Sales & Marketing news

• 'Trump's plans to finance his wall are going to hit the auto industry like a ton of bricks'

  26-01-2017 22:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  President Donald Trump on Thursday afternoon played with an idea for financing his wall with a 20% tariff on Mexican imports to the US.
  He did, after all, promise that Mexico would pay for the wall while on the campaign trail.
  The problem is, if he puts a 20% tariff on goods coming in from Mexico, the US will most certainly pay for it too. (The plan would also violate international trade lawthrough the US's membership in the World Trade Organization, and our trade pacts with Mexico, just to
  
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• STOCKS GO NOWHERE: Here's what you need to know (CAT, VZ, CHTR, JNJ)

  26-01-2017 22:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  US stocks rose to new highs for a second-straight day but finished the trading session little changed. The Dow held above 20,000.
  Here's the scoreboard:
  Dow: 20,100.91, +32.40, (0.16%)
  S&P 500: 2,296.68, -1.69, (-0.07%)
  Nasdaq: 5,655.18, -1.16, (-0.02%)Sean Spicer, White House press secretary for President Donald Trump, said the administration is considering a 20% border tax on Mexican imports, according to the White House press pool report.The Mexican peso tumbled after&
  
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• Microsoft beats the street, stock goes nowhere (MSFT)

  26-01-2017 21:51 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Microsoft shares are staying flat in after-hours trading after reporting its quarterly earnings, which beat Wall Street expectations.
  The star of the show was Microsoft's cloud computing business, which continued to post strong gains even as its traditional Windows and Office businesses show signs of struggle.
  Microsoft reported:
  Earnings per share of $0.84 on an adjusted basis, versus $0.79 expected.
  Revenue of $25.8 billion. That figure excludes Windows 10 revenue deferrals and
  
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• Google's Q4 profit comes up short and the stock takes a hit (GOOG, GOOGL)

  26-01-2017 21:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Alphabet's stock sank in after hours trading on Thursday after the Google-parent company missed Wall Street's earnings target.
  Google’s mobile search and video ads boosted revenue in the fourth quarter, but increased spending in hardware and other new businesses, as well as a larger-than-expected tax rate, weighted on the bottom line.
  Alphabet stock was down about 2% at $814.80 in after-hours trading on Thursday.
  Here are the key numbers from Q4:
  Revenue: $26.06 billion, up 22% year-o
  
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• Trump press secretary says the administration is considering a 20% border tax on Mexican imports to help pay for the wall

  26-01-2017 21:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary for President Donald Trump, told reporters on Thursday that the administration is pushing for a 20% border tax on Mexican imports.
  "When you look at the plan that's taking shape now, using comprehensive tax reform as a means to tax imports from countries that we have a trade deficit from, like Mexico," Spicer said, according to a White House pool report.
  Spicer said the border tax would be part of a broader tax reform package and would help pay for th
  
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• Fiat Chrysler's CEO makes a pro-Trump case for a GM-FCA merger (FCAU)

  26-01-2017 21:09 via feedproxy.google.com
  In 2015, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne pushed for a merger between FCA and General Motors, arguing that the global auto industry needs to consolidate to deal with ruinous, capital-wasting replication of technology.
  Nothing came of the idea, as GM rejected Marchionne's bid. 
  On Thursday, FCA reported full-year earnings from 2016, and they were a billion more than in 2015: $6.5 billion versus $5.5 billion, before taxes and interest.
  But Marchionne hasn't completely abandoned
  
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• FIAT-CHRYSLER CEO: There's 'no doubt' Trump's economic plans will be an 'overall positive for us'

  26-01-2017 20:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne is optimistic about President Donald Trump's plans.
  During the company's quarterly earnings call on Thursday, Marchionne was asked about the economic agenda and plans of Trump. Marchionne said that the president's plans — including possibly a border tax adjustment and more — are a good thing for the carmaker.
  "There's no doubt that the full delivery of the set of financial – the set of economic parameters that President Trump has
  
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• Trump is making a massive promise about his Obamacare replacement

  26-01-2017 19:08 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  President Donald Trump has promised to deliver better healthcare at a lower cost while allowing every American access to coverage, raising the stakes in how he will address the future of healthcare in the US.
  In an interview with ABC News' David Muir that was broadcast Wednesday night, Trump said the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare law better known as Obamacare, was a disaster — a line Trump had used before his election and has used since.
  "It's too expensive," Trump told Muir. "It's h
  
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• Purchase pressure: The mobile tactics that turn consumers off

  26-01-2017 18:35
  
  Every day, consumers are met with marketing tactics that aim to speed up the buying process, from money-off incentives to limited time offers.
  Savvier consumers are aware of these not-so-subtle ways to lure them into stores and to buy online but some brands are using more questionable tactics to entice people to buy on less familiar retail channels such as mobile.
  Analysis by user experience design agency Sigma shows that some retailers are using techniques to enco
  
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• Home prices in the Hamptons are collapsing

  26-01-2017 18:18 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  At least three brokerage reports showed that home prices in the Hamptons plunged in the fourth quarter of last year.
  The luxury-real-estate company Brown Harris Stevens said prices fell 23.1%, to $1.87 million, year-over-year. The Corcoran Group put the decline in the South Fork's median price at 11%.
  Ernie Cervi, Corcoran's regional senior vice president, told the New York Post that the slump in activity late last year was related to uncertainty about the election. Consumer confidence has spike
  
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• Richard Robinson: It’s time for marketers to start a bonfire of the legacies

  26-01-2017 18:12
  
  “Things done changed on this side. Remember they used to thump but now they blast, right.” A seminal line from Dr Dre, which, if you ignore the gun violence connotations, pretty much sums up the challenge we face as marketers in 2017.
  Everything has changed. The distant thump of the past decade, as the customer moved from analogue thinking to digital normality, now blasts loud and clear for all to hear. Blame it on tech disruption, millennials on the verge of workplace domination, th
  
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• The peso is tumbling after Mexico's president said he wouldn't meet with Trump

  26-01-2017 18:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  The peso was tumbling Thursday after Mexico's president, Enrique Peña Nieto, announced he had canceled a meeting scheduled for next week with President Donald Trump.
  The peso was down by 1.2% at 21.3175 per dollar as of 11:57 a.m. ET.
  The currency had been up by as much as 0.8% at 20.9358 per dollar at about 8:50 a.m. ET.
  "This morning we have informed the White House that I will not attend the meeting scheduled for next Tuesday with the @POTUS," Peña Nieto tweeted, according to an
  
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• Ford's CEO says he's ready for the era of Trump tweets (F)

  26-01-2017 17:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Ford reported fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday.
  After the numbers were announced, Ford CEO Mark Fields took questions from analysts and the media on a conference call.
  At the end of the call, he was asked by a reporter about President Donald Trump's tweets and their potential to affect markets and share prices.
  "I feel good," Fields said, insisting that the automaker kept an eye on the "external environment" around its operations.
  "It's been the way we've been running this business for years,
  
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• TOP OIL TRADER: Trump’s border tax would make filling your car up with gas more expensive

  26-01-2017 17:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  A top oil trader is counting on President Donald Trump's border tax to increase oil prices – helping American producers while hurting American car drivers.
  "If the tax is adopted, WTI could move to a $10 [per barrel] premium to Brent providing a substantial economic advantage to US producers," according to an investment outlook from Andurand Capital Management, a $1.6 billion hedge fund firm. "Such a tax would also increase domestic gasoline prices in the US."
  A co
  
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• Microsoft drifts little changed ahead earnings (MSFT)

  26-01-2017 16:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Microsoft is little changed, up 0.03% at $63.70 a share, ahead of its second-quarter earnings results that are scheduled to cross the wires on Thursday afternoon.
  Here are Wall Street's expectations, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg:
  Revenue: $25.266 billion, down 1.7% year-on-year
  EPS (adjusted): $0.786
  According to Bloomberg Intelligence, cloud-related products may drive Microsoft results. Microsoft's 2Q results will likely be driven by growth in its clo
  
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• 2016 was the best year for the US housing market since the financial crisis

  26-01-2017 16:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Data on US new-home sales released Thursday confirmed that 2016 was the best year for the housing market since the financial crisis.
  Although sales slumped in December — by 10.4% at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 536,000 — new home sales for the year 2016 were at the strongest level since 2007.
  Also, data from the National Association of Realtors on Tuesday showed that in 2016, existing home sales were at the strongest level since 2006. 
  Interest rates are still near
  
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• UBS asked 2,000 Americans if their loan applications were 'completely accurate and factual,' and the results are worrying

  26-01-2017 16:23 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Every few months, UBS asks a group of about 2,100 consumers in the US about the state of their finances.
  The survey includes questions about consumers' level of financial stress and how likely they are to default on a loan. And, in the first three weeks of December, it asked a new question: How honest are your loan applications?
  "We asked respondents who had taken out mortgage and consumer (student, auto or credit card) loans about the factual accuracy of their loan applications," Matthew Mish a
  
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• Santander’s Keith Moor: Now is the time to talk about our brand purpose

  26-01-2017 16:05
  
  We have had a purpose-led strategy as a business for a number of years now, from back in 2013. We chose at that time to talk more about how we bring our propositions to market and about being simple, personal and fair, as that resonated with the market at the time. We always knew we wanted to talk about our purpose, but we wanted to be in a position where we could substantiate it and talk about it in a more eloquent way.
  Our communications strategy is intrinsically linked to the business strate
  
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• Google slips ahead of fourth quarter earnings (GOOG)

  26-01-2017 15:59 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Google is down 0.54% at $853.78 a share ahead of its fourth quarter earnings announcement on Thursday afternoon.
  Here are Wall Street's expectations, according to analyst estimates compiled by Yahoo Finance:
  Revenue: $25.2 billion, up 18% year-on-year.
  EPS (adjusted): $9.67
  Besides the numbers, analysts will also be looking for more evidence of Google's ambition to become a hardware company. Its first-ever phone, the Google Pixel, launched to positive reviews, but has struggled to
  
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• Diageo: We have the power to normalise gender equality

  26-01-2017 15:59
  
  Diageo is aiming to use its position as one of the biggest alcohol companies in the world to facilitate change and normalise gender equality.
  Speaking at the Advertising Association’s Lead conference today (26 January), the company’s chief marketing and innovation officer Syl Saller said she hopes Diageo’s brands, which include Guinness, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker, can “act as a catalyst for social change” over the coming years.
  Addressing a political backdrop tha
  
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• Alibaba's e-payment company is buying MoneyGram for $880 million (MGI)

  26-01-2017 15:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Ant Financial, the finance company spun out of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, has agreed a deal to buy MoneyGram for $880 million.
  The merger between Ant Financial Services Group and US money-transfer company MoneyGram was first reported by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday and confirmed over email to Business Insider.
  The deal represents a 20% premium on MoneyGram's closing price on Wednesday, which valued the company around $630 million at the close, according to Reuters data.
  Ant Financi
  
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• Unilever responds to ‘return of nationalism’ with local products focus

  26-01-2017 13:34
  
  Unilever is focusing on local products in response to the “return of nationalism” among consumers and appetite for local products.
  Speaking on a results call today (26 January), Unilever’s CEO Paul Polman said it has seen the world become more “multipolar” with local tastes and nationalism playing a bigger role in consumers’ lives.
  “This is global. In the UK you like your Marmite and Colman’s and we respect you for that. In the Netherlands people
  
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• English National Opera: CRM Executive

  26-01-2017 13:22
  
  Competitive:English National Opera:
  English National Opera is founded on the belief that opera of the highest quality should be accessible to everyone...
  London
  
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• How strong is your customer engagement?

  26-01-2017 11:58
  
  Customers today are more digitally connected, socially networked, and better informed than ever before. The customer journey, or the path that each customer takes with an organisation, is an organic one. It spans across channels and touchpoints. It can start anywhere, at any time, and can move in any direction – even backwards and in loops.
  Each customer journey is unique. Whether buying or getting help for a product, customers will vary their process each time, based on what is conv
  
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• Advertising ‘key to UK’s post-Brexit success’, says culture secretary

  26-01-2017 11:18
  
  Advertising will be “key to the UK’s post-Brexit success”, culture secretary Karen Bradley told the Advertising Association’s LEAD conference in London this morning (26 January). However, she gave no specific policy commitments to protect the industry or its talent from new immigration controls or Britain’s exit from the European single market.
  In a speech that lauded advertising’s contribution to the economy, she said the government will “provide as mu
  
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• Alzheimer’s Society rebrands to ensure disease is seen ‘as everyone’s problem’

  26-01-2017 11:00
  
  Alzheimer’s Society has rebranded in order to cut through in a “bolder way” and move away from its “passive and cold” former image.
  Alongside the more colourful new brand, the charity is also unveiling a new communications strategy, which looks to be “bold, credible and optimistic”.
  Its new strapline ‘United Against Dementia’ aims to reflect the brand’s desire to become a “rallying point” for the dementia movement. It chose
  
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• Marketing Week partners with Mumsnet for fourth Mumstock event

  26-01-2017 08:56
  
  Marketing Week has partnered with Mumsnet for its fourth annual ‘Mumstock’ event, which will explore how brands can best target mums and take their relationship “to the next level”.
  Taking place on 26 April this year, Mumstock 2017 will be centred around the unveiling of new research from Mumsnet and Saatchi & Saatchi. The report will look to reveal the secrets of best-in-class brands and equip delegates with a concrete, workable toolkit to help them take their relat
  
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• Marketers must ‘work hard to get priorities heard’ in Brexit deal

  26-01-2017 01:01
  
  In light of Government plans to take the UK out of the single market, marketers have been urged to invest in talent and ensure their voices are heard ahead of the Brexit negotiations.
  Prime Minister Theresa May said in her Brexit speech last week that she is planning to take the UK out of the single market, prioritising “control” over migration between the UK and the EU.
  While a Supreme Court ruling yesterday (24 January) means that parliament must vote on whether the government can
  
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• Warc Media Awards: Best Use of Data winners

  26-01-2017 01:00
  GLOBAL:Philips China, Brooke Bond Red Label and Destination Canada have won Golds in the Best Use of Data category in the Warc Media Awards.These recognise communications planning that has made a positive impact on business results. The
  
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• Tapping touch for mobile

  26-01-2017 01:00
  SAN FRANCISCO: The use of haptic technology to bring consumers' sense of touch into play in mobile video ads can produce a 50% uplift in brand favorability, according to new research.IPG Media Lab asked 1,137 representative Android users to take a...
  
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• Super Bowl consumer spending will dip

  26-01-2017 01:00
  WASHINGTON, DC: Consumers watching next month's Super Bowl are expected to spend a total of $14.1bn around the game, down 9% on last year's figure, according to the National Retail Federation.The trade organization's annual Super Bowl Spending...
  
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• Maggi bounces back

  26-01-2017 01:00
  NEW DELHI: The value of effective crisis management has been demonstrated in the 2016 rankings of Brand Equity's Most Trusted Brands, as Maggi, the noodle brand pulled from the shelves in 2015, recovered from 95th to 25th position.A year earlier,...
  
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• Brand purpose 'inconsequential'

  26-01-2017 01:00
  LONDON: Few people in the UK feel they are well represented by brands, according to a new survey, which raises questions about the whole concept of brand purpose and marketers' understanding of their audiences.A report by the Crispin Porter &...
  
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• Aussie B2B shifts focus

  26-01-2017 01:00
  SYDNEY: Australian B2B marketers are shifting the focus of their activities towards social media as millennial buyers make up a growing proportion of their target audience, but many have yet to see good results.According to the
  
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• AB InBev has insights on tap

  26-01-2017 01:00
  BOCA RATON, FL: Anheuser-Busch InBev, the brewer, has gained significant benefits from testing its new craft beers in a tap room, based on the logic that a customer buying the product in a natural setting is a powerful indicator for a brand. ...
  
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