More on the food crisis....

The Washington Post also has a recent, ongoing series (April 26 - May 1) covering the global food crisis:

"This series explores the causes and effects of the world's worst food crisis since the 1970s. A complex combination of poor harvests, competition with biofuels, higher energy prices, surging demand in China and India, and a blockage in global trade is driving food prices up worldwide. Some countries, especially in Africa, are facing an increasingly dire situation while even consumers in wealthy nations are being forced to adjust."

Recession v. Inflation and the price of Doritos

This article in the Houston Chronicle was recently posted on BUSLIB by Andrew Evans at Washburn University Law Library. While humorous, the article also provides an understandable overview of the Federal Reserve's role in recession versus inflation polices, the recent rate cuts.... and the rising price of doritos.

Inflation Hits close to Home
(by Loren Steffy)
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/steffy/5732203.html

The Food Chain

A timely series of articles in the NYTimes "examine growing demands on, and changes in, the world’s production of food." Issues include environmental costs, price volatility, drought, conservation programs, and the effects of the oil crisis on food production and costs, globally. The April 26 article, for example, looks at the "environmental cost of shipping groceries around the world."

Consumer and corporate technologies

Gadgets at Work: The Blurring Boundary between Consumer and Corporate Technologies

Brief article summarizes an important trend in ICT (information and communication technologies) - "consumerization" - in which consumer technologies such as social networking, user-generated content, and wikis, are increasingly adopted for use within corporations. .... The suggestion is made that the introduction of iphones in the corporate world may bode well for the acceptance of other Apple products....

another type of research....

"Can the cellphone help end global poverty?"
An article in today's NY Times profiles Jan Chipchase, an anthropologist who conducts field research around the globe for the Finnish cellphone company, Nokia. Some great ideas and perspective on conducting marketing research and human-centered design research in a global marketplace....

On that note, I'll be in the Dominican Republic on a volunteer Habitat for Humanity work trip next week, back at the library on Monday, April 21st.

Storytelling in marketing...

"Status Stories" from Trendwatching.com (April 2008):

"STATUS STORIES: As more brands (have to) go niche and therefore tell stories that aren't known to the masses, and as experiences and non-consumption-related expenditures take over from physical (and more visible) status symbols, consumers will increasingly have to tell each other stories to achieve a status dividend from their purchases. Expect a shift from brands telling a story, to brands helping consumers tell status-yielding stories to other consumers."

This newsletter always includes products and services that I haven't heard of yet - many are stories of European origin, like the brand Wickd, a Dutch firm that produces clothing with logos that have embedded website technology, accessible via a cellphone.

using and mis-using statistics....

The Use -- and Misuse -- of Statistics: How and Why Numbers Are So Easily Manipulated

From Knowledge@Wharton (April 2), a discussion of work by Wharton researchers on the use of statistics in the report defending Major League Baseball player Roger Clemens:

"By comparing Clemens only to those who were successful in the second act of their careers, rather than to all pitchers who had a similarly successful first act, the report artificially minimizes the chances that Clemens' numbers will seem unusual," they write. "Statisticians call this problem 'selection bias.'"

The article discusses other business examples of disputed statistics such as ads for Coca-Cola's Enviga beverage and a Wall Street Journal ad for Dreyfus Funds.

Cluster Mapping Project...

For those looking at regional economies or industry clusters, the Cluster Mapping Project at the Harvard Business School's Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness is an interesting resource:

"The Cluster Mapping Project uses detailed county level data and statistical techniques to profile regional economies and their performance over time, with a special focus on clusters. Clusters are geographically concentrated groups of interconnected companies, universities, and related institutions that arise out of linkages or externalities across industries. Regions and clusters are analyzed at various geographic levels including states, economic areas, and metropolitan areas. A more detailed description of the project, including its methodology, is available. below. "

Free registration required to access one level of data. Access to more detailed data requires an annual subscription fee$.

Online social technologies with business implications ....

A few recent articles in the NY Times discuss some interesting new technology with business and marketing implications...

"An Online Game So Mysterious Its Famous Sponsor Is Hidden"
TheLostRing.com is an alternate reality game focused on the upcoming Olympics in Beijing. McDonald's, better known for Happy Meals and other very visible advertising, is the quiet sponsor behind the game in partnership with the International Olympics Committee. If, like me, you need a definition of "alternate reality games" -- they are games that "blend online and offline clues and rely on players collaborating to solve the puzzles."

"Making Appointments for Doctor or Dinner"
HourTown, BookingAngel, and Genbook are some of the new online calendar tools that are making online booking a more successful venture -- saving time and money for small service providers like massage therapists, carpenters, lawyers, etc.

"Online Chat, as Inspired by Real Chat"
New companies are bringing live socializing back into social networking and chat. Vivaty, which will run a test period on Facebook, allows users to select a 3-D avatar to socialize with others in virtual space. Other live Web companies include TokBox (face-to-face video chats on the Web) and Meebo (web messaging now with 2-D networked chat rooms).