A group called Unplug design has come up with a new idea for the UN and Red Cross. They designed packages for the UN and Red Cross to deliver supplies in, but these aren’t just the regular boxes that the citizens of these third world countries are used to.
These new packages have patterns on them that can be used to make a soccer ball once the contents of the packages are taken out.
Much is happening in the business community these days that’s having a huge impact on marketing and selling. A convergence of multiple factors makes it increasingly difficult for companies to crack into accounts and increase sales:
Corporations are in a continual state of flux. Companies keep getting bigger and more global. Reorganizations, rightsizing and restructuring are everyday occurrences.
Companies are running lean-and-mean. Everyone has way too much to do and way too little time to do it. Many marketers are overworked and stressed out.
As digital marketing becomes a bigger part of every company’s branding plan, there is a natural desire and expectation for new technology, more interactivity, and more bells & whistles. Brands are no longer content reaching their users via websites and email. With the wide adoption of SmartPhones and portable devices (iPads, netbooks, etc.) brands now want to create custom apps, mobile specific web pages, engaging QR codes, and they want to launch them before their competitor does so they can start preparing for the next wave of technology.
Today’s marketing world is buzzing with the latest ways to reach people. To break through the clutter and message overload, new technologies are being utilized and consumer generated content and social networking sites are growing faster than anyone can keep up with.
So as marketing officers are rushing to stay relevant while trying to stay true to their inherited brand equity, they are forging ahead with a shiny new mandate to “revitalize, refresh and rebrand,” all while showing a better ROI and increased sales.
Has data mining come out of the dark recesses of IT and into the mainstream of marketing accepted practices? Today, Jingwei International Limited (“Jingwei”) was approved for listing on the NASDAQ. Jingwei International Limited is a leading provider of data mining, Interactive Marketing and Software Services in the fast growing Chinese market. Powered by advanced data mining technology and a proprietary database of over 400 million Chinese buyers, Jingwei enables leading Chinese companies as well as international brands to reach their target audiences with specific relevant messages.
An interesting post on Technology Review looks into a recent study, that just concluded, by four researchers from the Department of Computer Science at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
Among their findings:
On the MSN messenger network of 180 million users, for example, the median degree of separation is 6. On Twitter, Kwak et al. hypothesized that because only 22.1% of links are reciprocal (that is, I follow you, and you follow me as well) the number of degrees separating users would be longer. In fact, the average path length on Twitter is 4.12.