SHOPPING TRENDS: 2012 PRICE DROPS

2012 will be decreasing the prices of consumer goods that we all know and love: electronics and alcohol.

The famous iPad 2 will slowly lessen in price due to the rumored iPad 3 that should be released shortly. Apple wants to clear the shelves of the – now old – product to make room for the new and improved version of their tablet.

Also looking to drop in price is wine! Wine connoisseur, Robert Parker, says 2012 will be the “Age of the Buyer,” meaning there will be a stable or decline in wine prices. Wine companies are lowering their prices in order to ensure that even families with less disposable income will be able to purchase the fine alcohol. Of course, there are also economical factors such as competition with so many wines on the market. Competitors will do whatever it takes to sell.

We’ll be seeing Android tablets getting cheaper. Their product was no match for the iPad and with the very successful launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire priced at only USD $199, the company is taking action in an attempt to increase sales. The team at Android thinks it best to decrease the tablets price and hopefully reach their goal sales in that way.

Rental Car companies will not be increasing rental prices despite the increase in gas and airfare charges. They have decided to stabilize their prices because of large amounts of cars in stock as well as the increasing rate of competition in their field.

GPS units will be practically given away this year! Access to maps and directions are everywhere: it’s on your mobile phone, your tablet, and it’s probably already in your car. Expect GPS units to cost around USD $70 as they near extinction.

3D HDTVs will be down in price seeing as they didn’t do well when they were released in early 2011. Already, the price of a 55-inch 3D TV had dropped from USD $1499 to just USD $999 in a few months. This year, more companies are expected to introduce their 3D TVs also. With all the competition, the prices will definitely be lower.

Just because water, gas, and gold will be increasing in price, these price drops will make up for it!

WORK TRENDS: ‘HOW TO BE HAPPY AT WORK’

In work trends, 2012 proves to be the year to be happier at work. New ways can now help achieve positivity.

1. Develop social circles
   By meeting new people, you have a reason to go into the office in the morning. You’re not only going to do your work but socialize with – usually – great people! Remember, friends don’t fall into your lap. Make an effort to try to get to know them!
   
   
2. Look for opportunities of growth
   Don’t fall into a boring routine! Look for a new project to work on, get involved! It will give you a more positive perspective about work and you won’t be stuck in a pessimistic mood.
   
   
3. Help someone solve a problem
   If you help some of your co-workers when they are super busy you can count on them to return the favor when you need a helping hand.
   
   
4. Take on additional responsibility
   You might be thinking “why do I want more work than I already have?” In reality, knowing that your company needs you makes you feel important leading you to do a better job.
   
   
5. Take actions that increase good will
   Everyone wants good karma! By helping those around you it creates a more pleasant atmosphere and in turn makes you feel good about having helped someone out. Try giving out compliments during the day instead of insults! You will definitely see a shift in your mood at work.

ONLINE REPUTATION MANAGING: VITAL TO YOUR BUSINESS

Online Reputation Management is so important this year to ensure you do not get a bad reputation. It is imperative to watch out for what the World Wide Web has to say about your business because it can either make or break you.

Apple lost $9.9 billion in share value after one negative consumer report online when the iPhone 4 was released! Now, Online Reputation platforms have become a $3.1 billion industry and by 2013 they will be used by almost four million small to medium sized businesses.

Craig Agranoff, author of Do It Yourself Online Reputation Management, believes it’s all about taking proactive steps. He says “first thing you want to do is grab your domain name. Go to ‘go daddy’ and buy your actual name of your business or of yourself. The second thing you want to do is create some profiles across some high, noticeable sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter and make sure you also get your names there. A third and really good step is to create a blog on your company webpage and talk about the things that you’re known for. That will always bring you good results.”

It’s also very important to make sure that the first 10 search engine results for your business will always be positive however that job is becoming tougher as review websites are introduced, such as Yelp.com, that have enormous online communities. They provide up-to-date business information using rating systems and reviews.

A growing trend will involve more businesses attempting to sign up to these websites to try and control any negative publicity. Agranoff says “I think you’re going to see more and more businesses signing up to Yelp’s premium version and to these other review sites because it allows them a little bit more flexibility in interacting and removing bad comments. Many businesses don’t realize this but you can remove bad stuff from Google if you submit to them. It takes like six months but if something is untrue, and they deem it to be untrue, it can be removed and taken out of the search engine completely. You’re going to start seeing more and more business owners interacting with customers online and be a part of online forums.”

Craig Agranoff's book will teach you how to have search engines display only what you want them to reveal about you or how to remove information from search engines completely!

LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE: PIMSLEUR APPROACH

The Pimsleur Approach has been proven to be the fastest method to learning a new language as early as 10 days. It’s trusted by many and also used by the FBI.

Dr. Paul Pimsleur is the founder of the method. He was a language teacher for 20 years who realized how easy it was for children to learn new languages and so he tried to figure out how adults could learn in the same way. Studies have shown that each language uses only about 2500 words on a daily basis. To learn a language using this method, you practice these 2500 words and phrases over a 10-day period and voilà!

The way it works is you put the CD in your car or listen to it at home for just 30 minutes, once a day. The Pimsleur guarantee? You speak the language in 10 days or your money back!

BUSINESS TREND:
DIGITAL STORYTELLING

Experts say 2012 is the year of Digital Storytelling. Video is how people want to get their info and do their research now. No one has time to read. They want to watch it. I'm happy to hear that. This kind of storytelling is what I love.

Mynewsdesk is a major Swedish based digital media company for PR and brand engagement, pioneered in Sweden by journalists and web innovators.

COO Jonathan Bean is a PR specialist who says companies this year have to get the message out on video but they should be aware of the new messages. “We’re all still wanting to control that message. I think a fascinating guy on this is a guy called Paul Holmes. He says no longer to companies actually want a consistent message because actually companies and organizations are full of all sorts of voices. So actually, that consistent message is just not authentic. We’re not actually letting all of the voices across those companies have a say. I think it’s crucial that we do.”

EDUCATION TREND:
TREND ‘SCHOOL’

You can now get an education...in trends! Trend schools are popping up everywhere. Trends are so important today to businesses that more than 1,500 business executives are going to classes to learn what’s hot. They know they need to gain awareness and get strategic vision to connect with young consumers.

The Intelligence Group now gives classes in New York and LA. It's a consumer insights company that finds the emerging trends in popular culture and translates that information for companies, brands and institutions. The trend classes show what's happening with young consumers and why they're acting and re-acting.

In January and February Trend Schools in LA and New York are offering classes in Digital Media and Technology. They will focus on the unpredictable force that is driving Gen Y's changing consumption. The class in New York takes place February 7.

If you're interested, check them out online:
http://www.intelg.com/

WORK TREND:
‘EMPLOYEE FLEXIBILITY’

Flexibility is the new hot word as the traditional workday is transformed. According to Time Magazine, workplace flexibility has increased as businesses now allow employees, especially those that are younger, to work odd hours and telecommute.

More and more companies are creating workplace-flexibility programs because that's what employees are demanding. Gen Y's don't want the work environment their parents had. By 2025, 75% of the workplace will be occupied by Gen Y's. Large companies realize they have to accommodate employees personal lives if they want to keep them.

More traditional companies fear trusting their employees. They think without structure employees will be less engaged and less productive. In fact, we hear the exact opposite is true. A trusting work environment makes more loyal employees and increases efficiency.

Here are three reasons companies are into incorporating workplace-flexibility programs:

1. Gen Y workers won’t accept jobs where they can’t access Facebook.

Studies show that more than half of Gen Y employees would choose social-media freedom over a higher salary when considering a job offer.

2. Gen Y-ers value workplace flexibility over more money.
More than one-third (37%) of Gen Y workers would take a pay CUT if it meant more flexibility on the job. The reason Flexibility motivates workers to be more productive and loyal is because they feel respected.

3. Gen Y workers are always connected to jobs through technology.
No one is ever out of touch or off the clock anymore. Work life is merging with personal life. Work e-mail doesn’t stop for anything or anyone. Being away from the office doesn't necessarily mean getting less done.

UPDATE: RETAIL SALES

Here are some retail sales trends as we start the New Year. The economy is officially picking up steam. Retail sales in November totaled nearly 400 billion dollars and that is an increase of 6.7 per cent from a year ago. November was the 6th straight month retail sales have improved. Sales were way down during the peak of the recession in November 2007 but now retail sales are 5 and a half per cent higher than the pre recession peak. Consumer confidence is higher than it’s been in 6 months. The biggest things helping retail: Electronics sales: cell phones, iPads and TV's.

BUSINESS: NAB OPPORTUNITIES BEFORE YOUR COMPETITORS

In order for your business to be a success, you need to be steps ahead of your competition and leverage opportunities your competitors will miss. How do you get that edge? Here are some tips.

Watch your competitors
Take this seriously it is extremely important and overlooked. Don’t just react to competitors and adjust accordingly. This will drain you of your time and resources, and will make you miss new opportunities that emerge. Spend less time planning and more time analyzing your competitors. Think about things like: How can this competitor take market share and damage my business?

Pay attention to startups
People often don’t pay any attention at all to startups when analyzing competitors. When Craigslist and Google first started, most traditional newspaper companies didn’t pay any attention. Had they taken a closer look, they might not have been so impacted by their entrance in the industry. By keeping your eyes open you can also learn new ways to use technology and could discover new business models.

Most of your competitors will probably ignore the new guys, which will give you an edge.

Become unpredictable
Keep in mind, you’re not the only one analyzing and watching. If you’re doing it to them, you can be sure they are doing it to you. Be unpredictable. If you create consistent habits you will automatically be an easy target. Hide your moves as much as possible.

Innovate & Reinvent
You need to be constantly changing. This applies not only to your product but internal things as well like the profit model. Some companies have whole divisions devoted to this. Lucrative opportunities follow radical innovation.

The Customer is NOT Always Right
Asking customers what they want in the early stages of innovation might backfire. Customers don’t always know what they want. Consumers probably didn’t know they wanted the iPad before it was built. The lesson: figure out what you are going to create, then get the feedback from the customer – not before.

BUSINESS TREND:
GIVING BACK

Generation Y consumers are looking to give back when it comes to their shopping. Companies have caught on to the trend and are creating business models that are focused on giving back and that are socially responsible.

Community Collection: Community Collection is a flash sale site that donates 20% from every purchase to a worthy cause. President Brooks Cook connects hot designers like Alexander Wang, Helmut Lan and Alexis Bittar with charities like Flying Kits, Partners in Health and World Wildlife Fund. The website is divided into 10 categories of causes and is partnered with over 200 brands. www.communitycollection.com

Cycle House: This cycle studio in LA promises to provide two meals for a needy person each time a student completes a 1000-calorie burning class. http://www.cyclehousela.com 

Soul Kitchen: This restaurant is part of Jon Bon Jovi’s JBJ Soul Foundation. It is a restaurant with a priceless menu in New Jersey. People donate what they can or donate their time by working in the kitchen, waiting tables or washing dishes.  Each meal is healthy and locally sources. www.jbjsoulkitchen.org

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR YOUR BUSINESS: HOW TO BE FASCINATING

If you are a business and using social media, your main goal is to be seen and more importantly, to be revisited. The only way you are going to attract visitors and repeat visitors is by establishing yourself as an expert of a fascinating subject matter. The key here is to provide content constantly which isn’t always easy to do, and it takes up a lot of time.

Here are four tools to help:

1. StumbleUpon. This service allows you identify what subjects you’re interested in. It will then take you to pages that other StumbleUpon users have liked in that subject. Cuts down your research time tremendously. www.stumbleupon.com

2. SmartBrief. Once you subscribe on this site, they have subject matter experts doing the research and sending it directly to you.  www.smartbrief.com

3. Alltop. This one is a great source for free information. It has 900 subjects to choose from. It also presents the five most recent stories in the topic you choose as well as best websites and blogs about the subject. www.alltop.com

How do you determine whether you are successful in your social media efforts? If people are re-tweeting it, favoring it, sharing it, or emailing it, you have done your job at being fascinating.

MARKETING TREND:
TARGETTING ACTIVE 50+

Marketers are now taking a different approach when targeting 50+ consumers. They are now into showing seniors as active aging citizens. This is groundbreaking. They're saying goodbye to certain things in their ads and adding others. Goodbye bingo, hello wellness programs, ice cream socials, drawing, painting, traveling, belly dancing and other life-enhancing activities.

That’s the message from many savvy marketers of organizations today targeted to 50+ consumers. Those organizations are winners of the first-ever International Council on Active Aging (ICAA) Rebranding Aging awards, which honor marketing campaigns in three major categories that present “positive and realistic views of aging.”

CONSUMER TREND:
‘MOBILE PAYMENT’

A new lifestyle trend picking up quickly is paying from your cellular phone. It’s a hot trend especially when it comes to being on the run. Starbucks is one of the leaders of this trend. It launched an app that allows mobile payments, it has a whopping 26 million such transactions on iOS, BlackBerry and Android, that means one in four Starbucks card transactions is done via mobile.

“2011 was a year of great mobile exploration and expansion for Starbucks and an opportunity to give our customers a new way to connect with Starbucks through a variety of mobile experiences,” said Adam Brotman, SVP and GM Starbucks Digital Ventures. “The customer response to our mobile apps has been phenomenal. Not only are they using their phone as a wallet, but as a connection point to Starbucks as they manage their Starbucks Card accounts, send eGifts and get into the holiday spirit with the Starbucks Cup Magic app.”

Starbucks is the perfect contender to launch such an initiative, because people feel safe storing their personal information in their app.

The mobile-payments initiative has built momentum recently: In the nine weeks after it was released, there were three million transactions. But in the past nine weeks, there have been 6 million. Starbucks presented the stats to emphasize its contention that 2011 was the year of mobile for the company. Experts predict mobile bill payments will reach $214 billion  in 2015 – 2010 saw $16 billion.

We are getting closer and closer to a cashless society. With the use of cards and the increasing use of mobile payment, the use of cash will keep declining.

HOLLYWOOD TREND:
‘EROTIC ECONOMY’

There is a trend now in Hollywood called the “erotic economy.” Sex and beauty are now traded as a commodity like never before. There is a new dating site now called whatsyourprice.com.  It introduces rich men to beautiful, gorgeous women but Instead of paying a monthly fee to the website, users give their cash directly to those they want to date, and the bidding goes into the tens, hundreds and even thousands of dollars.

Today, there is truly a merge of love, sex and commerce. The idea that sex and beauty should be traded just like any other commodity is gaining capital. The annual value of the global beauty industry at about $340 billion. In the book: Honey money: The Power of Erotic Capital, the author says erotic capital isn't just a sign of wealth and power, it is a personal asset that can be traded for those things, no different from a university degree, a good professional reputation or a strong network of friends or acquaintances.

According to Honey Money, good-looking junior employees who sleep with their bosses to get ahead are neither exploited nor exploitative: they're just engaging in a simple exchange of pleasing aesthetics for social introductions and mentoring. Ladies who lunch on their husbands dime, are no less powerful than women who bring in 60 per cent of their household's income as long as they keep their erotic allure.

The author says: if beauty and sex appeal are goods that people want and are willing to pay for, why not charge for them? In a recent New York Times article, University of Texas economist Daniel S. Hamer-mesh (author of Beauty Pays: Why Attractive People Are More Successful) calculated that the difference in lifetime earnings between a unattractive worker and a relatively attractive one came to - $240,000 thousand.

CONSUMER TREND:
‘TRADING DOWN’

There's now a trend called “trading down.” Seems women are spending less on their luxury skincare products. Today, about 60% of consumers are trading down. L'Oreal says this past year their department store and specialty store sales are down but cosmetics sold in grocery stores or mega stores are up. L'Oreal, owns luxury brands YSL and Lancome and ''budget'' brands Garnier and Maybelline. Seems we are still shopping for cosmetics but we're shopping differently. We buy cheaper or we buy luxury brands online now. They now bring new products to the market faster and retailers have to be quicker to put them in front of customers.

BUSINESS:
HOW TO WRITE OFF STARTUP COSTS

Most of the time, starting up a business requires laying out big funds before you start seeing any revenue.  A lot of start-up costs are deductible, but there are also expenses before you open the doors such as purchasing a business or franchise or other capital costs.

Here are examples of start up costs that are deductible:

• surveys and analysis of market potential
• travel costs to look at business sites
• advertising
• employee training
• consulting and accounting fees

Any cost that was paid or incurred after October 22, 2004 can be deducted up to $5000 this year. That is if the business starts in 2011.  If there are costs of over $5000, the limit is reduced by one dollar for each extra cost. If expenses are more than $55,000, no immediate deduction is allowed and can be claimed during a period of 180 months.
So if you’re starting a business or are thinking of doing so, make sure to keep record of what you’re spending on and be sure to save your receipts. Keep notes.

BUYING TREND:
‘DISCRETE CONSUMERISM’

Consumers today are shying away from traditional brands and labels – a trend they are calling “Discrete Consumerism.” Starbucks, for one has disguised one its chains as an India espresso bar, and even marketing-laden Absolute has gone label-less. What we are seeing is that these companies are trying to be different and creative, as consumers aren’t affected by generic, big brand marketing anymore. They are going after specific groups rather than the masses. It is a different way to connect with consumers.

Another reason for the trend: consumers are seeing big brands as the reason for our rough economic times and have developed a very anti-corporation attitude.  The big companies are being criticized for doing little to help the economy – with tons of cash and very little hiring. The recession has opened consumers’ eyes to new products they wouldn’t have considered before.

Consumers now want products that are unique, catered to them as individuals, and that are financially responsible. Conspicuous consumption is a thing of the past.

BUSINESS:
FORBES RANKS CANADA #1

The best country for business according to Forbes magazine is Canada. Why did they come to this conclusion? Canadian banks came out profitable and the strongest in the world after the financial crisis unlike those in US and Europe of course. Canada is ranked top 5 for investor protection. Canada moved to top spot – up from number four last year. It took Denmark’s spot, which now dropped this year to number five but when ranking for tax burden Canada ranks ninth. Forbes looked at 11 factors when ranking the countries: property rights, innovation, taxes, technology, corruption, freedom (personal, trade and monetary), red tape, investor protection and stock market performance.

BUSINESS TREND:
TURNING TWITTER POSTS INTO SALES

At first glance, a site consisting of status updates seems useless, but it has so much valuable information if you're a business owner. Chris Emergui is the owner of the BAM Strategy, a Canadian interactive marketing agency. A lot of business owners will ask “what is the point of this?” Businesses can use the “twitter search” feature on the website to their advantage. You can look up your competitors or see what other people are saying about you. By seeing what people talk about you can get ahead on different brands that are potentially going to happen.

The way each company uses it depends on the business. For example: Dell has something called the Dell Outlet. It sells all their products online and tweet about products are available and what products are coming out. Its goal is to sell products. For a lot of other businesses, it's just a way to humanize themselves - to show that they are real people behind the product. Also, it gives the consumer a voice.

What do you need to know for your company when using Twitter? Some Twitter users get caught up with their own brand and plugging. However, what works really well is to not always talk about your own brand, to understand who your customer is, and talk about other things they may be interested in.

www.bamstrategy.com

CELEBRITY TREND:
ONLINE SALES

Here in Hollywood, celebrities have their online sales going full steam ahead for all the products they hawk. Experts now say the thing that makes online shopping so effortless, often leads you to spend more than you meant to. To buy a shirt in a store, you have time to think about the purchase as you walk around and try on etc. Online, it's one click. On top of that, studies show that paying for a purchase with a credit card, as opposed to hard cash causes consumers to spend 20-40% more, because they're distanced from what they're spending. It’s even easier when your credit cards are saved in a site’s system. A recent study found that back-to-school shoppers who bought online spent 40% more than if they were pushing a cart.

WORK TRENDS:
NEW STATE-OF-THE-ART WORKSTATION

There is a trend now to mixing up your workstation. Recent study findings that show that sitting for too long will most likely shorten your life. The trend now: more employers are providing adjustable stand/sit workstations and treadmill desks. The findings come from the American Cancer Society. It found that women who sit for more than six hours a day were about 40% more likely to die earlier than those who sat fewer than three hours per day. Men were about 20% more likely to die.

The American Journal of Epidemiology published another study finding that those who work a sitting job have almost twice the risk of a specific type of colon cancer. Here’s the sad part: exercise cannot undo damage that is already done. It can prevent further damage but once the damage is done, it’s done. Sitting for several hours each day is bad for you. Just like smoking is bad for you, it doesn’t matter whether you do healthy activities as well.

You should mix non computer-related tasks into the workday, so that you're moving and using different muscle groups. More people are now adapting their workspaces by installing standing and adjustable desks that allow for switching between sitting and standing positions, and treadmill desks, which operate at low walking speeds.

As far as exercise guidelines needed today, here is what is what they say: moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity for a minimum of 30 minutes on five days each week or vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity for a minimum of 20 minutes on three days each week.

BUSINESS:
CHOOSING VALUABLE PROJECTS

Does a long-term expensive project turn out to be valuable enough to you when it's done? You need to make sure of this before you dive into it – you’ll be sorry if you don’t.

Here's what the experts say to consider:

1. THE TIME IT TAKES: most look only if they have the money to complete the project - what they don't realize is they need the luxury of time as well. If your cash is going to run out in 3 months, but the project takes five months, it doesn't matter how genius the idea is - your company won't make it to the end.

2. HARD COSTS VS. UNSEEN COSTS: It's easy to calculate the hard costs: new employees, new tools or other resources requites. What isn't so easy is calculating the opportunity cost. Make sure not to overlook this. Ask yourself: What am I giving up to pursue this project? Could you be doing other better more efficiently things with your company? There are usually many options for growth in a company. Is this project the best choice?

3. REVIEW YOUR PRIORITIES: If your company doesn't have the resources to do absolutely everything possible to grow revenues - that is where priorities kick in. Make sure to be clear on your ultimate goals, and pursue only the projects that will get you there. Don't fall for a sales pitch that looks neat - always maintain direction.

4. DON'T BE DISTRACTED BY COMPLAINTS: It's easy to jump into a consuming project when you hear of a complaint but don't lose sight of your ultimate goal because of one loud bug. Always discuss it with the team and make sure to attend to it when the time is right. If it needs immediate attention - fine. If not, let it go, get back it when it's time.

MONEY TREND:
FINANCIAL THERAPISTS

There is a new breed of doctors now. The trend now is to have a financial psychologist. It’s a new kind of therapist. Maybe more money really does mean more problems. Financial psychologists go past helping you budget – they get to the root of your money issues.  They don’t look at your assets and debts, budget and portfolio. They look at why you manage and spend money the way you do.

Money can cause so many issues between loved ones. The most common reason for couples to fight is over finances. The therapist will help you discover if there is an emotional issue causing you to spend a lot of money – or if there is something in your upbringing that is influencing how you handle money now.

This kind of therapy is based on the idea that good money management is as much emotional as it is practical.  Often there are strong emotions of fear and shame associated with money – so the problem is not in your bank account, it’s in your head. People’s beliefs about money are formed between the ages of 5 and 12.

BUSINESS:
TIPS FROM THE EXPERTS

The experts say the purpose of a business is to create and keep your customer. Make sure whatever you are selling to your customer is of high quality and make sure you maintain your reliability (some thing that is overlooked too often in my opinion.) Take care of the customers you have, with the products and services that made you successful then look for more things you can do for those same customers, within what you are good at doing. Be careful when you expand because with opportunity, comes risk.

Always charge a fair price - not too high, not too low. Deliver what customers expect in quality, service and timeliness. Manage your cash flow very carefully. Running out of cash kills more small businesses than anything else. Keep your eye on competitors and do not expand into new areas too rapidly.

Hire the right people. That means people with the skills, experience and attitude you want (a very important, often overlooked point.) When you realize you have hired someone wrong, do not delay in dealing with it. If they are not making it, do the right thing and cut them loose. You’ll be doing them a favor too.

BUSINESS:
SOCIAL MEDIA AND YOUR BUSINESS

There is a new breed of doctors now. The trend now is to have a financial psychologist. It’s a new kind of therapist. Maybe more money really does mean more problems. Financial psychologists go past helping you budget – they get to the root of your money issues.  They don’t look at your assets and debts, budget and portfolio. They look at why you manage and spend money the way you do.

Money can cause so many issues between loved ones. The most common reason for couples to fight is over finances. The therapist will help you discover if there is an emotional issue causing you to spend a lot of money – or if there is something in your upbringing that is influencing how you handle money now.

This kind of therapy is based on the idea that good money management is as much emotional as it is practical.  Often there are strong emotions of fear and shame associated with money – so the problem is not in your bank account, it’s in your head. People’s beliefs about money are formed between the ages of 5 and 12.

BUSINESS:
SOCIAL MEDIA AND YOUR BUSINESS

You all know that an online presence is essential these days for business. However, just having the account is not enough. You need to know how to use it effectively if you're going to use it seriously for work.

Here’s what you need:

Know your community: Don’t focus on what you want to tell. Focus on what the customers want to hear— or share. Think people first, content second. This is so important for all businesses I say.

Offer something exclusive: Offer something unique, sneak previews, new products, or special offers.

Get to know them. Encourage participation by having them ask you questions. Reply to questions and comments, especially the negative ones. They are there to help you grow.

Build on what works: Facebook’s Page Insights tells you where your fans are coming from, what days and time of day they visit your pages, and what types of content generated the most engagement. It’s like what Google Analytics does for your site.

BUSINESS ADVICE:
HOW TO LAND THE JOB

I’ve got 10 steps to take before your interview to increase your chances of getting hired. You may be talented and most qualified, but you won’t land the job if you don’t make a good first impression at your interview.

1. Review your resume: Revisit your resume from the point of view of the interviewer. It will give you insight into the company’s needs.

2. Go on-line: Visit the company web site and start taking notes - Corporate officers, the latest press releases, the company's annual report. Gather all the information you can.

3. Study: Knowledge is power. Knowledge will make you more confident in your attitude and your answers. It shows the interviewer you are proactive.

4. Rehearse your interview: Write a script. You know the typical questions you’ll be asked. Prepare thoughtful witty answers. Be prepared to describe past positions, responsibilities and accomplishments. It is not the time for modesty.

5. Develop your list of questions: The interview is a meeting to get to know you – not an interrogation. Make sure your first question is not “How much do I get paid?” Instead, ask questions that show you understand the job and the company's needs.

6. Dress for success: The conservative business suit is the way to go. Send it to the dry cleaners if needed – look crisp. It should be black, blue or grey.

7. Get cut or coiffed: Looks do matter on a first impression. Look like a success, feel like a success and you will exude that.

8. Practice positive visualization: In the days leading up to the interview, picture yourself sitting opposite your potential employer. Picture yourself relaxed, comfortable, at the top of your game. Play that clip over and over in your mind. Your confidence during an interview should be obvious and genuine.

9. Gather your materials: The day before the interview, place all your materials in a briefcase. Bring extra copies of your resume in an envelope and a pad and pencil to take notes. Bring your address book and copies of your business card. If you've been asked to give additional information, like a school transcript, make sure you've got clean copies ready to hand over.

10. Sleep well: Once you’ve taken all the steps to prepare, be sure to get a good night’s rest. Relax. Be confident that you took all the steps necessary to prepare.

Not every interview will be a success – but don’t take it personally. Just make sure you take all the measures you can to be as prepared and confident as you could be.

WORK:
HOW TO QUIT THE RIGHT WAY

If you’re thinking of leaving your job, make sure you do it the right way. Leaving on a positive note is crucial. You never know when the good reference will come into use. Make sure you make a professional and classy exit. More importantly, leaving gracefully shows integrity.
Here’s how to do it:

Give a lot of notice: Give as much notice as possible so your past employers can make arrangements. Your future company should respect this and they'll expect the same from you down the road. When you have only weeks or two months left, it's tempting to mentally check out. Keep your head in the game as long as possible.

Say a proper goodbye: People will feel more valued if you say goodbye to them properly. It's rude not to. A simple, "It's been wonderful working with you, and I hope to see you soon," is perfect.

Write everything down: You want the business to blossom without you. Do everything you can to set it up in your absence. A business that keeps thriving without you shows your hard work and systems you put in place. Write everything down for the staff – it’s not useful if it’s only in your head.

Give your successor your blessing (and the dirt): Not too much dirt. Don’t gossip - but it's a nice move to warn your replacement what they are getting into. Help them be prepared to do the best job they can. You want the business to boom.

Keep in touch: Make sure you fill your address book before you head out. Who knows who you'll want to call or shoot an e-mail to in the future.

SHOPPING TRENDS:
PERKS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT

There is so much your credit card can do for you, I thought I’d highlight a few great things:

1. Gold and platinum MasterCards, Visa Signature cards and American Express cards all extend the manufacturer's warranty by up to one year - that is if you use the card to purchase the item.

2. If your laptop is stolen from your hotel room, MasterCard will reimburse you if you used a gold or platinum card to pay for the room. If your luggage doesn't arrive when you do, it will reimburse you for the cost of replacing essential items.  MasterCard also covers the cost to repair or replace damaged luggage.

3. Some cardholders get free admission to 150 museums in 85 cities on the first weekend of the month. Museums include: New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and Chicago's Art Institute.

4. A lot of credit cards offer concierge services, as you likely use, but did you know it’s 24 hours a day? Visa Signature and MasterCard World Elite cards give you a 24-hour concierge service that helps you with restaurant reservations, party planning, travel arrangements and getting tickets to sold-out events.

RETAIL TREND:
VELVET ROPE SHOPPING

A trend that will likely take retail in Hollywood by storm is something nicknamed the velvet rope trend. That means, only a few can get in to the store or only a few can have it or buy it. It's exclusivity on a mass scale. Target is the trendsetting leader this month.

Target had its very successful Missoni Madness. Just two hours before the doors opened, they offered low priced pieces from the Italian design company. You could buy these limited edition goods online. People went nuts for this. Before noon, everything was sold out on target.com. They ran out of stock and the online site crashed. Maybe this sell-out was strategic marketing by Target or maybe it wasn't. However, it's definitely something to consider for your own business.

Walmart in Canada just had a sale on DVD's for 19.99. Each store had 200 of them in Quebec and they sold out in one day. It gets people into the store and gets people to your website to buy other things too.

BUSINESS TREND:
MISSION STATEMENTS NEEDED FOR CUSTOMERS

Want to get your clients to do what you want? Studies show that people don’t listen to words like you think they do. They forget conversations. The question is: how do you get clients to respond to your ads when words are not tangible? Marketing communication has to be structured in a way that keeps your messages and conversations alive in the mind of the consumer. The key: having a strong, simple mission statement - easy to understand and easy to remember. Get to the point.

Think of Dominos - they get you your pizza in 30 minutes. Or FedEx- they deliver your package over night. These are easy messages to remember and to build a promise around.

What you might find challenging is taking the feeling and concept of your company and translating it into simple words. Experts suggest to try a collage. It will help you take what's in your head and start translating it to a message that will be easy to use and remember in conversations. Take the ideas out of your head and onto the paper. Then you must know where and how to get to your customers.

HTR sat down with Christina Brown, Creative Director and Partner at Cloud Raker ad agency. Brown says talking to the customer via advertising is completely different now than it was 10 years ago. Traditional forms of advertising that were used like TV ads, radio spots and print, are still useful today but it isn’t the core anymore. If you think about what those media are, they really are a disruptive media. You’re driving along the highway and you’re disrupted by a billboard or you’re watching the game and a commercial comes on and disrupts what you’re doing. That type of advertising is intrusive to people. In order to overcome the fact that you’re being intrusive you have to try really hard to be relevant.

Today things are different because we are interacting with brands, rather than just being spoken to. Advertisers are no longer standing on a podium and talking down at the customer. You’re actually in a position that with all these online venues, you’re trying to sustain and maintain a relationship with the customer. The big difference is, you no longer are going to interrupt your customers, the consumers are now coming towards the brand to engage with the brand. That is a massive and fundamental change.

Make sure you deliver your clear message through interactive communication with your customer. You will see they will start coming to you - and you will likely start seeing the results you intended with your advertising efforts.

Here are some more tips to get the customer to do what you want:

1. Keep it simple: Make sure that your advertisements and your Web page have a clean design. Make sure it looks engaging.

2. Use basic language: Your goal is to communicate with them. Using technical language will only confuse and push them away.

3. Keep conversations with customers going: Use blogs, social media and events to be in conversations with customers about the things that are important to them. If you canfor your business, use handwritten notes to show customers you heard what they said.

4. Appear in unexpected but related places: Be in places that surprise your customer and will keep them asking questions. Partner with a complementary brand or support a charity your customers care about.

MARKETING TREND:
CELEBRITIES ACTUALLY USING YOUR PRODUCT

The trend now for businesses is to get a celeb to like your product and use it. As you see daily in the tabloids, products are now advertised by authentic use. Want to make it happen for you? Match your product to the right celebrity and make sure you get the product in their hands. Find them through their agent or publicist. Use Google.Write the agent and or publicist a letter telling them why this product is perfect for this client to use. It's not that easy to get but it’s always worth a try.

MONEY TREND:
INSURANCE COMPANIES HELP PLANNING

The trend now is insurance companies stepping in to help you plan more effectively.Almost half of Canadians (44%) with a group savings retirement plan, don't know what their future income will beand 41% don't know if their current rate of retirement saving is on target to meet their future needs. The reason why Canadians are so out of the loop?  We simply don't understand the statements. Standard Life is now setting trends by changing the way they do things. Standard Life is a long-term savings and investment company. In Canada, it's been doing business for 178 years. With about 2,000 employees, it provides long-term savings, investment and insurance solutions to more than 1.4 million Canadians, including group benefit and retirement plan members.

Anna Del Balso is with Research and Intelligence at Standard Life. She says we are spending a lot less time concentrating on our retirement than we should. Over 60% of Canadians spend less than ten minutes reviewing their statements. You get about four statements a year so that’s less than 40 minutes. People spend more time deciding which restaurant to go to than deciding what to do about their retirement, which, in most cases, will last over 25 years. 

So why aren't we doing retirement planning? Surveys showed three primary reasons as to why Canadians don’t spend time reviewing their statements. First, they don’t understand them. 36% of Canadians said they don’t understand their statements. The second is they find their statements boring. The third is that they don’t think about retirement planning because it’s so far off in the future.

Standard Life is now helping clients understand their statements and helps with retirement planning.It's created statements that were visually appealing with graphs, colors and easy to skim through. They are easy to read and understand without the use of any jargon. They are informative and instructive and have personalized instructions. 

It's really about what's important to the individual member. So if let's say their investment mix is not in line with their goals, it will tell you that in plain English. It's quick, to the point and all on one page. To reach a wider audience, it decided to go viral. Since the company can't be in everyone's kitchen walking them through the statements, it decided to use the most popular form of communication today – the Internet, YouTube in particular. Standard Life developed three short, action-oriented videos. Each video focused on one of the three basic questions that Standard Life believes are fundamental to evaluate one’s financial situation. How am I doing? Am I on track? What can I do to reach my retirement goals? By going through the short videos, Canadians can make better use of the time they spend on retirement planning. The videos help you keep focused on what’s important to look for.

The videos can be found on Standard Life’s YouTube channel www.youtube.com/standardlife.ca

BUSINESS TIP:
‘BRANDING’ IS KEY

The valuable marketing tool to take advantage of for business if you haven’t already is branding. Branding is the essence of your company and what you stand for. It’s what differentiates you. Establish your brand, yes, but you must make consumers aware of it. Brands have to be remembered by consumers to be effective. Michael Kaufman is Lead Developer Starmedia Communications, an advertising firm, specializing in branding, based in Canada but operates internationally. Kaufman says, in this day in age, interactivity with consumers is the way to be remembered. It’s important to constantly be in the public eye. That has always been the case for any brand whether it’s 100 years old or not. However, today the game has changed – the interactivity with the customers is where it really makes a difference. If you can constantly be communicating, replying or interactive with potential clients or current consumers, you’re doing the right thing.

Here are four tips to building your strong brand:

1. AUNTHENTICITY: Develop a brand mission. It is the “why?" of your business. Deliver on your promise.

2. CONSISTENCY: Communicate your brand through every customer experience, everyday. Be out there, they need to see you constantly.

3.BRANDING IS MORE THAN DESIGN: Extend your brand to all areas of your business. Put them in line with your mission.

4. REVAMP: With such a high paced society today, brands need to stay current and relevant. Revamping is important because like people, companies need to change. People are always changing, always evolving – they are never stagnant. When companies have good brand awareness they have good customer awareness. What they are doing is changing with their clients. If you decide to revamp your brand - be sure to maintain consistency.

www.starmedia.ca

SHOPPING TREND:
‘FREENIUM’

There’s a new trend word when it comes to shopping called Freemium. It’s a combination of the words “free” and “premium.” The Freemium model involves offering a basic product or service free of charge while charging a premium for advanced features, or related products and services. The catch is offering a new feature or service that really is worth more than the free version. Many businesses try to extract value within the first 30 days and then bail out without creating value over multiple engagements. You need to give the right offers to the right customers at the right times to be successful.

NEW OFFICE DESK:
‘TREADDESK’

An office gadget that has been making headlines is the TreadDesk. Are you tired of sitting in a chair all day? The TreadDesk lets you stand up and walk while you work at your desk right in front of you. The TreadDesk has been designed to let you walk at a slow pace of only 1-2 mph. Most TreadDesk users can type, write and talk on the phone just as well as they can when sitting.

Experts say once you stand up and start moving, your brain operates at a much higher level as blood flow increases, making it easier to focus, increasing productivity, alertness and creativity.

BUILDING TREND:
LEED ACCREDITATION HOTTER THAN EVER

LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) accredited buildings are hotter than ever today. It's the certification that recognizes that a construction project or building used only environmentally friendly building practices during construction or remodeling, but reducing a carbon footprint, comes with a higher price tag. The reason why it tends to be more expensive is because of the accreditation process to get the certification for the building. Consultants typically are not familiar and neither are the people building the building – they need to take more time. As well, the building materials for a LEED building are more difficult to find thus more costly.

Luciano D'Orio, President of Canada's Terramont Real Estate Services predicts that what is going to happen over the next few years is that the pressure is going to be so great to build LEED accredited buildings, that someone who doesn’t is basically going to be out of the game. Tenants want it. A lot of the buildings that have been put up recently have been LEED accredited and so have a lot of the buildings that the federal government has put up. 

Even though this building costs more to build upfront, we see savings in the longrun. There is a 25-30% energy efficiency saving when you choose LEED over a traditional building. The yearly reoccurring costs are lower with this type of building.

www.terramont.com

MONEY:
HOW TO GET RICH

How do you get rich? Doesn’t everyone want to know? There is not one template that works every time, but there are many similarities between everyone who has gotten there. One thing’s for sure: you need to be ready when opportunity presents itself and more importantly SEIZE that opportunity. Change and uncertainty create opportunity. Times like we are facing now are perfect to start getting ahead financially.

First, here is what not to do:

There are no shortcuts - none. With all of this craziness in the stock and financial markets, there will be scams popping up left and right. The less money you have, the more likely someone will come at you with some scheme. The schemes will guarantee returns, use multi level marketing, or be something crazy that is now “backed by the US Government”. Ignore them. Remember this: if a deal is a great deal, they aren’t going to share it with you.There are no shortcuts.

Now here’s what to do:

Save your money. Every penny you can.Cut up your credit cards. If you use a credit card, you don’t want to be rich. Getting rich requires discipline. Be a smartshopper. Have cash available. Buy and hold is a sucker’s game for you. This market is a perfect example. Right at the very moment when cash creates unbelievable opportunity, those who followed the buy and hold strategy have no cash. They can’t or won’t sell into markets this low, that kills the entire point of buy and hold.Cash is king for those wanting to get rich.

The second rule is: invest time in yourself. Know everything about your business and make sure it’s something you really love to do. Doesn’t matter what it is.Whatever your favorite hobby or passion is, get a job in the business that supports it.

BUSINESS ESSENTIAL:
LEADERSHIP

In order to run a business effectively you need good leadership.

If you run a business, you surely know this first hand. Here are 20 defining traits.

1. Honesty. Always do the honest thing. It makes employees feel like they know where they stand with you at all times.

2. Focus. Know where you're going and have a strong stated mission to lead people on. You need strong focus and stay the course. It’s vital

3. Passion. Live, breathe, eat and sleep your mission. It’s contagious and your employees will tag along.

4. Respect. Do not play favorites. Treat everyone,no matter what position they have the same.

5. Excellent persuasion abilities. People have to believe in you and your credibility. Image is everything and the belief people have in you, your product and your mission.

6. Confidence. If you don't believe in yourself, no one will.

7. Clarity. The only way you can get confidence is by becoming really, really clear about who you are and what is most important to you. Clarity helps you say "yes" to the right things and "no" to others.

8. Care. Care not only about your business but also the people in it and the people impacted by it.

9. Integrity. People with integrity are people who are respected and worth listening to.

10. Compassion. Talented people want to work for leaders and organizations that truly care about their employees and the communities in which they operate. It’s more than just managing the balance sheet.

11. Engagement. Great business leaders are able to get all members of their teams engaged. Offer them a challenge, seek their ideas and contributions and provide them with recognition.

12. Celebration. With so many long hours, people need to take the time to celebrate their successes to recharge their batteries. If not you’re creating a burnout environment.

13. Humility. True leaders have confidence but are not loud about it.

14. Empowering. Make employees powerful, not diminished and powerless.

15. Collaborative. True leaders ask for input and feedback from those around them so that everyone feels like a part of the process.

16. Communicative. True leaders share their vision or strategy with those around them.

17. Fearlessness. True leaders are not afraid to take risks or make mistakes. True leaders make mistakes born from risk.

18. Genuine. You need to be clear on what your values are and must be consistent in applying them.

19. Self-awareness. You need to be clear on what your strengths are and what complementary strengths you need from others.

20. Leverage team strengths. Don’t expect anyone to change – they never will. Know everyone’s strengths and leverage them.

WORK TRENDS:
GOOD JOB RELATIONSHIPS INCREASE LIFE SPAN

We all know that good relationships with co-workers and a supportive work environment are positive things but new research finds that these things can actually add years to your life. A new study shows that people who are unhappy at work were 2.4 times more likely to die within a 20-year period. If you think about it – we spend most of our waking hours at work and we don’t have time to meet our friends during the weekdays. Work should be a place where you get the necessary emotional support because even if you’re getting it outside of work, it’s not enough.

These effects are most significant among employees aged 38 to 45. The study also shows men do better when they are given more control at work, while women with the same amount of control actually had shorter lifespans. Women who reported significant control over their tasks and workflow were 70 percent more likely to die during the 20-year period. This may be because of the stress to be tough at work, and still have stressful duties at home.

Being happy at work is a huge productivity booster and happy people work better with others, are more creative, have more energy, and they get sick less often, learn faster and worry less about mistakes. However, the study can’t answer whether the happy, healthy employees is the chicken or the egg. Are these employees happy because of their work environment? Or are they happy already and does their good energy change how they perceive their work place?

BUSINESS TREND:
TODAY’S BOOMING CAREERS

Business is booming for certain careers these days. Professionals are in demand in many areas such as skilled trades, financial advisors, college & university teachers, IT, HR managers, nurses and pharmacists. Construction is also up. Anita Walicki is a Canadian based expert job recruiter with Hays Specialist Recruitment, an England based company with almost 14 thousand jobs in 25 countries. She sees that the jobmarket is better than we've seen it in a long time. The Canadian employment market is actually quite hot. Job seekers who were reluctant to leave their existing jobs before, as well as the unemployed worker, have actually begun casting for new opportunities. Between December 2009 and 2010, recruiters have seen a 17% increase in applications for every opening. Jobs are on the decline in some industries: print media, public sector and postal services all victims of cutbacks and evolving technology.

Employers have changed their approach to screening applicants. The trend today: employers are more accepting of lapses on the CV. They don’t make a fuss over frequent jobs changes or long periods without work. As a candidate, there is no need to stretch he truth. Just be frank and straightforward.

Here are tips if you're looking for work. Give it all you have, all day long. Seeking work is really a job in itself and hard one at that. Start in the morning. Consult all the media for any opportunities. Do make sure that everyone knows that you’re looking – it’s not a time to be timid or hide away. Every friend, neighbor and contact may constitute the link that you need for your next opportunity and perhaps for the next job. Be proactive. If you post your CV and any one of the online job sites, update it frequently and keep it moving to the top so the recruiters will know that you are still actively looking.

MONEY TREND:
STARBUCKS CEO MAKING HEADWAY

Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks made news suggesting tough measures to tell Washington they aren't doing their job well when it comes to money. He called on CEO's to stop their political donations, saying - get them where it counts, in the pocket. Since all they care about is getting reelected then stopping their cashflow might wake them up.

He wanted all donations stopped until the Congress and President Obama provide a disciplined, long-term debt and deficit plan.

Now, Schultz says many executives are taking the pledge. Over 100 so far. He and his allies recently launched a website to promote the cause. It contains, among other things, Schultz’s Letter to America.

During 2008 elections cycle, over $5.2 billion was spent by candidates here in the US and by political parties and interest groups.Lets see how much headway he makes.

MONEY TREND:
INVESTING IN GOLD

With recent rollercoaster stock market, gold is hot right now - an asset you should definitely consider adding to your portfolio. HTR sat down with Greg Chamandy, Executive Chairman of Richmont Mines, a gold company with over 20 years experience in exploration, mine development and production.

Chamandy says gold, in this market, is the number one best investment. What’s going on in the world right now is the result of a giant expansion of credit that lasted over the last 30 years that is now coming to an end. Historically, in the history of the world, and in the history of economics, and the end of every credit cycle the number one asset in times like this has been gold.

If investing in gold is something you're considering, here's a tip: buy physical gold. Not a certificate, not GLD ETF (exchange traded fund), but actually find a gold bullion dealer that has been in business for many years and buy physical gold by the ounce or in the form of gold coins.

The reason: It's the only asset that doesn't have counter party risk. Having physical gold, you're not relying on anybody else. When all else fails, history has shown that gold has always held its value. Even for people who aren't gold bugs, or who aren't 100% interested in gold, it's been proven in many studies that having an exposure of at least 10% gold in an overall portfolio helps you to overall improve the performance of your portfolio and also reduce risk.

www.richmont-mines.com

REAL ESTATE TREND:
MOVING TO BIG CITIES

People everywhere are moving to big cities. The United Nations expects that city residents worldwide will increase over the next 20 years from 3.2 billion to nearly 5 billion. That is 60 percent of the world’s population. In North America, some of the most attractive cities for living are found on the coast. Elizabeth Marquart, Real Estate Emissary in Los Angeles, reveals the coastal cities that you should keep an eye on – they are always good. From Price Waterhouse’s perspective, some of the best cities were San Francisco, Vancouver, and Seattle on the west coast. As for the east, Toronto, Ottawa, Washington, New York and Boston were the best.

City growth has hurt the Midwest as people choose to move away from rural communities. Rust belt states like Ohio have been hit hard by the recession and have seen the most people leave. It is the eighth consecutive year that more people have left Ohio than arrived. New York and Los Angeles saw the fewest losses in the United States. In Canada, Winnipeg has become one of the strongest housing markets for homeowners as the average home has almost tripled in value over the last decade.

Elizabeth explains that a big trend for buyers is sticking to the dependable markets more than ever. The areas that are the tried and true like Beverly Hills and Toronto are the ones that always hold their value the best and have the least amount of fluctuations in a market. Going forward, that’s what buyers are looking for because people are still unsure as to what’s going to happen over the next few years. More importantly than ever, buyers are sticking to those stable areas, they are staying in the city more and more and they are not going to the outlying fringe areas anymore.  They want to be where the metropolis and mass transit is.

For young adults, Texas was the most attractive destination to move to. Austin, Dallas, and Houston were all recently in the top five metro areas for US college graduates yet more and more people are moving overseas. Australia is quickly becoming a favorite destination due to a strong economy, low population density and a shortage of skilled workers. People are also moving parts of Asia such as Hong Kong and Singapore because of easier access to credit and a better quality of life.

INSURANCE INDUSTRY:
NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE

The insurance industry is not what it used to be. What you were buying 25 years ago is not you're buying today. HTR sat down with Joseph Iannicelli, President ad CEO of Standard Life, a leading long-term savings and investment company that has around 6 million customers worldwide. He explained the insurance industry has evolved to a point where it’s not really insurance so much anymore. It’s more wealth management and solutions for customers. If we look at the books of business and the sources of income for the various financial institutions today, Iannicelli would suggest that most of it is not driven through insurance products.  Insurance products suggest products that have some sort of guarantee in it. As an example, a segregated fund in the wealth management space would be considered an insurance product, whereas life insurance is insurance in the more traditional sense. Therefore, the biggest change has been the movement away from pure life insurance into more sophisticated wealth management, retirement payout solutions.

It is all a question of demographics. As the next demographic phase moves through the boomer phase, it drives many new innovations and products because their needs are different. We’re living longer, we’re living healthier and there is going to be medical advancements. If you think of what a 55-65 year old person would need today, and what they same person will need in the future, it will be radically different. Some basic things will be required. Basic life insurance and tax efficient strategies for income will still be required. However, things like long-term care, for example, will be a lot more prominent because people are living longer, want to stay in their homes longer, so they require some form of assistance. 

Another thing we're going to see a lot more of is segregation and segmentation of products - women only, ethnic specific products and services etc. For example, women are under-serviced in the financial industry. There are more women with money, power and prestige now. Before companies segmented by age, sex and income levels but they are seeing that's not enough. They are missing out on many sub-segments that could be opportunity for growth.

There are many new segments that didn't exist before which are changing the products needed. The definition of the family is changing. There are more single moms and single dads out there than ever before. Single parents require different things to help them with their financial future, to help pay for kids’ education, their health care, etc. There are more and more people working from home. If you’re working from home, you normally wouldn’t get access to group programs which are group health and group pension.

www.standardlife.ca

BUSINESS TRENDS:
4 TIPS FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Looking to be on top? Here are some vital tips if you’re looking to be a leading entrepreneur.

1. Meet with you key support staff before the day ends to discuss tomorrow. Plan for tomorrow at each days end to help you re-prioritize the latest things. You get in the next day ready to hit the ground running more efficiently.

2. Don't have unproductive meetings around the conference table just to hear yourself speak. Keep meetings short – it’s the style today. 15 minute meetings are perfect.

3. Manage your email inbox. Many business owners like the system suggested by David Allen, the well-known author of Getting Things Done. He offers a free PDF full of smart tips, such as putting e-mails you need to act on and those you don’t in separate places in your inbox. I do this and it helps. You can also find ways to reduce the number of useless messages you read. OtherInbox, for instance, pulls e-mails from various senders into folders you’ve designated and even un-subscribes you from e-newsletters you no longer want.

4. Cultivate new clients non-stop, anytime, anywhere. The smartest entrepreneurs are always building new business, so they can quickly plug holes that open in their schedule.

CONSUMER TREND:
VALUE MANIA

A consumer trend that is extremely prevalent right now is something called “value mania.” Consumers are looking for better value following the recession and now retailers are responding.  It's the opposite of mindless consumption. The mania consists of a more back-to-basics, practical and realistic approach to consumption, in which value, utility, and enjoyment are weighed against the purchase price.

What exactly is mania? The dictionary says its “excessive or unreasonable enthusiasm." So in this case, it’s an excessive or unreasonable enthusiasm for value. Even the well-to-do are now practicing ultra-value-conscious shopping habits. We are now no longer mindlessly throwing anything into the shopping cart. Even in Beverly Hills,  the city realizes tourists want deals. Kimberli Samuel is with the Beverly Hills Conference and Visitors Bureau. She says Beverly Hills now offers budget friendly options – restaurants and hotels are catering to that. Restaurants are having happy hours and pre-fixed menus and hotels are offering free night stays. You could visit www.lovebeverlyhills.com to find ways to make your trip budget friendly.

Nearly 45% of consumers say they have become more practical and realistic in purchases, according to a May consumer survey by BIGresearch. That’s up from 43% May 2010 and up from 37% five years ago.

www.lovebeverlyhills.com

BUSINESS: TOP 8 TIPS

Here now are the top eight business tips this week.

1. MOTIVATE BY INSPIRING

Experts say you can’t motivate anybody to do anything; all you can do is inspire them to motivate "themselves." Find out what fuels people then fill their tank.

2. IF YOU CAN'T BEAT 'EM, JOIN 'EM

Estee Lauder once said, “Women don't buy brands, they join them.” Good brands are bought, great brands are joined. Otherwise, people are just giving you money. If you want to make history, if you want your brand to last, it has to connect on visceral level, engage on a human level and unite with it on a personal level.

3. ACCESS, ACCESS, ACCESS

When information is infinite, people don’t need information, they need people who can explain the information they’ve already found. Curators aren’t just for museums. Service what makes you stand out today so EXPLAIN to your customers. That is the key today.

4. BE OPEN AND VULNERABLE

Wearing a nametag 24/7 is a risk. But it’s also good practice. There is a connection between vulnerability and approachability with making money. When you open yourself to the world, people spend money with you. But only if you’re willing be vulnerable.

6. MAKE SURE YOU DO MORE THAN ONLINE   

Face-to-face is making a comeback.  

7. BE FUN

Be playful keep your childlikeness makes you more approachable, Induce participation form your clients.

8. YOUR EMAILS WILL COME BACK TO HAUNT YOU

Better be careful what you publish. According to a recent study from the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 80 percent of divorce lawyers have reported a spike in the number of cases that use social media for evidence of cheating. Watch what you write. it lasts forever.

BUSINESS TIP:
HOW TO GROW YOUR START-UP

Here are some tips if you’ve got a startup. AHAlife
(www.AHAlife.com) is a website that sources and curates products from around the world. It’s grown 600 percent this year. How did it grow so quickly? The owner says: Reveal the inspiration behind the work. Why did you decide to create the product? Is there a void in the market it fills? What was the "aha!" moment? Tell the consumer what sparked your passion for the product or service. “It’s very important to hear where someone gets their start from and where the inspiration started. It’s not just about their product. It’s what got you to the product too.” Expose the process.

It's easier to digest a higher price for an item when you understand the skill and time dedicated to creating the product or service. The owner says: “If you just saw the picture of the blankets you might not find it of interest and worth the money. But if you know the story and see their age-old process [in] our audio and designs slideshow...then it becomes a product on a totally different level.”

He also says to use social media to disseminate the story. Competition is steep in the online consumer-curating world. Rather than join the likes of other sites like Fab.com, RueLaLa.com, and Gilt.com, AHAlife sticks to what it does best: storytelling. They have gotten a tremendous amount of traction and have grown 600 percent this year while staying true to who we are,” says Mei. “We get e-mails and tweets saying that they love the story behind our products, especially our 'good karma' products.”

MUSIC INDUSTRY:
ALBUM & CONCERT SALES UP

The music industry is looking good. Album sales are up! Not by much – but it’s the first time we’re seeing an increase in six years. Total sales for albums, CD's and digital album are up one per cent in the first six months of 2011. It doesn't sound like much, but it’s better than the drops we've seen. Among the singers, Adele holds three top spots in the tally. Rolling in the Deep, her latest album, was named the year’s top selling album to date - 2.5 million copies. Overall music sales, encompassing albums, singles, music video and digital tracks, are up 8.5% over last year at this time. Katy Perry’s E.T., featuring Kanye West, is the top selling digital song, a category that combines all versions of the song, with just more than 4.1 million sales.

I spoke to Randy Lewis, a music expert here in the US and pop writer for the LA Times. He says the total revenue from the Top 50 tours worldwide is up more than 11%. Totals for those 50 tours was 1.65 billion, even though ticket sales were down 19.4 million. That means the increase in the total box office was a result of higher ticket prices on average really. Ticket prices were up by an average of 13.6 per cent, that means just over 10 dollars. Artists learned their lesson last year when they over reached and over priced their tickets.  They’ve scaled back a bit and things have picked up.

Why is it that some artists sell out concerts while others of the same caliber don’t? It’s all about their they connect with the public. If people feel a connection to them through their music and through their media appearances, they’re going to want to see them live person.  Taylor Swift has done a good job at this with all the social media that she’s employed. 

A tour that has been outstanding is U2’s 360 Tour. It is now the highest grossing tour of all time.  The band made a whopping 10.25 million dollars a night! Their ticket price averaged at 97.65 dollars in places averaging more than 104 thousand people per show. When you look at last year, Bon Jovi was the top grossing tour making 201.1 million worldwide but that was over the entire year, so it really doesn’t compare to U2. Then there is Lady Gaga. Her average ticket price this year is 96.77 dollars. She made 65.3 million on her tour. Usher was next in the rankings. His tickets go for about 83 dollars on average. He made just over 62 million dollars.

The other big tour money makers:

• Kylie Minoque -  $52 Million
• Kenny Chesney - $47 Million
• Andre rieu - $46 Million
• Elton John - $44.6 Million
• Taylor Swift - $43 Million

Now you're probably asking yourself, who’s Andre Rieu? He’s a Dutch violinist, conductor, and composer best known for creating the waltz playing Johann Strauss Orchestra.

BUSINESS TIP:
HOW TO LEAD A MEETING

Here are six tips to leading a meeting successfully.

1. Do you REALLY have to call a Meeting?

One-on-ones and E-mail strings can often work just as well. Many decisions do not need meetings and can be done via phone, email, Skype.

2. Create an Agenda

It's vital to keep any meeting on track even just for five people. Everything needs a sense of structure so everyone knows who is doing what. Even regularly scheduled meetings you always need an agenda in front of you.

3. Keep it short.

For a one-hour meeting, take 45 minutes to speak and then 15 for Q and A. Always single out one employee as the time keeper. A common technique is to say, “Lets go for 20 minutes, tell us when 17 minutes is up.” Tell the group that if you can’t finish today, there will be a follow-up session.

4. Engage the attendees.

Speak clearly and honestly. Transparency can go a long way.

Have a self-deprecating sense of humor, of course, people at ease and shows them that you are human. It also opens people up to answering questions and participating. ALWAYS single out people and ask them for their feedback. Build in time for feedback and ask one of your employees, ‘What do you think about this?” They will have to answer rather than giving a yes or no.

5. Schedule the next meeting

“After re-capping the meeting, agree on a time for the next meeting and have everyone put it in their calendars right there.

No one will have an excuse for missing it

6. Re-cap immediately

People quickly forget the content of a meeting when they have other things going on, so send out you re-cap right after the meeting. THIS, I SAY, IS KEY TO ALL BUSINESS SUCCESS. Send it out within an hour or by the end of day at the latest. Adding that the re-cap should include meeting notes and action items highlighted by timeline.

BUSINESS TIP:
HIRING A PUBLICIST

There is a big trend in Hollywood that has now spread to the regular business world in the last year. Many of you write me asking – “Should I hire a publicist or a PR firm and will they actually get me press? How do I know if they are the right person and how long does it take to get press? So here's the deal when it comes to whether or not you or your company needs a PR firm. My answer is yes IF you have something newsworthy to GET free press.

First: ask yourself

1. What's the size of your market?

In a big city a restaurant opening or a new store will go unnoticed outside of your circle so you might want a strong PR team to bring expanded and the right attention.

2. Ask yourself what are your ambitions for your business?

Be realistic about what you're hoping to accomplish. If you've got a chef you think has Michelin-star potential, or a truly accomplished designer whose clothing you believe deserve more acclaim then it’s worth it. Think about it. Is the chef different? Is he doing something no one else does? Does the menu include things we have? Has it ever been seen before? That’s what makes news and that’s what a publicist can sell. The publicist needs a hook for free publicity. There has to be something newsworthy, a first, something different, something never seen before, something at the top of the level of your category.

3. How well do you understand your local media landscape?

If you're in a major city, can you name three publications people read for YOUR kind of coverage? What about five highly trafficked blogs or websites? Make a list. That’s what you hire a publicist for. They do all that work for you and should have the contacts. They should be veterans in the business in your own market. Their Rolodex is la lot more extensive than yours - but maybe yours is huge.

Ben Cooke runs Lucid Communications and is a top publicist here in LA. He handles business people outside of Hollywood celebs so he sat down with me in studio to discuss the top five things you will get from hiring one.

• Make sure that it’s timely. It needs to be new. What is new about what you’re offering?
• Make sure that it’s relevant. Do some research and make sure it’s relevant to the news outlet you’re pitching. Know what the producer or the journalist is covering so you could give them what they need.
• Be brief about it. Journalists don’t have a lot of time. They get hundreds of emails and phone calls from publicists and businesses all the time. Make sure it’s brief, to the point and concise. If it’s an email, get the hook in there right away. If your subject line in the email doesn’t have the right hook it won’t even get opened. Same thing goes for the beginning of the email, make sure you lead them in. Paragraphs won’t get read. Bullet points are recommended.
• Be complete about it. What does a journalist need to complete their story. Make sure you cover every single possible element.

4. Are you a strong PR skilled writer?

Let's say you're opening a new business, a restaurant or a store. Let’s be honest. Plenty of great writers don't have the business experience, food knowledge, or management skills to open a restaurant! At the same time, plenty of restaurant owners aren't the best at explaining the virtues of their business in writing. If you're able to communicate well on paper, you may not need a PR team to write press releases on your behalf but you need to know things like how to grab the editor, how to grab the audience, how to get YOUR email from not being deleted. There is a way and a formula to good selling to attack us.

5. How fluent are you in social media and the Internet?

A Twitter, Facebook and full website are a must and search engine optimization (SEO) is key. If someone types your business's name into a search engine, they should be able to quickly find your address, phone number and hours. Always remember, a good PR team will get customers in your door—and press coverage for you IF you give them a product that stands out above the rest.
If you need more, contact my LA Media Bootcamp. You can find me easily by writing me thru Hollywood trend report website.

BUSINESS UPDATE:
ACCESSING CUSTOMERS THROUGH 'LOCATION' SOCIAL MEDIA

Mobile applications such as Foursquare and Gowalla have people checking into the locations they go to and letting everyone know where they are. Facebook jumped into the mix since they have the biggest network with Facebook Places. Why are people into it? As humans we have a desire for community. It's the same idea as Norm from Cheers. Every time he walked into the door, people knew his name and he had a seat saved for him. The reason that made us feel good was the sense of belonging. With these applications, we have that in a virtual way. It's a continued feeling of taking your whole network along with you and it's a valuable tool for businesses. We sat down with Lonn Shulkin of the Interactive marketing agency BAM Strategy. He explained every time we check in, we are essentially telling businesses that we’re here and ready to be talked to. If businesses take advantage of that by giving really relevant messages, offers, specials, they are capturing an immediacy is unbelievable.

These businesses are now able to access these customers directly. Many businesses have been limited because they could only reach out both financially and physically very close to their location and hope that word of mouth would take off. This gives them an ability to be proactive. Besides the local newspaper, they can now reach out to consumers directly. Right now only 4% of the Internet population uses location based services.

www.bamstrategy.com

BUSINESS NEWS:
TOP 3 TIPS FOR GROWING YOUR COMPANY

This week's tip on how to grow your business: focus your efforts on your exact market. Repeat customers and word-of-mouth referrals have been the effective way to make money, but now the trend is: driving business through your exact client. You likely spend your time and money trying to reach the masses with newspaper ads, direct marketing to purchased lists or spending too much time trying to build a random collection of Facebook fans. Those are good but it’s the time invested in them that isn’t proportional to the profits they generate for you. This is because they're aimed at reaching random, unidentified potential customers.

To build a base of lifetime customer relationships, create genuine connections with your existing customers based on their interests and then tailor your marketing efforts to their needs. When you establish strong ties to your satisfied customers, they'll be more likely to return to your business and tell their friends about the quality of your service and products.

The most direct and effective way to do this is through the following three-step process:

1. Engage your clients directly - Make every customer experience worthwhile and personalized.

2. Put yourself in the shoes of your customers - Ask about their interests and needs to find the right match with your products and services. Keep track of their questions and insights you pick up from your interactions so you can really get to know them as individuals.

3. EARN the right to connect - Before your customer leaves, ask about his or her experience with your company or website. If it’s positive, ask if you can keep in touch via your newsletter or e-mails containing special offers and promotions. Once you earn the right to connect, be sure to maintain the goodwill you’ve established during the sales process as you keep the connection alive. To do this, follow through with personalized messages based on the customer’s particular interests and make sure he or she is getting a balance of relevant information and special offers not easily found elsewhere. Just be sure you’re not inundating customers with messages or they will tune you out.

RETAIL:
HOW TO STAY RELEVANT

When it comes to retail sales, experts say you have to sell a lifestyle and an image. You’ve heard it before, but it’s vital now more than ever. It's all about building your brand around it.  One that has mastered this is Ralph Lauren.  Michael Kors does the same thing. It's not only about getting a purse, it's about getting a slice of the fantasies people have. Michael Kors head person in Canada is Debra Margles. She says retailers that have walked away from servicing the clients are the ones that have to walk backwards on the escalators right now. They better re-create the brand because opportunities lie in servicing the customer and making it exciting. With stores today you want to walk in a feel like it’s a privilege and an opportunity. You want people to feel like they’re servicing you and they love to be there.  The customer needs to feel like there’s action and that the people working really want to be there. Debra advises: higher the best people and spend your money on the front line.  That is where the experience comes from. You could see the best product but if you’re not greeted with respect and enthusiasm, then how does that translate to the ultimate customer?
www.MichaelKors.com

CONSUMER TRENDS:
E-READERS BOOMING!

E-reader ownership of devices like Amazon's Kindle and the Nook doubled from six percent last fall to 12 percent this spring. Tablets, like Apple's iPad, are owned by 8 percent. This is the first big study measuring e-reader use. Tablets, including Samsung's Galaxy and Motorola's Xoom, which can be used as e-readers but are more oriented to Web surfing and watching video, have not seen the same level of growth in recent months. The 8 percent ownership figure is up three percent from last fall, before that, tablet ownership had been climbing. There is a notable overlap in e-reader and tablet computer ownership, with three percent of adults saying they own both.

BUSINESS UPDATE:
HOW TO BUY A CORPORATE JET

Like many CEOs, you might be deciding if you’re ready to make the leap and buy a company jet. Business aviation is complicated, so here’s some advice if your company is thinking about it.

Assemble your team in advance. Buying a jet requires planning on many levels, presenting many unique challenges. Your team should include the company’s CFO, personnel from accounting, an aircraft broker and technical advisor, an aviation insurance agent and an aviation lawyer. Public companies should also involve their public relations team, as well as security and corporate governance.

Determine your needs. First, consider how your company intends to use the aircraft. If you’re visiting plants in the Midwest, you need a very different plane than one used to fly to Europe. Identify your requirements first, and your aircraft choices will become obvious.

Do a pre-purchase inspection. Most aircraft sales are “as-is, where-is,” so it is important to understand the aircraft’s condition before buying. An inspection is crucial, and should be negotiated in a letter of intent or purchase agreement. Involve your broker and lawyer before signing any contract.

Avoid and handle regulatory hurdles. Aircraft ownership and usage must comply with Federal Aviation Administration rules. Additionally, you need to consider issues of liability and insurance, state and federal taxes, and the ability to deduct depreciation, among others. If multiple parties plan to use the aircraft, complications will multiply. Sit your team down to plan how to handle regulatory hurdles and pitfalls before buying an aircraft.

WEDDING TRENDS:
POST-RECESSION CHANGES

So you’re going to a wedding and there is no band, no DJ.  They're playing an iPod but the music is still great. Is that proper today? Is it tacky or cost savvy, to be able to put the money somewhere else? Post recession, some wedding rules have changed. A new poll finds it is not tacky. I say it may not be as much fun as a band, but don’t consider it tacky. 63 per cent who were asked thought it was a good idea. Keep in mind, if you do this, you need to have a couple of friends or family in charge of the iPod. According to this poll, using a laptop is also acceptable.

Hollywood wedding expert extraordinaire author and TV host David Tutera says many are cutting costs.  There are now some photographers that take care of video as well, as opposed to finding two vendors thus cutting costs. Vendors are now forced to provide better pricing, and better quality product for the consumer. The industry, in the last five years, has grown. We’ve got more cake artists, more florists, more Dj’s, more bands. With so much competition there is a lot more choice for price comparison.

WORK TREND:
WHO IS THE BETTER BOSS? MEN OR WOMEN?

Who makes the better boss? A man OR a woman? Horrible Bosses is an
R-rated film that raises the standard “workplace comedy” to a new level telling the story of three pals who conspire to kill their overbearing, insufferable employers. It's over-the-top revenge fantasy bringing to mind 9 to 5.

Only 12 of the Fortune 500 companies are run by women. Sadly, one of the reasons may be that there seems to be a general consensus among people, even women, that male bosses make better managers. The preference for male supervisors was clearly visible from the results of a poll, which surveyed about 2,000 women 63 percent would rather have a male manager over a female. The reason? The respondents felt men were better decision makers. The surveyed women also felt that female bosses have a tendency toward mood swings and were more likely to "bring personal problems into work."

CONSUMER TREND:
CASHLESS ECONOMY IS GROWING

The long predicted cashless economy is slowly becoming reality in both mature and developing markets. In more mature economies, consumers’ desire for convenience coupled with technological advances continues to drive innovations in cashless transactions. Check out these examples - just some of the rapidly increasing number out there.

In March 2011, the Denmark Post launched digital stamps that can be purchased via text message. A code is sent to the user, which can be written on the envelope instead of a traditional stamp. In January 2011 Starbucks launched its Mobile Card payment program across the US. Customers purchase the Starbucks Card Mobile app, which then creates a personalized 2-D barcode to be scanned at the counter.

This year, McDonald’s is looking to fit 7,000 European outlets with point of sale touch screens and swipe cards, rendering human cashiers redundant and reducing transaction times. Likewise, Burger King is currently trialing the Visa payWave system in a number of restaurants. In time for the London 2012 Olympic Games, Samsung (in alliance with Lloyds TSB bank and Visa) is set to start selling smartphones which can administer contactless payments in over 60,00 locations around the city.

Square, a service that allows anyone with a smartphone to accept credit card payments, launched their iPad app in May 2011 that turns the tablet into a comprehensive 'cash register'. Customers with the app can store payment details and purchase histories with merchants, enabling them to pay instantly and receive personalized offers via the service. Introduced in May 2011, Google Wallet is an Android app that turns a users' phone into a payment device. Using NFC technology, users can pay by tapping their phone on Mastercard paypass terminals. As well as being able to make payments, users can also receive offers and store loyalty points via the app.

BUSINESS TREND:
‘BIDCONOMY’

A big trend we're experiencing these days is something called “Bidconomy.” Have you noticed how we bid for so many things today? It’s part life, part Vegas gambling. Surfacing more and more are intention-based websites, where the purchaser/vendor relationship is flipped and sellers bid for consumers’ business. 

Zipzoom.com lets buyers announce what they're in the market for, giving sellers a chance to bid for the opportunity to serve them. Personalized quotes are sent directly to the consumer, allowing him or her to pick the best one. Another one is Zaarly.com. It’s a startup that launched to the public in May 2011, which caught the attention of Ashton Kutcher by flipping the Craigslist model on its head. Using the tool, users post their location, what they are looking for, how much they are willing to pay for it, and when they need it by. The request is shared with local individuals, providers or businesses, and the service then connects the user with any interested suppliers via anonymous phone calls to discuss logistics and to complete the transaction.

INTERNET TREND:
CLEANING ONLINE REPUTATION

There’s an increasing demand for products or services that remove, protect, or restore one’s online (and therefore offline) reputation. Reputation.com and ReputationArmor.com are online reputation management consultancies helping consumers manage their data and defend their reputation by blocking misleading or incorrect information, and increasing positive content. There’s also MentalRabbitMedia.com, which delivers buzz, increases demand, and protects reputations for a more affluent clientele. Socioclean.com and Reppler.com are both free services that enable users to monitor and clean their online social profiles of any ill-advised and inappropriate material.

MOVIE ADVERTISING:
‘TIME-SHIFTING’

Studios use movie ad strategies to lure you; they need to keep evolving quickly now to deal with 'time-shifting' TV viewers due to DVR's. Usually 70% of a movies budget is devoted to TV advertising. Lately it's been a losing battle because a record amount of us are time-shifting when we watch shows and that means we're skipping a lot of the ads. A recent study finds that 62% of respondents use DVRs, as well as online sites like Hulu, or VOD.

This doesn't mean film ads on TV will stop because strong visuals still attract attention on the small screen. However, time-shifting is one reason why film-marketing dollars keep moving to the Internet. They're looking for of real engagement. Over the last five years the Web portion of film-ad budgets has doubled to about 10% and it’s expected to go up but, the response isn't coming fast enough for the studios. The time spent by many in the core 18-24 movie audience on Facebook is higher than on TV.  The studios know the have to follow those eyeballs.

This fall's TV season might see less high-profile movie ads on TV. Movie marketers should buy at least some TV spots to run earlier in their cycle than in the past. Movie ads usually come on Thursdays but since most time-shifters watch our shows within three days of the original airtime, that’s a disaster for a movie opening the next day on a Friday and its opening weekend. Bottom line: Movies are a very time-sensitive business.

MOVIE ADVERTISING TREND:
“VIRAL CAMPAIGNS”

One of the latest movie trailer and promotional trends is the so-called viral campaign. The Batman series has done this extremely well. There’s a new Batman being shot right now in London, The Dark Knight Rises. Batman’s team had the brilliant idea of mixing viral sites with global treasure hunts. Fans are rewarded with insight into the movie and they get free tickets to preview before it opened.

There’s so much secrecy surrounding this latest Batman. Sir Michael Caine is in London shooting as we speak. He thinks Christopher Nolan is one of the greatest directors in the world an feels lucky to be able to work with him. This latest one is his fifth.

TRENDSPOTTING:
TEEN MONEY SURVEY

Now turning to how the recession changed young peoples attitudes about money:

The recently released Charles Schwab 2011 Teens & Money Survey suggests that, in some small way, the recession may have instilled an attitude about money in young people 80% of teens surveyed did not feel that the recession was over.

An online survey was conducted of over 1,132 teens between the ages of 16-18:

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the generation that was raised on the self-esteem movement has unrealistically high expectations for their careers.

The average teen expects to earn a starting salary of a whopping $73,000.

And only 35% know how to balance a checkbook or check the accuracy of a bank statement or how to manage a credit card; only 31% understand how credit card interest and fees work or what a credit score is; and only 22% know how income taxes work.

CONSUMER TREND:
"VALUE MANIA"

A trend that’s big right now "Value Mania"
Consumers are looking for better value following the recession and now retailers are responding. It's the opposite of "mindless" consumption.

The “mania” consists of a more back-to-basics, A “more practical and realistic” approach to consumption, in which value, utility, and enjoyment - are weighed against the purchase price.

What exactly is mania?
Even the well-to-do are now practice “ultra-value-conscious shopping habits” We are now no longer mindlessly throwing anything into the shopping cart.

Nearly 45% of consumers say they have become “more > practical and realistic in purchases,” according to a May consumer survey by BIGresearch. That’s up from 43% May 2010 and up from 37% five years ago.

BUSINESS TREND:
FEWER EMPLOYEES, MORE EQUIPMENT

Why are companies are not hiring? They're buying equipment instead of hiring PEOPLE!

Workers are getting more expensive as equipment is getting cheaper. Advanced technologies are increasingly doing jobs.

Here in the US for example - according to numbers from the Commerce Department, businesses’ spending on

employees in the last two years has grown 2 percent - while spending on equipment and software increased by 26 percent.

TV TREND:
INFOMERICALS HOTTER THAN EVER

Potential customers are usually more affluent and educated. Although previously female customers outstripped the males, it is changing slowly but surely.

Infomercials tap into our emotional side.

Watching the product in its entirety, being explained all the aspects of the product, watching it in actual use – all these go a long way in building the viewer’s trust.

This is a special advantage for complex products like repair kits and multi-piece sets where the potential customer has the satisfaction of knowing exactly how to use the product in it’s totality before deciding to buy it.

Nothing is vague or left to the imagination. They promise a better and easier life. We want to buy into that dream.

Researchers say when a new product attracts us - we are excited with anticipation as our brain gets filled with the pleasure chemical dopamine.

The ads work by playing to our basic emotions: fear, need, greed, and sex. That’s what they are going after.

First - there is some kind of opening scene when there is a problem that you're facing. Once the problem is established it’s time to show you how to solve that problem with the demonstration and the benefits of the problem.

Transformations are what we love when we see the before and after. Marketing experts say - testimonials make our buying easier because other people think something is good and it becomes good in our minds.

To get you to buy - the infomercial then offers something else free to get you and then they do the but wait! and buy now! or the deals will be gone! They then say a limited offer makes you feel like its worth more.

Then there is the upsell: the extra product you buy and the shipping and handling is a big income earner for the companies.

Unlike traditional spots, the viewer is a part of the infomercial.

The presenter talks directly to the viewer which works sub-consciously at a near-personal level and persuades the viewer to call for more information or to even place an order.

Attractive buy-back policies, discounts and freebies add to the winning formula.

Surprisingly according to a survey, infomercial viewers are more likely to trust infomercials than government, used car salesmen and corporate executives!

TECH TREND:
CHOOSING THE PERFECT PASSWORD

Here’s how to pick the perfect password: Since the main motive of internet hackers is to make money, they want your email passwords so they can begin to commit identity theft and raid your bank accounts.

The most common passwords are words that you find in the dictionary like "password," "tablecloth" or even the name of a football club. These are not good.

Normally hackers use a dictionary attack. They would run your account against all the words in the dictionary until there is a match.

The best advice is to never use an ordinary word as a password.

A strong secure password is "F&WL2HH&E4D"
but how the heck will you remember that odd line, you’re thinking.

Easy.

Pick a sentence password and then use the first letter from each word.

in this case, "Fred And Wilma Like To Have Ham And Eggs For Dinner" becomes F&WL2HH&E4D.

A different password should be used for every website that requires a login so that hackers don't get a skeleton key for all accounts.

LIFESTYLE TREND:
ONLINE ‘INFLUENCE’

ONLINE INFLUENCE is now a new barometer to dictate how much overall influence you have in society. Can you believe this?

These days, one’s worth seems to be sadly measured by the number of “friends” or followers on social media sites. I know it's crazy but your online reputation is emerging as the new level of one’s social standing and your standing is important for consumers, brands and marketers.

Going forward, marketers will use "social scores" to find the right online influencers for their brands. One such way to know the intersection of online reputation and influence is Klout, a social scoring system that assigns individuals and some companies, a grade from one to 100 based on data points from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

According to the website MASHABLE, influence is defined as “implicit or explicit effect of one thing (or person) on another,” which online can be further simplified to “can someone’s words (and/or video) make you think or do something?” While this can be negative (think of Jim Jones or David Koresh), let’s focus on the positive. It becomes easier to understand influence when it’s broken down into its core components:

Brand, Expertise and Trust

While there is much debate around online branding, it is clear that personal branding is important to online influence.

What is personal branding? Corporate branding is the messaging effort by a company to make people feel positive about their products. Personal branding is the sum of your online activities and sets an expectation about who you are. Personal brand is truly an aggregated representation of online activity. Can you build a personal brand by interacting on only one social service? Sort of, but it’s incomplete. It’s impossible to gain a true picture of who you are simply by looking at your photos on Flickr, or just reading your blog. Trust grows by being able to view a person’s social content in aggregate. This is why life streaming applications like FriendFeed have grown so rapidly. In terms of measuring online influence, the stronger the personal brand, the more influence one wields online. The most important component of online influence is trust. Trust is defined as creating a consistent expectation that a person will always act in your best interest when given information.

Expertise is another core component of influence. One can gain knowledge on a specific topic, but expertise is a title that can only be given.

RETAIL TREND:
MEMBERS-ONLY WEBSITES

There are so many online members only clothing sites




• Gilt Groupe
• Ideeli
• The Outnet
• Rue La La

Now the trend is moving to other retail industries like books, artwork and music. An example of one is www.booksfree.com. It is like the Netflix for literature. You could get exclusive deals on paperback books by paying a monthly fee. The fee is $10.99 US a month or $22.49 US with the added feature of downloading mp3 audio books.

BUSINESS TRENDS AND TIPS:
CUSTOMIZING YOUR BUSINESS

We know companies are customizing services like never before because we all want something completely different. We are we all so much pickier than we used to be. Tanya Haunstetter with the John Molson School of Business says we didn't really know we had so much choice until we were offered the choices. We’ve gone from mass marketing, to segmenting our markets, which is a huge leap. As the segments get smaller and smaller, we are essentially segmenting to groups of one – the individual. The business model has evolved from providing products and services for consumption, to providing customer solutions and customer satisfaction. To remain competitive in an increasingly globalized economy, businesses have to be closer in touch with their customers and really have to listen to what they were saying and what they were looking for.

If you're a business owner, make sure you leave a choice for the consumer. “Know your customer" has never meant more than it does in 2011. Develop ways to make your offerings customizable and make sure they are economically feasible – for the company to provide them and for the customers to be able to afford them at that level of customization. The most important thing is to continue that dialogue with your customer base. Complaints and criticisms are great opportunities to make improvements. Gone are the days of Henry Ford’s famous words “people can have their model in any color so long as it’s black.” You need to be really responsive to what it is people are asking for. The forward thinking of firms who went in that direction early on are really the ones who survived in this increasingly competitive marketplace.

MOBILE TREND:
LOCATION SERVICES

Foursquare and Gowalla have people checking into the locations they go to and letting everyone know where they are. Facebook has also jumped into the mix since they have the biggest network with - Facebook Places. Why are people into it? As humans we have a desire for community. It's the same idea as Norm from Cheers. Everytime he walked into the door, people new his name and he had a seat saved for him. The reason that made us feel good was the sense of belonging. With these new applications, we have that in a virtual way. It's a continued feeling of taking your whole network along with you.

On the other side, it's a valuable tool for businesses. Lonn Shulkin of Canadian based BAM Strategy interactive marketing agency says that when we check in, we are essentially telling local businesses where we are and that we are ready to be marketed to. Businesses could take advantage by giving really relevant messages, offers, specials, etc. It’s a matter of capturing immediacy and driving customers to the right places at the right times.

These businesses are now able to access customers directly. For local businesses and small businesses in general, they’ve always been limited because they could only reach out financially and physically a block or two from their location and hope that word of mouth takes off. Location services gives these companies the ability to be proactive – through Facebook Places, Foursquare and Gowalla.

Right now only 4% of the Internet population uses location based services. Even so, Foursquare and Gowalla were media darlings this year.I predict that in 2011 it will get more narrowly focused, which means people are more likely to use those services.

WORK TIPS:
BECOMING THE BOSS

Let’s say you get offered a promotion, the largest promotion possible: the position of the boss. This means higher pay, more power, prestige, and freedom. Who wouldn’t accept? What a lot of people don’t see off the bat is all the responsibility that comes with it, that a lot of people aren’t ready for when they take on the leadership position.

Any job where you’re supervising is very different from one where you’re being supervised. Even though an employee was top of their class out of school, and excelled tremendously in their jobs, they might not have the people competencies that are needed to be a boss. Bosses need to be able to handle conflict, develop others, and schedule work. You don’t learn these things in schools, and there is no on-the-job training either. That leaves a lot of people lost in their job as supervisor.

The struggles that managers have are mostly
people-centric:

If you’re planning on taking on a leadership role, here’s what you could do

• Identify an effective leader where you work and model yourself after them. Ask them assess your strengths and weaknesses.
• Read practical how to books on how to be a leader, there are tons of them.
• Seek out a leadership role on a project and learn from the experience.

BUSINESS TREND:
RETAIL AND FASHION INDUSTRY

There are untapped opportunities in Canada but with US chains opening stores now across the border like never before, this may be a problem for many local companies. Experts say Canadian retailers will have to challenge themselves and bring it up a few notches.

HTR sat down with Debra Margles, President of Michael Kors Canada, one of the leading trendsetting lifestyle brands in the world today. She says if you own a business, you can't just open your doors and expect a product to sell. You have to sell a lifestyle in 2011, an image and build your brand around that. Ones who have mastered this are Ralph Lauren and Micheal Kors.

Margles’ advice to other business owners: don’t look over your shoulder so much. Focus on what you started out to do. Don’t try and keep up by looking at other competitors. Everyone has to create their own niche. If you keep jumping around trying to emulate many other companies, you end up being nothing. It’s a matter of finding your own brand identity. Study your market, and make sure that there is a need wherever you are targeting.

A retailer who has done this very well is Lulu Lemon. It created a niche market: people are buying into the all-natural, healthy, fit, lifestyle. People put on the clothes and don't even go to the gym. Here’s the key: when you walk into these stores, you feel like you're a part of something bigger. It's really like buying a slice of theater. Men and women want way more than clothing, they want to be immersed in an experience when they shop.

This year, service the consumer like never before. You have to. In stores today, people want to walk in and feel like it’s a privilege and an opportunity. They want to feel like they’re being serviced and that the employees are happy to be there. They want to feel like there’s action. To get this, you must hire the best people on the front line. You could have the best product, but if you’re not greeted with respect and enthusiasm, the ultimate customer feels it. Margles says offer a smile and personal thank you note. Today, a personal touch could go a long way. Companies have walked away from that and it’s time to circle back and thank the customer. Signs point to improving prospects for the economy, particularly the strong rebound already underway in the United States, which should lift exports in Canada.

Meantime, as far as fashion, Michael Kors is now showing classy nudes, crisp whites, and nutty browns - as usual. That doesn’t mean the man completely ignores citrus, one of the hottest set of colors this summer. He loves neutrals, and loves women in understated colours this season more than ever. Margles says, "He loves linens—very, very chic whites and beiges. He’s not a big, big fan of colour, but when he does it, he does it really well. Right now orange is going to be his new hot colour.”And not just any orange, but a beautiful, bright patent-leather orange. “We live in a country where there’s a lot of winter, so color is nice as an accessory,” Margles says. “I might not wear an orange sweater, but I’ll wear a fun orange accessory like a saddlebag or a flip-flop.”

“For me, it’s the espadrille,” she says of the “it” sandal this summer ($188), which comes in several neutral tones, including champagne and a nutty brown. Margles says. “Espadrilles in our stores right now are part of our national ad campaigns—they’re just iconic to who Michael is.”

The standout is the MICHAEL by Michael Kors Grayson Large Shoulder Bag ($350). This bohemian bag features tie-dyed sky-blue and white denim-looking leather and comes with a tan strap “Why are we so hot right now in an economy that’s not so hot?” she asks rhetorically before answering her own question. “Because we have something for everyone.”

BUSINESS TIP:
HOW TO APPEAR MORE CHARISMATIC

So would you like to be charismatic? Research at Columbia and Harvard University say if you stand in an expansive high-powered pose for as little as two minutes before you meet people, you will appear more charismatic. It apparently stimulates high levels of testosterone, the hormone linked to power and dominance and lowers levels of cortisol, the stress hormone.

Powerful postures increase feelings of confidence and a willingness to take more risks and others are often influenced by how they feel about you rather than what you are saying.

BUSINESS TREND:
DELAYING RETIREMENT

If you’re looking forward to retiring you might have to wait a little longer. The recent recession has led to half of baby boomers delaying retirement by at least four years. Most of us are expecting to work an extra one to six years!

Some are even thinking of working for another decade. Baby boomers are worried not only about their own potential unemployment but their children’s careers too. Trends show rising education costs are now forcing us to choose state universities and community colleges for our children instead of private schools. Decreasing home values are also playing a role in shortening retirement for us. There are around 77-million baby boomers and they make up 33 percent of the population over the age of 16. This is the first year that they have reached the retirement age of 65. The survey interviewed 372 financial planners.

REAL ESTATE BUSINESS TRENDS:
LOFTS & RECYCLED SPACES

Many companies no longer require offices or dividers within the office. Companies are using lofts and smaller workspaces but a bigger overall space. A lot of companies have young, dynamic staff who want to live and work all in the same area where they could walk or bike to the office. It’s a lifestyle that a lot of companies are supporting. When companies design their offices around the employees' lifestyles it makes for a more productive staff. The trend today in business is to create a team, just like Google and Facebook did – no isolation.

HTR sat down with Luciano D'Iorio, President of Terramont Real Estate Services. His job is to find office space. He says these companies are using less space because their concepts are more in a team environment. They don’t want to separate their work forces and have them all sitting in one open area. A lot of these companies are also looking for amenities like a bicycle rack, or showers they could offer to their employees to give them a better environment for their work space. The need for the closed office is not there anymore; it’s now more communal. Companies want spaces that are open and trendy – hardwood floors and exposed ceilings. A lot of companies choose not to put carpet down and just go on hard concrete.

Another trend prevalent, especially in Canada, is the use of recycled business spaces. These are spaces that served as manufacturing centers for the garment business back in the 70’s and 80’s. A lot of these buildings today have no use because the manufacturing has moved to China and offshore locations. Landlords are stuck with these buildings so what they want to do is reposition these buildings as software and gaming companies in their premises. Canada is seeing more and more of those gaming companies because that’s where much of the skilled labor is: in Canadian cities.

For more information on
Terramont Real Estate Services, visit www.terramont.com or contact Luciano D’Iorio directly at 514.861.2020 ext. 213.

BUSINESS TREND:
HUMANIZING COMPANIES

Random acts of kindness are what companies need to be doing now. Experts say brands with a human touch will be the ones to do well this year. For consumers, we're fed up with inflexible self-serving companies so any acts of kindness by a brand will be welcomed. Companies today have to keep an open line of communication with the customer. Companies have to show they care about their clients.

Here's how you do it: Put it out there! Audiences are publicly disclosing more and more personal information on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, about their lives, moods and whereabouts. This means the company has to be on it and answer our needs. 71% of people buy brands from companies whose values are similar to my own.” For example: 87% of UK consumers expect companies to consider societal interests equal to business interests, while 78% of Indian, 77% of Chinese and 80% of Brazilian consumers prefer brands that support good causes.

CELEBRITY TREND:
INVESTING IN SPORTS

There's a growing trend: acting and singing stars wanting a piece of the sports action as more and more are buying into sports teams. Fergie, Jennifer Lopez, Gloria Estefan and Venus and Serena Williams are investors in the Miami Dolphins. Jay-Z is co-owner of the New Jersey Nets basketball team and is a big reason why the team is moving to Brooklyn. Russell Crowe owns part of a rugby team and Jon Bon Jovi owns an arena. Kevin Connolly is still waiting to hear if he gets his team, the New York Mets. Kevin plays E on Entourage and remains in talks to buy the Mets. Right now, the owner is looking at eight investment deals to prop up the club’s finances. Kevin’s group of investors includes other Entourage members: co-star Kevin Dillon and executive producer Doug Ellin. Kevin and his entourage think they can turn around their losses. Kevin is really into sports. He grew up on Long Island and loves the Mets. He says it would be a dream come true.

FACEBOOK:
MORE BANG THAN TWITTER

If you’re a business owner, recent studies show that you’ll probably get more bang for your buck on Facebook than on Twitter. Cumulative activity is higher on Facebook than it is on Twitter. Facebook has a wider reach and greater emphasis on real-world ties.

Meantime, absolutely everybody is getting in on the social media movement, including Pope John Paul II. Who would have thought? He revealed a page to promote the late pope’s beatification. This is not the first time the Vatican has used Facebook to reach out to people. In 2010, they created a page detailing Pope Benedict XVI's trip to the United Kingdom. The page is still active today.

MARKETING TIP:
AVOID STEREOTYPES

If you own a business, make sure you stay away from stereotyping your customers whether it be in marketing or during the sales process. Recent studies show that people who sense that they’re being stereotyped will move away from purchase. It’s a natural human reaction: people withdraw from situations where they anticipate being stereotyped. The study is very useful for marketers who should avoid any advertising that may represent any form of stereotype.

BUSINESS TREND:
TWEET-A-THONS

Giving back remains the effective way to get really good publicity for a business. Savvy entrepreneurs are now using Twitter hosting, Tweet-a-Thons, fundraising campaigns where you get clients to tweet and donate to a charitable cause over a specific period of time.

Chris Emergui, president of the interactive marketing agency BAM Strategy says it's like a telethon but it reaches globally. It is an event that is much like a telethon. It could last 6-24 hours where people are asked to go online and donate. There is a tool called ChipIn (www.chipin.com), where with the click of a button people could donate easily. The best part is that these donations can be made from any part of the world.

You have to make sure you have a large enough audience and just like in any marketing effort you must stay focused. On some of most successful Tweet-a-Thons, all you could do was actually donate. There wasn’t an opportunity to buy a t-shirt or watch a video of something else for example. If you stay focused like that, it makes the goal more targeted. It’s no different than any other marketing plan.

Another good tip is to offer specific amounts when asking people to donate money. It's a lot easier for them to mentally wrap their heads around it.

For more information on how to make this form of marketing work for your business, an excellent book with how-to information and ideas on how to tweet successfully is UnMarketing: Stop Marketing, Start Engaging by marketing expert Scott Stratten.

www.bamstrategy.com

MARKETING TREND:
WEB SAMPLING

As consumers, you like getting samples and marketers know it’s a great tool to drive purchases of new products. It is a tool marketers stopped using because of high costs. Now samples are coming back as companies leverage the power of social, digital and the web to drive these old tactics but bring them into the 21rst century. It is called ‘web sampling.’

HTR sat down with Rob Linden, owner and founder of samplesource.com, a web sampling site. People go onto the website, sign up, and indicate which samples they would like to receive and it gets delivered to their homes. Doing it through the web has revolutionized the way manufacturers send out samples to consumers.

This is far more effective than samples given on the street, because with this online method, you are only getting people you know are interested, seeing they have taken the time to sign up and have specifically chosen the product.

Historically, marketers have sampled their products through in-store demonstrations, street sampling, or giving them to a mail-man sending them to a specific postal code. These methods are usually too expensive and are not beneficial to the marketer in the end.

Rob says anything that involves staff on site to demonstrate your product is very expensive to operate. It should only be used for products that exceed a high enough dollar value, otherwise, it will never pay out.
For companies, these executions also require a lot of training, hand holding, legal approvals, t-shirts, scripts and much more. It’s not fun, and it’s not efficient for today’s marketer. All these issues don’t exist with online sampling. Sampling yet another thing the web has facilitated.
www.samplesource.com

CONSUMER TREND:
"THE SNACK SOCIETY"

A consumer trend that’s really taking hold is something called the “Snack Society Trend” It’s how we want little bits of everything and we are now used to having things customized to us. One thing for the masses doesn't work anymore. We are, what experts call a snack society.

Marketing expert Tanya Haunstetter is with the John Molson School of Business. She explains a snack society trend is wanting a bit of everything – little bits of data, little bits of information. These small bits all add up to something that is customized specifically for each individual. In the past, manufacturers traditionally tried to satisfy consumer tastes and demands but as the customer base became increasingly segmented they were unable to give everything to everybody. Snack Society is basically going to get what we need in little bits of information. It really boils down to how we process information nowadays. How we read the news now is completely different than what it used to be. Long gone are the days where we would read long articles. Now that news-reading is making its way online, readers go from title to title and topic to topic picking out those that are of interest to them. Many even have bullet points at the beginning of the article. Things like Google Alerts and RSS feeds have taken advantage of the trend. They provide snacks of news specific to what the user wants, rather than mass-audience version, which explain why newspapers have declined in circulation.

If you're looking to make your way in the market place, or are in already but want that extra boost, give the customers the freedom to choose what they want!

CONSUMER TREND:
COUPONS ARE BACK

It has been a trend in the US for a while but now couponing is becoming a hot trend in Canada too. We see the trend of people wanting to be smart and savvy, and looking for the savings. As opposed to being frugal, we're seeing saving money as being a very smart and sexy thing to do.

There is a website you could go to called websaver.ca. It's a destination for coupons. You go to the site, you get a list of brands, you choose which brand you like, and have coupons for them sent directly to you. Nizam Walji is president and managing partner at websaver.ca. Ever since the recession, he says the growth in the use of coupons has been staggering.

Coupon growth in the last few years has been exponential. Prior to the last few years and the downturn in the economy, coupons really hadn’t changed that much. You would find your coupons in your Sunday paper, or in store at shelf but this all changed during the recession and we are seeing a lot more of them. A lot of companies are putting them out because they need to move and increase awareness on their products, and people want to save money. They are demanding them and going out and finding the coupons themselves.

In 2010, 6 million coupons were distributed. In 2011, it is expected to grow to over 100 million coupons. Digital coupons are now the big trend. No more cut outs form the newspaper.

The traditional coupon has changed within the last three years. Those being the digital coupon, or coupons found on the internet. The majority of these happen in the US but this trend is now coming to Canada in waves.

www.websaver.ca

CONSUMER TREND:
EXTENDING PRODUCT LIFE

The recession may slowly be coming to an end, but the frugal habits picked up by consumers have stuck. One of the biggest trends that we're seeing is extending the life of products we buy. For example: people are taking longer to upgrade cars and gadgets like phones and laptops. We're no longer throwing away cell phones after two years or switching TVs for a thinner model.

The same trend also applies to hygiene products. Things like shampoo and toothpaste are being used to the last drop. These trends will be long-lasting because people now have instilled insecurities about how reliable the government and major companies are.

CONSUMER TREND:
CUSTOMIZATION MARKETING

Consumer preferences are becoming so much more specific as marketers cater to us. It’s a huge trend. Manufacturers find themselves finding ways to allow us to customize our own products as it’s the only way to stay competitive today.

The trend is called: Customization or The Ikea Effect

Everything from shoes, to coffee, to iPods and even water are now being customized by the consumer. Every person in the end essentially has a different product. We are now demanding our own personal touch. We use it more and get better value when we do something ourselves.

Marketing expert Tanya Haunstetter is with the John Molson School of Business. She says people really like to build their own options themselves. There is an inherent value in having something that is completely unique to oneself. It is also because of the illusion of available choices. Preset choices that are provided by businesses are sometimes perceived as not being really true choices – it’s a set of different options that have been determined, designed or customized by someone else. The evolved consumer now doesn’t necessarily perceive that as complete freedom of choice and would prefer to build their own options.

Haunstetter says we also just love to express ourselves. It's part of our innate behavior as a human being and it's what’s hot today. You can take that down to something as simple children fussing about what they wear before daycare. It is inherent in our socialization. We are socialized to understand that choice is freedom, and that freedom of expression is our means of projecting our inner selves to the outside world. It has become part of our culture over the years to value exactly that. The expression of our individuality or uniqueness has gained value over time because of the limits in our choices. It has become one of the most important things we tend to want to express.

The concept has been gaining momentum, especially in beverages. Starbucks was the first allowing people to customize their coffee.

They really put it on the map. Before them there was always a stigma around giving complicated orders (well not in LA, but everywhere else yes!) Starbucks really brought the idea to the masses. Now everyone is "no whipping", skimming, or double shot latte-ing! The concept started in North America and slowly made its way off the continent. If you were in Europe in the late 80’s or 90’s and ordered a salad with the dressing on the side it was perceived as obnoxious. Now it’s just the way things are done. Many companies have followed suit. Levi’s jeans was an early innovator with the computers that they had in some of their flagship stores that would take a scan of your body and they’d be able to customize jeans perfectly to you.

Apple does it with iPods and computers, Harley Davidson does it with motorcycles, Nike does it with shoes allowing you to personalize choices online. Coca-Cola recently came out with something called the Freestyle Machine. It allows you to design your own drink with over 100 flavors.

REAL ESTATE TREND:
URBAN CENTERS

Urban centers are the hot thing now for shopping, entertainment and recreation. Coastal cities such as Vancouver and Boston are viewed as very attractive markets. They're considered some of the most dependable markets since their home prices don't change much.

Elizabeth Marquart, Real Estate Emissary in Los Angeles, believes that the biggest trend is people no longer wanting large homes! In the last ten years, the trend was “bigger is better” with people building gigantic houses. Some would have no yard and have as much house as they could. Buyers of today are going the complete opposite direction. There are the baby boomers who are downsizing now because their kids are gone. Those kids are buying houses, and these are people who want to be closer to the city and they want smaller houses that cost less to maintain. A lot of them are looking for homes that are eco-friendly that they are able to put solar panels on or have a vegetable garden in. Because of that we’re going to start seeing a lot of those huge homes on the market that aren’t selling.

Since the holidays more of us are feeling confident. We are being told that we might not want to count on prices dropping any further. The advice: take a risk and write the offer! If you see a house out there that you like that’s a little bit out of your budget, and if it’s been on the market for more than 60 days, write your offer. Get the seller to come down on price – don’t wait for it to get reduced. Everybody waits, and a lot of times when it does get reduced, multiple people write offers. Just got for it. The worst they could do is say no.

With regards to selling, make your house look like a model home – it is key. A lot of buyers don’t have vision, and they can’t imagine what the house would look like without all your stuff in it. Box all your things like collections and family photos, anything personal. If the house is vacant, you want to rent furniture, this is called staging. Let people see how it should be decorated. A vacant house will not sell for the majority of buyers out there.

Good news for Canada: the Canadian real estate market is set for higher than expected growth in 2011.

In the United States, three of the top ten real estate markets expected to do well in 2011 are: San Antonio, San Francisco and Salt Lake City.

PET INDUSTRY:
A GROWING MARKET

Pets are hotter than ever. Virtually everyone has or has had a dog, a cat, a bird or a fish. Here in LA they even have high-end hotels dedicated to them.

We sat down with Joe Fragapane is Brand Manager for Nutrience pet food. Nutrience is the largest privately run pet food and supplies manufacturer and distributor in the world. He explained the pet industry is growing and will continue to grow.

In Canada there are approximately five million dogs and seven million cats in Canada. That translates into pet industry sales of about five billion dollars. Pet food and treats account for about 2.3 billion of that. Overall industry sales are projected to grow 3% annually over the next several years. Premium products for pets are expected to grow at double that rate.

When it comes to pets, owners treat them like humans, like any other member in the family. The humanization of pets is huge. 70% of pet owners give their pets gifts on special occasions. Another growing trend is pet health care. Vet services now account for 35% of overall pet industry sales. Pet parents increasingly want the same treatment options for their pets as they have for themselves.

Owners are spending more and more money on their pets' health resulting in the emergence of pet insurance. This market is expected to double in the next three years. Medical tests and surgery can be quite expensive so insurance certainly offers peace of mind.

The most popular food trend for pets is in the natural and holistic segment. Of the almost 500 product introductions in Canada and the US in 2009, an incredible 55% claimed to be all natural.

Online marketing is a must for businesses these days and the pet industry is no exception. Social media is now an important part of pet food product launches. The SPCA and the Humane Society use Facebook and Twitter now to help with funding campaign.

If you want to treat your pet to the best, make sure you try Nutrience pet food. Only the finest, natural ingredients are used, without by-products, fillers, or added glutens. To find a retailer near you check out their website www.nutrience.com

DELTA AIRLINES:
ACKNOWLEDGING CUSTOMERS

Airlines are realizing they've got to do something to keep us. Delta Airlines employees are now going to charm school! That includes every ticket taker, gate agents all the supervisors. Last year Delta was one of the leaders in customer complaints, late arrivals and canceled flights. Delta workers are being taught to acknowledge customers’ emotions and think before they speak.

Speaking of Delta, they are adding an upper middle class to their seats. Front row economy seats are being converted to "an economy comfort section" on some international flights. It will cost about $80 to $160 US each way. For that you get more leg-room, more place to recline, and you get to board early.

United Airlines already offers an economy-plus section.

BUSINESS TRENDS:
VIDEO CONTENT TO SELL YOUR COMPANY

Brands and eCommerce companies are now beginning to tell their story in video and in blog form. Best Buy will produce content on consumer electronics and Whole Foods will teach cooking on their website. As well, Pepsi will empower us to tell stories about its Pepsi Refresh Campaign.

By the way, if you want to do this for your company and get a video online this is something that I actually do for companies. Drop me a line. www.hollywoodtrendreport.com

WORKING TREND:
CHECKING EMAIL AND PRODUCTIVITY

Although you may think you’re being efficient when you go straight to your email inbox first thing in the morning, experts say this does nothing but kill your daily productivity.

If you start going through your inbox first thing you lose any chance you had of going full steam ahead on your important project of the morning. They claim you immediately wake up and start distracting yourself with everyone else's needs.

When you wake up, work on something for 30-40 minutes before moving to your inbox and they say If you could stand it longer, wait until after lunch.

When you’re ignorant to everything else that is going on outside, you will concentrate so much better at the task at hand. Yes that means you won’t know about what fires need to be put out.

Now this is what they’re saying – but let’s get real. This is 2011. So much work is done by email anyways. Maybe some better advice is just learning to prioritize.

COFFEE HOUSES:
IN VOGUE

Coffee has been in vogue for quite some time now, but how it consumed has involved.

It started off as a sit-down social thing, then became more an on-the-go fast-food item with the introduction of establishments like Starbucks in the 90's. Anthony Benda is owner of Café Myriad an extremely popular hot spot coffee house in Montreal. He participated in the Canadian National Barista Championship in 2009 where he placed second. He says the social aspect of coffee is bigger than ever before.

The idea of coffee went from being a sit down social experience to being something you have in your hand as you’re walking. Before walking down the street with a coffee in your hand would have been considered absurd. The fast-food, Starbucks style coffee is something that is relatively new from the late 80’s and 90’s. Now that concept still exists but it has shifted back to a coffee house mentality where people sit down together, enjoy their coffee and that’s partly because a return of focus on the quality of the coffee, but also the quality of the ambiance and the overall social experience.

In his book The Great Good Place author sociologist Ray Oldenburg describes coffee houses as being a popular "third place." Everybody has a third place - first place is home, second place is work, and the third place is where people spend the rest of their time.

Why is the trend so prevalent? According to Anthony, it boils down to the dollar! It is the cheapest commodity to buy if you’re going out for an experience. A dinner at a restaurant would cost you a lot more. At a café it’s a minimal investment of money and you get a maximum return on time that you’re allowed to spend in one place.

More and more people are gaining interest in where their coffee is coming from. Coffee is becoming the new wine. In the last 10-15 years there has been a shift of focus back to the quality of the drink. It’s going away from the logo on the cup in your hand to what’s in your cup, where it came from, and why it tastes the way it tastes. People are forming preferences and favorites – much like wine. Partly it has happened because of the transparency demanded through programs like fair trade and later on direct trade where people can see the chain of where the coffee is produced, processed, shipped, stored, and roasted before it even gets to their favorite café where they drink it. With all this information comes this discerning of quality, what they’re ordering, what they’re drinking, and it’s natural to demand the highest you can if you’re passionate about it. Like wine drinkers who don’t just want red or white or just Italy or France. They want it to come from a specific region.

Brewing by the cup is becoming a lot more fashionable. People want to move away from brewing large batches of coffee in favor of brewing just one cup at a time because it means the coffee is always fresh.

Make sure you know coffee house etiquette before visiting one!

1- Ordering: make sure you know what you're ordering before you get to the barista. Don't let people in line wait while you're contemplating.

2- Seating: Don't take up a four person table and fill it with books and a laptop if you're only one person. Occupy the appropriate amount of space.

3- Noise: Evaluate the level of noise before making any. Midday is usually quiet so don't make too much noise on your cell phone or when talking with other people. Headphones for your laptop are also a good thing in these situations.

4- Electricity: If you're going to a coffee house to work on your laptop top, use the electrical outlet until your laptop is charged then remove it. Give the chance to other people.

If you want a great cup of coffee, be sure to check out Café Myriad. It's really a great place, not only is the coffee to die for, but the staff really know and love their coffee. It’s such a pleasant environment to be in.
They are located Mackay St. between St. Catherine St. and De Maisonneuve Blvd.

You could also call them up for more information 514.677.5750

CULTURAL RENOVATION:
CREATING ENGAGED CUSTOMERS

There is a cultural renovation we will be seeing a lot of in stores in 2011. Companies are increasingly recognizing that unengaged employees can’t create engaged customers. That’s why many firms are starting to focus on the culture of their firms; trying to align employees with the vision, mission, and brand of the company. Cultural change takes several years to take hold; so big changes won’t show up in companies immediately. But when change happens, it’s very difficult for competitors to replicate.

CONSUMER TREND:
UNDER 35 DITCHING BROWSERS

Here’s a trend we’re going to be seeing in 2011 involving those under the age 35. In general, generations X and Y prefer using mobile applications over Web browsers now on smartphones, as compared with older mobile users, a new study shows. The young folk are starting to ditch the Web browser in favor of apps, and are especially put off by mobile websites not designed for their small screen hand held device.

BUSINESS TREND:
FRIENDTELLIGENCE

There's a new trend for 2011 called Friendtelligence.

It's when you are influenced by your friends for your purchase decisions. If consumers trust the community, the idea is they will extend that trust to a brand.

This is not just word-of-mouth, but the right word-of-mouth – that’s what matters. People are looking to get information and the truestory on products from total strangers.Companies will have to drive positivefeedback out into the virtual world like never before.

BUSINESS TRENDS:
2011

Consultancy is one of the best ways to make a living going into 2011. In fact, the consulting industry is expected to grow by 83 percent from 2008 through 2018. It seems everyone wants expert advice when it comes to managing their money, marketing their business and even improving their love lives. Dating and lifestyle strategists are hot.

BILLIONAIRES:
WHAT DOES IT TAKE?

So you want to be a billionaire? Do you have what it takes?

Well, there are some common traits. They have nothing to do with ability and all to do with luck and genetics or something as simple as your birthday! Most self-made billionaires were born in one month: September!

To the ladies out there, sorry, your chances are slim. Only 1% of billionaires are women. Why so little women? It could be women are still earning less than men in the workforce and are under represented in the boardroom. They are rare in the venture capital world.

One thing that could increase odds: get a university degree -most self-made billionaires have one. Never got your degree? Ok your chances drop –but it’s not hopeless. Guess who else never finished school: Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

TRENDSPOTTING:
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

What are the trends right now in consumer electronics?

- The average household spent $1,380 on electronic products in the past 12 months, up $151 from last year.

- The average household owns 25 consumer electronic products, up from 23 the year before.

- On average, individual adults say they personally spent $794 on consumer electronics products in the past 12 months.

RETAIL TREND:
'MAGIC MIRROR'

There is a new retail trend. It’s the magic mirror fitting room – a new high tech experience for shopping. This was invented because 15 per cent of shoppers are fed up with the store experience.

Reaching out to and engaging with the digital-savvy, young consumer is something all retailers are striving to do. At Macy’s flagship store in New York, there is now an in store screen that lets you virtually try on the clothes - virtually in a mirror. You take your photo and then with a flick of the pages as you do with an iPhone. You add and remove items of clothing so see how they look on you - no more actually trying on clothes.

With your body and your face on screen, you place the clothes on top.

You take your picture and try on whatever you want with just a flick of that finger.

JCPenney is doing it now as some stores putting everything, even house wares and furniture on the screen for you to flip thru. Everything they sell is on huge screens in the store so you can scroll virtually.

Here’s the really brand new thing. You can get quick feedback from your friends by posting your image with the new outfit and all the items you put on - you can post it on Facebook or you can send it in an e-mail or text!

A camera attached to the mirror can send images, along with a computer-generated password, to the shopper's friends.

ELITE ENTREPRENEUR TREND:
KITEBOARDING

There’s a new trend for elite entrepreneurs: Kiteboarding. Some are even dubbing it "the new golf.” If you're looking to network and make good business contacts, you won't find them on the golf course - you'll find them in the water!

Kiteboarding consists of surfing across the water pulled by the wind against a large kite. It is a sport that attracts adrenaline addicts and risk takers - it makes sense it appeals to entrepreneurs.

Some famous entrepreneurs seen doing it: Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and Virgin Group CEO Richard Branson.

BUSINESS TREND:
24/7 CULTURE

The latest business trend is called the 24/7 culture.

In order to reach new customers in different countries and to speed up production and services, the trend right now is to adopt a 24/7 culture – working around the clock, seven days a week, even on vacation.

Think about it. Do you ever just shut down and vacation? The only time you likely do this is if you’re in a country that doesn’t have cell or smartphone connection and that’s just about nowhere now.

Before the 24/7 worker was only an assembly-line worker. Now this trend is making the lives of human resource managers a lot more difficult because of more scheduling hours and dealing with disability claims.

In the meantime, new findings about work dissatisfaction show that it still prevails even when the economy gets better. Only 25% of us today say we feel a strong attachment to our employers while four in 10 of us feel trapped in our job.

Employee loyalty is on the decline and that's expected to continue. I say what employers need to do is recognize workplace discontent and address it - not act oblivious to it. If not, once the market surges they will be gone for higher-paying jobs.

It is proven. Companies that make employees feel valued always gain a crucial competitive advantage. Most organizations still don’t understand why you need to be good to your workers and the companies that excel all do this.

TREND NEWS:
CREATING "BUZZ"

Now turning to Hollywood movie buzz.

What exactly is it and how does it happen? Why is it when a lot of people talk about something - it does better in the marketplace - from movies to just about any product?

Humans by nature do not make decisions autonomously. Rather, everything people do is shaped by people around them. So how does pre-release of a film buzz work? It isn’t based on actual experience. In order for it to work it has to be EVERYWHERE.

More than 180,000 people were interviewed on about 338 movies. Findings show that when just 21% of us are buzzing about a film, the buzz before the release directly predicts box office results.

Get this, there is no relationship between pre-release buzz and the ad dollars spent, or even the presence of highly paid actors. Buzz is unpredictable and driven by originality.

This is a different way of thinking than traditional marketing. Traditional marketing suggests reaching the customers individually Buzz suggests focusing on getting customers to spread the message themselves.

TREND:
FRIENDSHIP PARADOX

So you think you're popular? Well you probably get sick more often than others too!

The more popular you are and how often you get sick might help scientists predict the spread of disease. This is what they’re calling the ‘Friendship Paradox.’

"Being at the centre of the network tends to make you happy but it also exposes you to disease," says James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, who worked on the study.

The so-called ‘Friendship Paradox’ could be important to working out how a flu pandemic or some other nasty virus is likely to behave.

NEW YORK:
NEW SILICON VALLEY

New York City is now becoming a tech start up destination city.
Manhattan now has more new media and advertising startups than before - building a real tech center, where software, media, and ad-related startups are thriving, a venture capital community is growing and serial entrepreneurs are a commonplace as they are in Silicon Valley.

Manhattan’s now being knick-named "Silicon Alley".

BUSINESS TREND:
HOMETREPENEURS

Now turning to a trend that more than HALF of us are following, It’s the hometrepeneur.

Research shows that more than half of businesses are now home-based.



The emergence of hometrepeneurs is due to technology is a trend that will gain momentum over the next decade.

Here are the top 10 Hometrepeneur trends for 2010:

1. The Job Challenged Economy: Job growth and traditional employment options will be limited in 2010 forcing many to turn to self-employment or home-based based businesses this year.
2. Bootstrapping: a popular term for the rest of 2010 – meaning focus on cost containment and cash flow.
3. Home-based Artisan: This refers to the “do-it-yourself” movement.
4. Cloud Computing: the idea of accessible advanced computing, reduced need of IT infrastructure, enabled mobile computing and improved employee collaboration.
5. Mobile Computing: home based business take high advantage of mobile computing such as smartphones, netbooks, location-based Internet services and other mobile devices.
6. Social Computing: Social networking has been a huge, free trend for home-based businesses – these are sites like Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter et.
7. The New Local Movement: home businesses allow greater community focus for the owner, and benefit from market opportunities created by locally-oriented customers.
8. Boomers: Aging baby boomers are flocking to home-based businesses.
9. Work/life Balance: Work/life balance is a growing phenomenon for home-based businesses. The recession has helped this trend grow, as people want to focus more on their lives to escape any financial issues.

RITZ CARLTON:
LISTENING TO ITS CLIENTS

Ritz Carlton is known as the best. How can you take an iconic brand and keep relevance with such changing customer interests and so many new hotels coming into the marketplace?

Simon Cooper, CEO of Ritz Carlton says he strives to be relevant. His customer base is really broad. He has those who enjoy more traditional settings but he also has a growing number of global customers whose lifestyles are very different.

He explains, “My job and the job of my team, I see it, is to continue to guide the organization through an evolution, not a transformation, there’s nothing broken, there’s nothing wrong, but our customers are changing. We have to continue to track that change or we will lose relevancy as a brand over time.”

BUSINESS TREND:
TRADNG DOWN

Recent research shows that 80% to 90% of people are willing to "trade off" or "trade down" when it comes to shopping. Many of these customers might not bounce back with the economy - people are expected to remain value-sensitive.

If you are a business owner, keep this in mind. The general consumer pullback hides some interesting dynamics that marketers could benefit from. People are starting to change what they're doing with their time. That is, less going out and more focus on home and family.

One firm that has responded to this trend is Walmart whose advertisements go beyond just touting low prices and instead show how those savings can contribute to customers' lives.

LUXURY RETAIL & TRAVEL:
SPENDING IS UP

Consumer confidence may be down, but discretionary spending is up. American Express has recently released new spending data for dining and entertainment; luxury retail; and travel sectors.

City-specific spending data shows San Francisco led spending as far as cities goes.

In the luxury retail report, despite the threat of a double-dip recession, luxury retail merchants received good news in the second quarter. Luxury retail spending increased by at least 9% in each luxury retail category analyzed: furniture and home furnishings; apparel and accessories; jewelry; and department stores.

Home furnishings performed the strongest - despite a weak housing market . This shows that homeowners are focusing on their current interiors until the real estate market improves.

In the travel report, the travel sector showed some surprising trends. The airline industry is experiencing an extreme shift in preferred ticket classification. Business class airfare saw an overall 63% increase in spending with the ultra-affluent group spending 114% more on the front of the plane during the second quarter of 2010 over the year prior. Spending on first class tickets saw no increase year-over-year. Airlines might consider how to leverage this dramatic shift in preference as we head into the holiday travel season.

TEXTING:
DO's AND DON'Ts

Now turning to the rules of texting. Yes, we now have rules.

Last year, a study found that 10% of people 24 and younger think it's OK to text during sex, according to consumer electronics shopping and review site Retrevo. That brings a whole new meaning to the term multitasking.

At a restaurant: Putting your phone screen-up on the table is like ordering dessert - one person does it and everyone else follows suit. As soon as a text pops up or a call comes through, everyone else at the table is trapped in conversational limbo while you have your own digital tête-à-tête.

If you must remain imminently reachable, simply make a big show out of it: "I'm so sorry to have to keep my phone out. Jess is supposed to get here soon, and I don't want to miss her."

The others will get the point. Either that, or they'll stick you with the bill. Don't worry, you'll likely be too distracted by Foursquare to notice.

On the sidewalk: It's one thing to walk and talk with your phone glued to your ear. Research finds that you're more likely to get run over while yakking. It's all about spatial awareness: Those who walk-n-surf tend to weave making them impossible to pass on crowded or skinny sidewalks.

Park yourself out of the current and against a wall, finish your phone time and pocket your cell before re-entering the deadened, zombified stream of pedestrian humanity.

STUDY:
MONEY DOESNT BUY HAPPINESS

Guess what? Money does not buy happiness.

When it comes to happiness it turns out - we are not just comparing ourselves with the Joneses, but the Wongs and the Kumars as well, according to the biggest ever international survey of what makes us happy.

The study, which surveyed 136,000 people in more than 130 countries that account for about 96 per cent of the world's population found that:
rich people in rich countries were much more likely to say they were satisfied with their life than rich people in poorer nations. The study also found that while people who are relatively well-off tended to feel more satisfied than poorer people with the way their life was going,

Social and psychological factors account for people's feelings of happiness. These include being treated with respect or having friends and family they could turn to in an emergency.

Turns out the old real-estate slogan “you should buy the worst house on the best street” is actually wrong. If you want to be satisfied you should buy the best house on the worst street. That way you can look at all the other houses around you and think 'mine is better.’

Here is the best advice:
The findings show: if you DO have money - you are better off spending it on experiences rather than objects because. People adapt to new objects very quickly.

HOW TO:
EFFECTIVE E-MAIL WRITING

Here’s what the experts are saying about How To Write An Effective
E-Mail.

They say: Get to the point, keep it short, and assume it's public.

In July, 2008 South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford e-mailed his Latin lover, praising "the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of night's light." Much to his dismay, the information went public.

All must assume that an e-mail is public. Even if you're sending it over a secure server or to an account you think you've set up in secret, if people want to read your notes and share them with the world, they will.

There are e-mail rules on which experts agree.

Among the most important: get to the point immediately. Keep your notes as short as possible. Avoid extended blocks of text by breaking up your writing into short paragraphs or bullets.

Also, keep in mind what we all already know: everyone is busy and gets too much e-mail.

One more caveat: When you receive a rude or angry note, do not reply right away. Negative emotions can escalate all too quickly in e-mails.

Or here's a novel idea: Pick up the phone

ENERGY DRINKS:
TOP 4

The drink that continues to gain popularity: energy shots.

The energy shot business revenue is expected to reach $500 million by the end of the year but beware - sugar and carbohydrate contents in energy drinks average at an alarming 27 grams per can, leading to a "crash" after the effects wear off.

One drink, ROCKSTAR Punched Guava, has an astounding 102 grams of sugar. That's four times as much as a glass of chocolate milk.

The leader in the energy market today with zero sugar content and only four calories per serving is the 5-Hour Energy shot. When it comes to energy shots, 5-hour has everyone playing catch up. 5-Hour Energy outsells its competition combined by a rate of 2.5 to 1.

Other highly ranked energy shots:

Stacker2 6 Hour Power: it comes in a variety of flavors and is a distant second to 5-Hour Energy.

NOS: NOS enjoys the benefit of having the Coca-Cola machine behind its product.

ROCKSTAR: ROCKSTAR's energy shot with the backing of Pepsi-Cola, has already generated significant sales.

GIRLY MAGS:
WHY MEN LIKE THEM


Now turning to men, magazines and women.So why do men spend their hard-earned money on glorified photo-montages of scantily clad women?

It's not the men's magazines - and whatever moral, or intellectual feelings you may attribute to them - it's just the way the man's brain is built.

According to a Duke University study, an appreciation of "girly mags" - is not a matter of "taste" but of your personal neuro-economic make-up.

Published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the study wanted to see how the brain evaluates pleasure and quantifies monetary worth.

An MRI measured activity in different regions of 26 heterosexual men's brains. This was done while they viewed images of attractive women interspersed with images of money.

Researchers accurately predicted how much the subjects would be willing to spend to view a particular woman's image.

They could identify types of images that tend to modulate the right sorts of value signals - those that predict future purchases for a market segment.

Future studies are planned on female brains but a different stimulus is required for women because pictures of men are inadequate.

MARKETING TREND: TARGETING SENIORS


More and more businesses are booming today for seniors.
Hot right now: catered tea parties and senior dating sites
No matter how UNsexy it sounds, businesses are being aimed at retiring boomers and they are booming!

The aging-services industry composed of home healthcare, elderly and disabled services and community care facilities for the elderly make up three of the top ten industries with the fastest employment growth.

Gerontology is one of the "hottest" academic fields of the future. This fall, the University of Southern California debuted a new master's degree in aging-services management to meet the growing interest in the field.

BUSINESS TREND:
DIGITAL BUSINESS CARDS


You do still need the hardcopy but you also need this I say: the free Web site DubMeNow lets you create a digital business cards that are always ready for when you run out. You can share your mobile card via text or e-mail, and your contact information is saved into the person's address book and automatically updated whenever YOU make a change. DubMeNow also can locate where and when you met your contact, in case you have a memory lapse. Oh this is so good when you meet so many people on the road shooting.

The Web site BusinessCard2 lets you create an online card with a distinctly professional spin. The card's skin is sleek and has three tabs to help potential customers get to know you and your business. There's an info tab where you can list your experience and another tab for listing your social networks. BusinessCard2 also can embed your business card link in e-mail messages or on your blog.

NEW BOOK FIND:
'DELIVERING HAPPINESS'


If you want to be business inspired, 'Delivering Happiness' is a book for you.

'Delivering Happiness' is written by the brilliant Tony Hsieh, CEO of online shoe and clothing shop Zappos.com.

In 1999, at the age of 24, Tony sold LinkExchange, the company he co-founded, to Microsoft for $265 Million. He then joined Zappos as an advisor and investor, and eventually became CEO, where he helped grow them from almost no sales to over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales annually, while simultaneously making Fortune Magazine's annual Best Companies to Work For list.

In November 2009, Zappos.com Inc. was acquired by Amazon.com in a deal worth $1.2 billion on the day of closing.

TREND: 24/7 WORK CULTURE


Already about 24 million work in the 24/7 "culture" in quest of reaching out to new clientele in foreign time zones which will speed up production and services. (So true! I answer to London England for The Associated Press and with the time difference between LA and London - I have to email the head bureau at 1:00 am and 2:00 am LA time because that's first thing in the morning there, as a result I work all hours of the day LA time)

This new, around-the-clock lifestyle will make human resources more complex. For example, overnight caregivers will need to be added to your local babysitter's availability hours!

BUSINESS CARD TREND: SNAPDAT, POKEN, BEEZCARD


Get ready POKEN is here! With all of our methods of communication these days, any technology that simplified this part of our lives is bound to be all the craze.

Several iPhone apps such as Beezcard and SnapDat allow you to share contact details with others.

SnapDat gives you the exact look of a business card and allows you to send your information to another SnapDat device and stores your information in their address book instantly. It can be downloaded for free at the Apple App store or at snapdat.com. The drawback is, not everyone has an iPhone. A Swiss company responded to this and invented Poken..

What is Poken exactly?

Poken is a technology that utilizes a proprietary Near Field Communicaion (NFC) technology to allow the exchange of online social networking data between two keychain accessories. Each person involved in the exchange must have his or her own Poken. The primary information exchanged via the Poken is a 'social business card', a digital replacement for a physical business card. By touching two devices together, a unique ID is exchanged that links to contact information on the Poken website. Contact information acquired by use of the Poken can be uploaded to the Poken website using a built-in USB connector.

In addition to the contact information found on a typical business card, links to users' social networks can also be added. Examples include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and 40+ other social networks. Users of the Poken website can use a 'social dashboard' to manage, and interact with their contacts. With today's information overload, the purpose of Poken is a tool to link all of the different ways someone can get in touch with you.

For more information visit www.poken.com

NEW TREND: DATING CONCIERGE


The Dating Concierge – so what is it?
One of the best ways to make a living right now is as a consultant. In fact, the consulting industry is expected to grow by 83% from 2008 through 2018. Dating and lifestyle strategists are the new thing. They help you enhance your dating and your social life (sort of like Will Smith in the movie Hitch.)

The newest trend in online dating involves dating management agencies.

A dating consultant is paid to create online profiles, find potential matches, communicate with potential suitors and even plan the dates because many single people don't have time to create and maintain online dating profiles. As a result, a new trend has emerged in the world of Internet pairing: outsourcing to dating concierges. A dating concierge is typically paid a monthly fee in order to handle the business of online dating for their clients.

Many dating consultant concierges will advise their clients not to disclose to their dates that they have used a service. Many people find working with a dating consultant to be disconcerting, but still others are becoming more and more interested in the possibility and quite proud that they have their "people."

HOT TREND:
PERSONAL BRANDING


One of the newest business trends is Personal Branding, which suggests that everyone can be a celebrity if packaged correctly. It used to be that your company's brand and message was most important. Things have changed, and now your personal brand is just as, if not more important for business success.

Personal Branding is your self-packaging. This includes, but is not limited to, the body, clothing, appearance, and knowledge leading to an impression that sets the person apart from the rest. Personal branding is very important when dealing with employers or potential clients.

A vital component of your personal brand and self-packaging is your online presence. With so many blogs and social media sites, everyone can have a presence online. Your name can become very well-known with enough time and enough attention. With the web being such a vital component in business today, being entrenched in the cyberworld is a must.

CONSUMER TREND:
STATUSPHERE


Statusphere - the new buzz word today.

The need for recognition and status is at the heart of every consumer trend. Status is the ultimate motive, a subconscious but very strong force.

Consumption is one of the leading indicators of success, those who consume the most (and especially those who consume the rarest and most expensive,) attain the highest status. This is why brands have provided people with goods, services, and experiences that help them impress their peers.

Mature consumer societies are changing now, and so is the Statusphere: an increasing number of consumers are no longer (solely) obsessed with owning or experiencing the most exclusive and/or the most expensive.

Statusphere has been defined by the experts as: Consumers starting to recognize and respect fellow consumers who stray off the beaten consuming-more-than-thou-path. New status can be about acquired skills, eco-credentials, generosity and connectivity. All of this makes for a far more diversified Statusphere than most brands and organizations have traditionally catered to. Time to really figure out how and where your customers are now finding their status fix.

BUSINESS TREND:
MASS MINGLING


Now turning to the newest business trend: Mass Mingling.

As people are now living large parts of their lives online through social media and mobile communication, Mass Mingling is on the pulse. Thanks to the online revolution, hundreds of millions are now actively searching for, finding, connecting and staying in touch with likeminded individuals in the virtual world.

Constant updates, GPS, and mobile online access is now bringing this explosion of dating, networking, socializing and mingling to the real world domain.

Here are the numbers:

• Twitter: Over 100 million users and 50 million tweets sent each day.
• Facebook: Nearing 500 million users. The average user has 130 friends, spends 55 minutes a day on the site and receives three "event invitations" to real-life gatherings every month.
• LinkedIn: Over 65 million members. A new member joins LinkedIn approximately every second.
• Meetup: Has 6.1 million members, handling 2.2 million RSVP's and 180,000 meet-ups, in 45,000 cities each month

CREDIT CARD TRENDS: V.I.P CARDS


When it comes to V.I.P Elite Credit Cards and the best high-status cards in the world - which ones can get you the most top of the line service? Well, money breeds luxury and prestige with these cards BUT having good credit is not an automatic pre-qualifier - banks are now looking for big spenders with well-rounded credit histories and notable salaries.

Here are the top cards leading the trends (the one where you're treated like a movie star is the hottest card right now)

American Express Centurion: It has a one-time sign-up fee as high as $5,000. This is the hottest card right now only available to a select few. Centurion cardholders get intensive customer service, personal travel agents and complimentary airline tickets on some international flights, with the purchase of a regular ticket.
Visa Black Credit Card: $450 US a year. This slick slice of carbon (rather than plastic) is noticeably black and comes with an even more noticeable $250,000 worth of travel accident insurance, concierge professionals on-call 24 hours a day.
American Express Platinum: A step down from the Centurion, but a step up from any run-of-the mill credit, this high-class card. Cardholders are treated to 24/7 travel assistance, a concierge service that can arrange dinner and entertainment reservations and VIP tickets to events.
American Express Delta Sky Miles: The biggest perk this elite card has to offer, besides the low $150 US annual rate, is the mile earned for virtually every dollar spent. There's also automatic car renter's insurance, travel accident insurance and a relatively low prime rate of 9.99 percent.