Video Games

Though experts deemed the video game industry recession-proof in 2008, it finally began to show some weakness in 2009, as profits fell 14 percent in July from the same month last year. In efforts to counter this fall, publishers are shifting their priorities to promoting upcoming video game sequels. Call of Duty, Need for Speed and Assassin’s Creed are all games whose second or third chapter comes out this fall, though perhaps the most anticipated of them all, for gamers and analysts alike, is The Beatles: Rock Band. (Find out why at Newsday.)

Apparel

As their industry quickly became susceptible to economic decline, apparel retailers have begged designers since last year to create lines catering to today’s thrifty consumer. Designers have finally answered those prayers in their upcoming spring collections,  offering high-quality casual contemporary separates with a timeless feel.

“It’s creating a product that is buy-now, wear now,” said designer Peter Som to WWD. “At the end of the day, it’s a partnership with a retailer, and understanding what the customer is looking for, then taking that information and giving them that and something they didn’t know they were looking for. It’s the ultimate dance of commerce and creativity.” (Find out more at WWD.)

Movies

Re-releasing Disney’s cinematic classics is a selling strategy that Walt Disney created himself. But the upcoming theatrical showings of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are taking this marketing strategy to a  level beyond even 3-D, as they lay the groundwork for next year’s Toy Story 3.

A new line of consumer products, featuring Halloween costumes, DVD rereleases and toys, are set to follow the  theatrical releases.  As a result, the company hopes that Toy Story 3 will become one of Disney’s most profitable movies in years, with a level of success echoing that of its predecessors. (Find more information at the Wall Street Journal.)

Retailers, which of your tried-and-true products have carried you through the current economy? What do your customers like about them?

Journalists report those Five Ws (plus one H) of an event, then they end up reporting the full story.  Small business owners answer those questions of a new venture, and they get the full story as well.

But for months, both are still trying to explore the full potential of Twitter.  As of last week, this is how the story has developed so far, from a business perspective:

Who… is a Twanker and Twidiot? Both are people who use Twitter for impractical reasons, according to the Influential Marketing Blog – a Twanker, purely for self-promotion and a Twidiot, solely for insignificant updates, such as what they ate for breakfast.

The blog’s “10 Basic Rules of Twitter (and How to Avoid Being a Twanker)” is a good start for beginners, though this etiquette guide could also set a few veteran users straight.  For one, it recommends referring to people by their Twitter names on Twitter.

Imagine Twitter is like a play and every user is an actor. You wouldn’t call a fellow actor by their name on stage,” the rule reads, “you would use the character’s name.” Read more at the Influential Marketing Blog.

What… does Chris Brogan do with Twitter? Well, first, here’s why small business owners should care: Brogan, president of New Media Marketing Labs, works with mid to large-sized businesses to improve their online marketing and public relations communications.  But his free services are just as valuable. Throughout the day, at chrisbrogan.com, he serves as a social guru for people with any type of business.
Brogan has more than 93,000 followers because instead of answering, “What are you doing?” as Twitter prompts, he answers, “What has your attention?” And with that question in mind, he promotes products, people, services and other things he thinks are cool at a 12:1 ratio — “12 them, 1 me.” Read more at ChrisBrogan.com.

Where… is that Tweet coming from? According to recent developments, you may find out real soon. Twitter is working on adding latitudinal and longitudinal data to tweets – meaning, that the 140-character messages could also be given an exact location.

Since the location data would only be stored with a Tweet for a short period of time, marketing experts see the feature as best fit for limited-time offers.

“A small business on Twitter could potentially use the location feature to reach out to local customers, or a Twitter user hungry for pizza could search for nearby pizza joints offering specials,” said Claire Cain Miller of the New York Times. Read more at the Twitter blog.

When… is Twitter going to cater more to the needs of business owners? Sooner than some may think. Though Twitter will remain a free service, premium commercial accounts with access to detailed analysis are currently in the works, as reported by DigitalBeat.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone also hinted toward the debut of a new set of corporate-specific application programming interfaces (APIs) that would allow business users to “more effectively engage with the community, while increasing strategic visibility,” as Solis said.  “We want to build statistics or analytics that let users know – ‘How am I doing on Twitter?’” Stone said. Read more at DigitalBeat.

Why… use Twitter when my customers don’t? As founder of the first Twitter for Business consultancy and co-author of Twitter for Dummies, Laura Fitton (@pistachio) has found five major reasons why.
For one, Fitton points out that Twitter can be used as a platform to aggregate opinions built around any business or industry. Furthermore, said opinions could be gathered via widget and posted onto your business Web site – no Twitter account necessary.

“That’s a great free customer sentiment engine, way to listen  to what’s really going on,” Fitton said.
Read more at HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog.

How… can one drive traffic with repeat Tweets? In two rather informal experiments, Entrepreneur magazine columnist Guy Kawasaki decides to see if taking self-promotion to another level would reap even greater rewards (in this case, clickthroughs).

In his first, he reposted one Tweet four times, approximately eight hours apart: “Power tip for anyone interested in social media: sign up for this. http://om.ly/FmGG I use it every day to find stories to Tweet.” The four posts received more than 5,000 clickthroughs, and also resulted in 700 people signing up for the service he plugged, SmartBrief.

The experiments also yielded a few complaints, though Kawasaki is hardly losing sleep over them.
“I look at complaints this way: What would happen if you told Jack Bauer (“24”) that you’re going to stop watching his show because of all the Cadillac commercials?” Read more at the American Express OPEN Forum.

Readers, is tweeting now a part of your daily business routine? Explain why or why not in the comments.

Follow goWholesale on Twitter or Subscribe to goWholesale news and get these articles delivered to your inbox weekly.

More specifically, this trade show season’s business owners-turned-exhibitors want to “maintain continued, consistent visibility,” according to a report by Tradeshow Week.

“Not being at the show leaves people to wonder if we are still in business,” said one polled exhibitor. Another said that his attendance “maintain[ed] our company profile of strength and consistency, so when the market strengthens we are the first choice.”

About 62 percent of the surveyed exhibitors said they plan the same number of trade shows or more. They figure while overall attendance may decrease, their chances to access better prospects are increased, given the economy’s current state.

“The decrease in attendance has lent to increase in quality and size of prospects who do engage,” said one exhibitor. Such logic about this year’s attendee demographics make up 70 percent of the reason why business owners are exhibiting this year, as the competition make up 55 percent.

For more information on “The Value of Exhibiting in an Economic Downturn,” read the report.

But with economic recovery still in progress, all of the individual expenses that come with attendance appear to add up to one costly marketing strategy. Still, with each expense also comes their one ways to save, while still increasing your return on investment (ROI).

Your Display
First, the cost of your trade show display should not empty your wallet. If you plan to attend just one trade show this year, look into renting a display instead of purchasing. But if you attend to showcase at more, a modular display with a number of visual options will end up being more cost-efficient.

Whether you choose to rent or purchase, opt for a display made of today’s lightweight options “The big thing with lowering costs is starting at the beginning,” said Adam Brodsley, co-founder of Volume, Inc., to Tradeshow Week. “Overall, one of the big things that affects everything from beginning to end is a lighter-weight exhibit.”

For instance, Volume, Inc. offers sustainable mesh made of recycled bottles, which can drop the cost of display fabric from $120 to $30 per square foot. Evaluating your technology can also help you cut costs while still providing visual interest, as it offers the smaller flat-screen option. Either way, lightweight options can still offer eye-catching results, thanks to many options and perhaps money spared for graphics.

Your Promo Campaign
Of course, your presence at a trade show will never result in profit if no one knows of it. These days, increasing traffic at your trade show booth can cost very little thanks to possibilities offered by the Internet. And while your e-mail newsletter can certainly get the word out to your loyal customers, hosts like PRWeb circulate the news to the world beyond.

If you can budget less money but more time to prepare, try sending such a release to individual trade show press. The key to seeing your story published is to make it newsworthy – and to to this, note how new products and services will be demonstrated at your display.

Your Giveaways
Showering trade show traffic with giveaways could either have its momentary or lasting rewards.
Some – like pens, notepads, and itty bitty toys – may appeal to attendees at first, perhaps solely because they are free. But with such giveaways, attendees may not even remember why your products and services are worth purchasing.

Above all else, trade show experts recommend creating booklets that explain your products and services. Such can be used as reference materials long after the trade show ends, and any leftovers can even double up as direct mail marketing.

No matter how you decide to cut your expenses, remember that how you treat this year’s trade show could either convey a priceless message or cost you dearly. Forego a trade show you would normally attend, and prospects or competition may end up questioning your business’s wellbeing. On the other hand, attendance – even on a smaller scale – will show that you know how to run business as usual.

RNCOS, an India-based market research firm, estimated that China’s cosmetics and toiletry market rose to an estimated $16.9 billion in 2008, as the country’s GDP soared. With such growth in consideration, the firm expects the market’s value to surpass $28 billion by 2012.

Color cosmetics and men’s fragrances have all taken off in China over the past year. Increased spending, driven by more disposable income and awareness of such products, have in turn called the attention of many major companies. As Estee Lauder sells to over 30 cities in the country, L’Oreal manages 16 brands total.

“Chinese people now like to try new things and advance products, and are more brand-conscious and more receptive to foreign ideas,” said Paolo Gasparrini, president and managing director of L’Oreal China, to the World Advertising Research Center.

China’s personal care market is second only to Japan’s, and is now the seventh largest in the world. But if it continues to report double-digit sales increases, China’s market could easily place within the top three within the next three years, as CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com reports. Paul Mak, president of Mary Kay’s Chinese division, even predicts that it will surpass the United States value in five.

After incremental increases in April and May, wholesale prices – as measured by the producer price index – rose by 1.8 percent, or twice as high as expected. Just as seen in November 2007, when wholesale prices rose by 3.2 percent, rising energy costs made up most of this increase. Gasoline prices alone rose by 18.5 percent last month.

But, without the consideration of food and energy costs, wholesale prices would have increased by just 0.5 percent. Prices for cosmetic and toilet preparations, in addition to soaps and synthetic detergents, had risen incrementally after falling in May.

This month’s increase has already scared Wall Street a bit, as shown through yesterday’s declining stocks. But economists remain assured that June’s wholesale price increase is only a momentary spike.

Brian Bethune, IHS Global Insight economist, predicts that prices will level off in July, as he told the Associated Press. Besides, with the current economy, companies still cannot justify jacking up their own prices to match.

Wholesale prices also may have slowly climbed in 2009, but they still add to an overall decline of 4.6 percent over the past 12 months.

For such products – including footwear, apparel and equipment – about 53 percent of parents with kids age 18 plan to spend the same amount, as 28 percent anticipate spending more.

The study, conducted by SportsOneSource, found that parents with a household income under $40,000 were most likely to spend “a lot less” this year. But it also found this group to be most likely to spend “a lot more” than any other household income group, with the exception of parents making over $125,000 a year.

As observed by the National Retail Federation, consumers traditionally begin back-to-school shopping three weeks to one month before school starts. In 2007, the retail holiday raked in $18.4 billion, thanks mainly to sales of electronics, footwear and apparel.

The apparel, accessories and home furnishings retailer teamed up with Acuity Mobile last broaden its presence through mobile web as well as texting.

“By providing this customer experience, we hope to communicate with our customers in a targeted and relevant way,” said Dmitri Siegel, managing director of Urban Outfitters Direct, in a statement.

About 88 percent of U.S. consumers use mobile phones with text capabilities, according to the Mobile Marketing Association. But of those consumers, less than 24 percent opt to receive messages from a company via text. And while advertisers have been hesitant to reach out to consumers via mobile phone, the rising number of mobile marketing advertisers could soon turn this fear into profit.

As many have discovered, the key toward a successful text ad campaign is urgency – and one way to create such urgency is through offers or coupons. Just 18 percent of consumers who opt for company texts receive these now, though such coupons received a 7 to 14 percent redemption rate – much higher than the 1 percent rate of traditional couponing, said Margaret Donnelly, vice president of business devleopment and marketing of mobile messaging company Jittergram, to Inc.

“We’ve already seen local restaurants send the day’s specials to nearby lunch patrons,” said Kim Bayne, author of Marketing Without Wires, to Entrepreneur. “The cost is fairly low, and it can be done from a PC, without involving a pricey service provider.”

Acuity Mobile will also oversee the launch of the Urban Outfitters mobile site and m-commerce suite – both of which could reach 64 percent of U.S. mobile phones users. Such secondary Web sites have become a major focus of mobile marketing advertisers, as most mobile phones cannot display business Web sites utilizing more than basic HTML.

With more than 144 stores worldwide, Urban Outfitters may be more of a major retailers. But, as entrepreneurship experts have long explained, small business owners are also capable of using -and affording – mobile marketing.

The first steps can be as simple as updating your profile on online business locators like Google Maps, or figuring out how to make your business Web site more mobile friendly. John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing discloses that he uses a service called MoFuse.

Small business owners, have you used mobile marketing yet? Share your experiences in the comments.

With a debut in time for back-to-school shopping, Sasha Fierce for Dereon offers a more wearable version of what designer Tierry Mugler designed for the pop star’s concerts. Against a mainly black backdrop of fake leather and body suits are bold details and accessories, such as mixed silver and gold chains and denim rips lined with mesh and lace.

In comparison, parent label Dereon showcases billowy materials, vivid colors and exotic prints, with input of sister Solange as well as mother Tina.

“The [Sasha Fierce] line really exudes a different side of my personality, which I am grateful I can express,” Beyonce said to Women’s Wear Daily.

Featured in the upcoming line are sportswear, outwear, handbags, footwear, eyewear, jewelry and lingerie. The collection will wholesale from $25 to $75.

The administration’s Certified Development Company (504) lending program traditionally provides long-term, fixed-rate financing for assets like real estate, heavy machinery or other improvements. But as of last Wednesday, it now permanently allows small business owners to refinance such debt, as long as it is used for expansion purposes.

“This is one more piece of the Recovery Act that is going to have a direct impact and put more money in the hands of small business owners just when they need it most,” said Karen Gordon Mills, head of the Small Business Administration, in a statement.

But the timing of such changes is a bit off, according to experts and analysts of 504 lending programs. They say that few businesses can currently afford to expand, to leave such good intentions unused.

According to Scott Shane, professor of entrepreneurial studies at Case Western Reserve University, few small business owners may also feel up to the task. In May 2009, just 5 percent of business owners felt that the following three months would be “a good time to expand.”

This is a drop of 11 percent from nearly two years ago, according to data Shane cumulated from the National Federation of Independent Business. And while positive feelings unexpectedly spiked last September, overall trends speak volumes about the confidence level of such business owners.

“Small business owners’ views of the expansion-potential of the economy may have turned the corner, but we have a long way to go to get back to the point where a lot of small business owners think it’s a good time to expand,” Shane wrote Monday for the New York Times.

As president of Mercantile Capital Corporation – a conventional, for-profit 504 lender – Christopher Hern suggests fully lifting any restriction on refinancing, to really stimulate small business lending. Bob Coleman, publisher of Small Business Administration newsletter Coleman Report, agrees.

“This is another program stymied by too much regulation and will not deliver the intended stimulus desired by Congress and the Administration,” he commented to the New York Times.

Small business owners – will you take advantage of the new 504 lending program anytime soon? Why or why not?