Will you ever be Rich?

In a recent survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, Americans believe its harder to get rich than it used to be. But when asked about the likelihood of getting rich personally, about one-third say it’s very or somewhat likely that they will attain wealth because of their work, investments, inheritance or good luck.

On the other hand, 63% say it’s not too likely or not at all likely they’ll get rich. Just 2% volunteered that they’re already rich. Bankrate.com commissioned Princeton Survey Research Associates International to explore how people feel about their chances for prosperity, as well as how they define wealth and their motivations for pursuing it.

Hope springs eternal –for the young. More than half (54%) of those 18 to 29 believe they will become rich. Meanwhile, reality sets in with the passage of time. Only 34% of respondents in the 30-to-49 age range believe they will be rich, while 21% in the 50-plus age group think so.

culled from Msn.

Is traditional market research under threat?

With the advent of online interview panels gathering information has never been easier. Forums such as Facebook and Twitter are cheap and fast information gathering platforms. A new study from Carnegie Mellon University shows that analyzing data from Twitter yields the same results as conducting a public opinion poll.

A CMU team from the computer science department looked at sentiments expressed in a billion Twitter messages between 2008 and 2009. The researchers then use simple text analysis methods to filter out updates about the economy and politics and determine if the overall sentiment of the update was positive or negative. The CMU team found that people’s attitudes on consumer confidence and presidential job approval were similar to the results generated by well-reputed, telephone-conducted public opinion polls, such as those conducted by Reuters, Gallup and pollster.com.

For at least some topics, CMU Assistant Professor Noah Smith thinks this kind of passive information gathering could work. “With seven million or more messages being tweeted each day, this data stream potentially allows us to take the temperature of the population very quickly,” Smith said. “The results are noisy, as are the results of polls. Opinion pollsters have learned to compensate for these distortions, while we’re still trying to identify and understand the noise in our data. Given that, I’m excited that we get any signal at all from social media that correlates with the polls.”

The CMU researchers did notice that Twitter sentiments had much more day-to-day variation compared to data gathered from traditional polling data. To compensate, the team averaged the Twitter results over a number of days; at that point, the results were generally quite similar to polling data.

For example, on Twitter as in life, consumer confidence slumped in 2008 and started to revive last spring. And Twitter updates showed the same general decrease in presidential job performance approval through 2009 as was seen in traditional polls. There were a few discrepancies — enough that the CMU folks don’t recommend using Twitter to poll for election results just yet. Still, researchers hope that better natural language processing (NLP) techniques will make Twitter and other social media a valuable source of public opinion information in the future.

The question is, is traditional information gathering under threat by the advent of social media? How reliable is the output of this information? What are the pit falls of this kind of information gathering? Food for thought .

Source. mashable.com

Nigeria Africa’s largest Telecom Market

Nigeria is the largest mobile market on the African continent with about 61 million users as at December 2009, however, this penetration is below 50% suggesting that there is ample room for market expansion, this was revealed by a recent study conducted by Canadian research firm Technology Strategies International, in partnership with BroadGroup TMT Ventures.

The report, titled “Investment Opportunities in the ICT Sector in Nigeria: 2010”, also suggests that there is massive opportunity to improve fixed line and internet penetration in the country. “One of the things fuelling the growth in the Nigerian ICT sector is the imminent illumination of two undersea cables, which will increase international bandwidth dramatically. The improvement in international connectivity will have a major impact on business in Nigeria”, said Christie Christelis, President of Technology Strategies International.

The study revealed that demand for mobile services is still on the increase, with Nigerian operators experiencing declining ARPUs levels, as the subscriber base broadens to include poorer segments. Companies such as MTN Nigeria have shown that, even at ARPU levels of $12 and declining, the business is still capable of making superior margins, added Christelis.

Income Disparity between white and black Single Women

According to a report released by the Insight Center for Community Economic Development this week, there is a vast discrepancy in wealth between single women of color and single white women.

The study, “Lifting As We Climb: Women of Color, Wealth, and America’s Future,” found that while the median net worth of single white women ages 36-49 is $42,600 — 61 percent of the median wealth for same-aged, single white men — single women of color in the same age group have a median wealth of just $5.

Black and Hispanic women are also drastically worse off in a broader age bracket, with almost half of single black and single Hispanic women ages 18-64 reporting zero or negative wealth (46 percent and 45 percent, respectively), compared with 23 percent of single white women, according to the report.

The financial situations of single women of color are so precarious, the study found, that just one unpaid sick day or appliance repair would send about half of them into debt.

And while marriage appears to ameliorate some economic hardship for both men and women across races, the data indicate that the positive effect of marriage on net worth is particularly amplified for black and Hispanic women.

The report offers a number of possible explanations for the wealth gap, including prior and current institutional factors (such as wage disparities and access to fringe benefits in the workplace), as well as a higher rate of being targeted by predatory lenders. (A recent study by the National Council of Negro Women and the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the authors point out, found that across income groups, black and Hispanic women were much more likely to be caught up in expensive loans than white women.)

But a number of policies, the authors argue — enhanced employment opportunities, support for self-employment and microenterprise, incentives to save and stronger social insurance — would go a long way toward closing the wealth chasm:

Market research finding – Ideal Xmas Gifts

According a recent market research survey conducted by Galaxy Research revealed the best and worst gifts for the upcoming Christmas holidays. You might find useful information in this article and avoid giving gifts that could create disappointment to your loved ones.

According to the survey, gifts that are got negative rating are books, dressing gowns, lingerie, photo frame, socks and bath gels. More than 1,200 respondents aged thirteen years and above were interviewed in October to determine the trend for this year’s gift-giving season.

Based on the research findings, about 72 percent of the participants revealed that their Christmas gifts were below expectations. Topping the worst gift-givers in the survey were grandparents at 37 percent, followed by mothers at 20 percent and fathers came in third at 14 percent.

More than 50 percent of teenage girls surveyed stated that they don’t like the clothes purchased by their parents. On the contrary, 70 percent of the parents surveyed revealed that they consider clothes as the best buy for their daughters. This shows that teenage girls disguise their disappointment.

As for the best gifts, the younger population revealed that they prefer perfume (for women) and electronic gadgets like iPod (for men) as gifts for the coming Christmas. So for the parents, if you can afford these items then it may be time to reconsider.

Wishing you a wonderful festive season!!!!

Nigeria is the largest Mobile market in Africa

In 2008, Nigeria had 44 million subscribers beating South Africa to become the largest mobile market in Africa.  New customers were reported to be signing up at a rate of almost one per second, and yet market penetration stands at only just over 30%. To expand networks, operators are investing billions of dollars. 3G services have been instigated, and rising competition comes from a number of additional players who have entered the lucrative mobile market under a new unified licensing regime. Falling ARPU levels compelling the operators to introduce new services and transform themselves into converged broadband service providers.

Key Operators covered in Nigeria include

• MTN
• MTC
• Nitel
• Globacom

Notable highlights of  Mobile Forecast include:

• The subscriber base in Nigeria will be increasing rapidly from 2008 to 2010. The number of total subscribers will rise from our current projected 52.7 million to a forecasted 70.8 million in 2010.
• The level of wireless penetration in the country will also increase from 35.9% in 2008 to 45.5% in 2010.
• The largest operator in Nigeria will continue to be MTN whose market share in 2010 will be 43.6%. The competitive environment in the Nigerian wireless market to be stable over the next few years with second player (MTC) and third player (Globacom) serving approximately 33.1% and 20.3% of total subscribers respectively.
• MTN will receive ARPU of US$ 14.57 and will enjoy 52.9% EBITDA margin in 2010 whereas MTC will have ARPU of US$ 8.07 and 39.8% EBITDA margin.

Source: Wireless Mobile Telcom

Coca-Cola, Ogilvy, Unilever unveil their Online Strategy

According to GDS International, online sales have shown a significant increase this year capitalizing on the return of consumer confidence across Europe.

European shoppers spent £11.2 billion online in July, 15.7% more than was spent in June and 16.8% more than July 2008.

The driving force for the increase appeared to be the clothing, footwear and accessories sector, which showed growth of 18% month on month and 17% year on year, the latest IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index said.

Retailers across Europe are predicted to sell $97 billion in goods and services online in 2010, up 37% from last year.

Owing to this unprecedented growth Retail Giants will join forces at the iStrategy program this October in Berlin to capitalize on the growth of the Online Dollar.

Visionaries such as Babs Rangaiah, Global Director Communications Planning Unilever, Rikke Wivel, VP Global Advertising and Media Monster, Michael Donnelly, Group Director The Coca-Cola Company, Michael Buck, Global Head SMB Online Dell, Sarah Evans, Head of Mobile Advertising O2, Thomas Marzano, Creative Director Phillips will be sharing the innovative steps they have all taken to drive value through online investments.

This meeting further illustrates the migration to new media for retail giants.

The growth of Web 2.0 has lead to far greater opportunities for such retail giants outside to the obvious sales growth.

With more of us sharing personal information online through sites like Facebook, Linkedin, MeettheBoss and Xing, companies can monetize online investment through analyzing consumption patterns, behavioral targeting, cost effective online product testing and having direct contact with the consumer.

Online is still the key growth market and in the midst of a Global recession it seems to be the main focus for European retailers.

CEO Steve Jobs most admired Entrepreneur by Teens

In a survey by Junior Achievement USA, 1,000 teenagers age 12 to 17 chose Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs as their most admired Entrepreneur.

Perhaps surprisingly, Jobs beat out contenders with typically more star power among teens, including Oprah and skateboard wizard and video game entrepreneur Tony Hawk.

Further down the survey were Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, owners of their own clothing line.

According to Junior Achievement USA President Jack Kosakowski, “We live in a celebrity-obsessed culture, so it’s no surprise that teens admire famous entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey, who have built brands around their personas as well as around their products.”

Source: zeromillion.com

Research Findings – Number of websites on Earth

According to market research survey conducted by Netcraft, the number of websites added to the internet has increased from 185.5 million at the beginning of 2009 to 231.5 million in April 2009, representing an increase of 46 million websites in just a few months. Interestingly, the increase is more than the number of websites which were created in 2008. In 2008, only 29.9 million websites were added to the dot.com platform. The phenomenal growth witnessed this year, is attributed to a surge in blogging websites registered by a Chinese social network called QZone.

This increase in blog related websites clearly shows the popularity of blogging as a social network and also as a business model. Blogging has indeed taken the internet by storm, it has now turned into a multi-billion business with master bloggers like John Chow and Yaro Starak making thousands of dollars from their sites every month.

You may be wondering, what is this thing called a blog?  Blogs are websites with content management systems that allow visitors to the site to add content. They are forums for organizations and individuals to exchange ideas and communicate with their partners, customers, employees, etc. You can create pages relevant for your business, post articles on different subjects, and offer a platform for others to write their comments or opinions on that post.

Blogging is not just for individuals, it is also a vital marketing tool for businesses. Today most popular blogs are commercial blogs that utilize their reach to promote their products and services.  Due to its easiness to create and convenience of interacting with customers and prospects, this platform has evolved to become one of the most important tools for promoting a business and its products.

Happy blogging!!!!!

World’s Top 100 Most Valuable Brands

The value of the world’s top 100 brands has held its value at $1.95 tn (a marginal increase of 1.7 percent). Google is number one with a value of $100 bn, Microsoft is number two at $76.2 bn, and Coca-Cola enters the top three for the first time at $67.6 bn. ”In the current environment, where the value of many businesses has fallen, brand has become even more important because it can help to sustain companies in tough times,” said Joanna Seddon, CEO Millward Brown Optimor. “Those who continue to invest in their brand will be better positioned for business growth as the economic situation starts to improve than those who have cut spend.” There are 15 new brands entering the ranking this year. Pampers is the highest entrant at no. 31, followed by Nintendo (no.32) and VISA (no.36).

Trends identified from this year’s rankings are:

Value — Brands that represent good value for money have done well, this is about quality as much as price, for example Wal-Mart (+19 percent), ALDI (+49 percent) and Auchan (+48 percent). H&M (+8 percent) is now the number one apparel brand.

Vice — People still reward themselves with little treats when money is tight. Brands such as McDonald’s (+34 percent), Marlboro (+33 percent) and Budweiser (+23 percent) have all done well.

At Home — Brands that can be experienced at home have shown strong growth. This includes home shopping: Amazon (+85 percent) and eBay (+16 percent); Coffee that can be prepared at home: Nespresso (+27 percent) and Nescafe (+23 percent); and gaming — Nintendo jumped into the ranking for the first time at no. 32.

Wireless — The increased popularity of using the internet on the move through devices such as the iPhone and BlackBerry has led to huge increases for the mobile operators category as a whole, driven by demand for data services. Vodafone enters the top 10 for the first time this year (+45 percent).