Archive for September 20th, 2010

"Giving millionaires $100,000 more each year" … oh, really ?

September 20, 2010

This week, a series of ‘angles’ on the debate to kill or keep the Bush Tax Cuts …

The President’s constant sound bite the past week was that extending the Bush Tax Cuts to ‘the wealthiest Americans’ would be “giving $100,000 to each  millionaire”.

Not so fast.

According to the Tax Policy Center:

  • Folks with precisely $1 million in taxable income would pay about $11,000 more under Obama’s scheme than they would if the Bush tax cuts were extended. 
  • The top 0.1% — those with average incomes of $8.4 million — would pay $310,000 more under Obama’s proposal.

Bottom line: the average is obviously skewed by a relatively few uber-earners.

So, instead of going after garden variety fat cats, why not go after the obese cats ?

I say, add a few uber-high-end brackets … say,

  • Over $500,000 gets nicked, 37.5%;
  • Over $1,000,000 gets dinged 40%
  • Over $5 million pays 45%, etc.
  • Warren Buffett pays 99.6% and stops whining about how he’s undertaxed

Such a scheme would potentially get the dollars (empasis on ‘potentially’ — more on that in a later post) … while impacting the fewest taxpayers.

Seems like a democratic thing to do, doesn’t it ?

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Data source:L,A, Times, The tax cut debate, September 15, 2010
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-taxes-20100915,0,6983741.story

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Xerox to Its Clients: “Lend Me Your Icons”

September 20, 2010

TakeAway: Xerox takes a risk with borrowed-interest advertising. 

What if people who see their new ads featuring some of their clients remember Marriott’s customer service pitch rather than Xerox? 

Xerox says, “We think because these clients are being seen in an unusual space that it will make people look twice. We think the risk is offset by the power of the creative and the relevance of the message in the marketplace.” 

Time will tell…

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Excerpted from blogs.forbes.com, “Xerox Hopes Other Brands Help New Ads Shine” By Melanie Wells,September 1, 2010

It can be difficult for B-to-B companies to create lapel-grabbing advertising. Xerox hopes to get around that in its biggest ad effort in decades by featuring clients, such as P&G and Target. Some ads feature their well-recognized brand icons shown doing Xerox-related work, such as invoicing or digitizing documents. The campaign tagline: “Ready for Real Business.” The campaign will feature 20 companies that use Xerox products or services by the end of 2011. Companies featured in the initial TV and print ads include Marriott Hotels & Resorts; Ducati, the motorcycle maker; and the University of Notre Dame. Xerox admits some companies it approached weren’t comfortable lending their brands to this campaign, other executives liked the idea of having their icons appear in media where Xerox advertises but consumer-focused companies do not. CEO Ursula Burns “picked up the phone [to fellow CEOs], saying ‘Would you be interested in being in this campaign?’” Edit by AMW* * * * *

Full Article:
http://blogs.forbes.com/melaniewells/2010/09/01/xerox-brands-ad-campaign/

 

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Posted in Mktg - Brands, Mktg - Positioning, Mktg - Promotion | Leave a Comment »