Filed under: Marketing and advertising, Small business

The general sentiment is that online advertising is immune from the travails of the economy (obviously, this ignores the depression for the category in the wake of the dot-com bust). The argument is that the consumers’ “eyeballs” are moving more to Web-based media.

No doubt, this is true. But, this doesn’t mean advertisers won’t still get skittish.

As a result, eMarketer is toning down its forecast for on the internet ad spending in 2008. Instead of coming to $27.5 billion, the revised figure is now $25.8 billion.

OK, that doesn’t sound like much. However, it could be brutal for many companies (especially small ones that rely heavily on ad spending).

Oh, and social networking sites might come under pressure too. Simply put, these sites are having a tough time getting people to click on ads (even though there are lots of “eyeballs”).

Something else: eMarketer’s revision shows how fragile the economy has become. In other words, things can certainly get worse — and swiftly.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

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Filed under: Management, Marketing and advertising, Entrepreneurs

This post is one of several on business heirs apparent. Let us know in the comments whether you think John Elkann should take up the reigns of Fiat, and be sure to check out the other heir apparent posts.

Gianni Agnelli, principal shareholder of Fiat and grandson of the company’s founder had been grooming his nephew to take up the reins of the family business when that nephew died of a rare form of cancer in 1997. Gianni’s grandson John Elkann became the next heir apparent at the age of 22, when he was appointed to Fiat’s board. After Gianni passed away in 2004, Elkann assumed the vice chair of not only the Fiat board, but the board of holding company that controls the Agnelli family stake in Fiat.

Elkann stepped into his new role at a time of crisis for Fiat. Mismanagement and a damaged brand image required a bank bailout to avoid bankruptcy. Recovery meant selling assets, management changes, and reinvesting in the core company. Renewed strength in the struggling automotive division (which includes the Fiat, Lancia, and Alfa Romeo brands) helped lift the company. Now, among other things, Elkann spearheads the company’s efforts at global expansion.

“Elkann is still rather young, and there are some conflicting ideas within the family about their holdings,” states Giuseppe Berta, author of The Fiat After Fiat. “But he is the only one who can lead them into the future.” While making his own mark in the Fiat empire, Elkann still looks to his late grandfather for inspiration: “He believed that leadership is consensus,” Elkann states. “He won the support of the family and business partners and the community. He believed you lead by getting the ideal from the people around you.”

For the time being, Fiat chairman Luca di Montezemolo and CEO Sergio Marchionne remain in charge. In the coming years, however, Elkann is expected to become the singular face of Fiat.

Here’s a look at another new face for Fiat, the updated Fiat 500:

Be sure to check out the other heir apparent posts.

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Filed under: Products and services, Consumer experience, Marketing and advertising

A month from now, on April 19, “hundreds of independent record stores across the country will celebrate Record Store Day.” In addition to the stores, numerous artists will lend their support to the day and some will appear or offer special gifts to lucky fans and attendees. This support indicates what place the CD has even in a shrinking market and where the record industry fits into that market. If artists can still support a dying format and the stores that rely on that product, hopefully fans, listeners, and consumers can find something in it, too.

A kink in the plans of artists like Paul McCartney and Stephen Malkmus to support the day is that while they can appreciate record stores based on experiences in their youths or support the stores by buying hundreds of dollars worth of CDs, young people today might not be as familiar with the entity or have the money to buy that many CDs. This is especially true in the economy right now, but even more pronounced when one thinks about the ease and availability that digital stores have introduced to accessing and enjoying music and other media from the comfort of one’s own home.

The record industry is certainly invested in the day as well, since it is the CDs they produce that facilitate record stores. But the simple fact that they’ve sat on their hands for so long means that the day comes at a time with the CD is no longer a truly viable format for selling music. Again, look at the digital stores that are finally offering the same quality files that are on CDs. I’m not knowledgeable in bit rates, but I do know that 256 kbps is on the same par with the quality of a CD. To support “Record Store Day”, all the industry has to do is market the CD in new and inventive ways, but I couldn’t speculate how that can possibly be reached.

Designating a day and inaugurating an annual “Record Store” event is a nice idea, but if it is to be truly successful, consumers are going to need to be more invested in record stores beyond one day where “goodies” are given away and artists make appearances. Each day consumers need to consider going to a record store to get music as a viable substitute to downloading music directly into their hands.

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Filed under: Products and services, Wal-Mart (WMT), Marketing and advertising

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) made global headlines over a year ago when the world’s largest retailer announced plans to have a whole slew of $4 generic drug prescriptions available at its U.S. locations. Other retailers followed (not all), and Wal-Mart’s hope was probably that $4 generic prescriptions would lead more customers into stores.

The retailer reported that it has “saved” customers nationwide more than $1 billion, with the top “savings” states being Texas at $132.6 million; Florida at $72.4 million; North Carolina at $48.2 million; and Georgia at $42.3 million. Wal-Mart also reported that almost 30% of those prescriptions are filled by customers without insurance.

But my question is this: how is Wal-Mart measuring this amount? Sure, one can say that the difference between an average generic prescription drug price and the newer $4 rate equals this amount — and call it a “savings.” That’s probably the way this is being measured, and I don’t see a problem with that. In addition to that, Wal-Mart forced the hand of competitors to lower these generic prescription prices as well. Will Wal-Mart use more than a press release to let customers know about this? Let’s hope so — because it lets too many good PR opportunities slip by without due promotion. This one is a biggie.

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Filed under: Industry, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Ford Motor (F), Marketing and advertising, Toyota Motor Corp. (TM)

Ford (NYSE:F) is starting a new marketing campaign that will allow it to work more directly with its dealers to get back customers it has lost to the Japanese and European vehicle companies. But, the horse has already left the barn.

The automobile company is launching a new advertising message called “Ford. Drive One”. According to The Wall Street Journal ,”While the slogan will appear in television commercials, Ford is counting on aligning dealers nationwide to echo the same message in their advertising efforts aimed at local audiences.”

Ford is gambling that by getting dealers excited about new cars from the company it will be able to rally its outlets to push harder in their local markets to take share from companies like Toyota (NYSE:TM).

The new push to some extent ignores that fact that Americans want cars from Japan and Europe because they work better and have superior resale value.

Ford cannot get people to come to dealers if consumers don’t like its cars. If it had a hot model like the Prius or the Accord, the traffic would come based on the demand for a better-built, more fuel-efficient vehicle. That lesson seems to have been lost on the US company.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Yahoo! (YHOO), Marketing and advertising

While Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) is cozying up to Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) in preparation for the software company acquiring the web visionary, Yahoo! still wants to be somewhat innovative. In that vein, Yahoo! has said that it wants to incorporate pieces of the “semantic web” into its search index. You know, the one that comes a long second place to Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOG)search engine — but one that is still used heavily all over the world.

The semantic web is like a second version of the “world wide web” that looks for the actual meaning of data on a given website instead of just topic relevance to a search enjoy it stands today. The semantic web draws many more variables between web content to really produce valuable feedback to web searchers. Web indexers would need to determine “meaning” of website content instead of just “relevance.”

Would this make any difference to Yahoo!?Even if the company’s search engine were to give back more meaningful search results (instead of the most topical), trying to get this concept across to the average web surfer would be extremely difficult. This would not be a competitive advantage against Google (that battle has already been fought), but would give Yahoo! a different search product in a manner of talking. That’s, unless Google begins offering “semantic web” search results as well.

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Filed under: Utilities, Macintosh, Productivity, Freeware

RapidoWrite is a free Mac application that lets you quickly enter passages of text by typing a shortcut. Similar to TextExpander (but without the $30 price tag), RapidoWrite lets you enter a list of shortcut texts and corresponding replacement text.

When you type shortcut text in a Mac program, a small popup will display the replacement text for that shortcut. Pressing “Enter” will replace the shortcut with the longer text. Formatting is supported, so if you bold text in the RapidoWrite replacement text, it will be bolded when you use it in another program.

You can import replacements from a text file (or RapidoWrite 2 or 3), and you can export to a text file or RapidoWrite 3 file. The program installs as a service, so you don’t have to manually open a program for the functionality to be available.

[Via i use this]

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Filed under: Utilities, Linux, Productivity, Open Source, Canonical

For many, desktop Linux has been like a magic elixir that brings old hardware to life. Indeed, this very article is being written on a Dell Latitude c640, a computer that’s generally considered outdated an obsolete, and yet it runs Ubuntu 7.10 like a dream.

However, there are many people who aim to run Ubuntu on even older hardware, or specialized little hardware such as the Asus Eee Computer. With cramped ram requirements and less robust processors to run on, Ubuntu starts to lag just like anything else. Thankfully, there are ways to minimize this. Linux.com has published a great feature on lightweight web browsers, file manages, music players, and more, all that can be installed with a single click in the Synaptic Package Manager.

The author of the article embarked on a hours-long journey across the World wide web in search of low-fat software when his girlfriend brought over her Mini-PC running Ubuntu. While there are plenty of Distributions targeted to this kind of hardware, he wanted to stick with Ubuntu. We think that there are plenty of people who like the author, would prefer stick with the distro they already have. Plus, it’s just plain fun to try new software, and that’s what Linux is all about.

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