I haven’t been a big Jon Stewart fan, but he may have started to win me over with this clip.
WARNING: for mature audiences.
click picture or link below to view
http://vodpod.com/watch/2655813-the-daily-show-with-jon-stewartamerican-idle?pod=
Archive for December 11th, 2009
Now, this is funny … Jon Stewart on counting jobs saved or created.
December 11, 2009Got Blue Cross – Blue Shield? … Then get out your wallet if ObamaCare passes.
December 11, 2009TakeAway: Another study predicts higher insurance prices. The culprit: adverse selection.
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Excerpted from WSJ: Blue Cross Blue Patients, Dec 5, 2009
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association has found that premiums in the individual market will rise on average by 54% over the status quo, which translates into an extra $3,341 a year for families and $1,576 for singles.
The Congressional Budget Office also found this week that ObamaCare will boost premiums in the individual market by as much as 13%. But the White House called that a triumph because the higher costs will be offset by taxpayer subsidies that will be transferred to the federal balance sheet.
The Blue Cross study is in fact more precise than CBO’s because it is based on real market data, rather than modeling assumptions. The association mined the actuarial data from its six million individual or small-business policies, nearly one-eighth of those sold in the U.S.
Lo and behold, Blue Cross found costs will rise if Democrats force insurers to cover anyone who applies and then limit how much insurers are allowed to charge based on age or health condition. Economists call this adverse selection; people will wait until they’re sick to buy coverage, and the Democratic rules make it perfectly rational for them to do so.
The reality is that all health-care costs are ultimately borne by consumers, whether through more expensive premiums, lower wages or higher taxes.
The regulatory schemes favored by Democrats can’t change that law of economics …
Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704007804574574170859847850.html?mod=djemEditorialPage
Google: potentially a great tactic, almost always a poor strategy
December 11, 2009Key Takeaway: As a brand manager, your marketing mix will most always consist of an online strategy. A simple solution may be to maximize your brand’s visibility on Google.
While this may be a successful tactic, it should not represent the entire online strategy.
Remember to always focus on how your consumer gathers information about your product; this may lead you to further explore other online avenues.
Your online strategy should be a means for customers to further understand and interact with your brand, not simply a way for the masses to be bombarded with a link to its website.
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Excerpted from ClickZ “Google is Not a Strategy” by Robin Neifeld, December 2, 2009
Google isn’t a strategy, or even an e-marketing strategy.
Google is a tremendously robust search partner for marketers, but it’s one partner in the tactical execution of search, where search may be one of the channels used in an overall e-marketing strategy.
If you’re ever tempted to believe that covering brand, product, category, long tail terms, or even the content network on Google means you’re effectively reaching the active Internet universe, you’re mistaken.
By limiting your reach to Google’s reach, you’re still neglecting more than you’re finding and missing whole aspects of the consumer — or B2B — experience online.
Some people are still attached to alternate engines or use some combination of engines. They also search in industry vertical engines, especially in a B2B environment.
A growing segment of the population shops online, and the number and diversity of comparison shopping engines have grown to meet their needs.
Nearly everyone searches, but not everyone uses Google, or uses Google exclusively. Even if you’re wed to search as a singular tactic, try to include more search partners.
…an electronics product decision maker might start with search, follow an ad or social media link, or they might visit retail sites to view options and pricing. Almost certainly a large portion of them will utilize consumer shopping engines to get deals, coupon sites to take advantage of promotions, and technology communities to get the insiders’ reviews and ratings. They might also utilize their own networks through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or other avenues to solicit advice from trusted sources. An effective strategy in this case would need to be broader than search and even shopping engines to include contextually relevant placements, a content strategy, and social media to make sure your product was in the considered set.
If your digital strategy is limited to those who already know to search for you in some form, then your strategy is limited in many ways. Smart marketers use search and a number of other avenues to supply their audiences with the answers to their stated or implied questions. It’s a grievous mistake to assume that all users are alike or that all users are in the same stage of their discovery or buying cycle.
Edit by JMZ
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Full Article:
http://www.clickz.com/3635781
The Homa Files 