executive of Comodo, another issuer of traditional certificates, said the padlock is still a good sign that a site is encrypted so sensitive information won't be leaked in transit, but ''you could be encrypting for the fraudsters for all you know.''

So all certificates -- those with and without thorough checks -- are being put into question, because a customer is not likely to know what went on behind the scenes.

Fortunately, change is on the way.

Later this year, the certificate authorities that undergo thorough checks will mark their certificates differently. Browsers could then highlight sites with such high-assurance certificates. The address bar might turn green, for instance, when visiting such sites, distinguishing them from ones that carry only a padlock.

Until then, still look for the closed padlock.

If it's missing, or if a warning appears about a missing or expired certificate, that's a sign that something could be wrong. Newer browsers are trying to make the padlock easier to see -- in Firefox and Opera, for instance, the padlock is moved up top, next to the address bar.

''Just because you see the padlock, it doesn't mean it's meaningful, but it's not meaningless,'' said Greg Hughes, chief security executive at Corillian Corp., a provider of online banking technology.

Comodo, meanwhile, has a free tool at http://www.vengine.com to help identify legitimate sites.

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

Microsoft has iPod killer in the works

Microsoft is developing a music and video device to compete with Apple's iPod and creating its own music service to rival Apple's iTunes, sources familiar with the plans said on Friday.

Robbie Bach, a rising star at Microsoft who headed development of the Xbox video game business, is overseeing the project, one source said.

The company has held licensing discussions with the music industry and is already demonstrating the entertainment device,

Reuters.

Traditional media still fumbling with new technology

Consumers know it's a new world but sellers are slow to catch on.

Big media and marketers are finally accepting that the way consumers absorb information and entertainment has changed. Their responses to how consumers perceive, retain and respond to brands are reshaping media.

Companies that once relied on regulation or engineering smarts for their edge are learning the ways of integrated marketing across many platforms. From iPod to BlackBerry, consumer review websites to blogs, Quicktime and MP3 - all are part of a complex new media landscape that marketers must traverse as easily as do the consumers they are trying to catch.

The surest way to track this progression in media thinking is to follow the advertising dollars. Australian media ad spending is expected to grow by 11 per cent to $11.6 billion this year. Of that, online advertising is tipped to add 60 per cent on last year, to $620 million, stealing thunder from free-to-air TV, which at 2 per cent growth isn't even in a holding pattern any more. Newspapers and radio will grow at 5 and 7 per cent, respectively. Media analyst Paul Budde expects pay TV's ad spending growth of 30 per cent last year to be replicated this year.

However, the apparent strength of local ad spending contrasts with the US market, where magazines are losing advertising to the web and ad revenues have declined by 2 per cent a year since 1998; in Australia last year they rose 10 per cent to $727 million, the Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia says.

Mr Budde says advertising growth slowed from 15 per cent a year in 2004 to 6 per cent last year but Australia's 251 commercial radio stations "continued to perform well". He sees emerging threats in the spread of iPods and downloaded music, although radio should continue to experience yearly advertising growth of about 5 per cent until the end of the decade.

"Visual radio", in which mobile phones display graphics and information allied to what is being aired on radio, could help counter these drains on advertising growth, he says.

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

Growth in China to accelerate

China's economy will expand faster this year than in 2005 as investment and exports continue to grow, the central bank's research bureau says.

Gross domestic product will probably rise 10.3 per cent in the first six months before slowing in the second half for full-year growth of 10 per cent, the People's Bank of China says in a report published today. China's economy grew 9.9 per cent last year, overtaking Britain as the world's fourth largest.

Premier Wen Jiabao said in April he wanted to curb an expansion by factories, which has caused an oversupply of goods in China and pushed global commodity prices to record highs. The Government is seeking to avoid a sudden economic slowdown by shifting its focus to raising incomes and consumer spending.

"The forecast of slower GDP growth in the second half of the year reflects the central bank's expectations that macro-economic measures taken in late April will take effect and help slow economic growth," said Wang Qing, senior currency strategist at the Bank of America in Hong Kong and a former International Monetary Fund official.

The central bank raised its key lending rate on April 28 by 0.27 to 5.85 per cent and told banks to rein in loans.

China is stepping up efforts to cool the economy after reports showed investment, money supply and production accelerated last month.

"China is still a developing country," central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said. "We need growth. We need it to solve a lot of economic problems. We need it to have a poverty reduction."

An increase in money supply, plus inter-bank money market rates at near record lows, are encouraging banks to offer credit to companies for new investment projects.

Investment in fixed assets in urban areas jumped 30.3 per cent in the first five months of 2006 from a year earlier, a June 15 report shows.

China's consumer prices are expected to rise 1.3 per cent in the first half, and full-year inflation will be about 1.7 per cent, the report says.

Inflation in the second quarter is expected to reach 1.4 per cent, accelerating to 2 per cent in the second quarter and 2.1 per cent in the fourth quarter.

Personal housing loans rose 12.3 per cent from a year ago to 1.9 trillion yuan as at end April.

Investment in real estate development rose 21.8 per cent in the first five months from a year earlier. The Government has recently adjusted loan, tax and land policies to curb property prices, including raising the minimum down payment for larger apartments.

Bloomberg

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

Translating Teen Web Talk

An undercover crime officer in the USA has published a book on online safety, including a glossary of common instant-messaging terms.

For many parents, the acronyms that dominate online instant messages might as well be in Greek. But being able to decipher children's online chatter might help keep them safe.

Rob Nickel, a former undercover officer specializing in online crime for the Ontario Provincial Police in Canada, put together a glossary to help adults ''speak Internet'' in his book ''Staying Safe in a Wired World.'' Some key phrases in the local lingo, according to Nickel:

-- A3 is ''anytime, anywhere, anyplace.''

-- ASLP is ''age, sex, location, picture.''

-- BD is ''big deal.''

-- CMI is ''call me.''

-- CTN is ''can't talk now.''

-- F2T is ''free to talk.''

-- FYEO is ''for your eyes only.''

-- IAD8 is ''it's a date.''

-- LDR is ''long-distance relationship.''

-- LYN is ''lying.''

-- MMAMP is ''meet me at my place.''

-- P911 is ''my parents are coming.''

-- PRW is ''parents are watching.''

-- RUMF? is ''are you male or female?''

-- STATS is ''your sex and age.''

-- YIWTGO is ''yes, i want to go private.''

Back to top

MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ MAANZ

Burst of publicity

Here's a marketing coup that has exploded all over the internet. The humble Mentos sweet has been found to have spectacular properties if mixed with Diet Coke. Popping the sweet into a Diet Coke bottle causes a reaction that results in a 20ft geyser shooting into the air. Mentos has found about 800 videos of the soda fountains all over the internet and estimates the free publicity to be worth $10m.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/diary/

Back to top