“Europe just doesn’t get it. It does not get how irrelevant it is becoming to the rest of the world. And it does not get how relevant the rest of the world is becoming to its future. The world is changing rapidly. Europe continues to drift.” A quote in Time Magazine of Kishore Mahbubani, dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, a couple of months ago. The latest GDP growth forecasts, published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, underlines his observation.
The cost of insuring Ireland’s debt against default, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit, is now higher than insuring Argentina’s. Five-year Argentinean credit-default swaps (CDS) have been tightening, whilst Ireland’s have widened to 609 basis points, the third highest in the world, after Greece and Venezuela. GDP growth forecasts for 2011 are not much more optimistic for these European countries.
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company of The Economist, Ireland’s and Greece’s GDP will decline by 0.9% and 3.6% respectively. The PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain), find themselves among the slowest growers this year. In contrast, after avoiding recession in 2008 and 2009, and enjoying the global recovery in 2010, Qatar is set to grow by 15.8% this year. Strong growth is largely due to its liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects and an expansionary fiscal policy focused on infrastructure. China and India are also projected another year of strong growth, 8.9% and 8.6%, respectively.
MediaBizBloggers.Com, January 4, 2011, by Fernando Rodriguez
2010 was a year of Multicultural resurgence. Post recession advertisers realized that in line with most pre-census forecasts, the 2010 Census was going to point out something many have been hearing for quite some time – America is increasingly Multicultural. That being said, several advertisers were already delving steadfast into the market. However, those on the verge of defining a strategy need to step it up…and quickly. With what could perhaps be considered the perfect storm for players in the Hispanic Digital space, there has been a significant shift with advertisers moving more dollars to digital, to reach this coveted consumer.
Our new Terra Ad Value Research Study conducted by comScore this fall reveals some stunning insights into the Hispanic online consumer. Not only are Hispanics fully engaged in the digital world but they are also more receptive to advertising and new marketing experiences than non-Hispanics. While non-Hispanics may tend to look at interactive advertising as intrusive, Hispanics seem to be appreciative of the brands that are trying to reach out to them.
Remaking the Marley image. That’s what the descendants of the legendary reggae singer are telling fans as they launch a new coffee brand along with a host of other licensed products, including clothing, sporting goods and electronics.
Marley’s children have banded together to form Marley & Co., a burgeoning licensing empire that’s putting an emphasis on products that are environmentally conscious.
For example, a pair of in-ear headphones slated to launch next week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas will be made not from plastic, but from reusable materials including hemp, soybeans and aluminum.
Likewise, Marley & Co. has ordered licensees for new apparel lines to avoid the use of synthetic materials. A new “relaxation drink” called “Marley Mellow Moods” uses all-natural ingredients.
That’s just the way dad would have wanted it, says his eldest son, Rohan.
Long before she became an ’80s funk-pop infanta, or Rick James’ protégé and lover, Teena Marie was a Motown-enamored schoolgirl in one of L.A.’s last historic black enclaves.
The singer-songwriter, who died Sunday at her Pasadena home at age 54, grew up in Oakwood, a working-class wedge of Venice sandwiched between the 405 and the tonier beach areas. With an African American population that peaked at 45% in 1970, a substantial Latino presence and a small white minority, Oakwood was a “stable, close-knit community” where different ethnic groups lived side by side and the barriers between private homes and public spaces (parks, churches) were blurred, said Darnell Hunt, a UCLA sociology professor who has studied the neighborhood.
Are Muslims a new niche market? Many US-based businesses think so and have even created products that cater to this community.
In the ballroom of an upscale hotel a short train ride from New York, advertisers, food industry executives and market researchers mingled — the men in dark suits, the women in headscarves and Western dress. Chocolates made according to Islamic dietary laws were placed at each table.
The setting was the American Muslim Consumer Conference, which aimed to promote Muslims as a new market segment for US companies. While corporations have long catered to Muslim communities in Europe, businesses have only tentatively started to follow suit in the US— and they are doing so at a time of intensified anti-Muslim feeling that companies worry could hurt them, too. American Muslims seeking more acknowledgment in the marketplace argue that businesses have more to gain than lose by reaching out to the community.
India’s investment community has offered a solution to a quandary faced by millions of Muslims by launching a share index that complies with Sharia law.
The Bombay Stock Exchange has unveiled a new index of companies that meet the Islamic legal code, allowing the country’s 140 million Muslims to play the stock market. Sharia law prohibits Muslims from holding an investment portfolio whose stock picks include companies that sell alcohol or tobacco, or businesses that charge interest.
The exchange has teamed up with a Mumbai-based Islamic finance company, Tasis, to create the BSE Tasis Sharia 50 index, consisting of the 50 largest and Sharia-observant companies in the BSE 500 including Reliance Industries – a gas, oil and food conglomerate.
