Sales & Marketing news

• McDonald's new CEO didn't own any shares of the company before last week. Now he owns half a million dollars' worth.

  07-11-2019 23:25 via feedproxy.google.com
  Last week Chris Kempczinski was the US president of McDonald's and didn't own any shares in the company.One week later, Kempczinski became the fast-food franchise's CEO and owns half a million dollars worth of the company's stock. 
  Kempczinski's new role requires him to hold $7.5 million in stock by October 2020.
  View Business Insider's homepage for more stories
  Last week Chris Kempczinski was the US president of McDonald's and didn't own any shares in the company. Fast forward one week, an
  
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• The White House is sharply divided over proposal to remove some China tariffs, report says

  07-11-2019 22:43 via feedproxy.google.com
  A proposal that the US roll back a portion of tariffs on Chinese products has reportedly led to a sharp divide among White House officials. 
  The US did not issue any public response after China said the two sides had agreed to remove tariffs "simultaneously."
  President Donald Trump announced last month he would delay planned tariff escalations as part of an agreement that included a range of unspecified commitments from China.
  Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
  As the large
  
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• Gap CEO Art Peck is stepping down from the company

  07-11-2019 22:43 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Gap Inc. CEO Art Peck is stepping down as CEO, effective immediately, according to a company press release on Thursday. The Gap board member Robert Fisher will serve as interim CEO after a "brief transition period."
  Peck has been CEO since 2015 and has worked in various roles at the company for the past 15 years.
  As part of the announcement, Gap also reported significant sales declines for the third quarter of 2019, including a 4% decline in comparable sales across its entire portfolio.
  Visit Bu
  
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• Elizabeth Warren rolls out 'calculator for the billionaires' in thinly veiled swipe at Bill Gates and Leon Cooperman

  07-11-2019 22:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Sen. Elizabeth Warren rolled out a "calculator for the billionaires" on Thursday in a not-so-subtle swipe at her superrich critics Bill Gates and Leon Cooperman, both of whom recently attacked her wealth tax.
  "Some billionaires seem confused about how much they would pay under my #TwoCentWealthTax," the Warren campaign said, referring to her signature tax. "Don't worry, now we have a calculator for that too."
  The tax forms a key part of her populist campaign, and Warren has welcomed public clash
  
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• Trump could slap steep tariffs on imported cars next week

  07-11-2019 21:57 via feedproxy.google.com
  President Donald Trump must decide by November 13 whether to follow through with threats to levy tariffs on automobiles. 
  The Center for Automotive Research estimated the proposed 25% tariff would add up to $6,875 to imported vehicle prices.
  Business groups and lawmakers have expressed widespread opposition to the move. 
  Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
  Weeks after General Motors ended one of its longest strikes in years, the American car industry could be headed for
  
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• Obama's former cybersecurity adviser thinks lawmakers are right to treat TikTok as a security threat

  07-11-2019 20:37 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  TikTok is drawing increased scrutiny from US lawmakers who worry the Chinese-owned app's rising popularity could constitute a national security threat.
  Kiersten Todt, who served as a cybersecurity adviser to President Barack Obama, told Business Insider she believes those concerns are well-founded.
  Chinese web products are gaining global reach, Todt said, both through the spread of popular apps like TikTok and through the outsourcing of China's closed, state-run version of the internet.
  TikTok h
  
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• The chief global strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management lays out 3 reasons why the Fed's recent rate cuts could hold the economy back for 10 years — even as investors celebrate

  07-11-2019 20:23 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Investors were thrilled this summer when the Federal Reserve started cutting interest rates again. But David Kelly of JPMorgan Asset Management says they've failed to see the damage they're causing.
  Kelly said low rates and easing have slowly started to depress economic growth, which harms corporate profits and affects stock prices.
  Today, 30% of all debt in the world has a negative yield, and all indications suggest rates will stay low for many years. Kelly said that meant the problem would ham
  
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• SoftBank has taken serious heat for its WeWork and Uber losses — but one Wall Street analyst says the company will recover from here

  07-11-2019 20:05 via feedproxy.google.com
  SoftBank experienced huge losses during the recent quarter from plummeting valuations on investments in Uber and WeWork. UBS analyst Kei Takahashi wrote in a note clients Wednesday that "the worst news is out of the way" and things could be looking up for SoftBank. 
  Takahashi has a "buy" rating and a price target of 7,100 yen, or about $65, for SoftBank. That figure represents more than a 68% premium from where shares traded on Thursday. 
  For more WeWork news, click here.
  SoftBank
  
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• Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom has deleted all the photos he posted on the app over the past 18 months

  07-11-2019 19:58 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom curiously has no photos on his profile since May 2018. A look at the internet archive's Wayback Machine shows that Systrom deleted his 14 most recent photos sometime in the last five months.
  Systrom helped launch Instagram in 2010 and sell it to Facebook in 2012, but left his role as CEO in September 2018 alongside fellow cofounder Mike Krieger amid "growing tensions" with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
  It's unclear what triggered Systrom to delete photos and no
  
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• The jig is up: Robinhood says it's closed the 'infinite leverage' loophole that allowed users to build positions worth millions

  07-11-2019 19:13 via feedproxy.google.com
  Robinhood's "infinite leverage" loophole has been closed and accounts exploiting the bug have been suspended, a company representative said on Thursday.
  The representative, Lavinia Chirico, said in an emailed statement that the trading platform implemented a "permanent update" meant to "prevent anyone from engaging in this pattern of trades."
  The glitch allowed users to borrow seemingly limitless amounts of capital for trading.One user said they turned a $3,000 deposit into a $1.7 million positi
  
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• A stock-trading Reddit forum has minted a group of hall-of-famers who best exploited Robinhood's 'infinite leverage' glitch. Here's how much money each has amassed through the hack.

  07-11-2019 18:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  Traders have been exploiting a glitch in Robinhood's app to trade with a limitless supply of borrowed cash, and one member of an online forum compiled a hall-of-fame list of the largest positions created through the bug.
  A member of the r/WallStreetBets subreddit discovered the glitch in late October. Several other users copied the trade, boasting about increasingly large sums of borrowed cash.
  Here are the five hall-of-fame members, from the user who first traded with the bug to one member who
  
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• 'People see bubbles where there are none': Why Nobel laureate Eugene Fama thinks bubbles are impossible to identify in real time — and why behavioral finance is a myth

  07-11-2019 18:00 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Eugene Fama, the Nobel laureate and famed economist, shares two controversial thoughts that a majority of market participants would disagree with.
  Fama backs up his thesis through a lack of evidence and measurability.
  Click here for more BI Prime stories.Throughout history, a majority of investors would generally agree that there have been periods of irrational exuberance that culminated in asset bubbles.
  Market phenomena like the tech bubble of the 1990s, the Japanese asset bubble of the 1980s,
  
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• All 3 major US stock indexes spike to record highs on new trade optimism

  07-11-2019 17:44 via feedproxy.google.com
  All three major US stock indexes hit record highs on Thursday after China said it reached an agreement with the US to roll back tariffs as trade talks move forward.
  Gao Feng, a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman, said top negotiators engaged in "serious, constructive discussions" over the past two weeks, according to Bloomberg.
  The announcement was welcome news for investors concerned about a prolonged trade war between the two countries.
  Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
  US s
  
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• Airbnb's party problem and UiPath's curious trajectory

  07-11-2019 17:30 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Hello, and welcome to this week's edition of Trending.
  I'm your host, Alexei Oreskovic, Business Insider's West Coast bureau chief and global tech editor. This newsletter is where I highlight the best of BI Prime's tech coverage every week.
  Before we get started, a quick reminder to tell your friends and colleagues that they can sign up for the newsletter here.
  This week: Airbnb's party problem
  After all the stories about WeWork's wild company culture, you might think Airbnb's party problem is
  
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• Uber founder Travis Kalanick has reportedly raised $400 million for his next act from Saudi Arabia. He'll be competing directly with his old company.

  07-11-2019 16:52 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  Uber's ousted founder, Travis Kalanick, quietly raised $400 million from Saudi Arabia for his food-delivery startup in January, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
  It's the first known investment by the kingdom since the murder of the American journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year.
  Delivery-only restaurants are a hot topic right now not only with startups but with Kalanick's former employer.
  Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.Travis Kalanick, the ousted founder of Uber,
  
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• Wall Street jumps to Roku's defense after shares tumble on disappointing earnings

  07-11-2019 16:35 via feedproxy.google.com
  Several Wall Street analysts are standing by Roku after the company's share price plunged more than 14% on Thursday morning following disappointing earnings. 
  Despite Roku reporting stronger sales and a smaller loss than analysts expected for the third quarter, the outperformance was weaker than that of previous periods. 
  Analysts are reiterating buy ratings and sticking to their long-term thesis that Roku sits in the perfect spot to benefit from the launch of new streaming platforms.&
  
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• Katy Perry's 'Harleys in Hawaii' could reportedly be worth over $40 million for Harley-Davidson

  07-11-2019 16:32 via feedproxy.google.com
  Katy Perry's latest hit single could be worth more than $40 million to Harley-Davidson, the New York Times reported this week.
  The pop star's "Harleys in Hawaii" mentions the motorcycle brand six times, and she rides a hog in the music video.
  The publicity's value could be "upwards of $40 million" to Harley-Davidson before taking Spotify streams and social media posts tagged #HarleysinHawaii into account, an influencer marketing executive told the newspaper.
  Watch Harley-Davidson trade live on M
  
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• McDonald's franchisees' leaked memos reveal what they actually think about a controversial exec's unexpected promotion to CEO

  07-11-2019 16:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  
  McDonald's franchisees are determined to make their voices heard following the promotion of a new CEO, Chris Kempczinski, who has clashed with them in the past as the head of the company's US business.
  Kempczinski was criticized as pushing expensive initiatives as franchisees struggled with insufficient cash flow.
  According to leaked documents from a group of McDonald's African-American franchisees, there is a significant gap between black franchisees' cash flow and the national average, one tha
  
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• Recommended reading: Thinking forward and outsourcing dilemmas

  07-11-2019 15:25
  Marketing Week reviews the latest books and blogs for marketers.
  The post Recommended reading: Thinking forward and outsourcing dilemmas appeared first on Marketing Week.
  
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• Lidl’s Christmas campaign promises to cut through ‘opulence’ of other ads

  07-11-2019 13:37
  Lidl is delivering ‘a Christmas you can believe in’ as it continues its strategy to be known for more than just price.
  The post Lidl’s Christmas campaign promises to cut through ‘opulence’ of other ads appeared first on Marketing Week.
  
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• Risk and reward: How retail brands are managing returns

  07-11-2019 08:00
  A normal part of doing business or an expense crippling the bottom line, the issue of returns is climbing up the retail agenda as brands deliberate how to tackle repeat offenders.
  The post Risk and reward: How retail brands are managing returns appeared first on Marketing Week.
  
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• Why getting purpose right matters – for brands and agencies

  07-11-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  Consumers are getting wise to superficial attempts at cause marketing, and agencies need to understand the risk this poses not only to brand perceptions but to their own future as well, an industry figure believes.
  
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• When brand partnerships go wrong ...

  07-11-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  Brand partnerships can create a short cut to competitive edge, but when they go wrong, they are costly in terms of resources, time wasted and brand reputation, so it’s important to understand where mistakes commonly occur.
  
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• US teens use TikTok as much as Facebook

  07-11-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  TikTok’s global users download figures may have hit a bump, but, in the couple of years the short-form video app has been available in the US, younger teens have picked up on it to the point where they’re now as likely to use it as Facebook or...
  
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• UK stores can learn from Singles Day

  07-11-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  Black Friday remains the most significant pre-Christmas shopping occasion in Europe, and as more shopping activity moves online, stores can learn from howretailers in China have responded to the evolution of Singles Day.
  
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• MMA Smarties: Pizza Pizza and Güd take top honors

  07-11-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  Canadian QSR chain Pizza Pizza and Brazilian online dog food brand Güdwon Best in Show awards at last night’s MMA Smarties Awards 2019 in Los Angeles.
  
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• IBM champions 'augmented intelligence'

  07-11-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  IBM, the technology company, believes that artificial intelligence could benefit from being rebranded as “augmented intelligence”, in reflection of the fact it can enhance human decision-making instead of replacing it.
  
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• Design partners can ease entry to India’s fashion market

  07-11-2019 01:00 via warc.com
  International brands wanting to break into India’s potentially lucrative fashion market need to fully understand the complexities of the market, from the prevalence of “ethnic wear” and the nuances of local style to trends in how west and east...
  
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