Sales & Marketing news

• Tanks in the streets and long lines to withdraw money — here's what Zimbabwe looks like under military control

  15-11-2017 23:55 via feedproxy.google.com
  Zimbabwe is a country that is no stranger to hard times. 
  Hyperinflation, famine, and crackdowns by the government on dissent have been regular parts of Zimbabwean life since Robert Mugabe took control of the country in 1980. 
  With the sudden firing of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa for disloyalty — and his supposedly planning to oust Mugabe with witchcraft — last week, Mugabe seemed to be getting ready to hand over control of the country to his wife, Grac
  
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• Here's why it's going to be hard to win over the GOP senator objecting to the tax bill

  15-11-2017 23:22 via feedproxy.google.com
  Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson became the first Republican senator to oppose the Republican tax bill.
  Johnson says the bill isn't fair to some businesses.
  He has more at stake than many other senators with the tax overhaul.
  Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson says he will vote 'no' on the Republican tax plan, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. He objects to the plan for reasons I said he might in October.
  Johnson is upset because the plan doesn't do enough t
  
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• It looks like billionaire investor Nelson Peltz might have won the biggest proxy battle in history after a recount (PG)

  15-11-2017 23:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  Nelson Peltz appears to have won his proxy battle for a seat on Procter & Gamble's board.
  In October, Peltz was initially reported to have lost the proxy vote by a slim margin.
  Now, a recount shows Peltz actually won by 43,000 votes — a 0.002% margin.A little over a month ago, it looked like billionaire investor Nelson Peltz had been foiled in the biggest proxy battle in history.
  Now, after a recount, it looks like Peltz may have won his bid to claim a seat on
  
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• SendGrid raised $131 million in a successful IPO but the founders aren't the big financial winners (SEND)

  15-11-2017 22:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  SendGrid, the Denver-based startup responsible for sending 36 billion emails a month, completed a $131 million IPO on Wednesday.
  With that, SendGrid has become the first company out of TechStars to go public and the second IPO of a company backed by Dave McClure's 500 Startups accelerator seed fund.
  Only one of the three founders still had a big enough stake in SendGrid to be among the shareholders who own 5% or more of the company.SendGrid is one of the big startup success
  
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• Cisco beats analysts' expectations and finally sees its way out an 8-quarter revenue decline streak

  15-11-2017 22:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  Cisco's stock shot up 4% in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company announced the end of its multi-quarter decline. The stock hung around $35.40 in after hours trading, after closing at $34.11. 
  The company posted a steady $12.136 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2018, compared to the quarter before when Cisco saw $12.133 billion come in. While revenue is still down 2% from the year before, investors were assuaged by the promise of 1% to 3% year-over-year
  
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• Key Republican senator just became the first major defection on the tax bill

  15-11-2017 22:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said he would not vote for the Senate's tax bill, called the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
  Johnson said he didn't like the process Senate Republicans were using to advance the bill — and the bill's benefits for large corporations.
  This complicates the path forward for Senate GOP leaders, who already have little room for error.Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin on Wednesday became the first Republican senator to declare opposition to the Senate GOP's tax bill.
  In a statemen
  
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• STOCKS TAKE A DIVE: Here's what you need to know

  15-11-2017 22:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  US stocks slipped for a second straight day as weakness in commodities dragged raw-material producers lower.
  The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.6%, while the more tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite index all fell 0.5%.
  First up, the scoreboard:
  Dow: 23,271.28, -138.19, (-0.59%)
  S&P 500: 2,564.62, -14.25, (-0.55%)
  Nasdaq: 6,706.21, -31.66, (-0.47%)
  US 10-year yield: 2.34%, -0.05
  WTI crude oil: $55.24, -0.46, -0.83%
  1. Stocks are flashing an ominous signa
  
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• Acorda Therapeutics crashes 40% after patients die in drug trial (ACOR)

  15-11-2017 21:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  Acorda Therapeutics, a drugmaker, plunged around 40% after patients died during the company's Parkinson's disease drug trial, according to Bloomberg's Natasha Rausch.
  Seven patients in the trial, which was in the final stages, developed a severe infection called sepsis, and five died.
  The company said it would stop adding new patients to the trial.
  It said it has no hypothesis yet for how the patients died, but four of the patients that developed sepsis also developed a condition called agranul
  
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• The CEO of a $740 million email company that just IPOed explains what it takes to go public (SEND)

  15-11-2017 21:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  Email marketing company SendGrid went public Wednesday morning, raising $131 million.
  Shares priced at $16 and rose above $18 by Wednesday afternoon.
  CEO Sameer Dholakia spoke with Business Insider about what it took to get the company to this point.If you’ve ever reserved a night through Airbnb, a meal through OpenTable, or received a list of personalized song suggestions from Spotify, chances are that email came via a little known Denver-based startup called SendGrid.
  SendGrid, whi
  
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• Apple says the reports that Animoji doesn't require iPhone X are false (AAPL)

  15-11-2017 21:18 via feedproxy.google.com
  Some reports have said that a banner feature for iPhone X called Animoji doesn't require the phone's new front-facing depth camera.
  This would suggest that Animoji could be ported to older iPhones.
  However, Apple says that Animoji uses the iPhone X depth camera for precise face tracking.One of the main selling points for Apple's $999 iPhone X is called Animoji, a nifty feature that allows users to essentially inhabit a cartoon cat, robot, or piece of poop to say (or sing) short m
  
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• A $20 billion investment firm is betting big on Wall Street’s hottest tech stocks (NFLX)

  15-11-2017 21:12 via feedproxy.google.com
  Tiger Global Management has increased its holdings of tech giants including Netflix, Amazon, Alphabet and more. 
  The positions are from a public document known as a 13F, which funds must file every quarter. Billionaire Chase Coleman's Tiger Global Management has increased its bets on some of Wall Street’s hottest tech stocks, according to documents filed Tuesday.
  Among the fund’s $14.6 billion worth of holdings disclosed for third quarter of 2017 was a
  
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• An anecdote about Elon Musk and Tesla's big-rig reveals why people are obsessed with his company (TSLA)

  15-11-2017 20:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  In a big Rolling Stone profile, Musk talks about why Tesla products must be beautiful.
  Tesla will reveal an electric big-rig this week in Los Angeles.
  Tesla is following Apple's model here.Neil Strauss has a great big chewy profile of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk at Rolling Stone. It's full of all the stuff that has traditionally made Rolling Stone profiles of actors and rock stars worth the price of admission, including Musk weeping, drinking whiskey, and asking Strauss, author of a book abo
  
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• Nike and Adidas are trying opposite strategies to dominate the US (NKE)

  15-11-2017 20:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  Nike and Adidas are two of the small number of retail companies faring well in the retail apocalypse.
  But, the companies disagree on whether to reach their customers through scale or quality.
  Watch Nike's stock price move in real time here.Amid an ongoing retail apocalypse, athletic fashion companies like Adidas and Nike have stood out as bright spots, faring better than malls and department stores. But, the brands have been fiercely battling each other to expand their shares of the a
  
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• Steven Mnuchin just showed off the first dollar bills with his signature — and the internet is having a field day

  15-11-2017 20:31 via feedproxy.google.com
  Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his wife, Louise Linton, unveiled the first dollar bills bearing his signature.
  The internet is having a field day.Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and his wife, Louise Linton, caused a stir on the internet Wednesday as they unveiled the first $1 bills bearing the signatures of both Mnuchin and US Treasurer Jovita Carranza.
  The signature will go on the bottom right of all newly minted bills, replacing former Treasury Secretary Jack Lew's nam
  
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• People are underrating the odds of a government shutdown in December

  15-11-2017 20:28 via feedproxy.google.com
  Washington is lurching toward a federal government shutdown in early December.
  President Donald Trump and congressional leaders prevented one fairly easily in September. This time will be different.In September, President Trump and Congressional leaders had a pretty easy time avoiding a government shutdown.
  All parties agreed to defer hard questions about spending levels for a few months, passing a temporary bill to keep the government open — and Trump caved to Democrats' demand that
  
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• Wall Street is hurting Elon Musk's feelings

  15-11-2017 20:07 via feedproxy.google.com
  Rolling Stone is out with a massive profile of Tesla founder Elon Musk, and it's pretty personal.
  Musk's company has come under attack from short sellers who say, correctly, that it doesn't turn a profit.
  Musk called those people lying "jerks" and explained to his children that they "want us to die."Elon Musk has feelings, and you'll see a lot of them in Rolling Stone's profile of the billionaire founder of Tesla and Space X published Wednesday.
  In it, reporter Neil Strauss describes a pretty v
  
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• Channel 4: In the era of fake news, we still want to be a hit with young people

  15-11-2017 18:28
  Channel 4 is refocusing on making programmes that resonate with millennial viewers as it looks to strike a connection with young people and stand out in the era of fake news.
  Speaking at the Channel 4 2018 Upfronts event yesterday (14 November), new CEO Alex Mahon explained the importance of creating content for the youth market.
  “A big focus for us next year will be on making sure Channel 4 is still a big hit with young people. Particularly in the era of fake news, we are a place that ref
  
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• The challenge of achieving personalisation at scale

  15-11-2017 17:51
  Can you achieve personalisation at scale? That was the question facing delegates at Marketing Week’s roundtable event in partnership with data management platform Relay 42.
  Personalisation is always a hot potato but never more so than now as marketers sit on the cusp of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulations coming into effect in May 2018.
  While GDPR may well cut down the volumes of information marketers have access to, they are still faced with a huge ‘data lake’ f
  
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• Mark Ritson: Burberry’s luxury repositioning won’t work, it’s not in the brand DNA

  15-11-2017 13:37
  Photo: Robert SheieWell isn’t this interesting. Less than a fortnight after renowned chief creative officer Christopher Bailey announced his departure from Burberry, the plot has thickened considerably.
  In an update last week, newly arrived CEO Marco Gobbetti finally revealed his long-term strategy for the brand. “We must sharpen our brand position, we must move up to plant ourselves firmly in luxury,” Gobbetti explained on Thursday. Prices will go up, accessible retail doors
  
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• McDonald’s goes ‘bigger and stronger’ with Christmas campaign after 2016 success

  15-11-2017 12:49
  McDonald’s is launching its biggest Christmas ad campaign yet as it looks to build on the success of its 2016 activity and put its brand “at an advantage” over the festive season.
  The #reindeerready campaign, created by its creative agency Leo Burnett, will launch on Friday (17 November) on Channel 4 before the start of Gogglebox. From today (15 November), the brand will be airing teaser clips to build anticipation.
  The TV spot tells the story of a young girl on a shopping trip
  
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• Help us find out what makes Marketing Week readers tick

  15-11-2017 11:20
  As Marketing Week prepares to celebrate its 40th birthday in 2018, we are embarking on an ambitious effort to uncover what makes the Marketing Week reader tick.
  In partnership with research agency CrowdCat, we are exploring the psychology, motivations and aspirations of the UK’s marketers and we need you to help us. We’ll be publishing all our results and insights early next year, as we gear up for the big birthday celebration.
  All we’re asking is for you to complete this shor
  
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• How marketers are closing the mentoring gap

  15-11-2017 08:00
  Lucy Ward from TrouvaFinding a mentor can prove challenging. Does it have to be someone in your organisation or sector? How do you approach them? What if they say no? Many questions can stand in the way of people finding the right mentor to help enhance their career.
  In fact, new research from Paymentsense shows 33% of men surveyed have a mentor compared to 28% of women. Of those who do have mentors, men report having more 3.7 mentors on average compared to 2.5 for women.
  These statistics do no
  
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• PKL attracts rural India

  15-11-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  MUMBAI: Three quarters of the total viewership of the recently completed fifth season of the Vivo Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) came from rural areas, figures from the Broadcast Audience Research Council of India (BARC) show.Not only that, but it...
  
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• Pizza Hut rethinks segmentation in Indonesia

  15-11-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  JAKARTA: When Pizza Hut sought to rebrand nationwide in Indonesia, its uneven expansion across the country set up the difficult position of it being both a challenger brand in small cities and an established brand in need of a refresh in larger...
  
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• ESPN dives into out-of-home viewing

  15-11-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  NEW YORK: ESPN, the sports network, is tapping in-depth research about out-of-home viewing to holistically serve its audience, and in a bid to unlock valuable knowledge for advertisers.Katie Brown, Associate Manager/Advertising & Marketing...
  
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• EBX takes on digital duopoly

  15-11-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  EUROPE: Channel 4 has joined the European Broadcaster Exchange (EBX), a digital sales group which intends to tap into the continent’s rapidly growing video ad market and to challenge the dominance of the digital duopoly in this area.EBX now...
  
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• CMOs face hard choices in 2018

  15-11-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  STAMFORD, CONN: Marketing budgets are falling as a proportion of company revenue, according to a new study which suggests CMOs will be faced with some hard choices in 2018 as a result.The
  
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• Amazon not the enemy, say small retailers

  15-11-2017 01:00 via warc.com
  RALEIGH, NC: Small and local retailers across the US are learning to co-exist with e-commerce players and no longer regard the likes of Amazon as “the enemy”, a new study suggests.Netsertive, a marketing technology company, surveyed...
  
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