Archive for April 27th, 2009

School reform means doing what’s best for kids … unless the unions object, that is.

April 27, 2009

Ken’s Take: I haven’t bought into the line that Pres Obama surrounds himself with good people.  Consider Biden, Geithner, Napolitano for starters.  But, I was enthusiatic re: Arnie Duncan — Obama’s pick for Sec. of Education.  That is, enthusiastic until his first official action: bowing to the teacher’s union and killing the Washington DC school voucher program.  Read on …

* * * * *

Arnie Duncan,  U.S. secretary of education, in a WSJ op-ed:

“When parents recognize which schools are failing to educate their children, they will demand more effective options for their kids.

The only open question is whether or not we have the collective political will to face the hard facts about American education. We must close the achievement gap by pursuing what works best for kids, regardless of ideology. In the path to a better education system, that’s the only test that really matters.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124035679795740971.html

* * * * *

From the Heritage Foundation Daily Wire:

Earlier this month, Duncan sent letters to 200 District of Columbia low-income families informing them that he was taking back the $7,500 in scholarship vouchers that the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program had previously awarded them.

The evidence is in. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program works.

A Department of Education study showed the students in the scholarship program the longest performed at reading level approximately 1.5 to 2 full school years ahead of students who applied but were not lucky enough to be admitted to the program. But instead of “pursuing what works best for kids, regardless of ideology” Duncan did the exact opposite. He moved to kill the program by sending the rescission letters mentioned above.

The Washington Post explained why:

“It’s clear, though, from how the destruction of the program is being orchestrated, that issues such as parents’ needs, student performance and program effectiveness don’t matter next to the political demands of teachers’ unions.”

* * * * *

Want more from the Homa Files?
Click link =>  The Homa Files Blog

Posted in Education - Academics, Obama Administration | 2 Comments »

High-speed trains: Faster than a car … and just about as profitable.

April 27, 2009

Business Week says:

“By committing $13 billion to high-speed train travel, the Obama Administration is giving long-dormant projects a boost

A priority is a line that would whiz passengers 520 miles from Anaheim to San Francisco in less than three hours and upgrades of Amtrak service in New England and the Midwest to reach speeds of up to 150 mph.”

* * * * * 

The article also notes:

(1) U.S. government analysts concede that it’s impossible to run these hugely expensive networks profitably.

(2) Among the interested investors: Japan Railway, Bombardier, Kawasaki, and Siemens. (Notice anything “interesting” about the list?)

The article glosses over our national success running Amtrak.

That sucking sound you hear is more of money leaving your wallet (assuming that you’re in the half of Americans who pay income taxes)

* * * * *

Full article: Business Week, “U.S. High-Speed Train Projects Get a Push”, April 23, 2009
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/09_18/b4129029604145.htm

* * * * *

Want more from the Homa Files?
Click link =>  The Homa Files Blog

Posted in Autos - Travel, Obama Administration, Oil & Energy | Leave a Comment »

Looks like a car, drives like a car … according to Nissan, it’s a "Mobile Device"

April 27, 2009

Excerpted from New York Times, “With the Car Industry in Trouble, Nissan Rolls Out the Mobile Device”, by Stuart Elliott, April 5, 2009

* * * * *

Nissan Motors is betting an estimated $20 million that a spirited campaign can get drivers to purchase the Nissan Cube–a cute, smallish car scheduled to go on sale on May 5.

And scratch the word “car,” for the campaign to introduce the Cube in the United States refers to the vehicle as a “mobile device.”

* * * * *

The phrase, borrowed from the digital domain, signals that the intended market for the Cube is younger drivers. It also signals the focus of the campaign: presenting the Cube as a part of a fun, busy life that can be customized and personalized as easily as a cellphone ring tone or a Facebook page.

To underscore all that, the campaign borrows terms from technology like “search engine,” “browse,” “storage capacity,” “add friends” and “set preferences” to describe features of the Cube. And the media mix skews decidedly toward nontraditional elements like iPhone games, wallpapers, text messaging, the Internet and MP3 downloads.

* * * * *

The Cube is entering a crowded category of the depressed auto market composed of niche models meant as emotional purchases rather than rational. Such cars are intended to attract attention for unusual design rather than horsepower, bling or fuel economy.

Nissan comments, “This is a tough time to bring anything out, whether a car or a new TV. So we decided we wouldn’t think about it as a car,” he added, but rather “position it as designed to bring young people together — like every mobile device they have.”

Edit by DAF

* * * * *

Full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/06/business/media/06adco.html?ref=media&pagewanted=print

* * * * *

Want more from the Homa Files?
Click link =>  The Homa Files Blog

* * * * *

Posted in Autos - Travel | Leave a Comment »

The Law of Small Numbers … Measuring your MySpace ROI

April 27, 2009

Excerpted from Ad Age, “Study: ROI May Be Measurable in Facebook, MySpace After All” By Jack Neff, Apr 13, 2009

* * * * *

Package-goods brands are still cautious about social media, figuring that the return on investment can’t be accurately measured. After all, marketing on Facebook or MySpace might generate a conversation but not necessarily a sale. Now, however, a method is emerging to relate one to the other, potentially eliminating a major impediment.

Recent research from ComScore, MySpace and Dunnhumby … suggests that even relatively small outlays on social networks by package-goods brands can result in offline sales impact and deliver positive return on investment.

Generally, the ROI tool of choice for consumer package goods — marketing-mix models that rely on econometric analysis of changes in retail scanner data — can’t pick up the impact of the relatively small five- and six-figure outlays package-goods brands make on digital media.

To overcome that, MySpace teamed with ComScore, which uses a panel of more than 1 million people in the U.S. to track internet usage, and Dunnhumby, which runs loyalty programs for supermarket retailers and has access to loyalty-card purchase data from 59 million people in the U.S. …

One of the first studies was for an unnamed personal-care brand that ran a $1 million campaign on MySpace last year, including a contest in which members submitted videos of themselves and friends for others in the network to vote on … The program also included online couponing.

By the standards marketers sometimes use to measure digital-ad effectiveness, the MySpace effort wasn’t overwhelming. Of 76.9 million people exposed to the campaign … fewer than 1%, visited an advertiser page on MySpace, though roughly half who did (358,000) visited the advertiser’s website.

But by the measure that matters most, sales, the campaign appeared to pay off nicely. It produced $1.28 million in offline sales, as measured by Dunnhumby, which compared purchases among shoppers not exposed to the campaign with purchases among those who were. That amounted to a 28% return on investment, not counting returns from repeat sales among consumers the brand won via the campaign …

Particularly by package-goods standards, that $1 million digital outlay with one site was large … While a campaign that reaches nearly 77 million people is certainly large enough to generate a read in marketing-mix models, the combination of the ComScore and Dunnhumby panels into a single-source database … holds promise for more-accurately measuring many smaller efforts …

The bigger question is whether the ROI will hold up for bigger efforts, he said, justifying budgets similar to what consumer-package-goods brands spend on TV and magazines.

Digital is “incredibly efficient, because the cost per thousand is low … But it’s just not moving a lot of volume yet. And, of course, what you always grapple with is if they suddenly went [from $1 million] to $10 million in digital, would the return stay where it is? … I think the answer is no.” But it’s also a question he said no CPG brand appears to have tried to answer yet.

Edit by SAC

* * * * *

Full Article:
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=135940

* * * * *

Want more from the Homa Files?
Click link => The Homa Files Blog

Posted in Mktg - ROI | Leave a Comment »