Marchandising

Foreign Dollars Fuel A New Condo Boom In Miami : NPR

2015-01-28T06:45:00.001-08:00

Foreign Dollars Fuel A New Condo Boom In Miami : NPR

The $1 billion Brickell City Centre, currently under construction, will house condos, a hotel and a retail and entertainment complex. Condo projects are booming in Miami, financed mostly by foreign buyers.

Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Few people track Miami development closer than Peter Zalewski. He runs Cranespotters.com, a business that keeps tabs on all the new construction proposed in downtown Miami.

In an area that covers less than 4 square miles, he notes, there's a lot going on. In "downtown Miami, we're looking at 69 towers, 18,400 units," all residential condominiums, Zalewski says.

If history is any guide, not all of the projects will be built. But Zalewski says there are other big projects coming that are likely to add to the total.

Unlike construction elsewhere, the new condo boom in Miami is being financed mostly by foreign buyers. It caps a decade of building that has transformed one of America's poorest cities into an international destination.

"I would tell you, if we were to sit down in a year from now, we will be well over and above what we did during our last boom and ultimate bust and then ultimate recovery," Zalewski says.

A City Built On Building Sprees

Since the city was founded just over a century ago, Miami's history has largely been a series of property booms and busts.

Over the span of just a few years — until it ended in 2006 — Miami's last building spree added more than 20,000 condo units to a downtown where previously few had lived.

HISTORY

Developer To Preserve Ancient Tequesta Village In Heart Of Miami

Today's new boom is adding more condos, as well as commercial, retail and entertainment properties, at a dizzying pace.

Brickell City Centre, one of the large-scale projects currently under construction, is a $1 billion project that will include residential condos and a hotel, plus a shopping and entertainment complex.

Several blocks away in Miami, construction is slated to begin soon on an even larger complex, the $2 billion Miami WorldCenter.

Developer Nitin Motwani refers to the project as "the hole in the doughnut." Right now, it's a 30-acre parcel of parking lots and old buildings in the heart of the city. But Motwani is planning a convention hotel, a shopping mall and more condominiums.

"Everybody has got their eyes on Miami," Motwani says.

Fine Homes For Foreign Investors

Similar construction booms are going on in other cities — Los Angeles, New York, Houston and Washington, D.C., to name a few. In Miami, though, developers are focused on one particular product: luxury condominiums for foreign buyers.

ART & DESIGN

Street Art Brings Life To A Miami Neighborhood

FINE ART

For Miami, A New Art Project, Complete With Drama

Real estate consultant Zalewski says Miami, with its celebrities, nightlife and jet-set events, has built an international reputation.

"This is why we have Russian oligarchs purchasing property. This is why we have Malaysian conglomerates that own casinos and cruise lines coming here and buying," he says. "They're all coming here because they seem to think this is the next Singapore. This is the next London. This is the next great global city."

The annual Art Basel show, an event that attracts the ultra-wealthy to Miami Beach every December, has also been a factor.

Developers and city officials say they can track foreign investment dollars by watching the news. Sales to Russian buyers slowed after the U.S. imposed sanctions on that country. Economic and political turmoil in Latin America brought investors from that region.

And it's not just the super-wealthy buying here. Nelly Fernandez lives in Caracas, Venezuela, where she's a real estate broker. Because of Venezuela's crime and political problems, Fernandez says, she's used her savings to buy a modest condo in Miami.

"I have many, many friends in Miami," she says. "I have family there. In this city, I feel like I am like home, you know?"

Developer Motwani says that's one of Miami's key attractions for international buyers — it's a city where visitors from Latin America, Europe and even Russia quickly find others who literally speak their language.

"When people come here, you get beautiful weather, you get great taxes, you get great restaurants, you get great beaches," Motwani says. "All of that is spectacular. But what no one else can replicate is the diversity of our people."

The decade of residential construction has transformed Miami's downtown. Many of the condos are now rented by young professionals who work and play in the area. City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff says that has dramatically altered the demographics of the urban core.

"The average person is 37 years old. That's pretty young," he says. "Miami is undergoing a youth movement. And that youth movement is good because it's the creative class moving to the downtown core."

A Growing Divide

AROUND THE NATION

In Miami, Plans For Mega-Casinos Bring Hope And Ire

But the high-end development downtown can mask another important fact about Miami: Even after all the new construction, it remains one of America's poorest cities. According to the Census Bureau, the Miami area has the nation's second-lowest median income, lower than Detroit or Newark, N.J.

With the wealth pouring in, the divide between rich and poor is getting wider. Particularly vulnerable are residents who live in neighborhoods that border on Miami's downtown.

In Overtown, a nearby neighborhood, work crews are renovating the old Josephine and Dunn Hotel. It was one of the few accommodations in segregated Miami open to African-Americans in the 1930s and 40s.

Yvette Harris works with Jackson Soul Food, a restaurant that's a Miami landmark. By next year, Harris says, Jackson will turn the old hotel into a European-style bed and breakfast "where travelers will be able to come into a community where they're able to do some cultural tours and learn a little bit about the Overtown area."

The work is being paid for out of a fund generated by fees on downtown development. Also in the works is a $60 million project to build affordable housing.

Activist and author Marvin Dunn is concerned about the neighborhood's future as developers begin looking for new places to build.

"So these properties [will] become very, very valuable," he says. "What will happen? The private market will dominate. People will build. Development will proceed to the west. Overtown will be squeezed."

Dunn believes gentrification may push out half of the community's longtime African-American population in coming years. A decade after high-rise condominiums began reshaping Miami's downtown, it's an indication that the city's transformation never stops.

2013-02-28T07:32:00.002-08:00

Brand Who?

Ever had a person “Wow!” about your product and then say something like:

“I love it! How come I

never heard about your brand?” or

“If I knew where to find your brand, I’d be the first one to buy it!

So, how easy is it for potential clients to find your brand on the web?

Probably not an easy task…actually,

ensuring a brand “get’s found” has become the primary challenge of the digital era.

The Art & Science of Marketing teaches us that the muses that inspire “creativity” and

information with a value added edge are the sole proprietors towards drawing attention

to a brand. In other words: the ability to emerge with “quality content”

is still the most important factor to gaining new clients and keeping the old.

Velocity to drive sales relies in converting visits into leads. So how do your increase

traffic to your webpage again?

10 B’s

1. Be inspired: love what you do, do what you love.

2. Be creative: be brave to try new things, “Imagination is more important

than knowledge” (Albert Einstein)

3. Be true to your brand, be transparent: the best agenda is a “see through”

one.

4. Be awesome and create content people will love, “Think Different” (Apple)

5. Build, grow online communities, become a Subject Matter Expert and

then influence.

6. Be fast: respond to your connections or beware, your enemies’ will…

7. Be always transmitting on media channels and beyond social media,

keep your heads up for the new ones to come.

8. Balance SEO with PPC: Google’s billion dollar revenue stream depends on

advertising, hence the search algorithm is subject to modifications that even the

most savvy SEO expert can’t tackle.

9. Be consistent: brand positioning & search rank are directly tied to how long

you’ve been in the market, people’s top of mind and web presence, your digital

footprint must continue, step by step, never stop…hence perform

steps 1-8 again and again ;-)

10. Be humble: keep your soul open the innovation yet to come; with

software/hardware/media/communication and technology in general

everyday “it’s only just the beginning” (Bill Gates)

Once, traffic increases we can start converting visits into leads, truth is, even if

you attract more visitors to your webpage, it doesn’t guarantee you any incremental

revenue whatsoever…but that’s a chapter for the next blog

on “Marketing Software”, till then, love it or leave it;-)

2012-09-23T18:18:00.002-07:00

A Brand Called "Roger Waters"

Roger Waters: Born September 6, 1943 this rock musician, singer-songwriter, composer
and activist became Pink Floyd's vocalist back in 1968. Well known for the band,
what really launched his persona into the next decades were the legendary movie "The Wall"
& later on the 1990 concert held on the Gates of Brandenburg which is calculated as the
largest rock concert in history, after selling 250K tickets, the gates (or walls;) were taken down
to let an additional 100,000 people march in.

As a family guy living in suburbia, I don't get out that much to anything but Disney so attending
an "adult event" courtesy of my sister, last Sunday I had the opportunity to experience
"The Wall" Concert and the Bank Atlantic Arena in Fort Lauderdale. You could see various
generations that have navigated threw the numb comfort of the various albums. The show,
well, what can I say it was a trip in time, I was a teenage back then, enamored by the lyrics
"we don't need no education....dan-daran..." to which anyone who's suffered British school
systems can adhere too...back then you'd get "the cane" for any wrongdoings, no question
asked. A display of music & visual effects, a WWII spitfire that actually explodes on
stage...a Wall that grows song after song to tummble down.

Interesting enough
this rocker has managed
to "marchandise" his
name towards a message
of peace vs war,
conventionalism vs
freedom of
thought/speech,
the Orwellian concept
of "big brother"
(for Pink: "big mother") -
or the establishment
always looking at the
citizen vs the free
thinker, among other
revolting concepts back
in the day. A great example on "marchandising" your name, goto: http://www.roger-waters.com/
where you can view the anti-war struggle this artisit has committed to, as well as tour dates,
tickets & other merchandise.

Bottom-line, his apparatus shows us how you can use your name for a greater cause and reap
some goods on the side. Sadly, looking back the world hasn't changed that much since WWII
or the Cold War...war is still war: big business, capitalism rules, big brother is still there,
thought control..well that has changed...never did we have access to so many tools to
communicate freely via the internet and it's just the beginning.

Thanks Roger for "educating" us all;)

marchan-dising.com

edwin@marchan-dising.com

Why Offshore? Ask Apple | CitiTrust Blog

2012-03-27T14:36:00.001-07:00

Why Offshore? Ask Apple | CitiTrust Blog

A Brand Called “Kodak” - Home

2012-02-08T23:18:00.002-08:00

A Brand Called “Kodak”

posted an hour ago by Edwin Marchan [ updated 14 minutes ago ]

Digital Killed Kodak or was it Lack of Vision?

Once the hallmark of photography, Kodak has filed chapter eleven while restructuring for the digital revolution.
But doesn’t it seem kind of late? A move to adapt when the train has already left. I can attest to having tons
of prints & slides in various format. Bottom-line: assets of $5.1 billion and debts of $6.75 billion...
you do the math...

How does a brand that was a synonym of innovation and survived so much competition and
emerging technologies, finally throw the towel? Wasn't this evident, what happened? How does a
company loose it's edge and become obsolete in it's own turf? Sounds like the iPod vs. Sony
Walkman...along comes this new technology and the later just becomes history. Was it too much
R&D? Lousy management?

Before we answer let me walk you down memory lane. If you where born in the digital era, the Kodak
brand may not ring many bells. In my case, the first camera I owned was the Instamatic with a 110mm
film cartridges, pocket size. Then I remember going to Summer Camp in New Hampshire where I enrolled
in my first photography course and my Dad let me take his 35mm Zeiss-Ikon camera. It was heavy, it was
precise, pure German engineering clockwork.

Probably my love for photography & imaging comes from my Father. He would film us with his 8mm
Kodak camera, send the film for processing in Panama which was the only place that developed film and
then months later we actually saw the movies on a screen in our living room. Yes they were in color, yes
they had "no" sound.

In my long romance with photography I may have spent months of my life in relative time trapped by light in
a dark room. This was when I met the Kodak ASA 400 which had a 100ASA grain but could be forced to 800.
Still have boxes of B&W print in all sizes and formats. Just the idea brings back the scent of chemicals
needed to process that great 100 in a hundred silver gelatin print.

I recall an episode in Mad Men that very well captures the role the Kodak Carrousel played in our lives.
Just saving money to by rolls of Kodakchrome 25 & 64, you can even see the layers of color.
But I just went digital. The cost per click became trivial, everyone who can point and shoot is now a
photographer and sharing can be done online, just with a couple of clicks.

So lets get back to the why did Kodak fail?

Paranoia; Canon and Nikon which where "coopetitors" saw it coming and rapidly went digital, when Kodak
figured this out it was probably too late.

Convergence: "gadgetization" = iPhone, Smart Phones, Cellphones, Flatscreens, USB Drives, Macs and PCs...
suddenly we have all these apparatus with imaging capabilities and we shoot like crazy, anytime, anyplace...

Pricing Strategy: the cost of shooting became trivial, instead of thinking out if it was worth the click, with
digital, you could just point and shoot, just for the fun of it at a ultra low cost.

Immediate Retribution and User Experience: with the emergence of social media; you shoot, you view, you
upload and you share. No need to send the roll to the lab...satisfaction guaranteed. End of day we shoot to
immortalize moments and we want to share these moments.

George Eastman - founded Kodak in 1889

How does Kodak Get Back into Profitable Terrain?

1.) ID Core Strength: what can Kodak do better than any other company?

Kodak Management believes it's printing, SW&Svcs., Packaging.

But Kodak is really about "memories" and memories need to be on some type of support, way it's going it's
digital...satisfaction and pricing...kids these days don't have cameras, it's a Cell Phone and up in the cloud.

This author believes it's beating the competition with innovation. Where are the $X billions in R&D?

Kodak Management Believes in Four Core Product Groups Established Digital Cash Generators;

Consumer Inkjet to Achieve Profitability During 2011

Commercial Inkjet to Achieve Profitability During 2012

Workflow Software & Services

Packaging Solutions

Why this won't work?

Kodak is not unique in any of the areas where it plans to dig trenches.
Where does the cloud fit into all this or is it part of the SW+Svcs.?
Is the consumer really demanding more prints?
They must have strong numbers behind this
Goto any WalMart, Walgreens and the printing machines are generally empty..
Consumers need printers, sure, but they must be compatible with the upcoming gadgetry
If you ask me I'm after the "Air Print" technology where HP and Epson already lead.
In addition the prnter has to do paper and photos where Kodak doesn't seem to ring any bells.
What about that big "R" called recession hanging over our heads? Unemployment and consumer confidence?
Well those are variables that are probably in the equation.
Disrupting Trends and Technologies: social media is Kodak's biggest enemy.
But if the right partnerships and joint ventures come in time, Kodak could benefit big time.
To date I've seen no presence of Kodak in the New Media...seems they are missing out on this one too?

What will Works:

Stick to your guns

Storing memories are the foundation of Kodak
You can get a Canon printer for $60

Go Big, Go Bold:

Give the printers for free

Charge only the ink and paper

Sharing memories is where all this is going

Engage with the big Social Media players and Gadget Manufacturers

Become a "facilitator" for printing memories from social media sites & gadgets
Include S&H
Engage the digital generation

Get out of the business space
All companies are promising the same thing and trying to make photocopying something that it's not.

For now none of the photo products I have are Kodak but I'm a potential customer,
just make it easier for me to get there.

2012-01-17T22:45:00.001-08:00

A Brand Called "SOPA"

How free is freedom of speech if SOPA is approved?

SOPA: Stop Online Piracy Act, sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith was announced late October and it will probably be the headline for all things digital in the upcoming weeks, months...

Internet enthusiasts and web companies around the world have hailed their opposition towards the proposed bill. In a couple of hours Wikipedia in English will black out in protest, we'll see if Google who claims ideals has the guts to get offline? Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn are also in the list, lets see when the rubber meets the road...if they will do the right thing or hide behind lawyers or under boardroom tables. In conjunction they announced that SOPA is "a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation's cyber security."

SOPA & PIPA the two bills procured are after Web sites that happen to be located in a nation more hospitable to copyright infringement than the United States is (in fact, the U.S. is probably the least hospitable jurisdiction in the world for such an endeavor). Because the target is offshore, a lawsuit against the owners in a U.S. court would be futile.

Who's behind SOPA & PIPA:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce:

"Rogue Web sites that steal America's innovative and creative products attract more than 53 billion visits a year and threaten more than 19 million American jobs."

The Motion Picture Association:

Highlighting an analysis it commissioned from First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams, a former MPAA attorney, who concluded SOPA is perfectly constitutional. Here's another pro-SOPA rebuttal.

A Politico chart shows that Hollywood has outspent Silicon Valley by about tenfold on lobbyists in the last two years. Here's a CNET article on why the Chamber is so pro-SOPA.

Over 400 businesses and organizations have sent a letter supporting SOPA.

The Recording Industry Association of America:

SOPA could be used to force Internet providers to block by "Internet Protocol address" and deny "access to only the illegal part of the site." It would come as no surprise if copyright holders suggested wording to the Justice Department, which would in turn seek a judge's signature on the removal order

What will happen if SOPA is approved:

"An explosion of innovation-killing lawsuits and litigation."

It will allow the U.S. attorney general to seek a court order against the targeted offshore Web site that would, in turn, be served on Internet providers in an effort to make the target virtually disappear. It's kind of an Internet death penalty.

More specifically, section 102 of SOPA says that, after being served with a removal order:

A service provider shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent access by its subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site (or portion thereof) that is subject to the order...Such actions shall be taken as expeditiously as possible, but in any case within five days after being served with a copy of the order, or within such time as the court may order.

What is SOPA after?

Goes further than Protect IP and could require Internet providers to monitor customers' traffic and block Web sites suspected of copyright infringement.

Are there free speech implications to SOPA?

SOPA's opponents say so--a New York Times op-ed called it the "Great Firewall of America--and the language of the bill itself is quite broad. Section 103 says that, to be blacklisted, a Web site must be "directed" at the U.S. and also that the owner "has promoted" acts that can infringe copyright.

Here's how Section 101 of the original version of SOPA defines what a U.S.-directed Web site is:

(A) the Internet site is used to provide goods or services to users located in the United States;
(B) there is evidence that the Internet site or portion thereof is intended to offer or provide such goods and services (or) access to such goods and services (or) delivery of such goods and services to users located in the United States;
(C) the Internet site or portion thereof does not contain reasonable measures to prevent such goods and services from being obtained in or delivered to the United States; and
(D) any prices for goods and services are indicated or billed in the currency of the United States.

Some critics have charged that such language could blacklist the next YouTube, Wikipedia, or WikiLeaks. Especially in the case of WikiLeaks, which has posted internal documents not only from governments but also copyrighted documents from U.S. companies and has threatened to post more, it's hard to see how it would not qualify for blacklisting.

Mozilla, which makes the Firefox Web browser, responded by creating a page saying: "Protect the Internet: Help us stop the Internet Blacklist Legislation." It warns that "your favorite Web sites both inside and outside the US could be blocked based on an infringement claim."

Web sites including Wikimedia (as in, Wikipedia) charged that SOPA is an "Internet blacklist bill" that "would allow corporations, organizations, or the government to order an Internet service provider to block an entire Web site simply due to an allegation that the site posted infringing content." Tumblr "censored" its users' content streams, and reported that its users averaged 3.6 calls per second to Congress through the company's Web site--nearly 90,000 total.

Sources: CNET, Wikipedia

Steve Jobs: Our favourite quotes | Crave | CNET UK

2011-08-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs: Our favourite quotes | Crave | CNET UK:

'via Blog this'

If you haven't already heard the news, let us break it to you gently -- Steve Jobs has resigned as CEO of Apple, to be replaced by Tim Cook.

What this means for the future of Apple isn't clear, but it feels rather peculiar imagining Apple without Steve, in his jeans and polo neck excitedly unveiling new products at the Apple keynotes, but this is the world we live in now and we need to accept that.

To help us get over Steve's transition to a presumably more relaxed lifestyle, we've put together some of our favourite Jobsian quotes from down the years.

Read, enjoy and stroke your iPhone fondly.

Steve on being fired as Apple CEO

"I feel like somebody just punched me in the stomach and knocked all my wind out. I'm only 30 years old and I want to have a chance to continue creating things. I know I've got at least one more great computer in me. And Apple is not going to give me a chance to do that."
- From Playboy, 1987

"I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life... It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. "
- From his speech at Stanford University, 2005

"If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it's worth -- and get busy on the next great thing. The PC wars are over. Done. Microsoft won a long time ago."
- From Fortune, 1996

"You know, I've got a plan that could rescue Apple. I can't say any more than that it's the perfect product and the perfect strategy for Apple. But nobody there will listen to me."
- From Fortune, 1995

"The products suck! There's no sex in them anymore!"
- Talking of Apple's products before his return. From BusinessWeek, 1997

"Everyone wants a MacBook Pro because they are so bitchin'."
- A more positive Steve on the MacBook Pros at the Apple Annual Shareholder Meeting, 2006.

Steve on Microsoft

"I am saddened, not by Microsoft's success -- I have no problem with their success. They've earned their success, for the most part. I have a problem with the fact that they just make really third-rate products."
- Steve on Microsoft in Triumph of the Nerds, 1996

"The only problem with Microsoft is they just have no taste. They have absolutely no taste. And I don't mean that in a small way, I mean that in a big way, in the sense that they don't think of original ideas, and they don't bring much culture into their products."
- Steve cuts loose in Triumph of the Nerds, 1996

"I wish him the best, I really do. I just think he and Microsoft are a bit narrow. He'd be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once or gone off to an ashram when he was younger."
- Steve on Bill Gates in The New York Times, 1997

"Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me ... Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful... that's what matters to me."
- Steve on Bill Gates and Microsoft in The Wall Street Journal, 1993

"Our friends up north spend over $5bn on research and development and all they seem to do is copy Google and Apple."
- Steve having another dig at Microsoft at the Worldwide Developers Conference, 2006

Steve on life

"I'm the only person I know that's lost a quarter of a billion dollars in one year... It's very character-building."
- From Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World's Most Colorful Company, 2005

"You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."
- Steve with a decidedly positive outlook in his speech at Stanford University, 2005

"You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle."
- Steve on love at Stanford University, 2005

"I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."
- More from Steve at Stanford University, 2005

"One more thing..."
- The iconic words with which Steve launched many products at Apple keynotes

A Brand Called "Steve Jobs"

2011-08-25T06:44:00.000-07:00

Well I've mentioned it before in my blog...hadn't really taken a bite from the "Apple" till I left Microsoft and what can I say, the Ipod, Iphone and Ipad have become part of my digital lifestyle, the MAC well....just recently I have an iMac on my desk, still struggling a bit to get used to the the user interface but gotta admit it is admirable.

Steve Jobs has given us the hope that anyone who dedicates his life to something, that is passionate for something can make dream come true and impact the lives of so many. Visionary, innovator...blunt, obsessive...not only with Apple but talk about Pixar...what can I say a man who in the midst of adversity and even failure endured and delivered the largest Corporation in market cap as he walked of stage, I mean if you are going to leave, leave with style!

All I can say is thank you SteveJ for been a leader beyond the walls of your own office.

Text of Jobs’s Resignation Letter

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Apple released this letter from Steven P. Jobs on Wednesday as it announced that he was stepping down from the post of chief executive.

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s C.E.O., I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as C.E.O. of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as C.E.O. of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve

Blessings & have a great week!

Edwin Marchan

Brand Equity Powered by Social Media

A Brand Called: Andreessen Horowitz

2011-08-23T11:02:00.000-07:00

This week, Hewlett-Packard (where I am on the board) announced that it is exploring jettisoning its PC business in favor of investing more heavily in software, where it sees better potential for growth. Meanwhile, Google plans to buy up the cellphone handset maker Motorola Mobility. Both moves surprised the tech world. But both moves are also in line with a trend I've observed, one that makes me optimistic about the future growth of the American and world economies, despite the recent turmoil in the stock market.

In short, software is eating the world.

More than 10 years after the peak of the 1990s dot-com bubble, a dozen or so new Internet companies like Facebook and Twitter are sparking controversy in Silicon Valley, due to their rapidly growing private market valuations, and even the occasional successful IPO. With scars from the heyday of Webvan and Pets.com still fresh in the investor psyche, people are asking, "Isn't this just a dangerous new bubble?"

I, along with others, have been arguing the other side of the case. (I am co-founder and general partner of venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz, which has invested in Facebook, Groupon, Skype, Twitter, Zynga, and Foursquare, among others. I am also personally an investor in LinkedIn.) We believe that many of the prominent new Internet companies are building real, high-growth, high-margin, highly defensible businesses.

Today's stock market actually hates technology, as shown by all-time low price/earnings ratios for major public technology companies. Apple, for example, has a P/E ratio of around 15.2—about the same as the broader stock market, despite Apple's immense profitability and dominant market position (Apple in the last couple weeks became the biggest company in America, judged by market capitalization, surpassing Exxon Mobil). And, perhaps most telling, you can't have a bubble when people are constantly screaming "Bubble!"

But too much of the debate is still around financial valuation, as opposed to the underlying intrinsic value of the best of Silicon Valley's new companies. My own theory is that we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swathes of the economy.

More and more major businesses and industries are being run on software and delivered as online services—from movies to agriculture to national defense. Many of the winners are Silicon Valley-style entrepreneurial technology companies that are invading and overturning established industry structures. Over the next 10 years, I expect many more industries to be disrupted by software, with new world-beating Silicon Valley companies doing the disruption in more cases than not.

Why is this happening now?

Six decades into the computer revolution, four decades since the invention of the microprocessor, and two decades into the rise of the modern Internet, all of the technology required to transform industries through software finally works and can be widely delivered at global scale.

Over two billion people now use the broadband Internet, up from perhaps 50 million a decade ago, when I was at Netscape, the company I co-founded. In the next 10 years, I expect at least five billion people worldwide to own smartphones, giving every individual with such a phone instant access to the full power of the Internet, every moment of every day.

On the back end, software programming tools and Internet-based services make it easy to launch new global software-powered start-ups in many industries—without the need to invest in new infrastructure and train new employees. In 2000, when my partner Ben Horowitz was CEO of the first cloud computing company, Loudcloud, the cost of a customer running a basic Internet application was approximately $150,000 a month. Running that same application today in Amazon's cloud costs about $1,500 a month.

With lower start-up costs and a vastly expanded market for online services, the result is a global economy that for the first time will be fully digitally wired—the dream of every cyber-visionary of the early 1990s, finally delivered, a full generation later.

Perhaps the single most dramatic example of this phenomenon of software eating a traditional business is the suicide of Borders and corresponding rise of Amazon. In 2001, Borders agreed to hand over its online business to Amazon under the theory that online book sales were non-strategic and unimportant.

Oops.

Today, the world's largest bookseller, Amazon, is a software company—its core capability is its amazing software engine for selling virtually everything online, no retail stores necessary. On top of that, while Borders was thrashing in the throes of impending bankruptcy, Amazon rearranged its web site to promote its Kindle digital books over physical books for the first time. Now even the books themselves are software.

Today's largest video service by number of subscribers is a software company: Netflix. How Netflix eviscerated Blockbuster is an old story, but now other traditional entertainment providers are facing the same threat. Comcast, Time Warner and others are responding by transforming themselves into software companies with efforts such as TV Everywhere, which liberates content from the physical cable and connects it to smartphones and tablets.

Today's dominant music companies are software companies, too: Apple's iTunes, Spotify and Pandora. Traditional record labels increasingly exist only to provide those software companies with content. Industry revenue from digital channels totaled $4.6 billion in 2010, growing to 29% of total revenue from 2% in 2004.

Today's fastest growing entertainment companies are videogame makers—again, software—with the industry growing to $60 billion from $30 billion five years ago. And the fastest growing major videogame company is Zynga (maker of games including FarmVille), which delivers its games entirely online. Zynga's first-quarter revenues grew to $235 million this year, more than double revenues from a year earlier. Rovio, maker of Angry Birds, is expected to clear $100 million in revenue this year (the company was nearly bankrupt when it debuted the popular game on the iPhone in late 2009). Meanwhile, traditional videogame powerhouses like Electronic Arts and Nintendo have seen revenues stagnate and fall.

The best new movie production company in many decades, Pixar, was a software company. Disney—Disney!—had to buy Pixar, a software company, to remain relevant in animated movies.

Photography, of course, was eaten by software long ago. It's virtually impossible to buy a mobile phone that doesn't include a software-powered camera, and photos are uploaded automatically to the Internet for permanent archiving and global sharing. Companies like Shutterfly, Snapfish and Flickr have stepped into Kodak's place.

Today's largest direct marketing platform is a software company—Google. Now it's been joined by Groupon, Living Social, Foursquare and others, which are using software to eat the retail marketing industry. Groupon generated over $700 million in revenue in 2010, after being in business for only two years.

Today's fastest growing telecom company is Skype, a software company that was just bought by Microsoft for $8.5 billion. CenturyLink, the third largest telecom company in the U.S., with a $20 billion market cap, had 15 million access lines at the end of June 30—declining at an annual rate of about 7%. Excluding the revenue from its Qwest acquisition, CenturyLink's revenue from these legacy services declined by more than 11%. Meanwhile, the two biggest telecom companies, AT&T and Verizon, have survived by transforming themselves into software companies, partnering with Apple and other smartphone makers.

LinkedIn is today's fastest growing recruiting company. For the first time ever, on LinkedIn, employees can maintain their own resumes for recruiters to search in real time—giving LinkedIn the opportunity to eat the lucrative $400 billion recruiting industry.

Software is also eating much of the value chain of industries that are widely viewed as primarily existing in the physical world. In today's cars, software runs the engines, controls safety features, entertains passengers, guides drivers to destinations and connects each car to mobile, satellite and GPS networks. The days when a car aficionado could repair his or her own car are long past, due primarily to the high software content. The trend toward hybrid and electric vehicles will only accelerate the software shift—electric cars are completely computer controlled. And the creation of software-powered driverless cars is already under way at Google and the major car companies.

Today's leading real-world retailer, Wal-Mart, uses software to power its logistics and distribution capabilities, which it has used to crush its competition. Likewise for FedEx, which is best thought of as a software network that happens to have trucks, planes and distribution hubs attached. And the success or failure of airlines today and in the future hinges on their ability to price tickets and optimize routes and yields correctly—with software.

Oil and gas companies were early innovators in supercomputing and data visualization and analysis, which are crucial to today's oil and gas exploration efforts. Agriculture is increasingly powered by software as well, including satellite analysis of soils linked to per-acre seed selection software algorithms.

The financial services industry has been visibly transformed by software over the last 30 years. Practically every financial transaction, from someone buying a cup of coffee to someone trading a trillion dollars of credit default derivatives, is done in software. And many of the leading innovators in financial services are software companies, such as Square, which allows anyone to accept credit card payments with a mobile phone, and PayPal, which generated more than $1 billion in revenue in the second quarter of this year, up 31% over the previous year.

Health care and education, in my view, are next up for fundamental software-based transformation. My venture capital firm is backing aggressive start-ups in both of these gigantic and critical industries. We believe both of these industries, which historically have been highly resistant to entrepreneurial change, are primed for tipping by great new software-centric entrepreneurs.

Even national defense is increasingly software-based. The modern combat soldier is embedded in a web of software that provides intelligence, communications, logistics and weapons guidance. Software-powered drones launch airstrikes without putting human pilots at risk. Intelligence agencies do large-scale data mining with software to uncover and track potential terrorist plots.

Companies in every industry need to assume that a software revolution is coming. This includes even industries that are software-based today. Great incumbent software companies like Oracle and Microsoft are increasingly threatened with irrelevance by new software offerings like Salesforce.com and Android (especially in a world where Google owns a major handset maker).

In some industries, particularly those with a heavy real-world component such as oil and gas, the software revolution is primarily an opportunity for incumbents. But in many industries, new software ideas will result in the rise of new Silicon Valley-style start-ups that invade existing industries with impunity. Over the next 10 years, the battles between incumbents and software-powered insurgents will be epic. Joseph Schumpeter, the economist who coined the term "creative destruction," would be proud.

And while people watching the values of their 401(k)s bounce up and down the last few weeks might doubt it, this is a profoundly positive story for the American economy, in particular. It's not an accident that many of the biggest recent technology companies—including Google, Amazon, eBay and more—are American companies. Our combination of great research universities, a pro-risk business culture, deep pools of innovation-seeking equity capital and reliable business and contract law is unprecedented and unparalleled in the world.

Still, we face several challenges.

First of all, every new company today is being built in the face of massive economic headwinds, making the challenge far greater than it was in the relatively benign '90s. The good news about building a company during times like this is that the companies that do succeed are going to be extremely strong and resilient. And when the economy finally stabilizes, look out—the best of the new companies will grow even faster.

Secondly, many people in the U.S. and around the world lack the education and skills required to participate in the great new companies coming out of the software revolution. This is a tragedy since every company I work with is absolutely starved for talent. Qualified software engineers, managers, marketers and salespeople in Silicon Valley can rack up dozens of high-paying, high-upside job offers any time they want, while national unemployment and underemployment is sky high. This problem is even worse than it looks because many workers in existing industries will be stranded on the wrong side of software-based disruption and may never be able to work in their fields again. There's no way through this problem other than education, and we have a long way to go.

Finally, the new companies need to prove their worth. They need to build strong cultures, delight their customers, establish their own competitive advantages and, yes, justify their rising valuations. No one should expect building a new high-growth, software-powered company in an established industry to be easy. It's brutally difficult.

I'm privileged to work with some of the best of the new breed of software companies, and I can tell you they're really good at what they do. If they perform to my and others' expectations, they are going to be highly valuable cornerstone companies in the global economy, eating markets far larger than the technology industry has historically been able to pursue.

Instead of constantly questioning their valuations, let's seek to understand how the new generation of technology companies are doing what they do, what the broader consequences are for businesses and the economy and what we can collectively do to expand the number of innovative new software companies created in the U.S. and around the world.

That's the big opportunity. I know where I'm putting my money.

Mr. Andreessen is co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen-Horowitz, which has invested in Facebook, Groupon, Skype, Twitter, Zynga, and Foursquare among others. He also co-founded Netscape, one of the first browser companies.

—Mr. Andreessen is co-founder and general partner of the venture capital firm Andreessen-

Taken for the NYT

China's railways: Choose your train wreck | The Economist

2011-08-20T23:23:00.000-07:00

China's railways: Choose your train wreck | The Economist

Europe’s Debt Crisis Continues to Unsettle Stocks - NYTimes.com

2011-08-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

Week review: Europe’s Debt Crisis Continues to Unsettle Stocks - NYTimes.com - so the roller coaster ride continues...get out while you can a diversify geographically: http://marchan-dising.blogspot.com/2011/08/brand-called-cititrustbiz.html

A Brand Called "CitiTrust.biz"

2011-08-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

"Diversification is a protection against ignorance. It makes little sense for those who know what they're doing."

- Warren Buffet

Well Warren your right on the money, but when you say "diversification" do you mean portfolio, industry or geography?

In past weeks I've learned you can juggle your way through recessions and the upswings of the market, but it's really offshore investment what it's all about. During the last market crash I had banked all my trust in good old Wall Street...yep me a couple other suckers...when the DJIA hit the 8000's I was cashing out everything. Yes you, me and many others like us lost a lot of money...

This made me reflect upon the next crisis and I stumbled upon a brand called CitiTrust International which provides a great strategy, they provide financial services in the emergent and sunny Belize since 1994. Today they can proudly boast the are the #1 provider of international financial services in Belize and other jurisdictions, specialized in incorporating international business companies under the flexible International Business Companies Act of Belize and other jurisdictions and the formation of Trusts under the Belize Trust Act that is unlike any other trust legislation in the world.

CITITRUST International Inc. turned out to be a responsible international financial services company operating at the highest level of integrity, professionalism and confidentiality, with an excellent reputation.

To wrap it up when the storm came, I was in good hands;)

For more amazing great articles please visit CitiTrust International and subscribe to EDGE.

Follows us on Twitter: @CitiTrust

Join Joy Godfrey on LinkedIn

Join us on Facebook.com @ CitiTrust

Cititrust International Blog: QATAR - The new oasis of the Middle East

2011-08-07T12:01:00.000-07:00

Cititrust International Blog: QATAR - The new oasis of the Middle East

A Brand Called "Social Libre.com"

2011-06-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

Coupons have been around for a longtime and now we are seeing them evolve from paper into digital. Start-ups like Groupon have popped up from nowhere to become the next big IPO. Some call it the social media bubble, I just view as opportunity to get more for less. The recent player on the field is Social Libre.com which caters to the Hispanic/Latin American community. The brand is new and we'll watch it closely, but the deals are just amazing! I applaud the spirit of entrepreneurship with which this small company is rolling. But with all honestly what mostly caught my attention is the upcoming deal, specially for someone who loves to vacation, relax, eat out and just enjoy life.

Don't miss out on this deal!

A Brand Called Trump Full Version

2011-05-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

A Brand Called Trump

2011-05-11T08:29:00.000-07:00

A Brand called "Coca-Cola"

2011-04-18T15:47:00.000-07:00

On May 1886, exactly 125 years after Dr. John Pemberton from Atlanta, GA delivered via a mix of water and other mysterious ingredients in a brass kettle the one and only secret Coca-Cola formula. But that was just the product, it was actually his bookkeeper to whom we owe the name and the original hand written logo. From nine servings sold per day to a staggering 1.7 billion servings per day - talk about growth factors!

I guess we've all had our story with Coke, it's a brand with a specially emotional connection. Mine starts back when I was a kid all I wanted was to drink it all day long, but it was for special occasions only. Remember my mother gave me a can, I drank half of it, filled up with water so it would multiply...what a waste.

On another occasion went on a school picnic and some kid opened my can inside the bus, sprayed everyone...all that was left was a mushed sandwich inside my Harrods plastic bag (no lunch boxes in UK back then) think I was five...cried like a baby and had two older girls feed me for the rest of the outing. Later on when I lived in Ecuador I recall my best friend and I would climb over the wall into his grand father's house and get Mr. Martinez to open his bar and grant us with a pop of the forbidden elixir while he told us stories of when he was a real cowboy. The bottles were smaller back then but grandpa's tales are unforgettable. One day the Coca-Cola truck came by the house and my mom actually brought an entire case, it was like a dream come true, 24 bottles of Coke in the fridge! As time passed the bottles got bigger, plastic took over glass. There's that amazing story of the Cola Wars when Pepsi and Coke bottlers would buy each other's bottles and break them in order to gain market share....

Then when I had my own income to drink it on a daily basis we discovered it had too much sugar. So then they launched the Diet/Low Cal version which resulted dangerous for your health....well I have to admit, I love a drink of Coke, specially Zero in the black can, ice cold...aaaaaahhhhhhhh. Then there's the mixes with beverages: in Chile we'll drink Piscola: Pisco plus Coke, then there's the famous Cuba Libre: Rhum and Coke or Jack & Coke. I'm sure every nation has it's own mix. Bet you want one now, thats exactly the strategy, to be on your top of mind "recency" and awaken thirst.

The master of advertising as we know it, 125 years doing the same drink but always keeping it fresh. And the caffeine rush of course...anyone remember the "New Coke"? the ultimate marketing belly flop? Later on in I had the opportunity to handle the Coca-Cola account at McCann-Erickson, one of the all time highs in my career. Never experienced a brand that cares so much about it's customer base and appreciates input. Everything was tested with the target audiences again and again: ad campaigns, messaging, story boards, promos, quality standards, flavor, etc.... I recall the European Union aluminium can crisis - millions of cans were taken off the market due cases of intoxication. As a result Coke was banned in Europe and the globe. A major PR and Policy mishap we should all learn from.

Another encounter I had with the brand was in Galapagos where a ship had capsized during a storm close to the beach. I went snorkeling one morning to the see the wreck and in a most surreal panorama saw the entire ocean covered with Coke bottles. On the bright side, the brand is well known all around the world, crossing cultural barriers. The unforgettable Christmas campaigns with Santa Claus, the Polar Bears...This is one brand that will probably outlive us all. Please let me close with a - cheers - and the celebration ad produced by my ex-colleagues at McCann http://bcove.me/sidg527p

My last story, don;t want to bore you anymore...my kids went to the Coke Museum in Atlanta, where you can try Cokes from all around the world and as a souvenir they brought back an aluminum bottle, mus of been in the fridge for more than a year, have to confess one night I drank it...it's still there (filled with water...)

Blessings & have a great week!

Edwin Marchan

Brand Equity Powered by Social Media

Start the Week a rand Called Verdi!

2011-04-11T07:19:00.000-07:00

Do Celebrities “Get” Twitter? — It's All About Revenue

2011-04-07T13:08:00.000-07:00

Do Celebrities “Get” Twitter? — It's All About Revenue

A Brand Called "#1" or "Google goes Social"

2011-04-01T09:29:00.000-07:00

Google: Social Search Finally Launches

It was only a matter of time till Google went social on a larger scale with +1 (similar to the "like" button on Facebook) and timing has a lot to do. Ex-#1: Eric Schmidt is replaced today by Larry Page who takes on the role of "The New" #1/CEO/Emperor of the Search/Media/Advertising/Communications Conglomerate. Now what is #1: think of it as a digital "word-of-mouth" - people like something, they click #1 and boom, via diverse Google channels and sites across the Web you'll see your friends recommendations.

What does it cost? well as in all things "Googly": you need to create a "Google Profile" which puts the privacy issue on the table. You can keep it private if you choose. If you desire to be among the #1s in experiencing this feature you can join at Google Labs.

Have an awesome weekend and don't forget to Marchan-dise it!

Blessings,

Edwin

A Brand Called Michael Porter

2011-03-28T18:03:00.000-07:00

Brands Called: Google vs. Microsoft vs. Apple

2011-03-23T10:24:00.000-07:00

Gartner for Business Leaders Shared - Sign up for the webinar

Google vs. Microsoft: The Battle for Future Dominance (and Apples Sneak Attack)

Google and Microsoft are investing billions of dollars every year, building out data centers to support their cloud offerings, and hoping to be No. 1 in a world where the cloud is central to computing. We’ll focus on the differences between their strategies, and who is likely to succeed most at what.

Please join VPs and Gartner Fellows Tom Austin and David Mitchell Smith as they discuss the state of the industry.

Date: 25 March 2011 Time: 9:00 AM EDT | 12:00 PM EDT | GMT: 13:00 & 16:00

Great seminar from Gartner - sign up and see you there!

Duration: 60 mins

What you will learn:

· Where do Microsoft and Google stand today?

· What will be the effect on markets as a result of Microsoft/Google competition?

· How will enterprise IT decisions be affected by the battles between Microsoft and Google?

Sign up for the webinar

Blessings,

Edwin Marchan

Business Development Manager

Branding Powered by Social Media

http://www.marchan-dising.com/

http://www.edwinmarchan.com/

Time to Eat Tuna? ‘Wonder’ No More - NYTimes.com

2011-03-08T18:30:00.000-08:00

A Brand called "Tuna": Time to Eat Tuna? ‘Wonder’ No More - NYTimes.com

A Brand Called “Survey Salsa”

2011-03-08T08:48:00.000-08:00

A Brand Called “Survey Salsa”

How do you know what your customers think about your brand? Do you have a system and process to retrieve feedback after every interaction? I’ve seen this hundreds of times, companies pitching “state-of-the-art” technological solutions, passing out a survey on paper. Then the data needs to be processed manually, input on a spreadsheet and later on displayed in graphic form, when the business dynamics require we do business @ the speed of thought.

Recently I teamed up with an old colleague of mine: Miguel Munoz, I was "flabbergasted" by his new cloud based software: SurveySalsa.com: “online surveys with spice” a one stop solution for surveys, forms and questionnaires. Bottom-line its data that can help you evaluate & understand the customers’ experience. Information that empowers business to make fast corrective actions.

On the flip side if you are looking on hot to innovate on social media I suggest you test this as a tool to evaluate perception among your network. Ask friends and family what they think about a particular contact in a fun way. For example ask if John was an animal which one would he be? What has being his funniest story? If he was a car, which one would he be? Just to name a few. You would be surprised to see how creative people are and the different perceptions they have of the same person. Make a quick survey and post it on Facebook! But before showing the results in front of everyone, make sure your friend responds to the survey. You will give the gift of insight and hopefully some laughs!

What I love about Survey Salsa is the ease of use, lets you order “a la carte” and export data directly into excel, creating the reports you need, in English and Spanish, so try it while it's free;)

Edwin Marchan

Brand Equity Powered by Social Media

email: edwin@marchan-dising.com

http://www.marchan-dising.com/

Marchan-dising.com

2011-03-07T17:20:00.000-08:00

Marchan-dising.com

Marchandising LLC is a Brand Management Firm that builds brand equity utilizing social media & cloud services.
A creative, innovative & cost effective approach towards bridging products & services to targeted audiences with special attention to generating sales leads.
Want to know how your brand ranks against the competition?
Request your FREE Brand Assessment with: customerservice@marchan-dising.com

Marchandising

Foreign Dollars Fuel A New Condo Boom In Miami : NPR

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A Brand Called "SOPA"

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Steve Jobs: Our favourite quotes | Crave | CNET UK

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China's railways: Choose your train wreck | The Economist

Europe’s Debt Crisis Continues to Unsettle Stocks - NYTimes.com

A Brand Called "CitiTrust.biz"

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A Brand Called "Social Libre.com"

A Brand Called Trump Full Version

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Do Celebrities “Get” Twitter? — It's All About Revenue

A Brand Called "#1" or "Google goes Social"

A Brand Called Michael Porter

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Time to Eat Tuna? ‘Wonder’ No More - NYTimes.com

A Brand Called “Survey Salsa”

Marchan-dising.com

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