Microsoft-Nokia Alliance: An Assault on the BlackBerry

Top executives from Microsoft and Nokia elaborated on their new alliance in a conference call this morning.

The takeaway? First, the partnership is aimed initially at Research in Motion and loosening the hold that its popular BlackBerry e-mail software and service has on business customers.

Second, Microsoft is unbundling its strategy in the cellphone market, with Microsoft’s Office division free to step away from the company’s operating system business. And Microsoft is trying to use its powerful Office franchise — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, but also collaboration tools like SharePoint — to shift the smartphone technology competition to its advantage.

Stephen Elop, president of the Microsoft division that includes Office, said business customers were first focused on mobile e-mail. But the next competitive terrain in the business market will be productivity and collaboration software and services on smartphones. And, Mr. Elop said, “This isn’t a browser discussion at all. This is about rich Office experiences that truly bring these devices to life.”

To reference full article: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/12/microsoft-nokia-alliance-an-assault-on-blackberry/?scp=3&sq=nokia&st=Search

Ford Hopes New Figo Will Help It Win Asian Buyers

NEW DELHI — Ford Motor is increasing its focus on the fast-growing car markets of the Asia-Pacific region, executives said Wednesday as they rolled out a new small car in India.  The “Figo,” a four-door hatchback with expansive side windows and cat’s-eye headlights, was designed with the help of Indian engineers and will be built in India and shipped to nearby countries. Ford’s top executives introduced the car with techno music and fanfare at a five-star New Delhi hotel and said the car was emblematic of Ford’s new emphasis on the region.

“Asia-Pacific is a really important market for us,” Alan Mulally, chief executive of Ford, said after the Figo’s introduction. “We will accelerate our presence” in the region, he said, and India will play a large part in that push.

The Figo will be available in India in 2010. Ford did not provide any details on the Figo’s likely price or fuel consumption or say which countries it would ship the car to from India.

Ford Motor soldiered through the global recession without seeking bankruptcy protection like its big American peers. But the company still suffered as car sales dropped in North America and Europe, losing $1.4 billion in the first quarter of 2009. To date, Ford trails General Motors and Toyota in China and has a tiny presence in India.

The Figo represents the first product of Ford’s $500 million investment to transform its manufacturing plant in Chennai, formerly Madras, in southeast India. Ford has doubled the Chennai plant’s production capacity to 200,000 vehicles a year and will be able to make 250,000 diesel engines a year by 2010, executives said Wednesday.

Reference full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/24/business/global/24ford.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=ford&st=Search

Nike Selling Soccer League but M.L.S. Isn’t Buying

"Nike is ready to depart the soccer business. Not the seeminglyrecession-proof and lucrative global market for jerseys, shoes and other gear. Instead, Nike has put up for sale its 100 percent ownership of United Soccer Leagues.

U.S.L., the conglomeration of six leagues (with teams in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico), was founded in 1986 and was owned by Umbro, the British sporting goods company, until Nike bought Umbro in 2007 for $582 million. In addition to inheriting Umbro’s role as the uniform supplier for national teams like England and Sweden, and a handful of clubs in the English Premier League, Nike also became the sole owner of U.S.L.

But Nike has decided that being the owner of the league does not fit with its core business."

Reference Full Article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/sports/soccer/25goal.html?scp=2&sq=Nike&st=cse

Ralph Lauren Gets Us Excited About a Depression

NEW YORK — Ralph Lauren sent out a powerful message on Thursday to his fellow Americans. Recession? Depression? Credit crunch? Get back to work!

“I believe in the resilient spirit of America — and I have always loved real working clothes,” said the designer backstage, wearing a pinstriped jacket over a denim shirt and torn jeans, a look that was emblematic of his show on the last day of New York Fashion Week.

The spring/summer 2010 collection at Ralph Lauren was based on denim, the real workwear stuff or its visual equivalent in silk charmeuse. Tough overalls and down-home jeans alternated with meadow-sweet cotton dresses, both outfits worn with denim caps. The effect was distinctly 1940s — not least with sharp-shouldered tailoring. And this ode to the pioneers of the prairies, played out to Woody Guthrie’s folk music, gave a real sense of the nobility of work."

Reference full article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/fashion/18iht-rpro.html?_r=1&sq=ralph%20lauren&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=3&adxnnlx=1253646009-Yx6e1WCWu+1PWz8P/f1wJw

McDonald’s Ending Promotion on Jackets of Children’s Report Cards

"McDonald’s has decided to stop sponsoring Happy Meals as rewards for children with good grades and attendance records in elementary schools in Seminole County, Fla.

The “food prize” program, as it was called, for students of the Seminole County Public Schools in kindergarten through fifth grade was sponsored by the owners of the McDonald’s restaurants in Seminole County, in central Florida northeast of Orlando. The decision to end the promotions for the program, appearing on children’s report-card jackets, came from executives at McDonald’s USA, part of the McDonald’s Corporation, the world’s largest fast-food business.

The decision was made “because we believe the focus should be on the importance of a good education,” William Whitman, senior director for communications and public affairs at McDonald’s USA in Oak Brook, Ill., said Thursday. “McDonald’s, not the school district, will cover the cost to reprint the report-card jackets,” he added, and “remove our trademarks.”
The reward program, called Made the Grade, will continue, Mr. Whitman said, because the local restaurant owners agreed in September that it would run through the current school year."

For Full Article see: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/business/media/18card.html?scp=4&sq=mcdonalds&st=Search

Burger King Shifts Policy on Animals

"In what animal welfare advocates are describing as a “historic advance,” Burger King, the world’s second-largest hamburger chain, said yesterday that it would begin buying eggs and pork from suppliers that did not confine their animals in cages and crates."

“I think the whole area of social responsibility, social consciousness, is becoming much more important to the consumer,” said Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic, a food industry research and consulting firm. “I think that the industry is going to see that it’s an increasing imperative to get on that bandwagon.”
Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, said Burger King’s initiatives put it ahead of its competitors in terms of animal welfare."

"Burger King’s announcement is the latest success for animal welfare advocates, who were once dismissed as fringe groups, but are increasingly gaining mainstream victories."

“When the big boys move, it makes the entire industry move,” said Ms. Grandin, who serves on the animal welfare task forces for several food companies, including McDonald’s and Burger King. "

"Burger King’s decision is somewhat at odds with the rebellious, politically incorrect image it has cultivated in recent years. Its commercials deride “chick food” and encourage a more-is-more approach to eating with its turbo-strength coffee, its enormous omelet sandwich, and a triple Whopper with cheese. Burger King executives said the move was driven by their desire to stay ahead of consumer trends and to encourage farmers to move into more humane egg and meat production."

For full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/28/business/28burger.html?scp=2&sq=Burger%20King&st=Search

Barnes & Noble to Create an E-Bookstore

Four months after acquiring an e-book retailer, Barnes & Noble, the world’s largest chain of bookstores, is starting its own mega e-bookstore on its Web site, BN.com.

In an announcement on Monday, Barnes & Noble said that it would offer more than 700,000 books that could be read on a wide range of devices, including Apple’s iPhone, the BlackBerry and various laptop or desktop computers. When Barnes & Noble acquired Fictionwise in March, that online retailer had about 60,000 books in its catalog.

Barnes & Noble is promoting its e-bookstore as the world’s largest, an implicit stab at Amazon.com, which offers about 330,000 for its Kindle device. Currently, Google’s public domain books cannot be read on a Kindle.

The number of e-books available on BN.com compares with 1.2 million in stock that can be bought in print form from the company’s Web site.

For reference to full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/technology/internet/21book.html?_r=1&scp=4&sq=barnes%20&%20noble&st=Search

BMW Championship

BMW Championship
September 7-13, 2009
Cog Hill Golf & Country Club (Chicago, IL) 

The BMW Championship carries on a rich tradition that began in 1899 with the Western Golf Association's first championship. The BMW Championship, the third in a series of four PGA TOUR Playoff tournaments designed to determine the FedExCup Champion. As the centerpiece of BMW's continued partnership with the PGA TOUR and the WGA, we are proud to add this tournament to the long list of golf events bearing our name around the world.

In 2009 the BMW Championship returns to Chicago, where the top golfers in the world including Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and defending champion Camilo Villegas, and more compete for what promises to be one of the most exciting golf events of the year.

BMW Owners

As a BMW owner, you'll have the opportunity to experience this premier golf tournament unlike anyone else. Simply enter the online BMW Championship Owners' Pavilion to learn more about exclusive benefits available to all BMW Owners. Once inside the Owners' Pavilion you can find details about BMW owner-only access to the BMW Championship, complimentary ticket offers, golf tips, and more. It's your chance to be a part of the action - before it even starts.

Check out more information at: http://www.bmwusa.com/Standard/Content/Experience/Sports/BMWChampionship.aspx

Clunker Program Spurred August Sales

DETROIT — Auto sales perked up in August because of cash for clunkers, but both General Motors and Chrysler struggled after emerging from bankruptcy protection.

Total industry sales in the United States increased 1 percent during the month compared with August 2008, and rose 26 percent compared with July.
Much of the improvement was attributed to the government’s popular cash-for-clunkers program that gave consumers vouchers worth up to $4,500 if they traded in an older, gas-guzzling model.
But even as most automakers posted gains in August, sales at G.M. dropped 20 percent and Chrysler’s sales fell 15 percent.

Ford posted a 17 percent gain in sales in August, partly because its Focus compact car was one of the top-sellers in the clunker program.
Both G.M. and Chrysler have found it difficult to keep pace with the market after their trips through bankruptcy this year.

Analysts said their performance was not surprising, given that the companies were drastically reorganizing operations after receiving financial bailouts from the Obama administration.
“We’re still going through a phase of restructuring for both automakers,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of the auto-pricing Web site TrueCar.com. “We really didn’t anticipate anything to happen in terms of their product lineup or their marketing efforts in this short a period of time.”
G.M. executives, however, stressed that it was beginning to rebuild sales and restock inventories after cutting back production this year."

Reference Original Article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/02/business/02auto.html?scp=5&sq=ford&st=Search

Hey, PC, Who Taught You to Fight Back?

SEAN SILER would never be mistaken for a movie star. A former Navy officer who wears glasses and is a tad on the heavy side, Mr. Siler works at Microsoft, where he oversees the Windows division’s adoption of new Internet connectivity software called IPv6.

But there were audible gasps last summer when Mr. Siler, 39, auditioned for Microsoft’s new ad campaign for Windows, created by Crispin Porter & Bogusky, the Miami agency best known for its cheeky work for Mini Cooper and Burger King.
“I was like, ‘Are you kidding?’ ” recalls Rob Reilly, one of the agency’s executive creative directors. “It couldn’t have been more perfect.”

Everybody agreed that Mr. Siler looked exactly like PC, the character played by the comedian John Hodgman in Apple’s popular “Get a Mac” ads that lampoon Windows-based computers and those who love them. Two weeks later, Mr. Siler reported to a nearby television studio. The agency dressed him in PC’s dorky uniform — white shirt, baggy khakis, brown sport coat and matching brown tie — and handed him a script with the lines: “I’m a PC. And I’ve been made into a stereotype.”

Mr. Siler joined a parade of environmentalists, budget-conscious laptop shoppers, mixed martial arts fighters, mash-up DJs and remarkably tech-savvy preschoolers who appear in Microsoft’s new campaign, which is intended to show that real Windows users aren’t all clueless drones."

Reference Full Article at:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/30/business/media/30ad.html?scp=6&sq=microsoft&st=Search

Dell Says It Has Earned $3 Million From Twitter

"These days, lots of companies are talking about their “Twitter strategy,” but few have figured out how to measure what amassing hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter does for their businesses. Dell has shown that it can go directly to the top line.

Dell said Thursday night that the company had earned $3 million in revenue directly through Twitter since 2007, when it started posting coupons and word of new products on the microblogging site. In the last six months, Dell Outlet earned $1 million in sales from customers who came to the site from Twitter, after taking 18 months to earn its first $1 million. Dell has also earned another $1 million from people who click from Twitter to Dell Outlet to Dell.com and make a purchase there.

Dell joins companies like Starbucks, JetBlue and Whole Foods as one of the most active corporate Twitter users. “It’s a great way to fix customer problems and hear what customers have to say, it’s a great feedback forum and it leads to sales — how can you miss?” said Richard Binhammer, who works in Dell’s corporate affairs office and is active on its Twitter accounts.

Twitter made exactly $0 from those Dell sales, something that will very likely change. Twitter’s founders have said that it someday hopes to make money from its corporate users, with paid accounts that offer additional features like analysis of the traffic to businesses’ Twitter profiles and verified accounts so customers know they are not dealing with an impostor. When asked whether Dell would pay Twitter for an account, Mr. Binhammer said, “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Dell uses Twitter to send out coupons, including some that are exclusive to its Twitter followers. It is particularly useful for the Dell Outlet, Mr. Binhammer said, because the inventory of returned and refurbished products fluctuates. If it gets 30 flat-screen televisions one week, for example, it can alert its customers. Dell Outlet has 624,000 followers on Twitter."

Reference article at:http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/12/dell-has-earned-3-million-from-twitter/?scp=7&sq=dell&st=Search

Coca-Cola Deleting ‘Classic’ From Coke Label

After 24 years, one of the most famous blunders in marketing history is quietly coming to end.The Coca-Cola Company is dropping the “Classic” from its red labels in some Southeast regions, and the word will be gone from all of its packaging by the summer, the company said Friday. The story was first reported by the trade publication Beverage Digest.

The “Classic” designation — which appears under the “Coca-Cola” script on labels — was added to the packaging in 1985, to distinguish the original formula from a sweeter, wildly unpopular new version of Coke.

New Coke has long since disappeared from shelves, making the “Classic” qualification unnecessary. The font size of the “Classic” has been shrinking in the last decade, and the company removed it from labels in Canada in 2007.

“When people think Coke, they think classic, so more than two decades after introducing the word classic, the reason for being — quote unquote — for that word as a descriptor has disappeared,” said Scott Williamson, a Coca-Colaspokesman."

Reference article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/business/media/31coke.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=coca-cola&st=Search

Southwest Airlines to Expand Wi-Fi Access on Planes

Being able to market that you have Wi-Fi on your airplanes definitely appeals to those who fly, especially those in the business world who may not want to pay for first class every time they fly. 

Southwest Airlines said Friday that it had finished testing Wi-Fi Internet access on four aircraft and planned to expand the service to all its planes beginning early next year. Southwest said it would continue testing prices for the service through the end of the year.

Why is this important? Because other airlines have various technologies and/or services that make them more appealing (for example JetBlue has television).  This could give Southwest Airlines a competitive advantage. 

Reference article at:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/business/22bizbriefs-SOUTHWESTAIR_BRF.html?scp=3&sq=southwest&st=Search

Harley-Davidson to Sell Motorcycles in India

NEW YORK (AP) -- Harley-Davidson Inc. said Thursday it will begin selling motorcycles nextyear in India, the world's second-largest motorcycle market, where the company hopes its

iconic, heavyweight bikes will find a niche among the country's rising middle class.

The Milwaukee-based company said it has established a subsidiary near Delhi and has begun scouting the country for dealers.

''Given the rapid development of India's economy and physical infrastructure, this is exactly the right time to bring the world's greatest motorcycles to one of the world's largest motorcycling nations,'' said Mark Levatich, Harley's chief operating officer, in a statement.

India is the world's largest market for motorcycles behind China, but it is overwhelmingly dominated by smaller, inexpensive bikes used primarily for transportation, said Dilip Chenoy, director general of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers.

It is also a market dominated by several well-entrenched Japanese and Indian manufacturers. Hero Honda, a joint-venture between Japan's Honda Motor Co. and India's Hero Group, holds the biggest market share among two-wheelers. Honda, Suzuki and Indian motorbike maker Bajaj Auto are also major players.

Still, Harley said the country's growing economy, rising middle class and expanded highway construction has created a market for leisure motorcycle riders.

''Motorbikes, scooters in India are family commuting bikes,'' Chenoy said. ''They tend to be more robustly built and the focus is on fuel economy, but there is an increasing market for leisure and high-end bikes which is beginning to happen here in India.''

"Levatich said the company would continue to push for lower tariffs but did not want to risk missing out on the rapidly growing market."

Reference original article at: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/08/27/business/AP-US-Harley-Davidson-India.html?scp=2&sq=harley%20davidson&st=cse