From Greece To America

LENA PHILIPPOU KORRES of Korres Natural Products, a line of high-end plant-based beauty products made in Greece, is delighted that the brand's first American store just opened on Wooster Street in New York. ''I love SoHo,'' she said from her office in Athens.

Now, she can make up for lost time. Mrs. Korres, 36, who heads the company's international marketing and product development is married to the company's founder, George Korres, said that her personal style mirrors the brand's philosophy. ''Korres's packaging and products are understated, polite and kind,'' she said.

I personally love it when brands from other countries expand globally. I think the company in most cases, benefits if they advertise correctly and sparks the interest of new and old customers.

Article can be found at, "The Natural Beauty."

City’s Virtues to Be Sold in New Global Ad Campaign

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg unveiled the city’s first global advertising campaign yesterday in Times Square. The campaign, which carries the theme “This is New York City,” includes a television ad that will be the first to promote the city to potential visitors who live overseas. It is the latest weapon aimed at hitting the mayor’s target of increasing the number of visitors to 50 million a year by 2015. Last year, the city drew 43.8 million visitors, more than in any previous year, according to NYC & Company, the city’s tourism promotion agency.

To reach that goal, NYC & Company plans to place billboards in cities across America and Europe and to broadcast its new commercial in Britain, Ireland and Spain, on local TV stations in Philadelphia and Boston, and on the History Channel. The city’s contract with Cemusa, a provider of bus shelters and other structures, gives it hundreds of billboards that it can swap for advertising space on the streets of several European cities. Much of the money for the campaign is coming from the city budget.

Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday that it was time to recognize how important tourism is to the city’s economy and to try to increase it at a time when a weak dollar is making the city more affordable to foreigners.“People are shocked to find that what they thought was a very expensive city isn’t all that expensive,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

He said the officials decided that in order “to get at New York’s core, you simply have to let New York speak for itself.” So the theme of the ads is simply “This is New York City,” and the ads combine images of the city like the Statue of Liberty, Yankee Stadium and the Brooklyn Bridge with animated symbols meant to spark a viewer’s imagination.“This is targeted to the excitement of New York City,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “It’s a lot more upbeat than just ‘I Love New York.’” Their main goal was for advertising to do something and I think this is a great way to step up. Also, I think that unconventional ways to advertise such as, billboards is very successful in getting consumer's attention.

More to this article can be found at, "City’s Virtues to Be Sold in New Global Ad Campaign."

Free Subscriptions! Good or Bad?

Rupert Murdoch says he plans to abolish subscription fees at The Wall Street Journal’s Web site, according to news accounts from Australia. This apparently was news to executives at his company and The Journal, who cautioned that the decision might not be final. Mr. Murdoch made his statements in an address to shareholders in the South Australian center of Adelaide on Tuesday — late Monday night in New York — and in an interview carried in the Tuesday issue of his national newspaper, The Australian. News agencies reported that he said of The Journal’s Web site, “We are studying it and we expect to make that free.”

The Journal, one of very few large newspapers to charge for access to most of its Web site, has one million paying online subscribers. The fees they pay have been widely reported at $50 million a year, but a Dow Jones executive has said the figure is closer to $70 million. Mr. Murdoch also said he intended to expand the size of the weekday Journal by 15 to 20 percent and to double the Saturday edition as he expands its coverage of national and international affairs.

Mr. Murdoch has repeatedly said he is inclined to make access to all or most of The Journal site free to draw many more readers and more ad revenue. He told Australian shareholders that he envisioned, “instead of having one million, having at least 10-15 million in every corner of the earth.” But Gary Ginsberg, executive vice president of the News Corporation for global marketing and corporate affairs, said in an e-mail message yesterday, “No final decision has been reached” on the subscription fees.

There are many pros and cons to this. I feel that the increased ad revenue from opening the site to all readers would outweigh the loss of subscription charges, but that strategy could carry risks. With the website being free, they run the risk alienating the audience through over saturation and as a result, a decline in audience response could be seen. As I learned in my audience research class, too much exposure or frequency could definitely be harmful.

This article can be found at, "Murdoch Said to Stress Free Access to Wall Street Journal's Web Site."

Bye Bye Consumer Sales In Japan

In South Korea, Samsung Electronics Co. said Friday it had stopped selling flat panel televisions and other consumer products in Japan, citing poor profitability. Samsung has emerged in the past decade and a half as a global force in consumer electronics, taking on and even beating Japanese rivals in places such as the United States and Europe. "We judged direct sales to individual consumers are less profitable than business-to-business sales," Lee Eun-hee, a Samsung spokeswoman, said of the reasoning behind the decision.

Samsung will sell flat screen computer monitors directly to businesses and will continue to sell components such as memory chips and liquid crystal displays, she said. The company will also keep supplying mobile phone handsets to Japanese telecommunications company Softbank Corp., she said. Since 2004, Samsung has produced LCD panels at a joint venture with Sony to meet strong demand for flat screen TVs, which has soared in recent years as consumers have switched to the sleeker versions.

Analysts, who emphasized that the move would have no impact on Samsung's bottom line, said the dominance of Japanese manufacturers on their home turf meant the company faced serious marketing and brand challenges despite the quality of its products.
I think that Samsung should continue to sell the products that do well in Japan, but when it comes to flat screen TVs, maybe it will be a good idea to not target in Japan.

This article can be found in the Washington Post entitled, "Samsung Stops Consumer Sales In Japan."

Microsoft CEO Plays Down Google Threat

Well if you are true readers of my blog, you will remember an article I posted that dealt with Google planning more marketing strategies than Microsoft and Microsoft was getting jealous. Well, today in Tokyo, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, launched a new Windows Live services, played down the threat of Google on Thursday, denying the rival was ahead in any way but in online searches.

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday began offering its Windows Live programming package for e-mail, instant messaging, blogging and photo-sharing in Japan. The product was announced in the U.S. Tuesday. On Monday, Google Inc., which already offers similar services online for personal computers, said it will offer a new free software package for mobile devices called Android, scheduled to hit the market during the second half of next year. Google is offering its technology to handset manufacturers so consumers will be able to use Google's search engine, e-mail and maps on mobile devices as easily as on personal computers.

Ballmer expressed hopes for Microsoft's business in Japan, noting that Japanese consumers were ahead of the rest of the world in accessing the Internet on cell phones because of the popularity of the "i-mode" Net-linking mobile service that NTT DoCoMo launched in February 1999. But Ballmer acknowledged Microsoft expects to continue to lose money in its global online business for some time. Although online advertising revenue is growing, Microsoft is still "in an investment mode" in online businesses, he said.

I'm personally sensing some major competition. Do you?

This article can be found at, "Microsoft CEO Plays Down Google Threat."

Here is an example of whats next in the virtual world, within Microsoft vs Google

NBC Universal Travels Abroad

NBC, one of the biggest media channels, finally moves into the international markets, calling it NBC Universal (NBCU). NBC Universal's international business is a huge priority. As the President and Chief Executive of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker said, "NBCU recently made a major acquisition of Sparrowhawk Media, which gives us 18 feeds of the Hallmark Channel overseas, reaching 60 million subscribers in 152 countries."

The NBCU Global Networks include the Sci Fi Channel, our Universal Studio channel, and 13th Street, which is our global mystery and adventure channel, along with CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia. As Zucker continues to comment on, "...we are expanding these channels into 30 more countries over the next three years. This augments our already robust international film production and international TV production businesses, which we are also expanding.”

The company plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on its overseas expansion. In my opinion, NBC going global shows a sign of commitment. Even though, NBC is one of the last channels to join the international television team, it is never too late to expand globally.

Read more on this article at, "NBC Universal, late for party, joins gold rush in international television."

British Tourism Eager To Cash In On Movie Magic

Tourist chiefs keen to tempt "set-jetters" to Britain launched a campaign on Monday to cash in on historic locations featured in the new Cate Blanchett movie "The Golden Age" about Tudor Queen Elizabeth I. Location vacations have proved to be a major tourist draw with visitors flocking to see where the Harry Potter movies and "The Da Vinci Code" were made. Britain has set up film tourism offices in Los Angeles and Mumbai.

Tours inspired by movie and TV locations -- known as "set-jetting" in the travel business -- are thriving with "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy boosting New Zealand tourism and Hawaii promoting Elvis Presley and Indiana Jones sites. Set-jetting is a great way of marketing a destination," said Tom Wright, chief executive of the national tourism agency VisitBritain. "This is a major opportunity for us to remind visitors -- and Americans particularly -- of one of the enduring appeals of our destination," he said. If the right film is chosen, it acts as free advertising for a destination, location or attraction and is shown to millions of people around the world.

So VisitBritain, cashing in on the launch of the new Elizabethan saga, is running a global campaign promoting hotel, car hire and specialist tour group tie ins that cover the film's major locations. Its visitbritain.com/goldenage website takes in a string of Tudor backdrops from Westminster and Winchester cathedrals to a Cambridge University college. Nearly three quarters of the potential visitors to Britain are likely to visit castles and stately homes, tourist industry research shows.

This article is very interesting to me because as I am taking an audience research class, I am learning about tourist industry's and how to target the right audience. This is a great example of that!

See more of this article at; "British Tourism Eager To Cash In On Movie Magic."