With the rising cost of raw materials, like cacao beans, political unrest along the Ivory Coast which produces 40% of the world's chocolate, and conflict in oil producing countries, it's no wonder that Nestle and other mass producers of chocolate confections are all too eager cut corners with the gold standard of chocolate. In 2007, the National Confectioners Association (chocolateusa.org) appealed to the FDA (Docket # 2007P-0085) to change the definition of what goes into chocolate, citing unfair competition by other country chocolate producers. The European Union allows up to 5% non-cocoa butter fats, like vegetable or soybean oil. This move is purely a financial one. Allowing the substitution of vegetable oil ($0.70/lb) for cocoa butter ($2.30/lb) and whey protein instead of dry whole milk would give US chocolate manufacturers an extreme competitive edge.
Last month cocoa futures averaged $3,472 per ton, rising from November 2010's average price of $2,910 per ton. This is how cocoa is trending today and it doesn't look good for consumers or producers:
Nestle started promoting an aerated chocolate product called Aero in the UK and Ireland this year, with a $24 million ad campaign to introduce textured aerated fillings (such as caramel and hazelnut) into some of its bars. If this ever comes to the US, how much fluff are you willing to pay extra for?
Related sites:
International Cocoa Organization
[PDF] FDA's Standards for High Quality Foods
Bloomberg's Businessweek, "Breathing More Profit into Chocolate Bars", 2/28-3/6/2011, p21
I check the stats for this blog occasionally to see what enhancements quietly emerge under the dashboard and to see what topics are of most interest to random passersby. Here are a few things about all you visitors for the last 30 days or so.
Majority of page views come from the US, after that the top 5 countries are: Canada, India, China, Singapore, and Brazil.
While I still use organic methods to generate traffic, only 29% came from Google organic search; everyone else came in through having bookmarked this site or as direct traffic (e.g., you found the blog through my CV, LinkedIn profile, or from any of the marketing resources sites where I'm an active member). This is one of the quirky things I haven't quite understood about how GA looks at search traffic. For starters, I don't use paid search at all.
Recently, a lot of keywords involve SES (otherwise known as Amazon's simple email service) and all the troubleshooting inquires from using it are appearing. Maybe I should post some basic tutorials as to how to get started with SES. It's really no different than other email service providers, and generally what's in the FAQ is really what they offer.
No one bothers to read this blog with a mobile device like a smartphone, iPad or iPod, but apparently my food blog generates that kind of interest. It is pretty cool that if you do see mobile traffic stats that GA also tracks the mobile providers as well.
The heat map clicks are pretty useless. A third of you click the 'home' button at the bottom of the page instead of using the page up button on your desktop/laptop/mobile device and a third of you click onto the link of the blog in the Creative Commons license box. The last third, seems to be just the label tags to the side.
Top 10 industries (excluding party committees) that have contributed the most money from 2009-2010:
| Lawyers/Law Firms | $242,198,213 |
| Securities & Investment | $133,314,559 |
| Health Professionals | $128,357,100 |
| Real Estate | $126,922,328 |
| Insurance | $69,110,521 |
| Public Sector Unions | $58,949,366 |
| Oil & Gas | $55,357,690 |
| Education | $50,580,808 |
| Tv/Movies/Music | $46,922,077 |
| Lobbyists | $46,912,681 |
Taxes are obviously not high enough. $2 trillion in donations! See who influences financial reform at Influence Explorer.
Other sites like this:
Open Secrets
Follow The Money
Transparency Data
Like most curious gardeners, I really wanted to believe there was such a thing as a "zooms to an amazing 8' tall in just 3 months" tree tomato (as seen in the pre-spring coupon clipper embedded with the weekly flyer and brochure ads). I've seen a lot of crazy advertisements of some true and not so true products over the years. I only found out about columnar apple trees at last year's Portland Home & Garden show. If an heirloom or hybrid tomato plant did exist and could be easily procured for a mere $6.58 + $2.50 s/h, then why wasn't it sold en masse at gardening shops and nurseries like Home Dept, Lowes, or the Portland nursery?
When validating product advertising, the first thing to check is the source at the very top level. For a savings and loan bank, browsing through the FDIC's database to see if they're legit is a good starting place. For an apparel or automotive manufacturer, there's the manufacturer's website. Many of us just do a quick Google/Bing/Yahoo search and take whatever we can find in the first page of hits. There is a lot of misinformation out there too and websites that don't quite answer the question. Is this product real (and here's the written proof)? Where does the product come from?
Even for marketing or SaaS services, I'd still like to know who is running the company and why I should choose their products over others. Now, I'm a pretty good Internet sleuth. Most people (and companies) who want to be found can be found on the Internet. There are ways to drop off the grid, so to speak, but that is a post for another day.
Key Attributes to Think About:
- Who runs the company that markets product x or service y
- Is the product (or service) relevant to your needs, and can it deliver on its claims
- Are there competing products of a similar flavor
- What is the next best alternative
- What documentation does it have (e.g., scientific studies, promotionary adverts in its own industry journal/newsletter/magazine, product literature and/or datasheets, client reference list, product reviews, etc.)
I can't imagine in the thousands of years that tomatoes have been cultivated that this one company operating a mail order and affiliate marketing system out of Hartford, Michigan, could be the sole propagation source of the giant tomato tree. The ad is filled with tons of consumer hot buttons and very little else. How the product is marketed exceeds my bs meter. I'll just make due with the cherry tomatoes I started from seed and hope that this summer isn't as wet and cold as last year.
TV/radio commentators have been saying for a while now that civil unrest in Libya is causing oil speculators to drive up the price of oil. If only they used Wikipedia, or had access to data resources such as the CIA World Factbook to look up the top oil producing countries. For those of us without a subscription to the Oil & Gas Journal, this will have to do.
To put this into perspective, in 2008 Libya was the 18th largest oil producing country, a step behind the UK. Heck, I didn't even know the UK produced oil, but I knew the US did from prior research into this topic. Domestically we produce a tiny amount of oil, which is made into all sorts of petroleum products.
It's stupid. That's what it is. The average price of US regular gas has risen to about $3.50/gallon. Btw, there are 44 gallons to the barrel. You can do the math (plus tax) on how much it really costs us for gas. You may think that oil from the Middle East plays a big part in US crude oil consumption, but it really doesnt. The top two countries we import from are... get this: Canada and Mexico. The third is Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the list can be seen here.
"The single most important decision in evaluating a business is pricing power. If you’ve got the power to raise prices without losing business to a competitor, you’ve got a very good business. And if you have to have a prayer session before raising the price by 10 percent, then you’ve got a terrible business." --Warren Buffett
Law enforcement begins September 2011.
Unlike CAN-SPAM, which covers only email, Canada's Online Protection Legislation (COPL) covers commercial email (CEM), is defined as any commercial "message sent by any means of telecommunication, including a text, sound, voice or image message," and includes:
- Email
- SMS
- Instant Messages
- Social Media postings such as ‘tweets’ or 'status updates'
- Some voice communications
Commercial email requirements include:
- Express affirmative (opt in) consent
- No false or misleading headers, including sender and subject line
- Cannot alter transmission data
- Must provide a conspicuous unsubscribe mechanism
- Must include postal address of sender
- Cannot perform address harvesting to obtain email addresses or send to harvested addresses
- Liability for entities who knowingly allow spam to be sent on their behalf, even if the message was not directly initiated by those entities
Exemptions to the opt-in requirement exist under certain circumstances. Consent is deemed if there is an existing business relationship, an existing non-business relationship (such as sending to a family member), conspicuous posting of an electric address such as on a 'Contact Us' page (provided there is no statement near the address indicating that it should NOT be mailed), or where the recipient has provided the electronic address to the sender. In most cases, this implied consent is valid for two years, after which the sender must gain affirmative consent.
Key Differences between COPL and CAN-SPAM (source)
COPL: Addresses broad range of Internet issues (spam, spyware, pharming)
CAN-SPAM: Addresses spam only
COPL: Applies to all forms of electronic messaging (email, SMS, IM)
CAN-SPAM: Applies only to email
COPL: Primarily opt-in; permission based
CAN-SPAM: Opt-out; you can technically mail any person at least once
COPL: Private Right of Action (PRA) available to anyone (individuals, businesses)
CAN-SPAM: Private Right of Action (PRA) available only to ISPs
Liability:
Computer systems located in Canada used to send or access an electronic message fall under the COPL umbrella. This means that any CEM that leaves or enters Canada is subject to the regulation. COPL is primarily enforced by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), and imposes fines of up to $1 million per violation for individuals and $10 million per violation for businesses. Willful violations are the primary focus of enforcement.
Actionable Steps:
Scrub customer lists and remove any address where there is no affirmative opt-in to receive email and other commercial email.
Update privacy policies and form collection on websites (e.g., newsletter opt-in) to ensure proper consent.
Related:
Canadian Standards Association
PIPEDA or PIPED Act
COPL text
QR codes have been around for several years with their start in Japan. These days, the codes have become an inexpensive way for marketers to easily track the progress and ROI of their mixed media campaigns using print (direct mail, magazines, BRCs, business cards, coupons), tv, POS (e.g., in-store displays, billboards), mobile, email, or web marketing. As long as you have a mobile device that is capable of downloading an QR code reader app and has a built-in camera, you and your customers are good to go.
Here's a simple QR generator. Learn more about its developers here.
Some notable marketing campaigns using QR codes:
Dole Salad Mobile Club
- Campaign specs: 40k direct mail postcards with a QR code and short code for texting, Price Chopper database of users with an affinity for pre-made salads, separate codes used for Facebook and online banner ads
- A/B Testing: different coupon redemption requirements for current versus time-lapsed participants
- Goal: Increase mobile subscriptions among
- Consumer reward for signing up: discount coupon, holiday recipes, sweepstakes entry to win a $500 Price Chopper gift card
- Next steps: national campaign via Valassis and News America mail programs
Calvin Klein Jeans
- Campaign specs: three billboards (downtown NY, Sunset Blvd in LA), 40-second commercial that users can share with Facebook/Twitter networks
- Goal: Introduce CK's 2010 Fall Jeans
- Consumer reward for signing up: a shareable mobile/web commercial
MyToys.de
- Campaign specs: POS posters in public areas with themed and colored Lego codes directing users to MyToys.de's website
- Goal: Increase web traffic and online store revenue for LEGO product line
- Results: 49% increase in inbound web traffic; Twice as many LEGO boxes sold when compared to non-QR-coded marketing campaigns
- Watch their campaign wrap-up video
TATmobile
