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Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) on Thursday said its income in January to September fell 19 percent to P2.59 billion from last year’s P3.23 billion as some of its non-essential stores continued to record lower sales despite the lifting of lockdown.
Sales fell 5 percent to P109.57 billion from last year’s P116.15 billion. The company said the temporary reversion to the much stricter modified enhanced community quarantine in Metro Manila and nearby provinces from August 4 to 18 also affected its discretionary formats and limited transportation and consumer mobility.
For the third quarter alone, Robinsons Retail income was down 31 percent to P836 million from last year’s P1.21 billion. Sales, meanwhile, fell 11 percent to P34.61 billion from last year’s P38.94 billion.
“Although they remain cautious, customers and businesses are adjusting to the ‘new normal’ with safety measures implemented in stores. At same time, consumers are also exploring alternative channels to purchase goods from virtual platforms, such as Viber communities and social-media marketplaces, which are now collectively referred to as social commerce,” the company said.
Blended same store sales growth (SSSG) in January to September was at -6.4 percent and -11.7 percent in the third quarter alone. Supermarket SSSG was 11.5 percent for the three quarters and 2.1 percent in the third quarter, which was partly attributed to weaker consumer spending given the overall decline in disposable income.
Drugstores, an essential format, registered a positive SSSG of 3.5 percent in January to September. However, it was at -3 percent in the third quarter coming from a high base last year, due to a drop in sales of prescription flu and anti-bacterial medicines.
“Our third quarter 2020 financials give us some optimism that the worst may have passed for RRHI and the retail sector. Compared to second quarter, we saw significant improvements in our results across the majority of our formats. We are hopeful that the uplift continues for the rest of the year,” Robina Gokongwei Pe, the company’s president and CEO said.
“Covid-19’s impact on people, businesses, and the overall economy is still very much felt and apparent, and our year-on-year numbers remain down. Yet we are seeing signs of recovery amidst an age of social distancing and safety precautions, and all of us are adapting to this new dynamic in retail. Through any disruption, we are committed to bringing the best products and services that we can to our customers.”
The balance sheet of Robinsons Retail was still at a net cash position of over P26.4 billion as of end-September. The company also spent a total of P1.3 billion in capital expenditures during the period.
Excluding the franchised stores of The Generics Pharmacy, Robinsons Retail ended September with a total of 1,853 stores comprising of 263 supermarkets, 49 department stores, 223 do-it-yourself stores, 481 convenience stores, 521 drugstores and 316 specialty stores.


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Travel company fined $6,000 over phone sales (Beachbreak Holidays Australia Pty Ltd)
A Queensland-based travel company which failed to notify consumers of a cooling off period for phone sales was fined $6,000 and ordered to pay costs of $1,282 by the Perth Magistrates Court on 27 March 2015.
Beachbreak Holidays Australia Pty Ltd, trading as Ezy Flights and Up’n’Go Travel, sold travel vouchers by cold calling consumers and offering discounted packages for flights and accommodation. The company did not notify consumers about the ten business day cooling off period, as required by the unsolicited trading provisions of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).
In May 2012, a consumer from Korbel received a call from a sales representative from Ezy Flights and agreed to purchase a package of four flights and ten nights’ accommodation. No information about the cooling off period was given during the phone conversation.
Later that day the consumer received an email attaching the invoice, vouchers and agreement document. The agreement document did not display, on its front page, information about the consumer’s right to terminate the agreement within the cooling off period and the agreement included a clause that could be void. The company was also required to include a notice that the consumer could use to terminate the contract, which it failed to do. When the consumer terminated the agreement, Beachbreak did not immediately refund her money, as required by the ACL.
In July 2013, a consumer from Kinross received a call from a sales representative from Up’n’Go Travel and agreed to purchase travel vouchers, but no information about the cooling off period was given.
Similarly the consumer received an email later that day which included the vouchers, an invoice and the agreement document. The agreement document did not display prominently, on its front page, information about the consumer’s rights to terminate the agreement and the agreement included a provision that would be void. The notice enabling the consumer to terminate the contract was also not included. When the consumer terminated the agreement, Beachbreak did not immediately refund her money, as required by the ACL.
Commissioner for Consumer Protection Anne Driscoll said the consumers in this case wanted to terminate the agreement but had difficulty in getting a refund.
“The essence of the unsolicited, or door to door trading, laws is to give consumers who are caught by surprise the opportunity to review their decision to purchase and the opportunity to cancel the contract if they choose to do so,” Ms Driscoll said.
“Traders who market their products or services by cold calling or door to door sales are obliged to ensure that the consumers know their rights with regard to the cooling off period and could face prosecution if they fail to comply with the ACL with regard to unsolicited sales.
“By not accepting payment or supplying goods and services during the cooling off period, the contract can be easily terminated if the consumers change their mind. Companies should not make it difficult for consumers to cancel contracts made under these circumstances and will be denying the consumer’s legal rights under the ACL.”
More information about unsolicited or door to door trading is available on the Consumer Protection website: www.commerce.wa.gov.au/consumerprotection or enquiries can be made by email: firstname.lastname@example.org or by calling 1300 30 40 54.
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A recent entrepreneurship study showed that crowdfunding could be an important resource for female entrepreneurs. The research, conducted by Kauffman and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, claims that women account for 44 percent of investors on Kickstarter, a popular crowdfunding website. Comparatively, female entrepreneurs only received 2.7 percent of venture funding between 2011 and 2013.
Another study, conducted by Assistant Professor Ethan Mollick of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Professor Jason Greenberg of New York University, found that women were 13 percent more likely to meet their fundraising goals on Kickstarter than their male counterparts. Interestingly, women in technology businesses were significantly more successful than men who used crowdfunding for technological ventures. Approximately 66% of women in technology reached their financing goals, compared to only 30 percent of men who utilized Kickstarter to raise capital.
Not only does crowdfunding increase the availability of venture capital for female entrepreneurs, it also provides a platform for female investors. Through websites, such as CircleUp and Crowdfunder, women can provide equity to businesses of interest – as opposed to Kickstarter and Indiegogo which attract rewards-based donations from customers. A new twist on business financing has also appeared in the form of peer-to-peer lending sites. Two popular peer-to-peer lending sites are Lending Club and the Funding Circle. These sites are a conduit for business loans instead of investments or donations.
Crowdfunding could help equalize gender inequalities for female entrepreneurs. If you are a women in entrepreneurship, you may want to consider crowdfunding as an additional option for raising capital.


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2011 hopefully a one-off for Reject ShopPUBLISHED: 16 Aug 2011 19:27:06 | UPDATED: 16 Aug 2011 19:27:06PRINT EDITION: 15 Aug 2011
All eyes this week will be on focused on the comments around the retail outlook for 2012 and an update on insurance payments when The Reject Shop reports full-year results on Wednesday.
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Rihanna will replace Megan Fox as the global face of Emporio Armani underwear and Armani Jeans. Fox's deal with Armani was announced in October of 2009, and her first ads appeared in January of 2010. She was said to have commanded a $2 million fee; there's no word yet on what Rihanna, who was previously a face of Gucci, might have been paid. [WWD]
Kinja is in read-only mode. We are working to restore service.


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Apple has quite the smart phone competitor with the iPhone 4. But it’s not content with merely trying to outcompete its pesky Android competitors. It wants to prevent them from even being sold on the market.
The Cupertino firm owns a wealth of IP, including some controversial patents. Among these Apple claims to have invented using a swipe gesture to unlock, mobile multitouch screens, and an interrupt based system of processor undervolting (which sounds less straightforward before you consider interrupts are the only way to instantly get a processor to stop what it’s doing and change operation).
This week the company filed a second lawsuit against Android handset manufacturer HTC in Delaware District Court, citing both the gesture unlock and undervolting patents as well as two new ones, covering a “System for real-time adaptation to changes in display configuration”.
Both HTC and HTC subsidiary Exedea which imports HTC handsets and distributes them in the US are named in the suit. Apple is looking to ban the importation and sale of all HTC Android handsets in the U.S.
It originally filed suit against HTC in March 2010. Company CEO Steve Jobs complains, “We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it. We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”
HTC strongly disagrees with the assertion that they’ve stolen anything. Armed with a new IP licensing agreement with Microsoft, HTC struck back filing a countersuit in May which seeks to block the import of Apple’s mobile devices, including the iPhone.
HTC has made it clear that it is primarily using IP litigation as a defensive tool. A company spokeperson states, “We are taking this action against Apple to protect our intellectual property, our industry partners, and most importantly our customers that use HTC phones.”
Apple on the other hand, has a long history of trying to bully would-be competitors out of the market, both successfully and unsuccessfully. The company is facing antitrust probes over whether it used its dominant position in several markets (MP3 players, digital music, smart phone apps, tablet computers) to artificially remove smaller competitors from the market via a variety of means.
Author’s Note: We tried to contact Apple multiple times about this story as it progressed over the last few months, but thus far have had no luck getting ahold of anybody that’s willing to tell us their side of this story.


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MASTERCARD TO DECIDE ON COOPERATION WITH ZANTEPAY NEXT WEEK
Mastercard is looking into cooperation with Estonia based alternative payments startup ZANTEPAY. It was reported that Mastercard is in talks with GFC Good Finance Company AS this week, with whom ZANTEPAY has signed a preliminary cooperation agreement on the debit card project last month.
Mastercard asked to remove the MC logo from ZANTEPAY card visuals until the cooperation between ZANTEPAY, GFC and Mastercard is officially approved.
Mastercard representatives will travel to Tallinn, Estonia on 8th of May 2018 to decide whether to back partnership with ZANTEPAY or not.
In case of positive outcome, it would be the first official partnership between alternative payment startup and Mastercard.
Mardo Soo, the CEO of ZANTEPAY commented: “We are excited to finally hear from Mastercard, we have been reaching out to them a lot. We are ready for this partnership, so is cryptocurrency community. We are putting together the documents requested by Mastercard — legal, technical, AML policies, and delivering those by the end of the week. We hope for the positive outcome.”
Earlier Mastercard made the following statement: “Accordingly, the use of traditional payment networks and payment systems technologies in combination with blockchain currencies may provide consumers and merchants the benefits of the decentralized blockchain while still maintaining security of account information and provide a strong defense against fraud and theft”.
During 2012–2016 European market for alternative finance services grew 15,800%*
European wallet providers account for 42 percent of the total number of wallet providers in the global cryptocurrency market. *
Research produced by Cambridge University concluded in 2017 that there were between 2.9 million and 5.8 million unique users actively using a crypto currency wallet.
Estonia based ZANTEPAY provides cryptocurrency multiwallet /debit card integration. You can spend your bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum and zantecoin anytime, anywhere.
For more details visit www.zantepay.com . Join ZANTEPAY, we bring cryptocurrency to the mainstream!


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Darren Spaziani, a seasoned talent in women’s leather goods at Louis Vuitton, is to expand his role at the luxury giant and take the creative helm of men’s leather goods, in addition to his current responsibilities, WWD has learned.
“Darren has brought his creative vision for women’s leather goods and knows how to perfectly infuse modernity while relying on the craftsmanship and talented teams of the house,” said Delphine Arnault, Vuitton’s executive vice president in charge of supervising all of its product-related activities. “It was very natural to extend his role to the men’s universe.”
The appointment, disclosed exclusively to WWD, puts Spaziani in the unique position of collaborating with two leading fashion designers: Nicolas Ghesquière, Vuitton’s artistic director of women’s collections since 2013, and Virgil Abloh, who came on board in 2018 as men’s artistic director.
Black Friday Shoppers in New York City 2020
He joined Vuitton from Proenza Schouler, home of the popular PS1 bag, where he was director of accessories design.
Spaziani holds a masters degree in fashion from London’s Central Saint Martins, and a B.A. from the London College of Fashion.
The designer, who previously worked at Vuitton from 2004 to 2006, has also been design director of accessories at Balenciaga in Paris and a design consultant for Diane von Furstenberg and Tory Burch in New York.
Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall 2020 Giovanni Giannoni/WWD
He takes on his new responsibilities at Vuitton amid other changes in its linchpin leather goods department, and at a time of rapid growth for the men’s division.
Earlier this year, Vuitton snared acclaimed leather goods designer Johnny Coca, who had a successful five-year stint as Mulberry’s creative director, as women’s fashion leather goods director, a new post working as part of the team lead by Ghesquière, and focused primarily on high-end bags and show pieces.
And last February, Vuitton gave Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou, a prominent L’Oréal executive it had poached in June 2019, a cross-entity role for all men’s categories, except perfume. Angeloglou was formerly global brand president of L’Oréal Paris and seen as a high-potential executive.
Virgil’s Vuitton Is Already Selling Faster Than the Supreme Tie-up
EXCLUSIVE: Louis Vuitton Takes Men’s Show on the Road
Nicolas Ghesquière: Let’s Do the ‘Time Clash’ Again
Source: Read Full Article


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Recently, the Bloomberg page has reported that - Apple will launch the device Mac Silicon first at a product event next November. If this is true, the upcoming MacBooks will have outstanding performance and impressive battery life compared to competitors in the market. Find out with MAC!
Apple will launch the first Mac Silicon in November
Previously, "fellow" Ming-Chi Kuo predicted that the first Mac ARM would be a 13-inch MacBook Pro. And Bloomberg insists it will be one of the many products that Apple will launch next month.
Although the fact that Apple holds three media events in three consecutive months is unprecedented. However, what has been happening in 2020 is fully understandable when everything must take place online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that Apple's first ARM chip would have 12 cores, based on the design of the A14X chip. Their upcoming Macs are expected to outperform rivals Intel in terms of both performance and power efficiency.
On that side, they come equipped with a faster CPU / GPU designed by Apple itself, and have even longer battery life.
What products will the October event have?
In addition to information about Mac Silicon, Bloomberg reiterated recent rumors, that the October event will be the venue for the iPhone 12 and a small version of HomePod.
Bloomberg says Apple may announce a new HomePod alongside the AirPods Studio "as early as this month". However, they did not mention AirTags trackers at all.
Regarding AirTags, Apple leaker Jon Prosser today also said that the AirTags launch event was likely delayed to March 2021 and it certainly will not appear during the October event.
Another Chinese leaker, Kang, and l0vetodream leaker on Twitter, both confirmed that the small HomePod will be called "Mini HomePod" and cost 99 USD.
In addition, Kang said Apple will revive the MagSafe name with a range of wireless charging accessories designed for the iPhone 12.
See more: 9 extremely accurate predictions about the computer technology of Steve Jobs
Notable information about iPhone 12
Regarding the iPhone 12, Kang gave quite a few parameters, including the price and date of sale. The iPhone 12 mini will cost $ 699, the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 costs $ 799, the iPhone 12 Pro costs $ 999, and the iPhone 12 Pro Max will cost $ 1099.
Expected, all 4 new iPhone models will be announced at this October event, but will be sold in turn. iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro will be available for pre-order on October 16 and shipping to customers October 23.
The iPhone 12 mini will be available for order on November 6 and officially on sale on November 13. The 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max will finally appear, available for pre-order on November 13 and on sale on November 20.
If it is as Bloomberg predicted then Mac Silicon will mark a transition from Intel processors to Apple-made ARM processors. Products will be a huge advantage of Apple, from chip design, creating software and hardware design. Let's wait together!


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Today, another Apple PR failed because the company, once again, waited to be forced to react – this time due to the pressure of the right to repair. The company has finally accepted that consumers should be allowed to repair their Apple kit themselves, including the latest and most sophisticated devices.
Apple’s previous resistance was widely seen as greedy and inconsistent with the company’s environmental stance. Many repairs are simply not worth doing at official Apple prices, making it more likely that consumers will simply put away faulty devices and buy new ones.
This is not the first PR failure of this type. I had previously claimed that the company did exactly the same thing through the App Store: it fought fiercely until it was clear that it would lose the argument, and then just reluctantly made changes.
This kind of behavior makes Apple look like a bad guy when, simply by taking exactly the same actions at an earlier stage, it could look like a hero.
PR disaster no. 1: App Store Commissions
I had previously put together a major WWDC announcement that the company could make by changing from a 30% to 15% commission before it found itself in the corner. I argued that this would turn a PR disaster into a triumph.
The developers would be on their feet and applauding. And if 2% of the big boys grumbled about it, no one would care. The only reason Epic Games has attracted even the slightest amount of sympathy for his position is that he claimed to be in favor of the little guy.
There would probably be no Congressional investigation, no U.S. antitrust law affecting Apple. And since Apple makes most of its money from the biggest developers, it wouldn’t even lose much money by working a few years ago.
Instead, Apple made a similar change, but in a way that generated nothing like the same goodwill. He withdrew the move in general only when it was clear that the move was defensive, trying to respond to the criticisms that had already been made. And he couldn’t even go public with a figure of 98% because it would be a shame to admit that he essentially made a turnaround from his previous position – which he continues to defend even now.
Then I said it was a smart twist, and it was – given the hole the company had already dug for itself. But it was stupid that Apple even allowed itself to dig that hole.
PR disaster no. 2: Oppose do-it-yourself repairs
Apple resisted the idea of doing the repairs itself using a wide range of tactics, including:
- “Mine traps”
- Denial of tools and information
Apple has spent years consistently and aggressively lobbying against the right to repair, both at the state and federal levels.
One of the tactics used by both Apple and other tech companies to oppose do-it-yourself repairs was to claim that they were dangerous, listing everything from the risk of fire to consumers cutting their fingers while replacing broken screens. Although there are legitimate concerns about lithium-ion batteries, people who will deal with the notoriously cunning “do-it-yourself” repairs on the Apple kit are probably well versed in the necessary precautions.
Many unofficial repairs are hampered, or completely stopped, by effective traps. Examples include “do-it-yourself” home page key fixes on the iPhone 6 which causes the devices to break down, and the same thing happens with the iPhone 8 screen repair. This continues all the way to the iPhone 13.
In other cases, Apple has configured iPhones to display annoying error messages after doing-it-yourself repairs. Examples here include battery replacement on the iPhone XR and XS.
Retention tools and information
Apple has also made certain repairs impossible without access to hardware or software tools that are only available at Apple stores and authorized services. This began in 1984, with the original Macintosh case secured with special Apple-specific screws instead of the standard hexagonal ones. Recent examples include the 2018 MacBook Pro and iMac Pro, which will not work after repair without an Apple software tool, and iPhone 12 camera repairs that prove impossible without access to the same tool.
Independent workshops were also forced either to pay significant fees and agree to “crazy” conditions to gain access to repair manuals, or to resort to copies of black market documentation.
Apple only acts after global pressure
Apple is trying to look like a good guy now that it has announced.
“Creating greater access to Apple genuine parts gives our customers even more choice if a repair is needed,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s chief operating officer. “In the past three years, Apple has almost doubled the number of service locations with access to genuine Apple parts, tools and training, and now we provide an option for those who want to complete their repairs themselves.”
This is the same company that has consistently used all of the above methods and more to prevent just that. Apple has acted now, just because the pressure on it to do so has become insurmountable. Let’s just look at a few examples from this year.
In May, the Federal Trade Commission explicitly called on Apple to “fix repairs against competition.”
Apple also restricts access to service manuals and has issued copyright removal notices when they are posted online [and] binding components to the logic board, which can make repairs uneconomical.
In July, the Biden administration announced it would act on the report, introducing new laws to force companies like Apple to allow consumers to repair their own devices, followed by an executive order to introduce the right to repair.
That same month, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak added his support for DIY repairs, stating that the company was based on open source computing, and the FTC announced a new policy in favor of the right to repair.
A decision by AAPL shareholders was filed in September, urging the company to “end its anti-repair policy” to avoid damaging the company’s reputation.
I could go on. The point is that Apple fought tooth and nail against DIY repairs until it became clear that it was facing too much opposition – and then it announced the announcement trying to present itself as a generous benefactor to the same consumers it had previously blocked.
Another Apple PR failure should be avoided
Apple has twice put itself on the wrong side of history, and twice left it too late to make things right.
It wouldn’t have been so important if the only publicity had been in the technology press, but both issues have received wide coverage in the mainstream media as well. In both cases, Apple took a selfish stance, waited for the weight of political and public pressure not to be too great, and then acted reluctantly. In both cases, PR damage has already been done.
There will be other such problems. China will probably be one of them. I hope Apple has learned these lessons and there won’t be another Apple PR.
That’s my point – and yours? Do you think Apple is right to protect its financial interests for as long as possible, or should it instead deal with the long-term reputational damage done to a company whose main asset is its brand? Invest in what Steve Jobs called a brand bank? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Photo: Joel Rohland / Unsplash
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Chinese wind turbine makers, already industry leaders, are about to fast-track their global expansion, key industry players say.
After spending years developing a range of products and building global supporting networks, Chinese companies are on the cusp of an “exponential growth in exports,” a senior member of the country’s main wind industry trade body told me.
Overseas orders signed by Chinese wind turbine manufacturers in the first quarter of this year alone added up to nearly 2 gigawatts — almost their total export volume in 2022 — according to the Chinese research firm Windmango.
Western wind turbine giants have been hit by an array of obstacles, including COVID-19 lockdowns, supply chain disruptions, and spiking costs for commodities and shipping. Chinese companies, on the other hand, have weathered the storm relatively well on the back of robust home-based supply chains and the nation’s dominance in steel production and raw materials.
Chinese companies already dominate the global solar-panel market, but while the country’s wind-turbine manufacturers occupy around half of the overall global onshore and offshore market and hope to grow that share, the path to expansion abroad is far more complicated.
China has had the world’s largest installed capacity for wind power since 2010, and is now home to more than one-third of the world’s wind power capacity. And it’s still growing: In 2021 and 2022, China’s cumulative growth in wind capacity was 3.6 times greater than that of the United States and 7.3 times greater than that of Europe over the same period.
Despite that fast growth, Chinese wind turbine makers still see opportunities abroad, although not necessarily in Western markets, where complicated laws, industry regulations, and what Chinese officials described as “trade barriers” have posed obstacles for Chinese firms’ expansion.
In the short term, most of their overseas orders will likely come from emerging economies in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia, where Chinese companies already have a presence due to Beijing’s Belt and Road economic program.
Gu Limin, a senior director at Envision Energy, one of China’s biggest wind turbine manufacturers, told me that he expected Chinese firms’ global market share to “be higher and higher in the next few years.” Offshore wind power, in particular, presents “huge opportunities,” he said.
The differences between the wind and solar industries, however, are instructive. Solar is a highly commoditized industry, shipping is relatively easy, and products are standardized. Wind turbines are more project-specific and harder to transport.
Chinese wind manufacturers “not only need to be familiar with the policies and legal frameworks of different countries but also participate in many other steps, such as financing, certification, logistics, and installation,” Qin Haiyan, secretary-general of the Chinese Wind Energy Association told me.
This is one of the obstacles for Chinese companies entering European and U.S. markets, but they have made some headway, Qin noted. For example, Mingyang, a major manufacturer, became the first Chinese company to supply wind turbines to a European offshore wind farm after helping build the Beleolico project off southern Italy.
Chinese companies boast what one industry insider dubbed a “landslide” price advantage over their Western counterparts. Their products cost less than half — and sometimes as little as a quarter — of Western equivalents.
One driver for the low cost is China’s production scale. According to Qin, more than two-thirds of the world’s wind turbines are manufactured in China, including those produced for foreign brands. Chinese firms also benefit from complete and concentrated domestic supply chains and clear government policies. To some extent, these advantages at home would be partially — but not entirely — negated abroad.
Goldwind, China’s largest wind turbine manufacturer, puts the industry’s success in context. It began life as a state-affiliated research institute in Xinjiang, a wind energy hub in western China, before being privatized in 1998. Like its domestic competitors, Goldwind witnessed a decade of breakneck growth from 2005 when Beijing threw its weight behind the renewables manufacturing industry.
Now, it has more than 10,000 employees around the world, is listed on the Shenzhen and Hong Kong stock exchanges, and last year sold wind turbines with a combined capacity of 13,870 megawatts — equivalent to about half of the U.K.’s entire wind power capacity. In the past few months, the company has inked major deals in Brazil, Vietnam, North Macedonia, and Uzbekistan.
Room for Disagreement
Worsening geopolitics pose obstacles to Chinese companies. In 2021, Texas blocked the development of a wind farm owned by a Chinese billionaire, citing an alleged national security threat. Late that year, the EU imposed anti-dumping tariffs on imported Chinese turbine towers after an investigation found they were being sold at “artificially low prices.”
Chinese companies also have their own disadvantages compared to Western firms, such as “a much smaller international presence and resulting business networks and contacts, as well as far less globalized supply chains,” Cosimo Ries, a renewable energy analyst at the consultancy Trivium China, told me.
The View From Europe
Major industry players told the Financial Times in September that European wind turbine manufacturers were “financially struggling and cutting jobs.” And last year, five Western firms warned in an open letter to the European Commission that they were “losing ground” to Chinese companies.
“It’s on price and financing conditions that the Europeans are really, really struggling,” when pitted against Chinese firms in third markets, Pierre Tardieu, Chief Policy Officer at WindEurope, a trade group, told me.
To address some of the concerns, European policymakers have taken steps, such as with the proposed Net Zero Industry Act, aimed at scaling up the manufacturing of clean technologies in the EU. “This is a dynamic situation,” Tardieu noted. “Nothing is closed.”
- An overseas expansion by Chinese companies — particularly Mingyang — could help develop larger turbines and drive prices lower, Norman Waite, an energy financial analyst, explained in a report published by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.


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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against Dillard's Inc. alleging that the national department store chain headquartered in Little Rock has failed to promote Black employees to managerial and supervisory positions because of their race since "at least January 2011."
The lawsuit makes allegations on behalf of nine employees at stores in Little Rock; North Little Rock; Montgomery, Ala.; St. Petersburg, Fla.; Newman, Ga.; Cedar Hill, Texas; Biloxi, Miss.; and Metairie, La. It wants them to represent a class of "current and former African American employees who have been adversely affected by such practices."
Julie Guymon, a corporate spokesman at Dillard's headquarters, said Tuesday afternoon that "this lawsuit relates to the pending settlement of EEOC charges dating back to 2011. The settlement, pending court approval, resolves all outstanding issues between the parties."
The lawsuit says Dillard's, which has about 330 stores in 28 states, "also fails to recruit African American college students into its Executive Development Program."
It says the commission has "engaged in numerous communications" with the company to provide Dillard's "with an opportunity to remedy the discriminatory practices" but was "unable to secure ... a conciliation agreement acceptable to the Commission."
The lawsuit identifies Tanisha Erby as the "lead charging party," describing her as an employee who started working at Dillard's store at Park Plaza Mall in Little Rock as a sales associate in 2005 and who resigned in March 2014. It said Erby was denied a promotion to an auditor position in 2011, and was never promoted to a managerial or supervisory position.
The commission alleges that Dillard's doesn't post job vacancies or have a written promotion policy, and instead, "employs a 'tap on the shoulder' approach to filling vacant supervisory and managerial positions.'"
It also alleges that the department store chain "recruits and places college students as paid interns for its Little Rock Buyers Program," which eventually leads to management or supervisory positions.
Since the program began, according to the lawsuit, 40 of 41 interns who have been recruited and placed at various store locations are white.
Assigned to U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky, the lawsuit seeks a permanent injunction prohibiting racially discriminatory employment practices, forbidding retaliation against employees involved in the lawsuit and requiring the business to provide equal employment opportunities for Blacks that eradicate the effects of unlawful practices.


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Pressure Testing Purpose & The Path Forward
By Alison DaSilva
Last August, 181 CEOs signed the Business Roundtable’s updated “Purpose of a Corporation” statement, committing to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders, including customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders.
Eight months later, amidst one of the world’s worst pandemics, this commitment is experiencing a radical pressure test.
In the pandemic’s early weeks, we saw companies act as a source of relief, addressing needs and filling gaps in myriad ways to step in where government efforts were falling short. Most prioritized the health and financial well-being of employees and customers and then donated money, time, resources or products to help the most vulnerable in their communities and on the frontlines. Many also modified and evolved their business models, tapping idle human resources and production capacities, to serve as a force for good. For some, this response was natural; companies heading into the pandemic with a well-established purpose responded with speed and impact. However, those with a less defined sense of purpose often struggled to find their voice and make a meaningful difference.
Regardless, the pandemic’s flurry of activity may have triggered a deeper and more purposeful commitment by companies to all of their stakeholders. At a crossroad, companies have begun to embrace the fundamentally redefined role of business moving forward.
As we shift from relief to pandemic recovery, the landscape will change dramatically. People will want a return to life as they once knew it – a return to work and school and to celebrating milestones and holidays, together. And they will look to business to lead the way.
In fact, companies who were active in relief, but choose to be silent in recovery, will likely pay a price for purpose washing. Those with a clear and compelling corporate purpose - which defines its unique value in society and allows it to both grow and positively impact the world - will have a built-in filter for decision-making, guiding investments and engaging with all stakeholders.
Moving beyond recovery, corporate purpose will be even more important as we rebuild to a place where we are stronger and even more resilient. Purpose will help companies determine how to best protect their employees and supply chain for the future, how to innovate products and services that reflect pandemic shifts in consumer behavior and relationships, and how to use their business operations and assets to further make a positive impact on the world.
Ideally, what will ultimately result from our pandemic experience is a stronger and more direct connection between business.


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The term “smartphone” was first coined in 1995, though the original device, called the Simon Personal Communicator created by IBM, made its first debut in 1992, 15 years prior to the launch of Apple’s iPhone. Though it was the Japanese company NTT DoCoMo with the launch of i-Mode in 1999, that is considered to be the one who gave birth to mobile internet services. Since its initial inception in the early 90’s smartphone devices became a household device. In 2018 there were 2.53 billion smartphone users across the globe, making for just over 36 percent of the world’s population.
While no one can deny the usefulness of smartphones, they are not without their side-effects. In our enthusiasm to embrace this new technology, we have created a new addiction, smartphone addiction, defined as “a disorder involving compulsive overuse of the mobile devices”. Nowadays we spent on average over 4 hours a day on our smartphones, a number which only increases with the new generation. Using smartphones provides us with an instant high thanks to the dopamine released in our brains, making us prone to be subjected to this addiction.
The excessive use of smartphones in every aspect of our lives, from communication to shopping, created another issue which wasn’t as dominant before, the exposure of users’ private data. Since we now live a “full-life” on our phones, 3rd parties can track, store, and later use our personal information. And while it’s no secret that the data giants have been collecting our data for years, most of us chose to turn a blind eye to the negative aspect of our cyber existence. That was the case at least until 2018, this year will be marked as the year the issue of users’ privacy took the world central stage, with the congressional hearing of Facebook’s Founder, Mark Zuckerberg, in April, and with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) becoming enforceable in May, there seem to be a significant political and legal climate shift.
The new regulations enacted by the European Union (GDPR) were revolutionary in the way they addressed data ownership and data protection. The goal of the of these regulations was to harmonize data privacy laws across Europe, protect and empower all EU citizens data privacy, and reshape the way organizations approach data privacy. Organizations were now required to delete any personal data once it’s no longer necessary, to only collect data for a specific purpose, to get users’ explicit consent, to delete any data collected upon the user’s request, and so on.
While the GDPR can be seen as a positive direction in users’ data protection rights, many companies still struggle to adjust to this new legal reality. In a recent survey TrustArc, a privacy compliance solutions firm, found that only 20% of businesses currently believe they are GDPR complaint. This doesn’t only apply to the small brick and mortar stores, but to tech companies as well, as 60% of firms confirmed to be unprepared for the regulations. This general state of unpreparedness can be probably attributed to the significant change in corporate structure and data processing the implementation of these regulations require. Businesses now will most likely need to create a new position and “appoint a data protection officer who could ensure adherence to GDPR stipulations by re-examining the business's data relationship with all existing customers” and restructuring the business data collection process.
This massive shift also opens the door for new stakeholders to come up with innovative solutions to bridge over the difficulties resulting in the implementation of the regulations. WAAM protocol is such a solution, offering apps a ready-made package for users’ data monetization combined with GDPR compliance. WAAM, a decentralized e-commerce blockchain platform, recognized the important role the users play in the e-commerce industry and decided to put them in the center of their solution. On WAAM the users have full control over their private data, and it’s their choice and theirs alone whether they want to keep their information private or capitalize on it by sharing it with retailers and brands. Simultaneously resolving users’ fear of being exploited, apps difficulties of finding additional revenue channels while complying with GDPR, and retailers need for data.


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Lady Gaga was in Japan earlier this month to promote her new album Artpop. The promotional tour included TV performances, a Yahoo Japan website decked out in Lady Gaga (live through 12/25) and, of course, anatomically correct humanoid dolls of herself.
The state-of-the-art dolls came about from a rare collaboration between a sex toy manufacturer (Orient Industries) and creative agency PARTY. A video created by the team to show how the dolls were made is fantastic. It’s like the trailer for a sadistic horror film.
And now that Gaga has left Japan, the dolls are sitting around doing nothing, just waiting for you to call them up. The website recently added a new “booking” section where you can apply for one of the dolls to come to your “television, magazine, or other event. They can even be displayed at museums or public schools,” says the website.


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Some consider kratom just as dangerous as heroin and meth. But what is it?
Malaysian Kratom Powder Dosage Review The Food and Drug Administration issued a public health advisory Tuesday about the use of kratom, a herbal supplement known to ease the side effects. and Malaysia, as a controlled substance. The supplement is sold in smoke shops. This is the latest branch of a debate growing here and throughout the U.S.: Should kratom remain
#WeNeedMoreRepublicansIn18 in order to power through mess. which covers.
She said that the state should either require all placements to have a landline for such use or. The order came in a case filed in 2011 by New York advocacy group Children’s Rights and Texas lawyers on behalf of those in long-term.
Side Effects. The side effects of Kratom are also varied, changing from user to users. The most commonly reported short-term drawbacks are nausea, itching, sweating.
Super Natural Botanicals is selling the most premium Kratom powder, capsules, extracts and alternatives like Akuamma seeds. We are also offering most essential oils.
That’s almost a 20 percent hike angled at getting more long-term subscribers,
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Most major U.S. corporations are expecting to be hit with a big one-time tax bill in order to bring that. sharing plans to support the long-term financial well-being.


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- 28 Nov 2011:Apple is well ahead of rivals in building brand loyalty among its users in a mobile market where the key brands are rushing to build as large a foothold as possible, a study by research firm GfK showed.
- 18 Nov 2011:
- 17 Nov 2011:Apple's move to standardize on Qualcomm baseband chips will be helpful in bringing LTE to the iPhone and iPad in 2012 thanks to Qualcomm's next-generation mobile device modem chips. The company announced recently that updated chips with integrated LTE and 3G support will offer greater power efficiency for mobile devices, a sticking point that has so far kept Apple from offering compatibility with high-speed LTE networks.
- 4 Nov 2011:
- 3 Nov 2011:
- 26 Oct 2011:The Lumia 800 and the Lumia 710 mark the begin of Nokia's fightback against Apple's iPhone and rivals using Google's Android software.
- 21 Oct 2011:This is something that could excite iPhone owners, big time! Japanese accessory maker Century has brought out their new Monolith iPhone case - complete with a projector.
- 19 Oct 2011:Apple falls after wait for iPhone causes missed estimates (October 19) - Bloomberg (via Businessweek)Apple fell in German trading after profit missed analysts' predictions for the first time in at least six years, evidence that customers delayed iPhone purchases before the release of the latest model.
- 18 Oct 2011:Apple said it has sold over four million of its new iPhone 4S, just three days after its launch on October 14.
- Reports that Apple would ditch Samsung and look instead to TSMC for the Apple A6 processor expected to feature in the next-gen iPad 3 and iPhone 5 are premature, a Samsung exec has insisted, claiming that the two companies will continue to collaborate on chipset design and manufacture.
- 17 Oct 2011:
- 14 Oct 2011:They also discovered that the iPhone 4S includes a Skyworks 77464-20 chip and Avago ACPM-7181 power amplifier.
- 12 Oct 2011:Mobile display technology has come leaps and bounds over the last four years. Starting with the original iPhone, the finger-friendly capacitive touchscreen was introduced, which answered the woes of unwieldy styluses (styli?) and resistive touchscreens.
- 11 Oct 2011:
- 5 Oct 2011:Blame it on high expectations: Why Apple's stock falls after company unveils hot new gadget (October 5) - AP (via Washington Post)Apple's stock lost US$2.10, or 0.6%, dipping to US$372.50 on Monday after the company revealed the newest iPhone model, the 4S.
- 29 Sep 2011:Hitachi has announced the availability of a more affordable technology that will make HD ready IPS panels more widely available and demoed a 4.5-inch LCD panel with a 1280x720 pixels resolution.
- 22 Sep 2011:Apple's next event to be held on October 4, starring its new CEO (September 21) - All Things DigitalThat's the day Apple is currently expected to hold its next big media event, according to sources close to the situation, where the tech giant will unveil the next iteration of its popular iPhone.
- 20 Sep 2011:
- 19 Sep 2011:After the iPhone and the iPad, Apple may be working on a full-size TV (possibly with no-glasses 3D) which could also give American customers the option of a cheaper service than the present expensive cable TV offerings.
- 16 Sep 2011:Consumers have been voting with their fingers since Apple first introduced the iPhone, rapidly driving up the popularity of touchscreen smartphones, and the tide shows no sign of turning.
- 15 Sep 2011:Epson MegaPlex projectors provide big screen viewing for iPod, iPhone, and iPad (September 14) - SlashGearEpson has launched a pair of new projectors that are aimed at the users of Apple iOS gear like the iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad. The new projectors are both in the MegaPlex line and there are two models.
- 14 Sep 2011:Samsung mulls comeback to Japanese TV market: source (September 13) - Korean Times (USE The Korea Times)Samsung Electronics Co., the world's top TV supplier, is considering a reentry into the Japanese TV market after it quit the country four years ago, an industry source said Tuesday.
- 1 Sep 2011:A spokesman for the San Francisco Police Department said the company did not file a police report based on the loss at the bar.
- 26 Aug 2011:
- 24 Aug 2011:The latest beta of iOS 5 features an earthquake warning system for Japanese iPhone users. The feature constantly checks in with Japan's early warning system, which consists of over 1000 seismographs scattered throughout the country.
- 22 Aug 2011:Avago's main smartphone customers are Samsung and HTC, but speculation is rife among analysts that some upcoming wireless devices from Apple, including new iPhones and the iPad 3, could use some Avago chips.
- 19 Aug 2011:
- 15 Aug 2011:
- 29 Jul 2011:Latest figures from the US Treasury Department show that the country has an operating cash balance of US$73.7 billion. Apple's most recent financial results put its reserves at US$76.4 billion.
- 19 Jul 2011:
- 8 Jul 2011:
- 7 Jul 2011:FBR Capital analyst Craig Berger asserted in a research note that OmniVision could be at risk of losing its status as the dominant provider of image sensors for the Apple iPhone.
- 24 Jun 2011:"Common sense suggests that allegations of copying are necessarily directed at Apple's existing products, to which Samsung has access and could potentially mimic," said US District Court Judge Lucy Koh, "and not at Apple's unreleased, inaccessible, next-generation products."
- 23 Jun 2011:Imagination Technologies, which designs microchips used in Apple's iPad and iPhone, has doubled its forecast for chip shipments. By 2016, the company expects more than 1bn will be shipped a year, up from a previous forecast of 500m.
- 18 Jun 2011:Apple ramped up the rhetoric in its patent infringement battle with Samsung on Thursday, filing an amended complaint that includes more allegedly infringing devices and stronger accusations that the company copied the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad.
- 15 Jun 2011:Samsung's request "is not a good faith attempt to obtain information needed to defend against a preliminary injunction", the documents say. "Rather, it is a transparent and improper attempt to harass Apple by demanding extremely sensitive trade secrets that have no relevance to Apple's infringement claims or to Samsung's defenses to a preliminary injunction."
- Indium Corporation features ultra-low residue no-clean Flip-Chip Flux at SEMICON Taiwan
- Indium Corporation's patented BiAgX: A drop-in replacement for high-Pb solders
- Echoing Government's Productivity 4.0, IoT Automation Boosts Taiwan's Competitiveness
- ASUS selects Pixelworks' Iris mobile display processor and True Clarity enhancements for ZenPad tablet
- Etasis promotes new 350W 1U slim redundant power supply to market
- AccuTouch Five Wire Resistive Touchscreens
- Getting the Most Out Of Your Next Generation Digital Security Surveillance System
- Embracing the New Generation Intel Atom Family with DDR3 Memory Support
- Got The Message? Ensuring efficient and reliable delivery of content across a mission critical digital signage network
- Emb' Store On-Demand Software Service for Embedded Computing
- Digitimes Research: Tablets with phone functionality from white-box players to suffer over 15% decline in 2Q15
- Digitimes Research: China smartphone shipments see weaker-than-expected growth in 2Q15
- Digitimes Research: Intel 28nm SoFIA 4G AP delayed to early 2016; may face overlap issue with 14nm version
- Digitimes Research: White-box players pushing 10.1-inch Windows tablets
- Silicon providers main beneficiaries of enthusiast PC growth; opportunities exist for vendors to raise profits with innovative products, says HWinsights
- Zoom Storage looking to become media library for mobile device users
- AMD unveils sixth-generation A-series APUs for mobile products
- Computex 2015: Startup company Endless pushing PC for developing countries
- Computex 2015: Nvidia unveils GTX 980 Ti and G-Sync technology
- Computex 2015: BioLogic SportCase wins Design and Innovation Award
Competition in the graphics card market has grown fierce as demand for graphics cards from the gaming...
Socionext, a Japan-based corporation focused on the design, development, and sales of system-on-chip...
Computex has evolved into one of the biggest and most important ICT trade shows in the world since...
Although the company has not been operating in the gaming notebook industry for long, Gigabyte Technology...
- Smartphone and tablet industry: The view from Taiwan - May 2012
Taiwan-based companies have a long and successful history of involvement in the supply chain for mobile devices, which for the purposes of this article consist...
- Taiwan motherboard industry overview - May 2012
The year 2011 saw the motherboard industry reverse its trend of declining shipments year-on-year, to post a slight 0.2% growth. This upturn in fortunes was expected...
- Notebook market overview - Jun 2011
The notebook industry in 2010 experienced several major events that significantly changed the industry's ecosystem for the year and the industry is also believed...
- LCD TV overview - Jun 2011
Growth of the global LCD TV market was not as strong as expected in 2010 as the market continued to feel the aftershocks of the economic recession that had hit...


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SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. /California Newswire/ -- Geek Club Books, Inc., an autism nonprofit, today announced the release of their interactive digital comic book, 'The Mighty League, Vol. 2: The Horrible Hug.' This is the second in their digital and app autistic hero comic series created to help children understand their autistic peers and end the stigma of autism. The comic is downloadable via the Geek Club Books website.


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SPACE in a former Glasgow printworks is being fitted out for a new leisure concept combining crazy golf, local drinks and street food vendors.
Located next to Ryze Glasgow trampoline centre, the building is being fully refurbished by the new tenants with the addition of toilets, kitchen facilities and specialist lighting.
Craig Neilson, co-founder of KMCN Holdings, said: “We are very excited about this new venture which will be completely different for Scotland and is a world away from the kids-themed golf courses currently on offer at shopping centres and seaside towns.”
The building is owned by a private landlord, who was represented by agent Andrew Ketley. The tenant was self represented.
Ketley added: “I think this will prove to a be a great location for Fore Play, who are doing a fantastic job with their fit-out, providing a great leisure destination and making the most of former industrial space which really has a bit of character to it.
“The landlord wishes Craig and partner Kasia Majkut every success with this exciting concept and hope that it is the first of many venues to come.”


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North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has welcomed Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water’s innovative new social tariff, ‘HelpU’, aimed at helping the company’s most disadvantaged customers.
From April 1 it will be offering annual savings of up to £250 or 55% on the average household bill.
Average household incomes in the area served by Welsh Water are almost 13% lower than the rest of England and Wales with some substantive areas being 20% below the average.
|* Mark Isherwood AM.
To help combat this, Welsh Water’s new ‘HelpU’ tariff, which will benefit those on total household income of less than £12,500, has been developed with support from the independent consumer watchdog CCWater, the Welsh Government and Community Housing Cymru.
It is aimed at helping more customers than ever before who genuinely struggle to pay their water bills, with independent research showing that over 75% of the company’s customers support the new tariff.
Mr Isherwood, who attended Welsh Water’s briefing session on the new tariff in the Assembly last week, said: “We often speak to constituents who are struggling to make ends meet. As a result, I welcome this latest initiative by Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water which is aimed at helping even more of its customers who struggle to pay their water bills.
"I’d urge anyone who is worried about their water bills or wants to know what help is available to contact the company so that they can get the help they need as soon as possible.”
* Customers wishing to apply for help to pay their water and sewerage bills can visit dwrcymru.com or phone Welsh Water on 0800 052 0145. More details on who is eligible and other sources of support are available on the company’s website.
Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water Chief Executive, Chris Jones, said: “As a company owned on behalf of its customers, we are proud to be leading the way by launching a new social tariff that will, for the first time ever, help over 100,000 households on the lowest incomes so that they are able to pay their water bills.
"This is also a win-win for all our other customers as it will help us to keep down the level of costs as a whole, and so if customers are genuinely struggling with their water bills, we’d urge them to contact us to see if we can help.”


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E-cigarette use might decrease the variety of cigarettes smoked, but smoking just one to four cigarettes day by day greatly will increase the chance of cardiovascular disease compared to not smoking. The extent to which lowering cigarette smoking with vaping results in quitting is unknown. Randomized managed trials have not shown that vaping is efficient for quitting smoking. A 2016 meta-evaluation primarily based on 20 totally different research found that people who smoke who used e-cigarettes were 28% much less likely to stop than those who had not tried e-cigarettes.
Around half of e-cigarette firm web sites have a minimum age discover that prohibited underage people from entering. The revised EU Tobacco Products Directive got here into effect in May 2016, providing stricter regulations for e-cigarettes. It limits e-cigarette advertising in print, on television and radio, together with decreasing the level of nicotine in liquids and decreasing the flavors used. It requires the purchaser for e-cigarettes to be at least 18 and does not permit shopping for them for anyone less than 18 years of age.
Concern Over Harm To Lungs
E-cigarette commercials are additionally in magazines, newspapers, online, and in retail shops. Between 2010 and 2014, e-cigarettes had been second solely to cigarettes as the top advertised product in magazines. As cigarette corporations have acquired the largest e-cigarette brands, they presently profit from a twin market of people who smoke and e-cigarette customers whereas concurrently presenting themselves as brokers of harm reduction. This raises issues concerning the appropriateness of endorsing a product that instantly income the tobacco trade. There isn’t any evidence that the cigarette brands are promoting e-cigarettes as a part of a plan to part out conventional cigarettes, regardless of some stating to want to cooperate in “harm reduction”. E-cigarette promoting for using e-cigarettes as a quitting tool have been seen within the US, UK, and China, which have not been supported by regulatory our bodies.
In 2019, a vaping industry organization launched a report stating that a potential US ban on e-cigarettes flavors can probably impact larger than 150,000 jobs across the US. While advertising of tobacco merchandise is banned in most countries, tv and radio e-cigarette promoting in several international locations may be indirectly encouraging conventional cigarette use.
How Much Nicotine Is In Juul And Other E
The up to date Tobacco Products Directive has been disputed by tobacco lobbyists whose businesses might be impacted by these revisions. As Puff Bar Flavors of 8 August 2016, the US FDA extended its regulatory power to incorporate e-cigarettes, e-liquid and all associated merchandise. Under this ruling the FDA will consider sure points, together with ingredients, product features and well being dangers, as properly their attraction to minors and non-customers. A photograph ID is now required to buy e-cigarettes, and their sale in all-ages vending machines isn’t permitted within the US. E-cigarette and tobacco companies have recruited lobbyists in an effort to forestall the US FDA from evaluating e-cigarette merchandise or banning existing merchandise already in the marketplace. Studies pertaining to their potential impact on smoking reduction are very limited.
Guidance For Healthcare Suppliers
“We saw the market’s sudden recognition that the cigarette business appears to be in serious trouble, disrupted by the rise of vaping,” Mad Money’s Jim Cramer stated April 2018. “Over the course of three quick days, the tobacco stocks had been bent, they were spindled they usually had been mutilated by the realization that digital cigarettes have turn out to be a critical menace to the old-school cigarette makers,” he added.
- Some have advocated bans on e-cigarette gross sales and others have instructed that e-cigarettes could also be regulated as tobacco merchandise however with much less nicotine content material or be regulated as a medicinal product.
- A 2016 World Health Organization report found that the scientific proof for the effectiveness of vaping for quitting smoking is “scant and of low certainty”.
- Finally, the recent news of vaping-associated illnesses requires swift analysis and efficient steering to protect the public’s health.
- Some healthcare teams and coverage makers have hesitated to recommend e-cigarettes for quitting smoking, because of restricted evidence of effectiveness and security.
- Healthcare organizations within the UK in 2015 have encouraged smokers to strive e-cigarettes to help them give up smoking and also inspired e-cigarette users to quit smoking tobacco entirely.
In the US, six massive e-cigarette businesses spent $fifty nine.3 million on promoting e-cigarettes in 2013. In the US and Canada, over $2 million is spent yearly on selling e-cigarettes on-line. E-cigarette web sites typically made unscientific health statements in 2012. The ease to get previous the age verification system at e-cigarette firm web sites allows underage people to entry and be uncovered to marketing.


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Deccan Chronicle was launched by Rajagopal Mudaliar in the year 1938. As of today, it is one of the most widely read English language news dailies in the country and it has the strongest presence in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
As of today, Deccan Chronicle is the most widely circulated English language newspaper in southern India, and it also commands a loyal readership in other parts of the country as well. Deccan Chronicle is a newspaper that promises to deliver a “comprehensive bouquet of news and analysis” to its readers every single day, and the newspaper dutifully delivers on that promise.
It is estimated that, on any given day, Deccan Chronicle has more than 1.45 million copies of the newspaper in circulation on average, with readers across not just the southern states of India, but across other regions as well.
Deccan Chronicle is owned and published by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, which is known in short as DCHL. Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited also publishes other well known newspapers, such as The Asian Age, which is an English language newspaper and Financial Chronicle, which is a business newspaper. There is also a Telugu language newspaper published by Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited called Andhra Bhoomi.
In order to get the news to its readers, Deccan Chronicle publishes editions of the newspaper from various locations across the country. These locations are in Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Rajahmundry, Visakhapatnam, Anantapur, Karimnagar, Nellore, as well as in Coimbatore, Bangalore, Chennai and Kochi.
The popularity of Deccan Chronicle is not restricted to India alone. The newspaper is read by non-resident Indians in other parts of the world as well, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and Singapore.
The sheer popularity that Deccan Chronicle enjoys makes it a newspaper that is able to cater to the diverse tastes and preferences of all its readers. In turn, this makes booking Deccan Chronicle classifieds a recommended choice for both individuals and businesses with a message for their respective audiences.
So, if you wish to get your voice heard amidst the noise, book a Deccan Chronicle classified ad through releaseMyAd and get noticed across the Deccan region. releaseMyAd is India’s largest self-service online ad booking platform with more than a decade of experience in the advertising industry. With its strategic ad placement techniques and a strong network of advertising partners located across the country, releaseMyAd proudly guarantees you the lowest Deccan Chronicle ad rates.


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By Gal Sitty
Despite a still sluggish global economy the Israeli economy is booming. This is due in part to Israeli companies consistent ability develop and sell superior products that improve people’s lives.
The anti-peace effort to Boycott, Divest and Sanction Israel, commonly known as BDS, has also failed to negatively affect Israel’s diverse economy. This misguided policy propagated by a network of anti-Israel groups, some of which are extremist in their views and may even tacitly support violence and terrorist organizations, fails to recognize several basic facts that makes their efforts irrelevant.
Most prominent among these is that one cannot effectively boycott a democratic country with a developed economy and a free society. In Israel, unlike many nations who are notorious abusers of human rights like Syria and Iran, the government does not control the companies within its border. Israel does not dictate to its citizens what they must and must not produce and sell. Therefore Israeli companies, as is true in any properly functioning economy, create and bring to market products that are demanded by the consumer both in Israel and abroad.
The Israeli economy is fully integrated into the global marketplace and produces a wide array of products. A true boycott of Israel would require shunning a great deal of products including the Intel processor chips which power most of the electronic devices we use each day, an immunomodulator drug for treating multiple sclerosis, and instant messaging services.
Any effort to boycott these and the many more Israeli products which enrich our lives seems doomed to cause more harm to the ‘boycotter’ as opposed to the ‘boycotted.’ Indeed, large well respected companies and organizations have flatly rejected the BDS movement and its predecessor the Arab Boycott of Israel.
It should be noted that the Arab boycott has been in existence since Israel’s founding, and despite being a desperately poor country upon declaring independence, Israel’s GDP today exceeds that of all four of its neighbors.
This is an even more impressive achievement when one considers that Israel’s population is less than one-tenth of Egypt’s population, the neighboring country with the highest GDP.
In fact, some even credit the Arab boycott for creating an economic environment in Israel which forces Israelis to outcompete others. The larger and more influential Arab boycott failed in stammering the Israeli economy, so why do the BDS organizers continue to promote an old failed policy?
The BDS movement once again proves the old charge that those who oppose Israel’s policies would rather harm themselves than work together for peace. If their intentions are truly peaceful as they claim, they would work to increase cooperation and dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians. Instead, they actively work towards subverting any efforts to move the two sides closer together in solving their differences.
As supporters and followers of Act For Israel, all you have to do to continue to support Israel and its economy and counter the small and fledgling BDS movement, is to continue with your regular shopping habits. In fact there’s a good chance that many of the components of the electronic device you’re reading this on were developed in Israel.
Photo credit 1: Sky Scraper Life Photo credit 2: YNetNews
About the author
Holding two Master's degrees, from Tel Aviv University and the University of Chicago, Gal has focused his career in the public sector working in education reform before joining Act For Israel. Born in Israel but raised in the United States Gal knows firsthand how often Israel is misrepresented abroad. Understanding that Israel's interests must be heard beyond the established pro-Israel community Gal recently led an effort to raise billboards calling for the release of kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. The billboards were seen by over two million people, received news coverage in the US and overseas and garnered Congressional recognition.


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This year’s TT is looking set to be the best attended in years, according to latest official figures.
The Steam Packet ferry company says that last Friday was it’s busiest day so far, with over 2000 bikes and passengers transported over the Irish Sea from the mainland to the Isle of Man, with a further 3000 shipped over the weekend.
This year’s racing, meanwhile, is so far proving to be the most exciting and closest in years as records tumble in near perfect conditions. The Steam Packet also reports that there are still a few places available for later in the week, so you’ve still got time to make it over, see the most exiting racing in the world and meet GP stars Lorenzo and Caparossi, when they arrive on Friday.
For more info go to: www.steam-packet.com
Get the latest MCN out on the 9th of June
- Rossi speaks from his hospital bed
- Schwantz on Rossi's come-back chances
- Yamaha Tenere V Ducati Multistrada V BMW R1200GS V KTM 990 Adventure
- TT: Find out what's gone into Hutchinson's Honda


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Staff and ETA members are pleased to assist members of the media who are covering the electronic payments industry.
IN THE NEWS
Voice Commerce, Software Solutions Top Trends in 2018, Finds Market Spotlight
1.23.2018 / Press Release
ETA Announces 2018 Committee Leadership
1.22.2018 / Press Release
Electronic Transactions Association Announces 2018 Board of Directors
12.19.2017 / Press Release


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A new recycled paper mill will be established in Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi (KEZAD) in a move to support the UAE circular economy.
The mill will manufacture eco-friendly biodegradable recycled kraft papers in Abu Dhabi after an agreement between Star Paper Mill and RC Paper Machines, which will expand its existing capacity with an investment of AED 200 million ($54 million).
The facility, which will manufacture recycled Kraft Paper Jumbo reels, will be built on a 59,000-square-metre space. The reels will be used to manufacture corrugated cartons and bag papers from recycled raw materials.
Kezad confirmed that a 50-year land lease agreement has been signed with Star Paper Mill, a specialist tissue manufacturer, to set up the facility.
Earlier this year, it was announced that Renov8 Polymer Industries Ltd will invest AED 552 million in a plastic recycling facility. Single-use plastic bags were banned in the emirate of Abu Dhabi in June.
Hussain Adam Ali, chairman of Star Paper Mill said: “In line with the vision of UAE leaders, we in Star Paper Mill believe that to be successful and create long-term value in the future, being sustainable and adopting a circular system is vital.”
“We are using this opportunity as a huge advantage for us to create products to achieve reduced carbon emissions and operate as a sustainable industry.”
The paper mill will have installed capacity of 135,000 tonnes.
The company is also reserving an additional 32,000 square metres next to the primary plot earmarked for the project to accommodate expected increase in demand.
The project will process the waste generated from the facility, using an effluent treatment plant to recycle water and reuse it.
The raw materials used, including OCC, NCC, NDLKC and sack kraft waste, will be sourced locally in the UAE to reduce transport-related emissions, the company said.
Star Paper Mill’s current factory is a 27,000-square-metre hygiene tissue paper facility with current installed capacity of 36,000 tonnes.


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SOUTHERN INDIANA — While Indiana’s jobless rate was well under the national average in October, it was coupled with another significant decline in the state’s labor force.
A U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday recorded Indiana’s unemployment rate at 3.3% in October. The national rate for the month was 4.6%.
While the number of unemployed Hoosiers dropped by about 7,000, the state’s labor force also declined by 9,000.
Uric Dufrene, Sanders Chair in Business at Indiana University Southeast, said that while it was encouraging to see the state add 14,800 jobs last month, the sluggishness of the labor force remains a concern.
“It will become increasingly difficult to grow jobs at this rate if we do not begin to see sustained increases in the labor force,” Dufrene said Friday. “Not only will this have an impact on growing jobs with current companies, but in the state’s ability to attract new companies to the state.”
Manufacturing had a strong month, as the sector added about 6,000 jobs in Indiana. Dufrene predicted the sector will continue to grow.
“Lean inventory levels nationwide, and high new unfilled orders are producing significant production demands in manufacturing,” he said.
“Supply chain issues are also creating pent-up demand in some industries, such as automotive. I’m also expecting some of these supply chain issues to push demand back to 2022, resulting in robust manufacturing growth.”
Kentucky saw a small increase in its labor force last month, but only added 3,000 jobs from September to October. Kentucky’s jobless rate dipped from 4.3 to 4.2% last month.
“I am still optimistic that we will begin to see gains to the labor force moving into next year,” Dufrene said. “That does remain a big question mark currently.”


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So far Swiss Post has invested in robotics startup, Starship, which is building autonomous delivery robots. Swiss Post has funded the startup to explore possible autonomous delivery solutions that it can employ. Investiere.ch has not invested in Starship but advised on the deal.
Swiss Post said in a statement that it is seeking startups in other spaces like ecommerce, mobility, digital financial services, digital trust, cross-channel communication, business process outsourcing, and sales, where it will take a minority stake.
The postal service did not comment on how much it will be investing in these companies.
“Swiss Post wants to actively exploit new technologies or business models that are emerging as a result of digitization,” said Claudia Pletscher, head of development and innovation at Swiss Post. “To do so, we invest early in start-ups, among other things.”


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The Next Wave of Advertising
With global advertising expenditure forecast to reach $578 billion by the end of the year, it’s no surprise that technology and media firms alike rely heavily on digital advertising as a major income source. Unfortunately, consumers have witnessed increasingly aggressive targeting tactics in recent times, resulting in unproductive campaigns and frustrated customers. Thankfully, AI is helping businesses to combat the rise of spam advertising with less intrusive and more personalized ads. As a result, consumers can actually interact with the brands that interest them and businesses are spending less on unsolicited and aggressive tactics.
Contextually Relevant Display
While the saying goes ‘you can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, the same cannot be said about the more traditional mediums of advertising. AI now has the potential to automate the placement of scalable, measurable, and personalized ads in the background of television shows. Just this month UK broadcaster Channel 4, announced the launch of AI-driven advertising technology that allows brands to place ads that are relevant to scenes in linear TV shows for the very first time. Scanning the channel’s programming for ‘contextual moments’ and pairing it with contextually relevant advertisements during ad breaks. The aggressive targeting tactics of recent have resulted in the rise of ad blocking installations on mobile devices, therefore it is imperative that brands serve consumers the content and marketing messages that are relevant to their interests.
Advancing Outreach with Machine Learning
With and programmatic display making up 80% of all digital display advertising spend, advertising today has become an art supported by intelligence. Leveraging the power of AI, machine learning enables marketing teams to make sense of massive amounts of data, from a multitude of sources. It can then filter data in real time with an algorithm and then use those datasets to inform customer engagement tactics. An organization’s digital display outreach can then become stronger than the last as the machine makes smarter and smarter predictions based on feedback it ingests each time customers engage – or don’t – with the digital display tactics delivered to them.
Transforming Advertising Experiences with Predictive Analytics
Predictive analytics extract data from various sources such as ad exchanges, web trackers, and third-party data providers, and use it to predict trends and buying patterns. Providing foresight of what prospects are interested in and where they are in the buyer journey, predictive analytics can inform an organization how they should craft their advertising message accordingly. Today’s market requires us to be more deliberate about how we drive customer acquisition. With predictive analytics, the data tells the tale, allowing businesses to respond to an account’s buying intent with the right level of engagement, the right message, and the right allocation of funds and resources to convert them to pipeline. This invaluable insight informs and transforms the customer’s experience from the very earliest stages of the buying cycle.
There is no doubt AI-assisted content is critical to advertising effectiveness however only when it is combined with a strategy that truly understands intent signals and environment, that programmatic display advertising allows brands to focus on consumer engagement. MRP’s digital display offering provides clients with the visibility to track which accounts are viewing, clicking on, and converting from their advertisements and incorporate that data back into the MRP Prelytix platform. This information can then be reported on alongside other tactics at the account level. Unlike most B2B display advertising offerings, MRP’s programmatic digital display does not rely on cookies, but rather, uses more objective and up-to-date IP targeting for the most precise, up-to-date data that accurately pinpoints the right contacts and serves them the most relevant ads.


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CANTON, Ohio — Wine country in Ohio was ranked number seven in the country for economic output, bringing in billions of dollars each year and forcing some wineries to expand.
At Gervasi Vineyard Resort and Spa in Canton, the increased love for the grape adult beverage has left them no choice but to grow their 55-acre property.
“We go through hundreds of barrels and not only are we shipping our wine in 10 states, but we serve it here on property,” said Andrea Hartman, the Marketing Director for Gervasi Vineyard resort and spa.
With that, they had to create more storage.
“We have outgrown our winery, especially for barrel storage. So right now we are in the barrel cave, so this is where the mills will be stored for aging,” said Hartman from a tour of the winery's literally cavernous underground storage area.
According to the Ohio Wine Producers Association, the increased demand for wine is something 323 wineries across the state are seeing.
“The states around us were closed — Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Michigan — and so lots of people discovered our wines by enjoying them on 30 acres of social distancing,” said Donniella Winshell, Executive Director of the Ohio Wine Producers Association.
Those people just kept coming back, bringing in $6.6 billion in economic activity. To keep up in a year’s span, 1.2 million gallons of wine were produced, which also provided more than 40,000 jobs.
“We’ve had really record sales. We're delighted with the fact that people are looking toward us and discovering what we're doing — really, really, exceptional wines,” Winshell said.
In Gervasi, they are racking up the barrels to meet that demand and also providing extra services in their brand-new spa that includes facials, massages, manicures, pedicures and more.
“We have 48 luxury accommodations here on property so we constantly have overnight guests and what we kept hearing was, they were looking for spa services,” Hartman said.
As they expand and revamp, they just want to see customers keep coming back for a full glass of wine.
“We will teach you firsthand how we make our wine from grape to glass. We have a great model. It's winemaking by design,” Hartman said.
For more information about Gervasi click here and the Ohio Wine Producers Association click here.
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Caterer, husband take over Radford's meat market
For more than 22 years, area residents have been taking home prime cuts of meat and deli items from Radford's Meat Market and Deli on Richmond's west side.
Customers still should be able to find all of their favorite items as well as some additional choices as Jen and Tom Ferrell take over ownership from founders Jack and Brenda Radford.
The new choices on the shelf at Radford's will include ready-to-prepare meals created by Jen Ferrell, who owns and will continue to operate the catering company, TASTE. She previously operated a personal chef business, Who Cooks for You?, and provided Farm-to-Table meals at the Gennett Mansion when it was operating.
Her husband, Tom, has been a behind-the-scenes helper with the catering business. The couple also have their own farm where they raise the hogs, chickens and vegetables that are used as part of the catering business' natural and holistic approach to food preparation.
The sale of the meat market and deli became official Dec. 29. The retiring Radfords are working alongside the Ferrells throughout January to smooth the transition.
"It's been a whirlwind," said Tom, who has been honing his managerial and butchering skills at Jack Radford's side.
"We had looked at another commercial site and by chance, our Realtor showed us Radford's," Jen said.
The passing of the cleaver from one husband-and-wife team to another is going well.
"We couldn't have asked for anything better," Brenda Radford said. "I think with her experience, it will work out great.
"We just wanted to do some things for ourselves, travel. We've booked a cruise for Alaska."
The Radfords, who worked together for most of their 43 years of marriage, operated a slaughterhouse south of Centerville for 15 years before it was destroyed by fire in 1990. In 1992, they opened the meat market and deli at 16 S.W. 18th St.
"We've been doing it for a long time," Brenda Radford said. "We have had some great customers, and we will miss them."
The Ferrells will continue to employ Radford's two full-time butchers and eight staff members.
"We'd like to continue what they've done for the most part," Tom said. "The foundation of it is our meat. This is a full-service meat market with the highest quality. There are no additives."
The Ferrells' first contact with the business came when their children's preschool snack list included beef jerky made without MSG, with the notation "Available at Radford's," Jen said.
As Jen's catering career developed, she often came to Radford's for custom cuts of meat or hard-to-find all-natural items. One of her menu favorites is large stuffed pork chops.
Lynnette Brown of Richmond has shopped at Radford's once or twice a week for seven years and is happy to see the business continue with new owners.
Brown said when she lived in Bloomington, she shopped for many years at a similar meat market, but when the owner retired, the business closed.
"Everything here is good," Brown said. "It's the only place I have found beef ribs. If I want to know how to cook something, they tell me."
Jen and Tom Ferrell want to continue working with customers such as Brown while developing a more local-sourced business.
Jen wants to expand the offerings for carryout, lunch, box lunches and ready-made meals.
"You can have a catered meal by Jen every night of the week," Tom said.
She is working to perfect the packaging, but a recent inventory of Jen's ready-made meals included pot roast and vegetables in a cooking bag, quiche, burgundy beef short ribs and paleo power bars.
Brenda Radford said she's already tried Jen's ready-made meals and will come back for more.
Radford's deli salads and savory favorites will continue to be available. And staff members still will know what long-time customers want before they order.
"I didn't realize they made all their salads in-house for the deli," Jen said.
Tom's plans include bringing more meats raised in Wayne County to the shelves. Right now, the offerings are regionally local, coming from within 400 miles of Richmond.
The Ferrells butchered some of their own animals in the past, but they didn't quite have the expertise of Jack Radford and his staff. In preparation for taking over the deli and market, Tom and Jen recently took a master butcher course in Savannah, Ga.
Radford's has its own smokehouse used in making its many flavors of jerky, bratwurst, sausage and other smoked meats such as roast beef and pork chops.
Other customer favorites among Radford's offerings include bacon, breaded pork tenderloin, freshly ground hamburger, scrapple, frog and crab legs delivered freshly frozen, frozen fruit from Michigan, Wick's Pies and Tony's school pizzas (remember the rectangles?).
Although they've mostly worked separately for the past few years, the Ferrells have no worries about working side-by-side each day in the future.
They met at work at age 19 and worked together in several endeavors before moving to Centerville.
"I don't have any doubts that we can work together well," Jen said.
Their children, ages 6 and 8, are intrigued by the new family business. Jen said they were thrilled to discover the candy bar selection by the checkout and the pair look forward to the day when they can operate the cash register.
"It will be fun for them to grow up here," Jen said.
Radford's Meat Market and Deli
• Where: 16 S.W. 18th St., Richmond
• Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Tuesday, Thursday-Friday; 10-5 p.m. Saturday. Closed Wednesday and Sunday.
• Email: firstname.lastname@example.org
• Online: Find Radford's Meat Market and Deli on Facebook or at www.radfordsmeat.com. Also find TASTE by Jen Ferrell on Facebook.


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That's my scent
People searching for a truly individual perfume can not only find, but create it themselves on www.myparfuem.com. Personal fragrance can be designed from eight different scent-bases and 30 ingredients. Customers get the chance to choose and personalise the bottle too – and they can even vote for the next ingredient in the range. Too bad that the designing experience is a digital and not an olfactory one.
Why it matters
Luxury perfume brands no longer stand for real individuality, because they are still mass products. Can small boutiques create an advantage over these online personalised offerings because of the sensory involvement they offer?
Supermarket chain Carrefour launched a new beauty product line called “Les Cosmétiques Design Paris”.
Following L’Oreal’s acquisition of PureOlogy, a luxury, 100% vegan American brand sold through hairdressers, the brand is being relaunched with distribution expanded to European markets alongside a new consumer-focused website, Pureology.com.


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COVID-19 has caused radical shifts in the way consumers engage with financial services providers. To thrive in 2022, financial services marketers need to anticipate future trends and adapt their strategies accordingly.
Below, I list some of the most important trends financial services and insurance marketers will see in 2022, as well as how a call tracking solution can help you capitalize on them.
The financial services industry makes up a significant portion of total US digital ad spend, and it has been steadily climbing over the past four years. From 2017 to 2021, financial services and insurance providers are projected to increase ad spend by 117%.
To reach mobile users, financial services and insurance providers increased their mobile spending by 13.0% to $13.91 billion in 2020. This accounted for 70.9% of all digital ad spending in financial services. This move comes in response to more consumers engaging with financial services providers on mobile devices (more on this later).
As the digital advertising landscape continues to become more competitive — and costs per lead continue to rise — financial services marketers will face increasing pressure to prove their digital marketing ROI and optimize their spend to acquire more customers at a lower cost.
Monthly calls to financial services providers increased by 11% from May 2020 to August 2020. With in-person interactions limited by shelter-in-place orders, consumers relied on the call channel to speak with agents, make inquiries about their plans and accounts, and make purchases.
Though lockdown restrictions have since been eased, many consumers still restrict their in-person interactions due to safety concerns. Therefore, call volume is likely to be higher than it was during previous years, as consumers will use this channel to get information and make purchases.
In the summer of 2020, the US Federal Reserve decreased interest rates to a record low of 0-0.25%. This move was designed to buoy the economy and help repair the financial markets affected by COVID-19. As a result of this policy, financial service providers received a spike in the number of consumers taking out mortgages, car loans, and other loans.
In recent projections, all 17 Fed officials said they expected to hold the same near-zero interest rates through the rest of the year. 13 of them projected they would hold these interest rates through 2023. Therefore, financial services marketers should expect this increased demand for loans and borrowing to last through 2022.
COVID-19 has caused many insurance buyers — especially those in high-risk groups — to reevaluate their life insurance plans. Policygenius CEO Jennifer Fitzgerald says their company has seen the highest levels of consumer search traffic ever for life insurance. Search volume for life insurance in 2020 was 25 to 50% higher than in previous years.
In 2022, experts expect this trend to continue. In response, many insurance providers are looking at new bundling packages and promotions for their life insurance offerings.
For many years, financial services consumers have increased their use of mobile banking and other virtual services. There has been an even more dramatic increase of mobile usage in 2020, as consumers limit their in-person interactions with financial services providers.
Experts estimate that by 2021, there will be roughly 7 billion mobile banking users worldwide. This projection has been sped up by the new realities of COVID-19. But the online experience often isn’t enough — 37% of customers also want instant access to a live agent via a phone call or video chat. These interactions are often a critical phase of the purchase cycle, helping to clear up their hesitations and answer their lingering pre-purchase questions.
In addition, many insurance customers are now starting their journey on mobile. Over 50% of insurance searches are performed on mobile devices.
Providing a seamless mobile experience — online and over the phone — will be critical for 2022.
Going hand-in-hand with the last trend, financial services consumers will demand seamless omnichannel experiences across their entire journey. To earn their business, you’ll need to ensure they feel valued and known every step of the way.
According to a recent survey, 50% of banking consumers want a seamless mix of physical and digital services during their buying journey. However, despite the importance of omnichannel marketing, 94% of banking firms aren’t delivering personalized experiences.
This trend is also critical in the insurance space, where 88% of insurance customers say they want more personalization from providers.
To get an edge over the competition in 2022, financial services and insurance companies need to embrace personalization across channels. This means providing a seamless experience as they transition from online research to phone calls to brick-and-mortar interactions.
The trends above paint a bigger picture of how financial services consumer behavior is changing. In 2022, in-person interactions with banks, insurance agents, and financial advisors will be limited due to COVID-19, placing increased importance on the call channel.
With more consumers researching online first and calling agents and locations for information or to make purchases, financial services marketers need to have a strategy in place to ensure that they’re providing a seamless experience over the phone. As I mentioned above, expectations for the consumer journey are at an all-time high — and this includes the call channel. Failing to deliver frictionless call experiences will cost you revenue.
PCI-compliant call tracking and analytics solutions like Invoca allow you to understand the webpages, marketing campaigns, and keywords driving not only the most calls — but the highest quality calls to your agents and locations. This allows you to optimize your marketing spend for the programs that are truly driving the most revenue.
For instance, a certain wealth management search campaign may be driving a high volume of calls to your locations. However, once you use a call tracking solution, you may discover many of these calls are not sales-related — they’re customer experience issues. You could then decrease spend on this campaign, and instead allocate it to one that’s driving more sales-related calls. This increases the overall revenue potential and quality of the calls coming into your phone lines.
Call tracking and analytics solutions like Invoca help you create seamless call experiences that increase customer acquisition. They provide detailed reports on answer inbound call rates and call handling performance at each location or call center that you can use to detect customer experience issues.
For example, you can see if your calls are going unanswered at specific locations and what days and times those unanswered calls occur. You can then diagnose if your marketing is sending calls to locations when they are closed or understaffed, and make adjustments.
Call tracking and analytics platforms like Invoca give you a searchable database of call recordings and transcriptions that you can tap into. This allows you to see what’s occurring on the inbound calls your marketing is driving to call centers and locations and use these insights to make optimizations that drive more conversions.
If unconverted calls are an issue, you can analyze your recordings and transcriptions to see if your locations, call centers, and remote agents are saying the right things when consumers call. You can then pinpoint any issues. For instance, are they failing to mention relevant insurance bundling promotions? Are they accurately describing the safety precautions you’re enacting for any in-person interactions? You can then take steps to remedy them. In addition, you can share these recordings and transcriptions with your locations and/or call centers to use as coaching tools to improve performance.
You can also use transcriptions to discover common caller questions and concerns — such as FAQs on interest rates — and add them to your website and product pages to get more SEO visits and improve conversion rates.
If you’re experiencing unmanageably high call volumes, you can also consider using your call tracking solution to set up an IVR (interactive voice response). You can configure an IVR to ask callers why they’re calling, route them to the best destination based on their responses, provide answers to common questions (such as FAQs about your COVID-19 precautions and low interest rates), and more.
You can also set up dynamic routing rules, in tandem with or independent of your IVRs. Below are several call routing configurations that can improve conversion rates for financial services providers:
To learn more about how call tracking data can enhance your financial services marketing strategy, download our Call Tracking Study Guide for Marketers.