Sales & Marketing news

• GM's workforce ratifies new contract, ending longest strike in 50 years

  25-10-2019 23:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  GM's 49,000 UAW-represented workers have ratified a new four-year contract.
  The vote ends the longest strike against a major US automaker in 50 years.
  The workforce secured low-cost healthcare, wager increases, a signing bonus, increased profit-sharing, and a quicker path to full-time status for temporary workers.
  GM also confirmed that it would build an electric pickup truck at a Detroit plant that had been "unallocated," and that it plans to build a new battery factory near an idled plant in O
  
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• SoftBank could have just walked away from WeWork and its $9 billion investment. Business experts explain why it didn't.

  25-10-2019 22:42 via feedproxy.google.com
  SoftBank's decision this week to double down on its investment in WeWork is a risky strategy.
  The move raises an obvious question — why didn't SoftBank just walk away, letting WeWork go bust or putting the onus on JPMorgan, which was putting together a rival rescue plan, to bail it out?
  SoftBank in a statement said the move was motivated by the promise it still sees in WeWork's business.
  If so, it had good reason to try to step in as soon as possible and try to take control of the turnarou
  
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• Austin Ventures' $900 million VC fund was supposed to make the city the next startup hub. But it wasn't until the fund folded that Austin's tech scene flourished.

  25-10-2019 21:50 via feedproxy.google.com
  Austin, Texas, was home to Austin Ventures, a large investment firm that, at its peak, had about $900 million in assets under management.
  The firm specialized in venture-capital investments in the Texas capital's growing tech scene. But as its fund grew, partners struggled to support young tech companies.
  Many Silicon Valley investors relied on Austin Ventures to source deals on the ground, so any entrepreneur that failed to gain the massive organization's attention struggled to fundraise.
  The f
  
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• The federal deficit jumped 26% to $984 billion for fiscal 2019, its 3rd straight yearly gain under Trump

  25-10-2019 21:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  The federal deficit swelled to $984 billion in 2019, a 26% jump from last year, despite the nation's sustained economic growth.
  Deficits tend to fall when the economy is growing, given lower unemployment rates which helps bring in more tax dollars to government coffers and lower spending on public aid.
  The mounting deficit is generating anxiety among budget experts who fear the government will have less room for emergency spending in a future economic slump.
  President Donald Trump campaigned to
  
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• Adam Neumann was reportedly too busy surfing in the Maldives to return to New York to go over WeWork's disastrous IPO paperwork, so he flew an employee out to brief him

  25-10-2019 21:08 via feedproxy.google.com
  WeWork cofounder and former CEO Adam Neumann once had an employee come to the Maldives to talk about IPO paperwork so he wouldn't have to cut a surfing trip short, The Wall Street Journal reported.
  Neumann reportedly did most of the paperwork for the S-1 from the Hamptons.
  Neumann's love of surfing led WeWork to invest nearly $14 million in a startup called Wavegarden that creates artificial waves.
  Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.While executives were preparing paperwork for a
  
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• The president of the New York Stock Exchange on her mission to get startups to go public sooner, and why it's the simplest way to avoid unicorn disasters

  25-10-2019 20:34 via feedproxy.google.com
  New York Stock Exchange president Stacey Cunningham spoke with Business Insider for an episode of the podcast "This Is Success."She said she's accumulated a series of lenses for approaching her job, from her time as a floor trader to her time in sales.
  Cunningham left the NYSE mid-career for several years because she was unhappy with its approach to technology. Now that she's at the helm, she's determined to make it the leader in the field.
  She also explained why, in an environment where invest
  
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• The US says it's close to finalizing parts of a trade deal with China

  25-10-2019 18:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  The US and China are close to finalizing sections of a phase-one trade deal, the Office of the US Trade Representative said on Friday, according to CNBC.
  The office said US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin spoke with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He on Friday, according to CNBC.
  US stock indexes soared on the news.
  Read more on Business Insider's homepage.
  The US and China are getting close to finalizing some sections of a phase-one trade deal, the Office o
  
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• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos touts a 'counterintiutive' benefit of faster shipping as costs soar

  25-10-2019 18:56 via feedproxy.google.com
  Amazon's shipping costs soared 46% in the third quarter to $9.6 billion. 
  Shipping costs are skyrocketing after Amazon said in April that it would speed up its free delivery promise from two days to one day for Prime members.
  Amazon said it planned to spend $1.5 billion on one-day shipping in the fourth quarter, up from $800 million in the second quarter.
  Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos suggested Thursday that one-day delivery is better for the environment. "Although it's counterintuitive, the fastes
  
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• Ubisoft plummets after slashing its earnings forecast and delaying the release of 3 games

  25-10-2019 18:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  Ubisoft shares plunged 16% on Friday after it released a profit warning, delayed a trio of video games, and announced an overhaul of its development process.
  The gaming giant behind the "Assassin's Creed," "Watch Dogs," and "Far Cry" franchises cut its projected net bookings for the year to March 2020 by more than a third to 1.45 billion euros ($1.61 billion), and slashed its operating profit forecast from 480 million euros to between 20 million and 50 million euros.
  Ubisoft blamed the downgrade
  
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• George Soros doesn't think Wall Street will determine the 2020 election

  25-10-2019 17:57 via feedproxy.google.com
  George Soros told The New York Times in an interview published Friday that he doesn't think Wall Street will decide the next president.
  He also said that Elizabeth Warren is the candidate to beat, according to the report, and that he supports her policy to tax the wealthy. 
  Still, Wall Street has balked at Warren's tax policies, and some have said they won't support her. 
  Read more on Business Insider.
  George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and former investor, doesn't think that
  
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• The Trump campaign has racked up over $1 million in unpaid bills from US cities

  25-10-2019 17:45 via feedproxy.google.com
  President Donald Trump's campaign has racked up over one million dollars in outstanding bills from at least 12 American cities, according to an estimate from the Center for Public Integrity.
  Most of the totals have typically come from police-related costs, such as providing security and overtime pay for officers.
  Albuquerque was the latest city to bill the Trump campaign for security services and municipal facility use provided for the rally, totaling $211,000.
  Municipal billing for campaign ral
  
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• Tesla has recalled 89 of its Model 3 cars because they were missing an airbag warning sticker (TSLA)

  25-10-2019 17:39 via feedproxy.google.com
  Tesla has recalled 89 of its Model 3 vehicles due to a warning sticker issue. 
  The National Highway Administration says the passenger side sun visor is missing an air bag warning label. 
  The recall is a tiny fraction of the Model 3's that Tesla produced during the third quarter. 
  Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.Tesla has recalled 89 of its Model 3 vehicles built earlier this year due to missing air bag warning labels on passenger-side sun visors.
  The cars were b
  
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• Amazon shares tanked on weak earnings, but Barclays says it's too early to buy the rare dip (AMZN)

  25-10-2019 17:39 via feedproxy.google.com
  Amazon's third-quarter report disappointed investors and prompted a massive sell-off, but it's not yet time to buy the dip, Barclays analyst Ross Sandler said in a Thursday note.
  The company historically sees revenue lag in the fourth quarter, and Amazon's push into one-day shipping will further intensify the slowdown in the short-term, according to Sandler.
  Buying the dip in Amazon stock is a good idea "in the 7th-8th inning of its investment cycles," but shares are still in the "3rd-4th inning
  
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• Boeing vows to fix the faulty flight-control software found to be at-fault in the 2018 Lion Air crash that killed 189 people (BA)

  25-10-2019 17:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  Investigators released their final report regarding the crash of a Boeing 737 Max plane operated by Lion Air in October on Friday. 
  It said that the design of the controversial MCAS software, which continually pointed the plane's nose down "did not adequately consider the likelihood of loss of control of the aircraft," and that Boeing should have added a fail safe system.
  In response, Boeing said its updating the software to require input from two "angle of attack" sensors instead of one.&n
  
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• 'Amazon being Amazon': Wall Street rushed to the e-commerce giant's defense after weak earnings. Here's what 5 firms had to say. (AMZN)

  25-10-2019 17:10 via feedproxy.google.com
  Amazon's stock shed about $40 billion in market value on Friday after the e-commerce giant gave fourth-quarter guidance below Wall Street estimates.
  The shares also plunged as Amazon reported a weaker profit than expected as spending for its Prime one-day-delivery program ramps up.
  Analysts are coming to the stock's defense, maintaining "buy" ratings and saying they see the company's jump in spending as a catalyst for growth.
  Here's what Wall Street is saying about Amazon's third-quarter results
  
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• Unilever CEO tells activists to ‘call us out’ amid plastic criticism

  25-10-2019 15:52
  Alan Jope, Unilever’s CEO promises to do better on plasticUnilever’s CEO is asking for activists to “call us out” when it comes to climate change as it faces criticism around its plastic initiatives.
  Speaking at the One Young World conference today (25 October), Jope said: “Push us, call us out when we don’t do a good enough job”.
  Jope addressed a new report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation that found less than 1% of the FMCG giant’s plastic pac
  
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• Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Brexit: 5 things that mattered this week and why

  25-10-2019 14:38
  Coca-Cola grows as total beverage company strategy pays off
  Coca-Cola’s results were better than expected in the third quarter as net revenues increased 8% year on year to $9.5bn (£7.3bn), driven by innovation in packaging and low- and no-sugar variants.
  CEO James Quincey has been on a mission since 2017 to turn Coca-Cola into a total-beverage company – diversifying away from fizzy drinks.
  At the crux of this has been marketing, something which Quincy was quick to point out in
  
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• A quick-start guide to creating Amazon A+ content

  25-10-2019 11:10
  Marketers and first-party sellers: are you creating Amazon A+ content? If not, you definitely should be.
  Once a paid option, adding Amazon A+ content to listings is now free and unlimited for all vendors. It’s one of the most effective ways to increase traffic and sales — and to cross-promote your other products. According to Amazon, using this feature to enhance listings has been shown to boost sales anywhere from 3% to 10%.
  This is one opportunity where you don’t want to del
  
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• Bodyform’s marketing boss on breaking taboos and standing your ground

  25-10-2019 08:42
  Designing a marketing campaign with the potential to change society is no mean feat, especially when your vision pushes the boundaries of regulation and challenges accepted social norms.
  This was the experience of Essity’s global marketing and communications director Martina Poulopati Gerhard, who is responsible for sanitary brands Bodyform/Libresse.
  These brands were built on the insight that women typically have lower confidence than men, the logic being that if you arm them with the ri
  
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• Interbrand’s ‘iconic moves’ invite ridicule for the discipline of branding

  25-10-2019 08:00
  There was something of a panic back in 1988 when Australian firm GFW made its hostile bid to acquire Rank Hovis McDougall. The British conglomerated company owned a wealth of power brands ranging from Bisto to Mother’s Pride to Sharwoods and was performing admirably.
  But the accounting standards of the 1980s meant it was entirely feasible to acquire a company and then, by breaking it up and selling off its brands to other companies, realise a significant profit. The Aussies had caught wind
  
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• Rewards and frictionless checkout boost India’s digital payments

  25-10-2019 01:08 via warc.com
  Consumers in India have said better rewards would encourage more frequent usage of digital payments, according to a new online study conducted by YouGov and ACI Worldwide.
  
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• Pre-testing animatic TV ads can be effective

  25-10-2019 01:08 via warc.com
  Pre-testing animatic television spots that have not yet finished the production process can be as useful as testing the final ad if the correct methodology is employed, a study in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR) has argued.
  
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• How ITV is bringing new brands into TV advertising

  25-10-2019 01:08 via warc.com
  ITV, the UK’s largest commercial broadcaster, is attempting to cast the net of brands advertising on its platforms wider through a dedicated in-house client team to service smaller brands, a new WARC exclusive finds.
  
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• Chinese consumers expect localised brand purpose

  25-10-2019 01:08 via warc.com
  Chinese consumers are becoming increasingly accustomed to the concept of brand purpose, aligning themselves with their counterparts in the West, but it’s essential brands recognise that consumers in China also expect brand purpose to be...
  
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• Brands have a long way to go on plastic packaging

  25-10-2019 01:08 via warc.com
  Several major FMCG brands are taking part in a global initiative to increase the use of recycled plastic in packaging by more than fivefold by 2025, but two new reports show just how much further they need to go.
  
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