Sales & Marketing news

• Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff explains the real reason he wanted to buy LinkedIn — and it's not because of data (CRM)

  06-10-2016 23:44 via feedproxy.google.com
  Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff famously tried to buy LinkedIn, and even offered a higher price, before Microsoft ran away with it for about $26 billion.
  Most people believed Benioff's obsession with LinkedIn was rooted in the vast amounts of data the professional network owns in its database.
  That importance became particularly clear after Salesforce complained to regulators about the Microsoft/LinkedIn deal, citing ownership of LinkedIn's data as the reason for the complaint.
  Meanwhile, Sales
  
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• FEMA unofficially uses a 'Waffle House Index' to measure how bad hurricane damage gets

  06-10-2016 22:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  There are a bunch of unusual ways you can track what's happening in the economy.
  And one of the more popular informal measures is the so-called "The Waffle House Index"  — an indicator that is actually unofficially used by FEMA.
  Here's the gist of it: Waffle House restaurants notoriously stay open during natural disasters. So if the diner closes during an event, that suggests it was a really bad natural disaster with de
  
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• INSURANCE STOCKS PLUNGE: Here's what you need to know (UVE)

  06-10-2016 22:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  The major US stock-market indexes closed little changed on Thursday. But shares of insurers with business in Florida and other southeastern states got hammered as Hurricane Matthew approached the US.
  First, the scoreboard:
  Dow: 18,268.50, -12.53, (-0.07%)
  S&P 500: 2,160.77, +1.04, (0.05%)
  Nasdaq: 5,306.85, -9.17, (-0.17%)
  Snap Inc. is reportedly planning an IPO. The Wall Street Journal reported that the company formerly called Snapchat is working on a public offering at a
  
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• 'Not a Lehman moment': What you need to know on Wall Street right now

  06-10-2016 20:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Welcome to Finance Insider, Business Insider's summary of the top stories of the past 24 hours.
  To sign up, scroll to the bottom of this page and click "Get updates in your inbox," or click here.
  Deutsche Bank's ongoing troubles will not turn into a "Lehman moment," says Allianz chief economic adviser Mohamed El-Erian.
  El-Erian on Thursday told Bloomberg TV that the German lender's current turmoil will not lead to "a sudden stop to the global economy," like the one that followed
  
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• Women are dominating the most important part of the US economy

  06-10-2016 20:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  One of the big, long-term trends in the US economy has been the transition from manufacturing to services.
  In fact, employment in "knowledge-intensive" and service-sector sectors has doubled since 1990, while manufacturing employment has dropped by a third, according to a Pew Research Center report.
  And this trend has translated into a greater demand for "higher-level social" and/or "analytical" skills.
  However, not everyone has benefited equally from the shift to services, which
  
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• Snap is working on an IPO for March that would value the company at $25 billion

  06-10-2016 20:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Snap Inc., the company formerly known as Snapchat, is working on an initial public offering for March that would value the company at $25 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
  A source familiar with the matter confirmed the company's IPO ambitions, but told Business Insider that the situation is still "fluid" and that Snap hasn't hired bankers at this point. The March timeline is arbitrary, given uncertainties like the outcome of the presidential election and the state of the capital m
  
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• Here's your full preview of Friday's jobs report (SPY, SPX, DJI, IXIC, IWIM, USD, TLT, DXY, TLO, GLD, GLX, SLV)

  06-10-2016 19:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics will release its report on America's employment situation during September. 
  Via Bloomberg, here's what Wall Street is forecasting:
  Nonfarm payrolls: +172,000
  Unemployment rate: 4.9%
  Average hourly earnings month-on-month: +0.3%
  Average hourly earnings year-on-year: +2.6%
  Average weekly hours worked: 34.4
  Change in manufacturing payrolls: -4,000 
  If the numbers are roughly in line with these expectations and don't show any drastic developm
  
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• Chad just fined Exxon Mobil $74 billion — here's how that stacks up against the size of its economy (XOM)

  06-10-2016 19:52 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  According to a Bloomberg News report, the central African nation of Chad just fined oil giant Exxon Mobil $74 billion, as well as an additional $819 million in unpaid royalties.
  To put that into perspective, the CIA World Factbook estimates that the 2015 gross domestic product of Chad was just $10.88 billion at current exchange rates.
  That means that the fine against Exxon works out to being about 6.8 times the overall size of the country's overall economy.
  Adjusting for the cost of goods and se
  
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• Insurance stocks are getting hammered ahead of Hurricane Matthew (UVE, HRTG, FNHC, UIHC, FFH)

  06-10-2016 19:47 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Shares of a variety of publicly-traded property and causality companies are taking it on the chin on Thursday as Hurricane Matthew bears down on the Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina coasts.
  The biggest loser of the group is Universal Insurance Holding Corp., a Florida-based insurer, that has fallen more than 15% on the day. The firm holds licenses to operate in nearly every state the hurricane is expected to impact.
  Here's a few other firms with large Florida businesses that are also seeking
  
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• Jack Dorsey hasn’t been the savior Twitter hoped for (TWTR)

  06-10-2016 19:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  It’s been one year since Jack Dorsey took back the reigns at the company he cofounded, and things haven’t exactly gone according to plan. Though Dorsey has made moves toward streamlining Twitter, the popular social media company struggled to grow its earnings and user base, and some of the users it does have still aren't model citizens.
  This chart from Statista should demonstrate just how stormy Dorsey’s second act has been. Since he took over as interim CEO last
  
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• A biotech company erased $3 billion in value overnight after one of its drugs failed a key trial (ALNY)

  06-10-2016 19:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Biotech company Alnylam Pharmaceuticals is down almost 50% Thursday after stopping a late-stage clinical trial.
  The drug, revusiran, was being developed to treat a condition called hereditary ATTR amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy. It's a rare disease in which amyloid proteins build up in the body, in particular the heart.
  Alnylam discontinued the trial after 18 patients died who were part of the trial.
  "Patient safety comes first. We have stopped all dosing and are actively monitoring patients ac
  
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• These comments by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff convinced investors he's not buying Twitter — and the stock is popping (CRM, TWTR)

  06-10-2016 19:06 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff made a few comments during Wednesday's investor meeting that indicated he's likely not going to pursue a Twitter acquisition — leading to a 4% jump in Salesforce stock on Thursday.
  Benioff didn't explicitly mention Twitter, instead calling it a "company that shall not be named," and he didn't give a clear answer around a possible deal. But most analysts now believe a Salesforce-Twitter tie up is highly unlikely.
  "While Benioff did not give a yes o
  
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• Uber is using a tax 'loophole' to make its rides cheaper

  06-10-2016 19:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  The mass transit I took to Brooklyn the other night came in the form of a gray Toyota minivan.
  It sure didn't feel like mass transit: My colleague and I filled the middle row, and for most of the rush-hour journey crawling over torn-up Greenwich Village streets and then coasting across the Manhattan Bridge, it was just the two of us with the driver and four empty seats.
  Comfortable, but hardly efficient.
  I was in an UberPool, the ride-hailing company's service that picks up passengers heading in
  
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• ALBERT EDWARDS: Here's what Larry Summers got wrong

  06-10-2016 18:39 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Albert Edwards does not agree with Larry Summers.
  Societe Generale's über-/perma-bear strategist laid out another dire, debt-fueled prediction in a note to clients on Thursday, warning that the problems with central banks and increasing debt looks like what he saw "before the 2008 Global Financial Crisis."
  In it, Edwards recounts a trip to New York City for a conference at which Larry Summers spoke about his "secular stagnation" thesis.
  Summers, who was Treasury Secretar
  
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• Adidas on redefining influencer marketing through dark social

  06-10-2016 18:23
  
  Adidas is hoping to change the face of influencer marketing with the launch of Tango Squads, communities of hyper-connected football obsessives operating on direct messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Line.Named after one of Adidas’ first footballs, the Tango Squads are groups of socially savvy 16-19-year-old football content creators living in 15 key cities worldwide. While the squads are between 100 and 250 people, Adidas hopes to reach a maximum of 500 members p
  
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• People in California are starting to use their homes as piggy banks

  06-10-2016 18:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  The surge in home values in California is prompting a growing number of homeowners to treat their properties like piggy banks and draw cash out of their homes.
  They are using the equity on their homes to access credit products that take advantage of the higher value, according to a September report from the California Credit Union League.
  For instance, the league observed a rise in the number of people getting Home Equity Lines of Credit (HELOCs) — an extra credit line that
  
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• The top takeaways from L’Oreal, Amnesty and Digital Spy at Festival of Marketing

  06-10-2016 17:54
  
  Tier your influencer spending for maximum impact
  Hugh Pile, CMO for Western Europe at L’Oreal, offered an in-depth look at how the beauty brand structures its influencer marketing strategy. The company has put bloggers and social media stars at the heart of its campaigns and last month announced the launch of a ‘beauty squad’ of influencers who will create content on an ongoing basis.
  Pile revealed that L’Oreal tiers the influencers that it works with according to gold, s
  
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• Looks like the tech IPO winter is over: Coupa's IPO is a smash hit (COUP)

  06-10-2016 17:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  In an encouraging sign for the tech industry, Thursday saw another smash hit IPO. This time it's Coupa, which priced its initial 7,400,000 shares at $18, and opened at $35.
  At 11 a.m. Eastern time, Coupa was trading above $40, up over 126%.
  After initially setting an initial price of $14-$16, Coupa bumped up the price of $18 just before its opening day. Even with that bump, the valuation of the company was $866 million and that was below what its private venture funds had thought it was worth. A
  
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• Gold and silver are tumbling

  06-10-2016 17:35 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  The price of precious metals are sinking on Thursday, continuing a streak of losses for the commodities.
  As of 11:34 a.m. ET, the price of an ounce of gold has sunk to $1.256.35, down $12.25, or 1.00%, for the day.
  Silver's drop has been bigger, down $0.40, or 2.25%, to $12.97.
  This is a continuation of a bad week for the precious metals. Gold is now at its lowest since June 6 and silver is its worst level since June 23, the day before the UK's vote to leave the European Union.
  Credit
  
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• KFC customers hate the Colonel, and the CEO says that's led to the brand's incredible 'breakthrough'

  06-10-2016 17:33 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  One-and-a-half years after Colonel Sanders' return to KFC marketing, the chain is in full comeback mode.On Wednesday, KFC reported that US same-store sales increased 6% compared to the same quarter last year, a growth of 8% compared to the same quarter in 2014."I wouldn't say it was an abrupt change," Yum Brands CEO Greg Creed said in a call with analysts on Thursday, in response to a question on Taco Bell and KFC's impressive quarter. "KFC US just delivered its 9th consecutive quarter of s
  
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• Jaguar wins ‘Steve Wozniak Award’ at Festival of Marketing

  06-10-2016 15:58
  
  Jaguar’s Feel Wimbledon campaign won the ‘Steve Wozniak Award for Tech Excellence’ at the Festival of Marketing.
  The VR campaign was part of Jaguar’s sponsorship of the iconic tennis tournament and placed users onto Centre Court to experience the atmosphere while hitting a winning shot at Andy Murray.
  Speaking to Marketing Week in June, Robert Herd, head of communications at Jaguar Land Rover UK, said of the campaign: “We felt there was a perfect opportunity to
  
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• Uber on Giving: ‘It’s less about being nice, more about being honest about who we are’

  06-10-2016 15:45
  
  Speaking at the Festival of Marketing today (6 October) Rachel Pettit, UK marketing and development lead at Uber, said that despite the fact the company has recently achieved the milestone of 5 billion trips, it is failing to show “what is stands for, how it helps cities or telling its own story”, something it hopes work, including its charity initiative ‘Uber Giving’ can remedy.
  The initiative, which had no media spend behind it, was launched in under 80 h
  
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• ‘Uber Giving is less about being nice, more about being honest about who we are’

  06-10-2016 15:45
  
  Uber recently hit the 5-billion trips milestones but is still failing to show “what is stands for, how it helps cities or tell its own story”, something it hopes work including its charity initiative ‘Uber Giving’ can remedy.
  The initiative, which had no media spend behind it, was launched in under 80 hours in response to the refugee crisis in European. Uber partnered with Save the Children, offering to collect items donated to the charity for fre
  
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• DNA Recruit: Experiential Lead-Brand Experience Agency-South East England

  06-10-2016 15:15
  
  £65000.00 per annum + bonus & benefits:DNA Recruit:
  An established independent brand experience agency based in South East England are looking for an Experiential Lead to join their team.This boutique dynamic agency specialise in experiential and brand activation and are retail obsessives and their job isSurrey
  
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• Gabriele Skelton: New Business Manager, 35-45K

  06-10-2016 14:29
  
  £35000 - £45000 per annum:Gabriele Skelton:
  Specialists in strategic brand design and innovation, this independent packaging agency have a role for a New Business Manager.
  London
  
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• Game credits switch to community-focused branding for boost to profitability

  06-10-2016 13:27
  
  Focusing on creating a community of gamers through initiatives such as ‘gaming arenas’ is helping boost loyalty and profit.
  Since launching the ‘Gaming Arena’ – which provides an area for gamers to battle one another, using professional PC equipment – within its Trafford Centre store back in July, Game says the store’s total profits have risen by 10%.
  Average weekly PC sales, an area where Game traditionally underperforms, also increased by 58
  
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• Game credits switch to community branding for upping its profitability

  06-10-2016 13:27
  
  Since launching the ‘Gaming Arena’ – which provides an area for gamers to battle one another, using professional PC equipment – within its Trafford Centre store back in July, Game says the store’s total profits have risen by 10%.
  Average weekly PC sales, an area where Game traditionally underperforms, also increased by 58% at the store, with 22.7% of its customers new to the Game brand and 24% subsequently signing up to its social media database.
  Spe
  
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• Marketers ‘don’t know their story’ for Brexit

  06-10-2016 12:19
  UK marketers and creative professionals don’t have a plan to communicate what Brexit means for brands and consumers in the wake of the vote to leave the European Union, according to panellists debating the future of ‘Brand Britain’ at the Festival of Marketing today (6 October).
  BBC Worldwide CEO Tim Davie said marketers and creatives – 96% of whom supported Remain in the referendum, according to the Creative Industries Federation – are “lacking certainty
  
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• Ed Pilkington: Data is good but culture is key

  06-10-2016 11:23
  Culture is a broad term to say the least. It can encompass many meanings, including customs, social behaviours and trends as well as lifestyles, values and habits – all of which change over time.
  This subjectivity can often deter corporate teams who opt for approaches that are based in fact and tangible evidence rather than inklings and hunches. This is true in the realms of marketing. It is true in nearly all spheres of modern day business.
  In marketing, however, understanding and being i
  
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• The best brands are ‘built on product not advertising’ says Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak

  06-10-2016 10:54
  
  Speaking in his headline slot at the Festival of Marketing yesterday (5 October), Apple-co founder Steve Wozniak slammed brands that prioritise advertising over product innovation.
  Wozniak, who famously founded tech giant Apple alongside Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne, admitted his perception of marketers used to constitute as “those funny folk who would battle against our [engineers] ideas”.
  And he also admitted a marketer once pleaded with him and Jobs against using ‘Apple&rsquo
  
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• Viceland UK fails to reach viewers

  06-10-2016 02:00
  
  LONDON: Vice Media has often emphasised its ability to reach the coveted millennial demographic, but new analysis suggests its new UK TV channel has got off to a slow start with some peak nights reaching zero viewers.Viceland UK launched on 19...
  
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• US holiday sales look promising

  06-10-2016 02:00
  
  WASHINGTON DC: US retailers, looking ahead at the crucial holiday season, should take comfort from the release of upbeat sales estimates from the National Retail Federation (NRF).The trade body's closely watched forecast expects retail sales in...
  
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• The forces powering India's growth

  06-10-2016 02:00
  
  MUMBAI: India is on course to become the third largest consuming economy in the world after witnessing profound societal change over the past decade, but these developments will continue and brands should get prepared, argue two leading consultants....
  
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• Mondelēz taps Asian innovation

  06-10-2016 02:00
  
  SINGAPORE: Mondelēz, the food and beverages giant, sees Asia as fundamental to its growth strategy, in part because of the technical expertise in the region, according to the company's APAC head of research and development.Speaking 
  
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• MasterCard launches 'selfie pay' app

  06-10-2016 02:00
  
  LONDON: MasterCard, the financial payments firm, is rolling out new biometric technology in Europe that enables customers to verify their identity with selfies.Dubbed "Selfie Pay", but officially known as "Identity Check Mobile", the new app is...
  
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• Best Buy's successful data strategy

  06-10-2016 02:00
  
  NAPLES, FL: Best Buy, the electronics retailer, is effectively leveraging first-party data to enhance its targeting and drive a greater consumer response to its marketing.Greg Revelle, the firm's Chief Marketing Officer, discussed this topic at...
  
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• Arby's winning eSports play

  06-10-2016 02:00
  
  NEW YORK: Arby's, the restaurant chain, drove a variety of core brand metrics through its sponsorship of ELEAGUE, an eSports competition developed by broadcaster TBS and events group WME IMG.Rob Lynch, Brand President/CMO at Arby's, discussed this...
  
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• Fitbit on how it looks to ‘integrate more deeply into healthcare’

  06-10-2016 01:41
  
  Fitbit’s CEO James Park has revealed the wearables brand is looking to put a bigger focus on healthcare, as it hopes to produce products for consumers suffering from chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
  Speaking at today’s Dreamforce keynote session in San Francisco, Park told attendees the brand’s mission has always been to “help people become healthier”.
  Fitbit devices use motion sensor technology to track user moveme
  
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• Fitbit is moving further into healthcare

  06-10-2016 01:41
  
  Fitbit is putting a bigger focus on healthcare by producing products for consumers suffering from chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure and heart disease.
  Speaking during a keynote session at Salesforce’s Dreamforce event in San Francisco yesterday (5 October), CEO James Park said the brand’s mission has always been to “help people become healthier”.
  Fitbit devices use motion-sensor technology to track user movement
  
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