... strong demand in China to offset weak sales in Europe.

According to Trolin, teledining has become popular with people who don't want to lose time traveling between megacities to eat with friends or business colleagues.

Teledining enables one group eating at a restaurant in one city to connect with friends in a different city via teleconferencing.

Another trend, currently peculiat to China, is young people's preference for voice messages rather than texting or e-mailing.

Says Trolin: "A voice message is more lively than a text and can be listened to at the recipient's convenience, while a call could come at an inappropriate moment. He himself has become accustomed to using his phone primarily to send and receive voice messages.

He declined to say what BMW will do to tap into these trends, but history shows that the automaker is willing to cater to Chinese tastes. 

An example of which is the preference of Chinese customers for long-wheelbase versions of mid-sized and compact sedans.

"Not because they are chauffeur driven but to offer more legroom to their friends and family members as a sign of high respect," explains Gerhard Steinie, director of the Shanghai studio of BMW Group's DesignWorks subsidiary.

Read the original unabridged AdAge.com article. 

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... convenient, efficacious or suifficiently high-quality to command a premium price.  

Opines Maureen Morrison, writing in today's Advertising Age: "Brands can no longer bide their time, fending off store's own-brand options while waiting and hoping for consumers' wallets to fatten.

"About 40% of the US population is still downtrodden, concerned or otherwise worried about their financial futures, according to IRI [Information Resources Inc] research.

"In addition to convincing consumers, brands may need to perform an even tougher trick: redefining their own definition of value to one that's additive.

"When not reduced to the question of price, value speaks directly to what benefits a product or service adds to a customer's life. Some smart brands get this and are using packaging, design, sourcing strategies and technologies to entice consumers to get them to open their wallet a bit more, even in these tough times."

Conversely, however, the classic example of a recessionary innovation that gets consumers to pay more, not less, is P&G's Tide Pods.

The repackaging of its detergent into one-pack-per-load pellets is a clear boon to the consumer because it eliminates messy measuring.

Research consducted by IRI concluded that P&G's Tide Pods been a breakout hit that rocketed to $500m in stateside sales in about one year.

Better yet, from P&G's viewpoint, the bundle of individual laundry detergent packages comes at a significant premium to liquid Tide - $18.99 for a 66-load container of Pods on Walgreens.com.

Read the original unabridged AdAge article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... although the report relates solely to the USA, the halcyon days of near-exponential growth for social media elsewhere in the western world are trending sharply downward.

The Experian data indicates that, proportionate to other online activities, the time US consumers spend on social media sites is actually in decline.

However the report qualifies that apparent decline: "Blindly chasing fans or followers has rightly lost credence as brands realise that social sharing and referring has the biggest impact. As a result, simpler and more effective tools to measure social sharing will allow brands to refocus on creating meaningful social media campaigns."

By contrast, time spent shopping online grew year-on-year. In fact, US consumers spent 9% of their web time shopping in 2012. After analyzing US browsing data for mobile devices, email accounted for the largest time spent on average.

Overall, email made up 23% of time spent on mobile devices during the first quarter of the year, while social networking accounted for 15% of consumers’ mobile time.

Consumption of news content also increased among US consumers who devoted 4% of their online time to news.

Although the data refers solely to the US market - the western world's largest - the report's implications are equally valid within the UK and European Union.

All pales into relative insignificance, however, alongside the Chinese  social media market vis a recent report from Forbes.com.

Read the original unabridged MediaPost article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... viewed in context with people's economic status. 

The Great British Class Survey posits that defining (and understanding) classes as "amounts of different types of 'capitals'" help us to view class across a number of dimensions.

The French sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu first developed this approach in 1984, suggesting there are different types of capitals which give people an advantage in life.

Economic, cultural and social capitals may overlap but they are different. Using this approach, the survey distinguishes between people with different amounts of each of the foregoing three capitals.

It's been difficult to test this approach in Britain because comprehensive questions on cultural and social capital are rarely asked in national surveys. Sociologists need large amounts of data to unravel the complicated way the different capitals interact with each other, in many different people.

Mike Savage from the London School of Economics and Fiona Devine from the University of Manchester say they were "excited to test this approach for the first time" by designing a survey with BBC Lab UK.

The survey's results identify a new model of class with seven classes ranging from the 'Elite' at the top to a 'Precariat' at the bottom.

Read the original unabridged BBC article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... stand the test of time.

In his Huffington Post blog Mr Yuill writes: "My prediction is firmly guided by data. ComScore recently reported that Americans watched 11.3 billion video ads in December, setting a new peak, and a sharp 10% rise from November's 10.3 billion."

December 2012 ad views were twice as many as in January 2012, representing 59% year-on-year growth. Video ads accounted for 22.6% of all videos viewed in December, and 1.9% of time spent viewing video online. 

Now three months into 2013, I feel ever more confident [about my prediction] given the astronomical speed at which video advertising has grown in popularity. All signs point to the death of banner and static ads. Here's why:

1. Consumers love video; not just cat memes, but original content. And they watch a lot of video online. Nielsen says Americans spent more than 360 billion minutes online in December 2012 and streamed 24.6 billion videos.
    
2. Consumers watch video ads. After 60 years of television we have learned to watch the ads to get to the content. Yes, we know you want to get to your show, but often the ads are entertaining, visual and mercifully brief - and getting more interactive by the day.
    
3. Advertisers like video ads because consumers watch them. From August this year, market research company Nielsen will validate the astronomical shift to online video by including videos viewed on tablet and mobile devices in their ratings measures. This will provide advertisers with the data they need to shift their spend to online video in even greater numbers.
    
4. Consumers are buying (lots of) tablets. The global market for tablet computers surged 78.4% last year, according to research firm IDC, and sales are on schedule to pass PCs by 2017.
    
5. Tablets and smart phones make watching video easy in the bedroom, train, couch, park bench, and, ahem, bathroom.
    
6. Tablets make shopping easy and you can bet your last dollar that online retailers took notice last Thanksgiving and Christmas, so expect a monumental change in online sales strategies this year and increased consumer purchases via mobile and tablet.
    
7. If consumers are buying on their tablets, guess where advertisers will want to run their ads?
    
8. 4G will make watching video anywhere seamless. Did someone say "conversation killer?"
    
9. Banner ads do not work, but you already knew that.
    
10. Advertisers Can't Ignore The Numbers. As advertisers are beginning to embrace tablet advertising in virtually every case they want video in their ad units. Consumers are watching those video ads hundreds of times more than they are clicking on banner ads.

Read the original unabridged HuffingtonPost article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... “how brands traditionally influence shoppers at the shelf.” 

Instead of clipping printed coupons or downloading a mobile app, Visible Brands displays discounts on a touch-screen device right in the store's aisles.

To activate a coupon, the shopper simply touches the screen, and the digital coupon is wirelessly connected to a cart or basket. The discount is then applied at checkout, showing up on the receipt.

According to the company, 70% of purchasing decisions are made in the grocery aisle, not whilst watching TV or reading a magazine.

Few marketers would disagree with Morton's contention that "connecting with shoppers at the time of purchase is critical".

The technology also enables retailers to send customised offers to high-value shoppers, using predictive analytics to determine discounts that might be worth displaying. This can result in more frequent shopping trips and increased profits for stores.

Visible Brands has also been working closely on the offering with technology partners Microsoft and HP. In a recent interview with the Windows Azure team, Morton offered a more detailed explanation of how the technology works.

Read the original unabridged GeekWire.com article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... sell it to marketers, agencies and other intermediaries.

Enliken, founded in 2011 by ex-Carnegie Mellon University friends, allows consumers to decide how their personal data is used, then use the accumulated points to pay for digital content without cash.

In other words, the service allows consumers to exchange data about their activities and interests in return for premium content from websites.

According to the GeekWire article: "It’s an interesting concept, but The New York Times points out that “people remain wary of anything related to online surveillance” and the ultimate value might not be that great to end users.

Nonetheless, there’s a movement afoot whereby consumers are attempting to gain more control of their personal data, as evidenced by Microsoft’s decision to make the Internet Explorer 10 'Do Not Track' option the default setting.

There's also a revealing GeekWire interview with Enliken co-founder Avniel Dravid, who is based in Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood. The interview can be accessed from the link below.

Read the original unabridged GeekWire article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... cars, bikes and other appliances which can be hired online on an hourly basis. 

According to Frank Pörschmann, the head of CeBIT: "Knowledge is the only resource that multiplies when it is shared. That's the core of what we are seeing today on social networks - in the age of Twitter and Facebook people are sharing knowledge, contacts and experiences.

"And that - what I call 'facebookisation' - is also a growing trend in the economy. Through it, the availability of knowledge as a scarce resource is widened - that can help the economy develop faster and bring about innovation."

Mr Porschmann is not alone in his enthusiasm for the concept. Mobile operators also want to be the drivers and beneficiaries of the shareconomy.

Because of the steadily falling prices of internet flat rates, mobile networks are forced to investigate other areas able to generate revenues in the future. Vodafone Germany, for instance, feattured at its CeBIT stand a new idea for a carsharing model.

Explains Vodafone spokesperson Kuzey Esener: "Using your smartphone, you find a car, book it, and open it."

Vodafone is also trying to offer integrated solutions to the working world because jobs are becoming more mobile, Esener says: "The trend spans many sectors. We are also linking the health sector and many other industries, which we're thereby making more efficient."

[Editor's Note: CeBIT is a German language acronym for Centrum für Büroautomation, Informationstechnologie und Telekommunikation. Literally translated: 'Center for Office Automation, Information Technology and Telecommunication'.]

Read the original unabridged Deutsche Welle article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

 ... the nation's performance was nevertheless among the strongest in the world. This year, GDP is forecast to grow between 8%-8.25%. 

China's population, unlike the Western and Asia-Pacific economies, is currently fixated on saving as opposed to spending.

Mr Zhu believes there are several things the central government could do to boost domestic consumption.

"Number one, you should give people more opportunities to work and then to earn more money, so they will be able to consume more," he said. "I think this is the most important thing and will be the driving force for China's growth strategy in the next few years."

He also suggested that China further open its service sector to allow more competition while crafting supportive tax and fiscal policies, particularly for small and medium-size enterprises. These measures, he said, would go a long way toward raising individual incomes.

The IMF official urged Beijing to increase spending on health, education, pensions and other social programs, which would help allay public concerns about the economy and encourage people to spend more.

The government, he said, should have a policy to discourage investment.

Interest rates on loans are too low, while necessities such as energy, transportation, water and electricity are extremely cheap, fueling excessive expansion of certain parts of the economy.

However, Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University in New York and a former China division chief at the IMF, suggested last month that it's wrong to think of Chinese GDP growth as continuing to be driven by exports and investment.

According to Mr Prasad: "China has made substantial progress on reducing its external imbalance, with the surpluses on both the current account and the trade balance falling sharply from their peaks in 2007," Prasad said at a hearing of Congress' US-China Economic and Security Review Commission."

He also listed the three major challenges for China:

• Implementing reforms to improve the quality and efficiency of growth
   
• Continuing to shift from capital-intensive production
   
• Creating jobs and helping more of the benefits of growth to reach Chinese households.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.

... speed of ordering and delivery. 

But, according to TechCrunch, Amazon will not have things all its own way and faces an equally muscular competitor in the delivery speed stakes - the mighty Google's new Shopping Express. Between them the twin titans are likely to hoover-up most of the nascent same-day delivery market.

Google's offering will serve as a semi-universal cart that offers same-day delivery from stores in a consumer's area, including Walmart and Target.

Notes AdAge: "While many of the 'big boxes' are sure to love this development - after all, Google is where most consumers look at products first, without even thinking about it - the real threat is to the corner store."

In addition to ther same-day delivery carrot, other key drivers of e-commerce growth include consumers' greater comfort level with purchasing various categories online, broader web shopping capabilities with mobile and tablet devices, innovative new shopping models that divert spend away from physical stores (eg flash sales, subscription models), online loyalty programs, and aggressive promotional offers from web retailers.

[Editor's note: Although this article's fiscal forecasts are based on US sales, the trend to same-day e-commerce deliveries is expected to eventually extend across Europe and the rest of the developned world.]

Read the original unabridged AdAge article.

Factual data only is sourced from the original attributed article. The data is then enhanced by additional research and comment.