Mobile marketing

The Mobile Marketing Association is a great resource when you're looking for information or data on the mobile phone market -- consumer usage, advertising practices, mobile gaming, search trends, etc. While some information is for members only, there are reports available for free in full or abbreviated formats. For example, under "Resources", the "Mobile Advertising Overview" is a 20-page report that looks at best practices and opportunities in mobile advertising. News releases, case studies, and summary data from Nielsen and NPD Group are also available. MMA publishes the IJMM International Journal of Mobile Marketing, a peer-reviewed bi-annual journal.

The Olympics and sports marketing

With the upcoming Summer Olympics in China, sports marketing is a hot topic. Knowledge@SMU (Singapore Management University) interviews marketing professor John Davis on his forthcoming book, "The Olympic Games Effect" which looks at the Olympics, sports sponsorship and branding.

International business culture and etiquette....

An understanding of business culture and etiquette in other countries is a critical competency for survival in a global business environment. Most business programs now incorporate international business etiquette into the curriculum. Listed below are a few recommended web sites that might be useful for building your business etiquette knowledge and skills:

Kwintessential offers a great collection of free and fee-based resources on inter-cultural communication, cross cultural training, translation services.... SEE esp. the "country profiles" (scroll down on left) - for business etiquette, customs and protocol.

The Canadian Agri-Food Trade Service has published "The International Business Etiquette Internet Sourcebook" (March 2007) which provides a very useful list by country of web sites devoted to business culture and/or business etiquette.

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions is the result of research on how values in the workplace are influenced by culture. The model measures countries on dimensions such as "power distance", "individualism," "masculinity," "uncertainty avoidance," and "long-term orientation." Select a country to see how it ranks on these dimensions.

A more complete list of recommended web sites can be found here: http://del.icio.us/marcylibrarian/business_etiquette.

You can also find additional resources listed in the USF library catalog. For example,"Kiss, bow, or shake hands : the bestselling guide to doing business in more than 60 countries" is a popular book available for reference use in the USFSP library. Electronic databases such as "Countries and their cultures" and "World factbook" are also very useful for a little more in-depth background on a country.

WTO 2008 World Trade Report

The WTO-World Trade Organization recently released the 2008 World Trade Report. This year's report, entitled "Trade in a Globalizing World", "is devoted to an examination of the gains from international trade and the challenges arising from higher levels of integration." From the press release, you can download a copy of the complete 204-page report and also link to reports from previous years.

McKinsey on capital markets

McKinsey & Company has a new (June 2008) report on capital markets entitled "The new power brokers: gaining clout in turbulent markets" that looks at the impact of four "power brokers" on global capital markets -- Asian sovereign investors, petrodollars, hedge funds, and private equity firms. (A one-time free registration is required to retrieve the 24-page PDF file).

The report is an update from their October 2007 report. There are also links to other McKinsey publications, including the McKinsey Quarterly.

Doing business internationally...

Every two years, KPMG publishes a report entitled, "Competitive Alternatives: KPMG's Guide to International Business Location":

"The 2008 study is the most thorough comparison of international business locations ever undertaken by KPMG, and contains valuable information for any company locating international business operations.

Competitive Alternatives 2008 is an expansion and update of previous KPMG publications, and measures the combined impact of 27 significant business cost components that are most likely to vary by location. The study also compares data on a variety of non-cost competiveness factors. The study examines 17 industry operations in 10 countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The basis for comparison is the after-tax cost of startup and operations, over 10 years."

The full report for 2008 is available for download in English or French. Past reports from 2002, 2004, and 2006 are also available here.

TV, Internet and Mobile Usage... and the ATUS...

"Nielsen Reports TV, Internet and Mobile Usage Among Americans" -- the subtitle of this Nielsen press release is nothing surprising: "Under 35’s Watch Video on Internet & Mobile Phones More Than Over 35’s; Traditional TV Viewing Continues to Grow". The press release leads to a more complete 4-page report and Nielsen plans to report updated figures on a quarterly basis.

With tv viewing reportedly on the rise, it might be interesting to see where time spent is on the decline - work, sleep, housework, other leisure activities?. The U.S. government (Dept of Labor, BLS and Census Bureau) conducts an annual survey to answer that question and more. The American Time Use Survey (ATUS) "measures the amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing." Annual data is available for 2003-2007, with detail by gender, age, income, etc.

The ATUS is a great resource for business research. Unfortunately, rumor has it may be threatened by budget cuts in Washington.

International Financial Reporting Standards

Deloitte recently surveyed about 200 senior finance professionals at U.S. companies about the use of IFRSs - International Financial Reporting Standards. You can find a link to the 20-page report at this site.

"It is expected that certain U.S. companies will have the option of using IFRSs by 2011. The bottom line — by 2011, almost every country, including the United States, will most likely be using IFRSs to some extent."

Images reflecting society

Slate has an interesting article about stock photography and how monitoring the use of these images may offer insight as to trends in business and society. "Woman", for example, climbed from eighth to first place as the most popular search term at Getty Images over the last two years. 'Modern disconnectedness' may be a future area of interest...

Vertical farming...

"Farms in the Sky Gain New Interest" (NY Times): The "vertical farm" - a skyscraper built for cultivating food - is a futuristic-sounding concept that is being re-considered more seriously these days.

The link to "business research" here may not be direct but I believe it illustrates how the energy and environmental crises could potentially encourage (long overdue) innovation...

Business use of social networking....

A recent article in Knowledge@Wharton (9July08) looks at how some businesses use social networking: Ernst & Young recruits college graduates on Facebook; Hewlett-Packard executives maintain individual blogs for customer communication; and BMW's Mini Cooper division monitors brand talk in online venues to guide its advertising.

The article includes links to additional reading on business use of social networking tools.

Using demographic data to understand consumer trends

The U.S. Census Bureau offers a goldmine of demographic data for business research. This article from the July 7, 2008 issue of Advertising Age provides a good overview of how marketers can use this data to understand consumer trends.

(via ResourceShelf and the Hill Library blog)

Google virtual world

Google has entered the world of virtual reality with Lively.com, a new competitor for the likes of SecondLife. Officially in beta, the service was introduced through Google Labs but is also available at Lively.com. Read about it in the NYTimes.

I've entered SecondLife once or twice but still haven't found enough time or interest to do much more..... maybe this will be more incentive (?)...

iGoogle and copyright basics...

The featured wikiHow or "how to" of the day on iGoogle on July 2 was entitled "How to Understand Copyright Basics" - important information for students and all information users.

I recently heard someone summarize the copyright message, particularly with regard to the Internet and electronic media, with the following lesson: Just because you found it, doesn't mean it's yours.

And for those who don't have their own customized iGoogle search page, this is just another reminder or reason to try this Google feature, which allows you to keep all your frequently-used widgets on one nicely-organized page.

Facebook and politics and media spending....

The NY Times (July 7, 2008) profiles Chris Hughes, a 24-year old co-founder of Facebook who now heads the Barack Obama new-media campaign, My.Barack.Obama.com. His final quote in the article is a good summary lesson on using social networking tools, in business, politics, or any context:

“You can have the best technology in the world,” he said, “but if you don’t have a community who wants to use it and who are excited about it, then it has no purpose.”

Also, "Cashing in on Obama and McCain" (July 6, 2008) looks at the money spent on the presidential political campaign - almost $900 million to date (!) - and the businesses that profit from this spending, directly or indirectly.

public policy resources

PolicyArchive is "a comprehensive digital library of public policy research containing over 12,000 documents." Participating organizations represent the full political spectrum of viewpoints and the collection includes reports from the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Center for American Progress, and many more. Much of this important research is difficult to identify without going to each individual organization. The user-friendly website allows searching by topic such as economics, education, environment, human rights, etc. You can also register to receive email newsletters for particular topic areas.

(PolicyArchive.org was recently reviewed by ResourceShelf, #365.)

nation-building and the economic crisis...

In his June 26 column in the NY Times, Thomas Friedman addresses the widening economic crisis in the U.S. and the need for the U.S. political system to undertake profound nation-building. Despite sobering news in the financial and housing markets, a deepening energy crisis, rising unemployment, and weak consumer spending, Friedman seems hopeful: "We are a country in debt and in decline — not terminal, not irreversible, but in decline....."

The U.S. economic crisis is naturally a top concern for individuals and organizations. I just returned from the annual ALA library conference (thus no recent blog postings) -- the economic crisis and all its varied implications seemed to creep its way into every conference session and library discussion...

Big impact of small changes...

This brief article in Greener Design News highlights a new milk carton design and the resulting financial and environmental savings. It's always a bit hopeful to hear of positive results from small changes....

Greener Design is a good source for those interested in following the business of environmental design and green markets...