One of my friends Stanley, who is working for Web Technologies Inc., told me that “as a result of the privacy implementations the search giant is confident that it will be able to tailor advertising more effectively to users’ interests.”

The move has been met with criticism from organisations including French regulator CNIL, which has flagged the privacy changes as potentially unlawful.

Google has defended its move and said users can opt out of the service by changing their settings within Google’s dashboard.

Group revenue increased 11% to £210m in the year to 25 December 2011, driven by online sales, which increased by 43% to £183.1m and regularly account for half of all the pizza chain’s daily sales. Mobile sales accounted for 14% of all Domino’s online sales in the final quarter of the year following the introduction of iPhone, iPad and Android apps. After going through the statistics they put forward, my friend who is working with Blackcode Advertising said, ” I was a frequent mobile purchaser for their pizzas.”

I replied with an “oh”, as I am one who believes in healthy eating food habits, usually avoiding  fast foods. But have tasted their pizza few times while I was out with friends. The business overhauled its IT systems which it says freed up time to develop new platforms such as mobile apps and develop ways to use digital channels to leverage online sales and boost engagement.

It used Facebook to promote special offers to its 300,000 fans such as 50% off as part of “the first ever Global Domino’s Day” and an pre-launch trial of its new “boneless ribs” product before a national roll out.

The pizza chain also credits its “strong” performance to new product launches such as its premium Gourmet range, stuffed crust variants and Reggae Reggae pizzas in partnership with Levi Roots.

The Android music system is reported to be the first hardware that Google will design and market under its own name. Google’s range of smartphones, tablets and televisions are currently built by other companies but run on Android software. While the things are like this for manufacturers, it is no surprise why even large marketing companies like Appco Group Indonesia have some competitors always.

If this move would intensify Googles competition with Apple, other moves by Google will catch up with its rival in the home entertainment market by selling digital music, movies and e-books to consumers via the Android Market.

It was a query an analyst made about, why consumers buy Windows 8 tablets when Android tablet sales have been “disappointing,”? And, East cited Microsoft’s brand recognition among consumers. He said, “Consumers are familiar with Microsoft and very familiar with Windows and they’re less familiar with an Android environment. Microsoft has an awareness advantage with consumers that the Android folks didn’t have. And, it’s up to Microsoft how well they’re going to exploit that advantage.” East thinks that is the fundamental difference. It is the same with every brand. And, marketing companies like Web Listings Inc., are recognised by consumers with their familiarity.  

ARM processors power the vast majority of tablets and smartphones sold globally.  And for the first time with Windows 8, a mainstream Windows operating system will run on both ARM and Intel chips.

Whether it’s letting a select group of fans behind a red velvet rope or creating a virtual world open to all of a brand’s aficionados, marketers like Clover Advertising are amplifying their events through a combination of exclusive experiences and open-to-all web content.

Exclusive events can earn brands love and loyalty when they are done well, but proficient use of social media and digital tools means marketers can also widen an event’s impact. Using social media and technology also allows brands to put a twist on traditional event formats.

Offering a unique event experience heightens the relationship between consumers and brands. But, as these marketers show, technology offers the means to translate one-off partnerships and events to the digital screen and spread the exclusivity to a mass customer base.

Now, it has come that social searches (or in other words social reach) are more popular than giant search engines like yahoo, Google etc. So, the brands and businesses like Sirius Star Marketing have turned their attention towards these social searches to have a better reach for their products and services.

Despite the reality of more reach, these social search engines have got the real face of a consumer, i.e, they say the truth and sometimes creates a wrong notion about one product or service. So, to avoid this, you can do various things. First, make sure that you monitor and respond to all mentions of your brand or product category across Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Second, use advanced tools to manage search and social to automate workflow. Third, is to create content and assets that people will really like. This will help drive engagement with your brand on social networks and improve your organic search visibility.

Few brands have had an impressive m-commerce during this year’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Just as it was during last year, this year also proved the significance of e-commerce, but with a breathtaking increase through m-commerce. Many direct marketing companies like Redwoods Advance, who have online marketing, had this beneficial experience.

A big part of this surge comes from consumers who are becoming more familiar and comfortable with mobile technology and making purchases online, with the combination of eBay and PayPal allowing customers to make purchases anytime. Most consumers’ choice of mobile channel was an iPad. One of the major drivers of this e-commerce traffic was free shipping offers, which more than 92% of online retailers provided to customers.

Despite appeals and protests from the National Audit Office and the Labor Party to delay the sales/deal, the Government declared it finally on Sunday, after the agreement in the month of November, for all and everyone to see and watch. Mergers/acquisitions definitely help a company gain more power; and be it spreading into new habitats, or adaptation in different business scenarios like Appco Group, a change should always be welcomed!

And yes, about this ‘change’ (we mean, the deal), the National Audit Office is keen to investigate, whether the deal is ‘bang for the buck’, or…; but then, Northern Rock now carries a ‘sold-out’ tag. It was within £747 million and £1 billion that Richard Branson (Virgin Group, a global brand) and the UK Government had agreed it for…

During the credit crunch, the bank authorities spent about 1.4 billion pounds to keep things moving, which many say that the agreement does not recover; and this is one of the big reasons why the Labor Party and the National Audit Office were agitating for, and wanted things to be delayed…

Now, after the acquisition, the new chairman of the banking group will be David Clementi (ex-Deputy Governor, the Bank of England); and the chief-executive will be Jayne-Anne Gadhia, declares Virgin Group.

So, the UK can now gear-up to experience this ‘new-kind’ of bank…

The global economy is in crisis, and businesses across different parts of the globe are going for consultants and experts like Celica Marketing, and others to tide over the marketing crisis. In China, the slump in the manufacturing activities began only since November 2011 and is now a matter of concern for the nation that was ‘untouched’, so far; but the current tidings signal ‘stability’ and the market analysts are trying to placate, and say that the contraction is short-termed, and the country will recoup!

When some of the powerful nations (the U.S., U.K.) are struggling to overcome the economic recession, China it seems is the one that remained ‘mostly’ unharmed; after the manufacturing activity shrinkage, the economic experts and analysts say, everything is not calm or clear yet, stating ‘stability’, as they even called for the need of fiscal/monetary measures to get over the issue, and to spur the market.

However, with China, except for the speculations in the housing market, the signs of hope definitely came from many of the parts, be it the Chinese currency over the US dollar, the Central Bank with no adjustments on the key rates, or business entrepreneurs with small and medium-sized organizations that are doing wonders in keeping the economy stable and moving, without bankruptcies.

Marketers need to realise at first that they are living in an ever growing global economy. There are still, different cultural and legal requirements worldwide which are required to follow. You need to be sensitive to each region and country. Also, try to understand what those differences are and whether they are the things where you can take a common denominator and live with it across the world. Or check, is it worthwhile to acknowledge and work with the regional differences. Marketers like Oracle Advertisement have been working while meeting with these global differences.

The privacy concerns vary with the marketer. It can be that, the higher standard hurts a company wanting to prospect more than it does the company looking to do promotions, because they limit their access to those people.

Some companies which have got branches in different countries may have another struggle called, the data protection and its privacy struggle. And, we’ve got different regions with different rules, and you develop your marketing systems and marketing approaches based on those rules.

Until there’s an established privacy bill policy, it is one of those subjects where as long as there is concern by people or policymakers that consumers are at risk. It’s not going to go away until that risk is dealt with.