Filed under: Bad news, Competitive strategy, Starbucks (SBUX), Marketing and advertising

Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) was reported last week to be “pulling back” from the company’s one year old record label, Hear Music. The label, which released high profile and chart successes from Paul McCartney and Joni Mitchell, will be turned over to independent label Concord Music Group. Concord will also assume management and promotion for those artists that signed with Hear Music, including McCartney and Mitchell, as well as James Taylor and newcomer Hilary McRae.

In the meantime, Ken Lombard has left the music label and coffee giant “to pursue other business interests” according to MSN. Chris Bruzzo, who had been the chief technology officer, has been promoted to the leadership role in the Entertainment division at Starbucks. According to Billboard, Lombard’s exit and the reorganization of Hear Music “are part of a strategic overhaul to analyze all aspects of its business that are not directly related to its core.”

Over a year ago, when the announcement was first made that Starbucks would be starting a music label and had successfully signed one of The Beatles as its first artist, it made headline news. Given the success that McCartney has seen with his only album for Starbucks and the way the marketing for the album was handled, the news that the label is essentially moving back into the industry is shocking. Although Concord is an independent label, the exciting thing about Starbucks’ music label was that it was so different.

It might not have been any cheaper to purchase the album from a Starbucks store, but it was the method with which it had approached selling music that was special. It was inventive and really showcased the full extent of each product. Fortunately, it is doubtful that Starbucks will stop stocking CDs or even Hear Music albums. Perhaps it was just too late for a physical album label to be set up successfully due to the success and promotion that digital music has started to like within the same time period.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Marketing and advertising

Google, Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) ventured further into mobile advertising this past week with the introduction of display ads geared for mobile phones. From the smallest cellphone screen resolution to the iPhone, Google wants to ensure that it will be able to display ads on all those billions of little screens in the very near future. This should come as no surprise, as CEO Eric Schmidt seems to always promote Google’s mobile efforts each single chance he gets. It’s no surprise — there are way more mobile users in the world than there are Personal computer users.

Can Google become as successful on the mobile screen as it has been on the Computer screen? That’s a tough one to chew on, but the extremely limited real estate of a cellphone screen might make that effort quite difficult. Google just can’t line up paid ads down the side of a cellphone screen like it can on that laptop screen or that 21″ LCD monitor on the desk at home or in the office.

The iPhone changed the game a bit last year, giving customers a very huge screen — both physically and in resolution — to play with. However, the number of iPhones pale in comparison with total cellphones with a smaller color screen. Google’s Android cellphone operating system, which has a huge partnership following, might be able to increase available inventory on the mobile screen for Google’s ads. In fact, that was probably a top priority. However, it will be quite a while before customers have that at their fingertips. Google’s mobile ad efforts, until then, will be highly complementary to its regular advertising business on the PC screen, but nothing more.

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Filed under: Windows, Productivity, Microsoft, How-Tos, Mods

Speed is all about perception, so any tip that makes a computer feel faster is gold as far as we’re concerned. Today’s tip is a doozy from Raymond Chen, the venerable Microsoft developer and blogger.

According to Chen, a number of user interface timers in Windows key off of the double-click speed registry setting.

The default double-click speed in Windows is 500ms , or exactly 1/2 of a second. Try dropping that down to 250ms — about three-quarters of the way towards Fast — and watch the rest of Windows feel just a bit snappier, since a number of other Windows user interface timings use that setting as a reference. Cool!

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Filed under: World wide web, Productivity, Web services, web 2.0

Is it just us, or has there been an explosion of on the web scheduling services over the past few weeks? First there were Jiffle, Tungle, and When is Good. And now there’s Presdo. Like the other services, Presdo makes it simple to schedule meeting with one or more people. You send out a request, and other users can reply with the times that work ideal for them. But there are a few things that set Presdo apart.

First, it uses natural language recognition to help schedule your meetings. The home page isn’t filled with a bunch of boxes to fill out. Instead, you have one search box, into which you can type “lunch with Bob,” or “dinner with Joan.” On the next page, Presdo will make an educated guess as to the best time for your event. If you enter something vague like “take over the world with Pinky,” it’ll probably just use the default “tomorrow at 10am.” But it does a pretty good time of picking the proper times for meals.

You can also use Presdo to help find a place for your meeting. If you entered “Coffee with Mike,” Presdo will let you pull up a window to search for coffee shops with Google Maps. When you send out your invitation, recipients can either accept or offer their own suggested times.

[via TechCrunch]

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Filed under: Products and services, Management, Marketing and advertising

I’ve recently taken a swift look at Teradata Corp. (NYSE: TDC). Teradata was a well-received spin-off of NCR Corp. (NYSE: NCR). Teradata is a commercial data warehousing, processing, and examining specialist for major business enterprises. The company focuses on the development of retail market intelligence based on consumer habits and trending, among other analytical data specialties.

It was recently announced by Teradata that a 550 store, an Italian supermarket chain, is expanding its Teradata system. Streetinvesting.com reported that the Italian firm wishes to more fully utilize its Teradata based information management systems across a broader range of its operations. Streetinvesting.com said, “Teradata CRM provides a detailed understanding of customer buy behaviors and preferences, and enables personalized offers to customers. Teradata’s scalability supports growing businesses with increasingly complex business demands driven by robust growth stipulations and the need for pervasive business intelligence.”

In my view, Teradata has been performing adequately as a company, reporting $200 million net income for 2007 on sales of $1.7 billion. Currently, the company’s share performance is lagging noticeably within its peer group, although its income statement is showing four consecutive years of gross income increases. Operating expenses do appear to be weighing heavily on the company’s performance, and taxes are certainly an issue.

At the time of this research, Teradata’s shares are trading very near their 52-week low, prepared to open Monday at $21.77 against a 52-week high of $30.08. Analyst sentiment appears to be confident but reserved in regard to this stock. The consensus is calling it a buy.

Gary Sattler is a freelance blogger with no stock picking credentials. He does not knowingly hold interest in the companies mentioned in this post.

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