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CIMA Insight Offers Mystery Shopping and Brand Audits to Help Businesses …

David — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 00:51:22 +0000

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Electrum Marketing, a full-service branding firm, has announced the launch of CIMA Insight, a premier mystery shopping and customer experience research and measurement company.

“Stellar service is a differentiator,” said Ellen Schlafer, President of CIMA Insight. “Most companies say they provide great service, yet most do not. What’s worse is that they don’t know it. That could result in lost customers and lost revenue.”

Through mystery shopping, customer satisfaction surveys, brand audits, marketing campaign analyses and competitive analyses, CIMA Insight provides the intelligence needed to close the gap between a company’s brand promise and its actual delivery. Only after gaps are identified can you enhance sales and service performance and ultimately improve customer satisfaction. Improved customer retention and repeat sales ultimately have a positive effect on profitability.

CIMA Insight was formed by Electrum Marketing, a full-service branding firm, to meet the growing demand for service delivery measurement. Focused on the elements critical to growing a strong brand, CIMA measures key behaviors that ultimately support your brand image and improve sales and service. CIMA Insight provides information, coaching tips, and access to training programs that address performance gaps. For more information about CIMA Insight, please visit www.CIMAinsight.com or call 954-318-1600.

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February home prices rise over January, but fall compared to last year

David — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 00:51:11 +0000

RE/MAX report on home prices reveals mixed results. In what’s becoming an ongoing theme, the homebuying market received a mixture of good and bad news this week.

According to the RE/MAX National Housing Report, home sales increased 3.3 percent in February compared to January but dropped 3 percent when compared to February 2010.

Though the findings are mixed, RE/MAX CEO Margaret Kelly is projecting optimism.

“It’s a very good sign that home sales increased over January, which could mean that sales will increase further as we move into springtime, the prime homebuying season,” Kelly said. “If this trend for home sales does continue, we could also see home prices start to move up as well.”

Meanwhile, the state seeing the biggest rise in home prices compared to last year was Anchorage, Alaska, at 11.2 percent.

Home prices have for the most part been on the decline in recent months, especially in the Western half of the country, which has seen more people moving away from the region. Even so, a Fannie May survey conducted earlier this year found 78 percent believed prices would stabilize in 2011.

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Valentine Day sales increase from last year

David — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:13:51 +0000

Toledo, OH (WTOL) – Valentine’s Day. It’s a day some businesses look forward to every year. As the economy recovers it seems people been willing to spend more.

For some businesses like Schakolad Chocolate Factory, Valentine’s Day is literally a sweet deal.

“It’s probably a 400, 500 percent spike,” says Schakolad Chocolate Factory owner Gordon Bright. “We will probably do 800 pieces of chocolate in 4 days.”

It isn’t just the candy business that’s feeling the love.

“[A] typical florist will do about 10 times [more than] a normal day on Valentine’s Day,” says Bartz Viviano owner Frank Viviano.

He calls Valentine’s Day the Superbowl for florists and says even from just last year they are seeing an increase in business.

“People seem a little more eager to spend and add on to orders and upgrade their orders than they were last year.”

Harrold Jaffe’s Jewelry says they too have seen a positive turn in people spending habits to celebrate the day.

“Late 08, 09 I think people were being very careful. They were still celebrating but they were still celebrating in a different way. We are starting to see a gradual increase right now,” says co-owner Jeff Jaffe.

With the increases in chocolate, flowers and jewelry, it’s sure to be a lovely Valentine’s Day for many.

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President's Day Sales in stores online via Macy's, Kohls, JCPenny to Increase …

David — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:13:49 +0000

Posted on | February 21, 2011 | No Comments

President’s Day is today and the markets will remain at a standstill in observance of the national holiday. No major economic reports or earnings reports are scheduled to post this day but business action and retail sales could provide positive momentum for index composites come Tuesday.

Stores nationwide are celebrating President’s Day by initiating President’s Day Sales in an effort to increase sales and increase earnings. Most companies started the holiday early and initiated their sales events days prior to the holiday. Most sales began at the onset of the weekend and run through the end of today or tomorrow. The market has been responding favorably as index composites moved into the green as the end of the last week of trading came to a close. Index values moved higher and consumer confidence supported retail sales. On line shopping is expected to be improved this year versus on line sales results last year. Macy’s, Kohls, and JCPenny are just several stores that are offering sales in their bricks and mortar stores, but also on-line as well. The increased business due to the President’s Day Holiday should help companies increase quarterly earnings reports which should help aid consumer confidence as we move forward with the economic recovery. Analysts are expecting sales to increase and new products, services, and bargains will help that expectation ring true.

Author: Genny Germano

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RadioShack Q4 Earnings Fall 25%

David — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:13:46 +0000

Fort Worth, Texas – RadioShack’s fourth-quarter profits fell 25 percent to $57 million on net sales of $1.4 billion, a 3.8 percent increase.

Comp sales at company-owned stores and kiosks rose 1.3 percent for the three-month period, ended Dec. 31.

The chain said gross margin was impacted by weakness in its T-Mobile business, a higher mix of lower-margin wireless handsets, and seasonal markdowns and product transitions in non-wireless categories. RadioShack noted that T-Mobile is presently in breach of contract with the chain, but hopes to resolve the issue quickly.
The increase in net sales was led by a $34 million, or 50.6 percent increase in kiosk sales, reflecting the rollout of wireless departments for Target.

The comp-sales gain was driven by higher postpaid wireless sales, particularly of smartphones, and by increased sales of prepaid wireless handsets, laptops and wireless accessories.

The increases were partially offset by a decline in T-Mobile postpaid wireless sales and by lower sales of GPS products, digital cameras, digital music players, and digital-to-analog TV converter boxes.

In a statement, outgoing chairman/CEO Julian Day said the company in 2010 “demonstrated our commitment to consistent long-term growth by building and expanding our wireless business.” This year, noted his successor, president/CFO Jim Gooch, “Our priority is to continue to make operational improvements that enhance our mobility, innovation and service offerings for customers.

“Despite the disappointing performance of our T-Mobile postpaid business in the fourth quarter, we strongly believe mobility products are the cornerstone of our future,” he said. “We also remain committed to our plans to improve our non-wireless product platforms and maximize our relationship with Target.”

The retailer also entered into a new five-year, $450 million revolving credit agreement in January.

Looking ahead, the company said it expects total net sales and operating revenues to increase in the low to mid-single digit percent range in 2011, primarily driven by continued growth in the wireless product platform.

Shopatron is the world’s leading provider of global eCommerce for consumer goods. With Shopatron, orders placed on branded websites are offered to a managed network of global partners for fulfillment, typically for assignment to local retailers. Local fulfillment translates to..more

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PS3 sales dip in Jan. at US retail

David — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:13:41 +0000

Sales for Sony Corp.’s Playstation 3 dipped in year-over-year figures in the latest U.S. retail data for Jan.

NPD Group Inc. this month reported that the PS3 sold 267,000 units in Jan., down three percent from the year prior.

PS3 software sales held a 24 percent increase from the year prior.

LittleBigPlanet 2 sold 353,000 units to rank at No. 4 in Jan. game sales.

Sony in Feb. will sell the Playstation 3 160GB Killzone 3 Bundle, which includes the PS3 160GB hardware SKU and a copy of Killzone 3 $299.99.

Sony in Jan. recorded a Q3 profit of $564 million in the Network Products and Services division, a 135 percent increase from the year prior.

The PS3 sold 6.3 million units in the in the third quarter, a decrease of 6.5 million the year prior. The company held a target of 15 million units sold by the end of fiscal Mar. 2011.

The PSP sold 3.6 million units in the same period, down from 4.2 million units one year ago.

PS3 software sold 57.6 million units and PSP software sold 16.5 million units in the quarter.

The PS3 is sold in a 160GB SKU at $299.99 and a 320GB SKU at $349.99.

Sony in Sept. began sale of the Playstation Move controller.

The Playstation Move Console Bundle includes a PS3 320 GB SKU with the Playstation Move Controller, Playstation Eye, and Sports Champions at $399.99.

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Talladega Council passes tax increase

David — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:13:34 +0000

By Alan Collins

TALLADEGA, AL (WBRC) – The Talladega City Council passed a one cent sales tax increase Monday.

The increase would raise nearly one million dollars per year. Fifty percent of that money would go to infrastructure projects, including road and bridge improvements. Twenty-five percent would go to the city’s operational budget which funds city government, and the remaining 25% would go into a savings account as a “rainy day fund.”

The council will have to vote again on the issue in 3 years. Without the one cent sales tax increase, the city would have considered cutting jobs and road work.

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US Two-Year Yield Near Eight-Month High Before Retail Sales

David — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:13:31 +0000

February 13, 2011, 11:40 PM EST By Wes Goodman

Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) — Treasury two-year yields were near the highest level in eight months before reports this week forecast to show gains in retail sales and industrial production.

The difference between two-year rates and the Federal Reserve’s target for overnight bank lending was 58 basis points, after widening to 60 basis points on Feb. 8, which was the most since May. The increase in Treasury rates is poised to accelerate, Morgan Stanley, one of the 20 primary dealers that are authorized to trade with the central bank, said in a report.

“Retail sales and medium and small companies are performing quite well,” said Hideo Shimomura, who helps oversee the equivalent of $72 billion in Tokyo as chief fund investor at Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co., a unit of Japan’s biggest bank. “It’s good news for equities and bad for Treasuries.

Two-year notes yielded 0.83 percent at 1:20 p.m. in Tokyo, according to BGCantor Market Data. The 0.625 percent security maturing in January 2013 traded at a price of 99 19/32. The rate climbed to 0.86 percent on Feb. 9, which was the most since May 28. Ten-year yields were little changed at 3.63 percent.

An index of U.S. government securities maturing in more than a year has handed investors a 1.3 percent loss this month, the worst performance of 26 sovereign bond markets tracked by the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies and Bloomberg. The MSCI All Country World Index of stocks returned 2.3 percent in the period.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of shares rose 1.4 percent today, the most in two months, eroding demand for the relative safety of government debt.

Retail Sales, Production

Mitsubishi UFJ trimmed its Treasury holdings this year, Shimomura said. He pointed to the National Federation of Independent Business’ optimism index, which rose to a three-year high in January, as evidence that small companies are improving.

Retail sales climbed 0.5 percent in January, extending a 0.6 percent increase in December, based on the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News before the Commerce Department reports the figure tomorrow. Federal Reserve figures on Feb. 16 may show industrial production rose 0.5 percent in January from the month before, the surveys show.

“The bloom is off the bond rose,” Morgan Stanley analysts led by Jim Caron, the head of U.S. interest-rate strategy in New York, wrote in their report Feb. 11.

Treasury rates have risen enough that some investors said they are becoming attractive.

‘Cheap’ Yields

“Yields are relatively cheap,” said Hiromasa Nakamura, a senior investor at Mizuho Asset Management Co. in Tokyo, which oversees the equivalent of $42.1 billion and is a unit of Japan’s second-largest bank. “Consumer spending is recovering, but I don’t think it is sustainable due to the fragile employment situation.”

The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 9 percent in January from 9.4 percent in December. It hasn’t been less than 9 percent since April 2009.

Fund managers became less bearish on the outlook for Treasuries through March, according to a weekly survey by Ried Thunberg ICAP Inc. Ried’s sentiment index rose to 49 for the seven days ended Feb. 11 from 45 the week before. A figure less than 50 indicates investors expect prices to decline.

The fund managers surveyed turned more pessimistic when asked about the outlook for Treasuries through June 30.

Mizuho Asset’s Nakamura said he’s favoring 10-year notes in a bet inflation will stay low.

The consumer price index advanced 0.3 percent in January, slowing from the 0.5 percent gain in December, according to the median forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists before the Labor Department figure Feb. 17.

Consumer Price Report

The consumer-price report will also show costs excluding food and energy increased 0.9 percent in January from a year earlier, the Bloomberg surveys show. The average for the past decade is 2 percent.

Inflation may “persist below the levels that Fed policy makers have judged to be consistent” with their long term goal, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke told legislators last week.

The difference between yields on 10-year notes and Treasury Inflation Protected Securities a gauge of trader expectations for consumer prices over the life of the securities, widened to 2.30 percentage points from 1.65 percentage points six months ago.

‘Train Wreck’

While some of the lowest borrowing costs on record have helped the U.S. economy recover from its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, bond yields are now rising as growth resumes. Net interest expenses will triple to an all-time high of $554 billion in 2015 from $185 billion in 2010, according to the government’s adjusted 2011 budget.

“It’s a slow train wreck coming and we all know it’s going to happen,” said Bret Barker, an interest-rate analyst at Los Angeles-based TCW Group Inc., which manages about $115 billion. “It’s just a question of whether we want to deal with it. There are huge structural changes that have to go on with this economy.”

The amount of marketable U.S. government debt outstanding has risen to $8.96 trillion from $5.8 trillion at the end of 2008, according to the Treasury Department.

–With assistance from Daniel Kruger and Liz Capo McCormick in New York. Editors: Nate Hosoda, Nicholas Reynolds

To contact the reporter on this story: Wes Goodman in Singapore at wgoodman@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Nicholas Reynolds at nreynolds2@bloomberg.net

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Texas Lawmaker Proposes Sales Tax Increase for Education Budget Gap

David — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:13:29 +0000

Published February 23, 2011

| FoxNews.com

A Texas lawmaker is proposing a 2-cent increase in the state’s sales tax to offset huge education budget gaps.

State Rep. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, said the proposed legislation, H.B. 1597, would temporarily increase the state’s sales tax for the next two years if passed. Menendez says the increase would net $6 billion, which would be earmarked for education programs.

“I think it we are pennywise, we will definitely be pound foolish and we will pay for this in the long run,” Menendez told Fox San Antonio.

The state’s current sales tax is 6.25 percent. The proposal, if passed, would expire on Sept. 1, 2013.

Click here for more on this report from Fox San Antonio.

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Outlook bleak for firms hit by slump

David — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:13:27 +0000

By Heather McGarrigle
Monday, 21 February 2011

Nine out of ten businesses, north and south of the border, have been affected by the downturn, with more than half seeing a drop in sales, according to a survey.

Sales drops and rising costs are the main causes for concern.

InterTrade Ireland’s latest quarterly report on all-island business paints a bleak picture for most businesses, despite reports of a recovery.

The largest business survey in Ireland, InterTrade Ireland’s quarter four results for last year found nearly a third of businesses reported they had not been able to remain profitable in the past 12 months.

Overseas markets provided rare good news. Export-led companies were twice as likely to have increased sales and much less likely to have cut employment than those focusing on domestic trade.

However, construction, leisure, hotels and catering continued to suffer, with employment falling in almost a quarter of firms in these sectors.

More than half the companies surveyed reported sales drops and 54% of these were small businesses.

Leisure, hotel and catering was the small business sector to suffer most, with 71% reporting a decline in sales between September and December.

Energy and transport costs were cited as the main pressures, with hikes in rates and taxes also causing concern.

Northern Ireland firms were more likely to report significant cost increases, whereas businesses in the south were more likely to have switched suppliers for electricity, telecoms and insurance.

The survey follows closely on the heels of Ulster Bank’s latest research which showed Northern Ireland business activity was continuing to fall behind Britain.

Over-reliance on the public sector and the fallout from the Republic’s economic crisis were given as the main factors.

Adrian Gough, director of strategy and policy in InterTrade Ireland said businesses wanted governments to help increase access to finance, reduce rates and support market and sales development.

Northern Bank’s latest sectoral forecast was optimistic for the year ahead, however, it echoed InterTrade Ireland’s calls for assistance. Angela McGowan, Northern Bank’s chief economist, said: “Tax incentives for investment, enterprise zones or support for starting small businesses should be prioritised in the year ahead.”

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