woensdag 28 januari 2009

Marketing trends 2009

Anderson Analytics researched for MENG (Marketing Executives Networking Group) the importance of various marketing trends among MENG members – What was hot in 2008 and is not in 2009. It is an interesting report to read, especially when keeping in mind the current Global recession and see how marketers expect to act.
The 5 most important trends:
  1. Insights and innovation. The most important strategy the marketing executive wants to use in times of recession. 72% of executives say that will do the same kind of effort in innovation and over three quarters of executives say R&D and use of Market Research will either stay the same or increase.
  2. Customer first. “Customer Satisfaction”& “Customer Retention” remain the marketing concepts which are most interesting and relevant to majority of marketing executives. Followed by: Marketing ROI, Brand Loyalty, Segmentation, Quality, SEO, Competitive Intelligence, and Data Mining
  3. Green is less important. Global warming drops with 14 places in the list. Green marketing, Alternative Energy score less than last year.
  4. Marketing executives have had it with Web 2.0. The number of marketing executives that say they are a tired of hearing “Web 2.0”and other Web 2.0 related buzzwords such as “blogs” and “social networking” has doubled opposed to 2008. At the same time they state that they don’t know enough about these subjects. In November 2008 67% of the respondents thought of himself as a beginner when it concerns Web 2.0 related subjects.
  5. China the greatest foreign opportunity. 53% of the marketers that work abroad see the most potential in China. India follows in second place with 17% of the votes. Boomers represent the most important demographic. However, the perceived importance of Generation X and Y grew significantly compared to last year
Best books to read, according to the respondents: Good to Great, Groundswell, Hot Flat and Crowded, The Black Swan, Predictably Irrational, Mavericks at Work, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, The Art of the Start, Purple Cow, Go Put Your Strengths to Work en Our Iceberg is Melting.
Seth Godin remains the favourite marketing/business guru this year as well. Warren Buffet and Malcom Gladwell now occupy second and third place, respectively.
If you want to read the full report, including Respondents Demographics, please visit: http://www.andersonanalytics.com

zaterdag 24 januari 2009

M.A.C. Cosmetics "Passions of red"

Although it is almost spring and the passions of red is the special winter collection of M.A.C. cosmetics... I don't want to withhold you of this superb collection, with amazing colors. I especially love the ones highlighted below. The case, holding the eye shadow or lipstick, by itself is reason enough to buy it. If you want to you might still be able to get it online at http://www.macys.com/, or if you live in the Netherlands you can get it at the Bijenkorf stores (exept the one in The Hague).


donderdag 22 januari 2009

Rainy days

The weather in Holland is cloudy, grey, cold and very wet, but even the most rainy day get's cheered up by this great Love Tree Umbrella by Schumacher. You can buy it online at: http://www.conleys.de/

My favorite italian designer

The Spring Summer 2009 collection by Ermanno Scervino

Flower inspiration

A great book for getting inspired to make some beautiful flower arrangements:

zondag 11 januari 2009

Chocolate and raspberry desert

A delicious combination, which will astounish your guests every time.

Ingredients: 6 oz semi sweet chocolate, finely chopped10 tbsp unsalted butter, softened1/4 cups sugar3 large eggs1/2 cup all purpose flour3/4 tsp baking powder1.5 tsp cocoa powder
Raspberry compote: 1 pint of raspberries2 tbsp icing sugarfresh mint

How to make:
1. Lightly butter 6, 1 cup ramekins or custard cups.
2. Melt chocolate in top of a double boiler.
3. Stir until chocolate melts.

4. Remove chocolate from the heat.
5. Stir in the butter and sugar until smooth, add eggs, flour, baking powder and cocoa.
6. Beat on medium high heat until the mixture is pale and has a mousse like texture.
7. Fill the ramikin half full, freeze for 3 hours.
8. Just before serving, heat oven unt8il 375 degrees, on the center rack.
9. Bake for 10-11 minutes.
10. The sides will be set and the center a little wobbly.
11. Invert and serve warm on plate.

Raspberry compote:
1. Toss raspberries in a bowl, with icing sugar.
2. Let sit until juices are released from berries.
3. Spoon over warm molten cake.
4. Garnish with fresh mint.

Instead of making the choc
olate cake completely by yourself you can also use dr. Oetker Tarte au Chocolat.


And if you want it super easy, just try Ben & Jerry's Bohemian Raspberry.

zaterdag 10 januari 2009

Prada Spring Summer 2009

A beautiful silhouette and killer heels




































A luxurious 2009


Every month I receive a newsletter from http://trendwatching.com/, the name says it all it's a consumer trend watching company. In their latest newsletter they asked the following question: The Future of Luxury. How will luxury brands fare this year? What will define luxury over the next few years?
With a global financial crisis going on... we still need to indulge ourselves sometime in a bit of luxury it may not be the "over the top"bling bling anymore and maybe it will be a bit more modest?
I think that especially in these times we all need a bit of luxury to feel good and it may be that you find luxury in material things or maybe it is the luxury we find in some extra time to enjoy the things we already have. This was also what they said in the newsletter: ‘luxury will be whatever you want it to be’. After all, what constitutes luxury is closely related to what constitutes scarcity. More than ever, scarcity is in the eye of the beholder, especially those beholders who are desperately trying to be unique.
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