Emotional Economy is an economic concept which says that the world's greatest organisations don't build sustainable growth through finance, but by harnessing the power of human emotions. Successful companies are therefore the ones that have employees who actually love their jobs and customers who love doing business with them. Emotional stuff!

Source: Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)'s Cutting Edge / Buzzwhack.com

King of Shaves aims to raise £5m for it's marketing campaign by selling 5,000 ‘shaving bonds’ @ £1,000 each

King of Shaves aims to raise £5m for its marketing campaign to help it compete against Gillette and Wilkinson Sword. The company has issued 5,000 ‘Shaving Bonds’ priced £1,000 each. Company founder Will King says the aim is to recruit up to 5,000 brand ambassadors and claims that “it is about building a brand and marketing community as much as raising money”. The brand’s biggest problem is lack of awareness. See www.shave.com for further details on how to apply
Source: CIM Cutting Edge / Marketing Week, 25 June 2009, p9

Is there a way you could implement something similar in your own business if you don't have a great deal of capital to start off with...?

I've just watched Sunday night's televised episode of the BBC Radio 4 show The Bottom Line' with Evan Davis on iPlayer in which James Dyson, Martha Lane Fox and Adrian Ringrose discuss what being creative means in business, and offer some fantastic advice for school, college or uni leavers and young entrepreneurs.

Great show and well worth watching!



The Bottom Line - Series 2 - Episode 7
http://bbc.co.uk/i/lvsqb/

The view from the top of business. Presented by Evan Davis, the Bottom Line cuts through confusion, statistics and spin to present a clearer view of the business world, through discussion with people running leading and emerging companies.

It's the end of term and summer is officially here. So what advice would Evan Davis's hugely successful business guests give to youngsters just leaving school now? Entrepreneur James Dyson took five years to develop the bagless vacuum cleaner, Martha Lane Fox went on a 'crazy journey' to set up Lastminute.com and Adrian Ringrose still isn't sure he has grown up, even though he is chief executive of a company with 50,000 employees. And Evan will ask them about the magic of business - creativity. How vital is it?

Broadcast on: BBC News Channel, 9:30pm Sunday 19th July 2009
Duration: 30 minutes
Available until: 9:59pm Monday 19th July 2010

ComputerWeekly.com has produced a short guide for small and medium-sized businesses on choosing an Internet Service Provider (ISP). It covers what a firm should look for in a provider as well as information on charges and bandwidth.

The followng guide can be found at: http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2009/07/14/236885/business-internet-providers-for-smes-essential-guide.htm

There are literally hundreds of UK business internet providers that offer broadband, mobile internet and e-commerce services to SMEs.

How do I find the right business internet provider?

There are many ways to find the right internet service provider (ISP) for you. These include getting word of mouth recommendations from other businesses. Remember to ask them about their broadband or network experience, customer service, and the consistency of the service over time.

There are also a number of comparison sites and review sites on the web, which will give details of the levels of bandwidth and the services that different business ISPs can offer.

Your IT systems provider, or an industry grouping that you are part of, may also have a view of which the good Internet service providers are.

You should look for a supplier that offers the service you want and has a good reputation. You can find discussion forums on the web, where business users share their good experiences as well as their horror stories about business ISPs.

You may want to consider getting your mobile phone, landline and internet services all from a telephony supplier, such as BT or TalkTalk.

How about mobile internet services?

Many telephony service providers now offer mobile phone-based Internet connections for both consumer and business use.

The benefit of mobile internet broadband is that it caters for people who want to access emails and the web whilst on the move, while they are commuting, or out and about between meetings.

There are a number of mobile services that offer fixed charges for different levels of mobile internet usage, including unlimited usage.

Vodafone, T Mobile, Orange, 3, Virgin Mobile and O2 offer smart phone-based mobile internet services, and several service providers will also support the popular BlackBerry range of smart phones.

How do ISPs charge?

Most ISPs will charge an initial setup fee. This varies and may cover any hardware and installation, for things such as ADSL equipment.

But saying this, because there is so much competition in the marketplace, you can generally find a special offer with a particular ISP where the setup cost is free.

Remember to check precisely what is included with the deal. Some ISPs offer unlimited email addresses, web site hosting, spam filtering, and anti-virus scanning.
 
It is often best to select the minimum contract period, typically 12 months, so that you are not tied to an ISP if they fail to satisfy your needs.

Also, check to see what the costs are for using the firm’s technical support. Some ISPs have good web-based help, whilst others offer premium-rate numbers only for accessing their help desks.

Also check the availability for support to see if they provide you with round-the-clock technical support.

Do all ISPs offer the same bandwidth?

No, some will offer you a 512kbit/sec service, which will be relatively slow if you plan to use the web a lot, particularly for online applications. 

The majority of service providers will offer 1, 2 or 8Mbit/sec speeds, with some promising speeds faster than what is on offer.

But remember that not all types of broadband may be available in your area, particularly if you are in a remote location.

This is because the maximum speed on offer may be restricted due to line lengths or the distance of your premises from an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) enabled exchange.

What about fibre cabling?

Over the past few years, BT has been rolling out fibre optic cables across the country, investing billions into what it calls Broadband Britain.

BT is now announcing the locations where its fibre to the cabinet (FTTC) based broadband will be available, which will mean faster connections in more places.

The result will be that more businesses and home users will have access to fast internet services.

What is the plan with Broadband Britain?

By March 2010, a million homes and small businesses will be covered by this fast, big bandwidth technology.

By early summer 2010, BT expects to have a reach of 1.5 million homes, continuing to 40% of the UK (10 million homes) by 2012.
 

MySpace is to cut approximately two thirds of its 450-strong workforce outside of the US.

The News Corporation-owned social networking website, which in June this year cut 30% of US staff has stated that international restructuring plans will cut its staff outside America by 66%, from 450 to 150.

The sharp rise and fall of MySpace delivers a blow to Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation chief, who bought the business for $580m in 2005.

The site is apparently struggling against competitors such as Facebook and Twitter alongside the difficulty of attracting online advertisers during widespread recession. In June 2010, MySpaces advertising deal with Google, which reportedly accounts for nearly half of its current revenue, is due to end.

MySpace has 127 million users around the world and rapidly built a reputation for being a showcase for new music and a springboard for careers. It was closely associated with helping to break huge acts such as Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen in the UK.

However, recent stats reveal that it has undoubtedly gone into decline. The metrics firm comScore shows that Facebook overtook MySpace in Britain by number of users early last year and has continued to move ahead. According to comScore, MySpaces unique users in this country fell by 18%, from 8.5 million in April 2008 to 7 million just a year later. Facebook during the same period has seen growth of 63% and as of April 2009 had 23.5 million unique users in Britain and 200 million worldwide.

Have users of social networking sites migrated to other forms of interaction and left MySpace behind? Is it still an invaluable promotional tool for bands and a great resource for A & R, Managers etc..in hearing new acts? Or was it just a fad? Will Twitter and Bebo inevitably go the same way eventually?