Archive for October 22nd, 2008

For the record: 5 factors to watch as the campaigns close …

October 22, 2008

A couple of numbers have caught my eye in the past couple of days.  They’re not getting much play, but could be “sleepers” for the next couple of weeks.

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Catholics

According to IBD/TIPP (the most accurate poll in the 2004 election), Catholics are currently favoring Obama over McCain 47% to 43%
http://ibdeditorials.com/Polls.aspx?id=309299583450546

Ken’s Take: Watch this shift as Catholic bishops remind church goers that the sanctity of life is a fundamental tenet of the Church.  The abortion debate has been back-burnered, watch it heat up

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Wealth Distribution

According to Gallup, Americans overwhelmingly — by 84% to 13% — prefer that the government focus on improving overall economic conditions and the jobs situation in the United States as opposed to taking steps to distribute wealth more evenly among Americans.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/democrats_favor_spreading_wealth_around_gop_disagrees

Ken’s take: Obama’s gaffe to Joe the Plumber seems to have traction — and not just among high-earners.  The candidates’ economic pitches are disbelieved mumbo-jumbo to most folks, so images like Joe communicate with impact.

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Middle Class

According to Rasmussen, among middle-income Americans, those earning $40,000 to $100,000 annually, 58% say that McCain (or his defacto surrogate Joe the Plumber) best understands their situation. Just 35% say Obama does.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/democrats_favor_spreading_wealth_around_gop_disagrees

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Ken’s Take: This is a corollary of the wealth distribution factor.  While those to whom wealth is being distributed like the idea, folks at the top and in the middle don’t.  My guess: those in the middle either don’t believe they’ll get any of the loot or still aspire to be in the top bracket.

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Iraq

According to a 2008 national survey of independents by TargetPoint Consulting 66% of independent voters believe that the U.S. has an obligation to establish security in Iraq before withdrawing.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122445963016248615.html

Ken’s Take: I’m betting this gets some sway in the last days of the campaign.

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Mud Slinging

Ken’s Take:

(1) Nothing will stick re: Ayers, but ACORN will elevate as an issue and Rev. Wright will do a reprise to center stage.

(2) The attacks on Joe the Plumber and Cindy McCain (NY Times) will create some backlash.  It will bebarely noticeable until election day.

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J&J Fights Big With Small Brands

October 22, 2008

Excerpted from AdAge “Small Brands Could be J&J’s Next Big Thing ” by Jack Neff, October 6, 2008

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Selling big, heavily extended brands at large retailers has been a cornerstone of success for the personal-care marketers for most of the decade. But as that business model shows signs of fraying, $61 billion Johnson & Johnson increasingly is trying something a lot more entrepreneurial.

In the past year, J&J has quietly ramped up a major assault on direct-response skin-care powerhouse Proactiv with the SkinID brand. The Neutrogena subbrand offers customized acne-fighting and other skin-care products and is sold online…

Clearly, J&J has benefited from the big-brand, big-retailer model up to now. Information Resources Inc. data reported by Deutsche Bank shows the company gaining share in key categories such as acne products, facial moisturizers and cleansers in recent quarters. With global sales estimated by people familiar with the company at $2 billion to $2.5 billion, Neutrogena is neck and neck with other global megabrands, such as Procter & Gamble Co.’s Olay and Unilever’s Dove.

Yet both of those rival brands have slowed within the past year and begun losing share, at least in tracked U.S. channels. And even the biggest brand behemoth in mass, L’Oréal…has begun losing share in cosmetics and hair colorants in the past year…to smaller P&G brands Cover Girl and Clairol…

Should the same fate befall Neutrogena, at least J&J has skin in another game. J&J launched SkinID by “Neutrogena Dermatologics” on a limited basis in April, then ramped up spending behind infomercials featuring former “American Idol” contestant Katharine McPhee starting in May…

As with Proactiv, the products are customized assortments available only by phone or online, but Neutrogena ads bill SkinID products as “twice as effective as Proactiv.” The tack appears to be working, with traffic to skinid.com running at around half the level of traffic to proactive.com after only a few months of all-out effort by J&J…

“We’re revolutionizing skin care through questions to our consumers,” said Cal Schmidt, VP-sales and marketing for J&J unit McNeil Nutritionals, referring to the early stages of SkinID in a talk at an Advertising Research Foundation forum in April. “We are offering our customers specific products tailored to them… And then you have this ongoing dialogue.”

Not to mention ongoing sales. What likely makes the proposition most attractive to Neutrogena is automatic replenishment, which keeps consumers buying and prevents the switching common at a retail shelf…

Edit by SAC

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The SkinID brand isn’t J&J’s first attempt at skin-care products for specific skin types.  The company has had success with another smaller brand, Ambi, since it acquired the brand in 2004.  The Ambi brand includes skin-clearing and skin-tone evening products to specifically meet the needs of African, Asian and Latin woman.  As with SkinID.com, the product website, ambi.com also provides skin care advice for consumers and helps them find the product to best meet their skin-care needs.

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Full article:
http://adage.com/article?article_id=131485

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Drink Your Vote – Campaign Cola

October 22, 2008

Excerpt from the Saginaw News “Drink to Your Presidential Pick with Campaign Cola” by Cole Waterman September 18, 2008  

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Jones Soda Co. has found a way to bottle the enthusiasm fizzing around this year’s historic presidential election.

The Seattle-based company is selling “Campaign Cola,” bottles featuring faces of presidential candidates. Republican John McCain’s “Pure McCain Cola” faces off against Democrat Barack Obama’s “Yes We Can Cola.”

“There are only three areas in the nation it will be sold in, and so far, Obama has outsold McCain, seven to one…On Jones’s promotional Web site, http://www.campaigncola.com, two additional varieties are available — Democrat Hillary Clinton’s “Capitol Hillary Cola” and Republican Ron Paul’s “Ron Paul Revolution Cola.”The site tallies each purchase as a vote, giving minors a way to cast their ballots…

 Edit by SAC

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Full article:
http://www.mlive.com/saginawnews/business/index.ssf/2008/09/drink_to_your_presidential_pic.html
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If You Can’t Beat ‘Em…

October 22, 2008

Excerpted from BusinessWeek, “Can MySpace Save the Major Music Labels?”, by Catherine Holahan, September 12, 2008

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The major music labels have made a sharp reversal that may improve their prospects. For years they fought Internet companies for fear that their music would be stolen. Now they’re racing to capitalize on the new opportunities on the Web. “The labels were very reticent to embrace change at a time when it could have actually worked to their advantage,” says eMarketer’s Paul Verna. “Now there’s a sense that they have no choice.”

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Meet the record label, version 2.0. After nearly a decade of plunging music sales, the labels are trying to overhaul their traditional business. Instead of just selling recorded music, they want to use music to sell a range of related extras, from online advertising to mobile phones packed with tunes. The new business model puts the Internet at the heart of the industry in an attempt to transform artist Web sites from promotional vehicles into money-making enterprises.

The biggest bet on this new model is MySpace Music. The joint venture between News Corp.’s (NWS) social networking site and the three largest record labels—Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and Warner Music—is set to launch in the next few days.

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This is the label’s most ambitious push yet to develop online advertising and e-commerce revenues. The labels will have equity stakes in the new venture. They’ll also get a cut of the revenue from ads on artists’ pages, as well as those from music downloads, ring tones, merchandise sales, and concert tickets.

The record industry has been hammered in recent years by online piracy and a dearth of mega-hits, with sales sliding steadily since their peak of $14.6 billion in 1999. Last year was the industry’s worst yet in terms of revenue losses. The total value of digital and traditional sales dropped 12% in 2007, to $10.4 billion, compared with a 4.4% slide the year before.

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The idea behind MySpace Music is that it can help generate revenue for artists every day, not just around an album’s release. The venture gives the labels access to MySpace’s global audience of 118 million users and its ad sales team of more than 250 people. It also provides the labels with a prominent venue to pull in audiences and advertisers with new types of non-music content, including music news, behind-the-scenes videos, and artist interviews such as the one with T.I.

Major advertisers are signing up. Industry sources say MySpace Music has signed multimillion-dollar ad deals with McDonald’s (MCD), Toyota Motor (TM), and other major brands for its launch. MySpace is designed to do more than bring in ad revenue, though. It also gives the industry a new channel through which to sell songs, ringtones, T-shirts, and tickets.

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MySpace Music may prove to be a model for future ventures on the Net. If the concept works, it could help the labels turn other online hangouts, like the leading social networking site, Facebook, into forums for music sales and related revenues. It could also help demonstrate that the labels will see tangible benefits from new contracts under which they share in advertising, e-commerce, and merchandise sales. “If they do all that, then maybe they can stem the tide of these rapidly falling CD sales and start to see the pie get a little bigger,” says Verna, “But it is definitely a big if.”

Edit by DAF

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Full article:
http://www.businessweek.com/print/technology/content/sep2008/tc20080912_717914.htm

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