Category Archives: Lifestyle

McGraw Hill Goes To China

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The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (MHP) provides information services for educational, business and financial markets internationally.  It is a huge company which was founded in 1888 and has expanded over time.
The company has just signed a joint venture deal with New Oriental Education & Technology Group (EDU) to provide educational services in China. The two companies will teach technology and work skills to bring China’s children and youth up to 21st century capabilities. Both of these companies are international leaders in education services. The companies will operate “MaxEn Centers” to educate children from ages 4 to 15.

The company will help children with creative thinking, English, technological, and collaboration and team-building skills which are vital for academic and professional success.

Robert Bahash, the president of the Educational division of McGraw Hill said, “Businesses worldwide are rapidly adopting new technologies and moving at a pace that is bypassing traditional educational resources.” “Through our partnership with New Oriental, we will develop the tools and programs that provide students with the skills that are vital to their professional and even personal success. It will help them become life-long learners in a learning-centric world.”

Main managers at McGraw Hill are: Julie Romandetta, Alicia Hartjen, Michael Parcewski, Paul Konstadt, Robert J. Bahash, Gerald Pothier, Ehrick Wright and Larry McQuaid.

Bye-Bye Social Media; Hello e-Mail

Economy, Lifestyle, , , , ,

According to Chris R. Keller of Profitworks, all this fuss about the importance of social media and how this is the way forward, just may turn out to be somewhat inaccurate. Everyone whose anyone has been making such a fuss about how social media is the way forward for marketing purposes, but now this theory is being questioned in a recent article by Keller, who claims that “email marketing is currently superior to social media at attracting and getting new customers.”

Boast Marketing Efforts

So in an effort to really boost your marketing efforts, the message seems to be, stop trying so hard. Send an email as that “directly” reaches the consumer. The Inbox is the first place people look at. Social media is great, but more as a browser than an information collector. Keller points out that this is why Facebook developed its message center as Zuckerberg understood that people first go to check out messages. Further, delivery is better with e-mail as it can use an HTML code so provides more flexibility. Keller concludes thus, “given the flexibility and tracking features of email marketing it has a far more superior delivery method than social media.”

More Likely to Read

Keller’s study also found that the “average email marketing open rates are anywhere from 10-20%,” whereas with FB or Twitter this is around 2-4%. Where social media is good however, is that users spend more time on such activities, around 22%, as opposed to 8% for e-mail. Keller also commented, “I do not have any figures but my estimate is that the amount of time spent on marketing related pages when on social media sites is low compared to the amount of time spent reading marketing emails.” Further, “58% of internet users check their email when first going online versus only 14% checking social media sites first says something about which gets the higher amount and level of attention.” Bottom line? Email is still the main source of Internet communication and is thus still “given the most attention.” This may not be the case forever as more and more tools are developed and tactics learned for how increase interaction rate, but right now, Keller believes, “email wins hands down.”

‘Hey Good Looking’: Good Marketing Technique

Consumerism, Health Tech, Lifestyle, , ,

Weight Loss Surgery Adverts

It’s genius when you think about it. Everyone wants to look good so why not use that as a marketing technique to promote bariatric surgery? The postcard used in the ad has the faded denim look, subconsciously reminding someone desperately trying to lose weight about the dream-jeans they want to fit into. TriStar Health Systems and Baptist Hospital is “aggressively marketing the weight-loss surgery” in this way. Over 60 percent of America’s female adult population is overweight; for this proportion, surgery may be the answer.

US Admin Pushes Surgery

Even official bodies are now – at least indirectly – pushing this surgery. The US Food and Drug Administration has reduced the acceptable weight for the “most popular and least invasive procedure.” Hospitals however, are looking for patients who want to pay since insurance companies have still not “embraced this lower threshold.”

Pretty Marketing Techniques

It’s been done a million times, but it keeps reaping success; pushing pretty people in marketing techniques. This is exactly what is working for the weight-loss surgery too (not surprisingly). But on the flip side, the reality could be different since there are potential complications and risks from undergoing such surgery (as with any surgery) and it is not “an automatic cure for obesity.” The marketers are claiming something different though, saying that they are just pushing this as “an awareness piece,” since many individuals just don’t know about the bariatric surgery and various other available options. So while it is a great marketing technique since such a substantial proportion of the American population is overweight and even officially obese, looking at pictures of pretty, thin people should not be the determining factor in deciding whether this surgery is right for you. Each individual case needs to be assessed on its own merits.

Groupon Gain

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Groupon Goes to Church?

Due to the enormous success of Groupon, the company is increasing its employee count to an additional 150 a month, all of whom, are meant to be based at company headquarters. The problem is however, since this is now completely full to over-capacity, Groupon will be moving its training to a church as it has simply run out of room. Groupon is based in Chicago and in just a year and a half has grown in huge proportions. Groupon subscribers now stand at 85 million, from a mere two million less than two years ago.

Deal-a-Day Does Deals

It is not just Groupon however, that is raking in the subscribers. Deal-a-day has much of which to be proud too. It is a similar idea to Groupon and has also been successfully raking in the crowds. Indeed, the company is encountering a similar problem to its Groupon competitor, with major office overcrowding issues.

LivingSocial Living Social?

There can be a thing as getting too much of a good thing however. At LivingSocial, perhaps there’s been a bit too much social living. Workers at the company have been pushed into the corridors after just two months of being there as there is simply no other room for them. The company also has what to be proud of vis-à-vis the growth in its subscribers from 120,000 to 28 million.

Why So Successful?

Why are these companies doing so well, and so many of them? According to Greg Sterling, an analyst from Opus Research, the reason is because they are good for “both merchants and consumers without requiring tech savvy from the former.” Combined, such sites are predicted to generate approximately $2.7b revenue this year which is “more than double” from last year. And, according to VP at BIA/Kelsey Mark Fratrik, this growth is set to continue in the foreseeable future, reaching $4b by 2015. These statistics render this market a faster growth pace than any other e-commerce.

Any Bad News?

It’s not all good news though for the market. Apparently, while things are bad, things are good for the daily deal markets. But as soon as the economy starts to witness a real recovery, it looks like there will be a plummeting of “traffic to daily-deal sites.” Consumers will be less concerned about finding a bargain when they have more money in their pockets. Right now, it doesn’t look like these companies need to start worrying just yet though. According to ComScore, LivingSocial is listed as one of the “10 fastest-growing websites.” Other bad news is that there are some merchants who get burned. To make it a real success, businesses working with a company like Groupon “hopes shoppers will spend more than the coupon’s face amount.” But small businesses are finding it a great way to “hook new customers in the digital age.” It’s a perfect advertising technique with the right price tag. There are always two sides to every story. But overall it seems this market is a very popular one, and it’s here to stay.

Sidhwani Goes to Hollywood?

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Updated Bollywood Marketing

It used to be that when Indian filmmakers wanted to promote one of their new movies, they would just get a “giant, hand-painted poster, a television or cinema trailer and the pulling power of a star actor.” These days much more is needed. And Ritesh Sidhwani, producer of the upcoming movie “Hrithik Roshan film Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara” (You Only Live Once), is not about to be left behind.

RS Phones Home

Some years ago it was ET phoning home. Now Ritesh Sidhwani is using a similar technique, but not in his movie; rather as a way of promoting it. Mobile phones are the new way of marketing movies and that is what Sidhwani is trying to do. This move is being implemented through a joint collaboration between Aircel (a leading mobile phone company in India) and Excel Entertainment film studio. The venture will result in two three-minute trailers which will be sent (for free) to the phone company’s 55 million subscribers. Since India is anyway the “world’s fastest-growing cellular market and the second largest after China,” (boasting 752.2m mobile phone subscribers at the end of 2010) this new marketing method seems like a slam dunk.

Sidhwani is already extremely hopeful that this new method will yield excellent results. He claims that by utilizing this technology he has been better able to engage in “more targeted marketing for films.” This is very helpful in today’s ever-increasingly competitive environment when there are so many diverse types of entertainment battling for their share of the market, which has decreased by 20 percent over the last three years. Sidhwani claimed that it is bound to work great since “mobile reach is much wider,” with everyone (especially the younger crowd) anyway watching Internet promos. There has been an increase of 22.6% year-on-year of Internet subscribers, with 10.99m having access to a broadband connection (an increase of 40% from 2010). It is predicted that a staggering 82% of India will be mobile-phone-clad in just three years’ time.

Bollywood “Likes” Facebook

As well as the mobile phone industry, it seems Bollywood is taking it all a step further. The movie is set to have a Facebook page. Clearly the industry is headed in “movie marketing to the next level.” It is honing in on where people are going in 2011 and responding extremely well to it. That has to be good for Bollywood business.