There are advertisements that are meant to warm your heart, to inform you, deceive you, and most of all get you to buy something you may not have otherwise bought. However, there are also shock advertisements that are meant to get people to talk.

Across the social sites this morning, everyone is talking about this new World Wildlife Foundation ad that compares the 9/11 attacks on the United States to the Tsunami in 2005. The consensus on the ad is that it was done in poor taste and it’s also a scam ad.

Scam ads have been around for awhile due to the fact that they are typically put on by advertisers and marketing firms that want to win awards. To win an award, the ad has to be published somewhere. In the case of the World Wildlife Foundation ad, it was published in a small Brazilian newspaper. It was also a print version of the ad seen above.

As long as awards for creativity are given out to ad agencies, ads like this one will be seen across the world and it will continue to shock the public when it leaks out to those who were really never supposed to see them.

Site Redesign – We are currently undergoing a complete site overhaul and design for the launch of our new website. We will be working hard to help give commenters better access to the system by allowing their comments to hit the site without going through as much moderation in order for some features that require fast responses. Users will also be able to moderate each other comments and report possible violations as well.

More Features – Along with the paid writer’s section we will be adding another feature to the site which will be one of the main cores to the site which will allow people to help each other in a unique way and also earn money in the process. Users that are also part of the paid writer’s section will earn a higher amount than regular users as well.

Launch Date – We are aiming for a January 2010 launch of the official new website.

Feedback & Suggestions – If you would like to suggest a feature for the new website for us to consider please either leave a comment below or contact us directly. We are also open to any feedback as well.

You know, I was reading an article today and it said that 15.1 million people are out of work and looking for employment. At the same time there are “a lot” of $60,000 a year jobs available right now. The kinds of jobs that are hiring but can’t seem to find people to fill the positions are jobs in pharmacy, MRI techs, energy researchers, accountants, nurses, health care workers, software sales reps, actuaries, physical therapists, electrical engineers, data analysts, plant scientists, and geo-technical engineers.

As of July there was a 6 to 1 ratio of people looking for employment and open jobs. People are definitely out there looking for work, but they simply can’t find anything because of whatever conditions they have found themselves in.

In my case, I feel as though I am limited first of all, by the degree I received (in a time when most companies are cutting their marketing budgets, I graduated with a degree in marketing communications). Secondly, I feel as though I’m limited by my geographic location and being tied down to a house. I think this is where a lot of the people who are looking for work and can’t find jobs have found themselves. Right now, those who have houses don’t want to sell them because they know they’re going to take a loss on the house if they have purchased it in the last 2-5 years.

Also, no one wants to have to move when the job that they are moving for may not be completely secured. I know someone who has a house and lives there, but travels to wherever he has work. When you are contracted out for work, you cannot move around every single time you have a contract end and relocate…particularly if you have a family. Children can’t handle being uprooted several times; it is difficult for them.

Also, most of these jobs seem to be in fields that people aren’t exactly fighting to be in. At most colleges, you can compare the size of a business school class to the size of a geo-technical engineering class and I’m sure that you will notice a difference in how many students decide to go into business rather than geo-technical engineering.

Source

What you can learn from this booklet

Eight Tips for Effective Brand Positioning
Online Tools that Build the Brand Power of Your Business
Use Promotional Products to Enhance Your Brand and Build your Bottom Line
Turn Pennies into Profit with Affordable Promotional Products
Cartoon Logos, Mascots, Grab Attention and Build Your Brand
The Top Ten Internet Brands: Learn from their Success Strategies
Differentiate Your Business and Rise Above the Competition
Compelling Design + Smart Placement = Successful Banner Ad Strategy
Creative Networking and Brand Building with Business Cards
Use Guerrilla Marketing Tactics to Make Your Small Business Perform Like a Giant
Join the Network! Using Social Websites to Build a Powerful Brand
Building a Buzz with Word of Mouth Marketing
BONUS: Effective Logo Design
Brand Your Way To Success

A disruption in the refinery of crude oil into gasoline due to a fire in a Los Angeles area refinery couldn’t even raise the price of oil and gasoline. For the first time in two months the price of a gallon of gas has fallen below $2.50 on average. Where I live, I just paid $2.38 for a gallon of regular 87 octane.

The fire at the Tesoro refinery in LA will probably effect the price of gas in California, but not too much anywhere else. The refinery processed around 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day and produced gasoline, jet fuel, and other products.

Demand for gasoline is so low that according to analyst and trader Stephen Schork, “a material disruption to supply to one of the largest markets in the world barely registered with speculators on the NYMEX.”

Wholesale gasoline for October actually increased 1.2 cents to $1.6323 per gallon today while benchmark crude for November delivery increased nearly 50 cents to $66.51 per barrel, this is after increasing 13 cents on Friday.

Prices have actually been increasing ever since Iran announced that it had a secret nuclear program at the G20 summit last week. This is due to the fact that 20 percent of the crude oil in the world is trafficked through the Straits of Hormuz which is on the southern coast of Iran. If something were to actually happen between the United States (or any country) and Iran, that route would be compromised  and oil would likely spike.

Of course, oil is one of the indicators of the economy. There are so many indicators and this is definitely one of them. After all, it’s oil that took a dive when people started realizing how bad the economy was last year. Oil also has started creeping back up and analysts are saying that other things are creeping up as well; such as the sale of homes and autos.

While it would be a good thing to not have to see oil reach the outrageous prices it hit last summer, I really want the economy to start picking up soon. Perhaps when it comes time for Chris and I to leave our college town, I’ll be able to land a real marketing job somewhere.

Source

When you have your own business and are just starting out, there are a few things that you will need and you won’t have the money to get them. Well here are some of the things that you will need and ways to not only get them, but get them for free (which, as many of you know, is my favorite way to get anything).

E-Mail – Don’t underestimate this one. It’s important to have e-mail for everyone. Google has a lot of apps for business users also that are completely free. I love Gmail for everything.

Business Plans – You can hit up the Small Business Administration for help and tools to write your business plan. Here’s the website for this one: Small Business Administration.

While you’re at the Small Business Administration website, you can also pick up some legal and business forms that you may need while you’re starting up. Here are the forms that the website offers at no cost:

• Financial Assistance Forms
• Disaster Assistance Forms
• Technical Assistance Forms
• Contracting & Surety Bonding Forms
• 8(a) Business Development Forms
• Miscellaneous Forms:

• Award Nomination Form
• Application For Small Business Size Determination
• EEO Poster
• Candidate for Person of the Year
• Statements Required by Laws and Executive OrdersQuestionnaire for Public Trust Positions
• Supplemental Questionnaire for Selected Positions
• Questionnaire for National Security Positions
• Continuation Sheet for Questionnaires
• Financial Status Report
• Request for Advance of Reimbursement
• Federal Transaction Report
• Joint Application for EWCP
• Federal Agency Comment Form

• IRS Forms
• OSHA Forms

Information on Marketing: There are websites across the internet that can help you with marketing information, but you really have to do your homework and realize what is useless junk and what is useful. The most useful website that I have found regarding internet marketing information is probably Warrior Forums.

Free information for your small business is available all through the internet, and you can even find more information on this site.

If you have any other suggestions post a comment below! I’ll be glad to answer any questions or even help you find some advice.

Twitter is one of those internet phenomenons that have really taken off in the past year or so. Ask the average person last year what Twitter is and they may have given you a sideways glance; ask that same person today and they will be able to tell you exactly what the site is: Microblogging.

As a business owner, there are ways to use Twitter to your advantage. One of the most publicized ways is to use it as a marketing tool. Then again, I suppose if your business is on Twitter that is really the only way to use it, right?

But, can Twitter be truly effective as a marketing tool for your company?

The answer is yes and there are many ways to use it to your advantage.

The first thing you can use Twitter for is to find out if anyone is talking about you. Even if you don’t have an account yet, you can search through “tweets” to see if someone is saying anything about you or your company. There are so many messages being posted daily that, if you have a company that people visit either in person or online, surely you will be mentioned at one point or another on the site.

The second thing that you can use Twitter for is to release promotion information and news about your company. Because of the 140 character limit on your tweets, you should link the news and information to a page where you can give everyone the real story.

One of the newest ways Twitter is being used by companies is customer service. There are companies that are tired of being seen in a negative light and are really ready to do something about it. This is where Twitter comes in. When someone tweets about the company, the company responds and actually tires to fix the situation. This has happened a more than a few times so far and I’m sure that this trend will continue to grow. If you wanted to participate in this trend, then it will likely get positive publicity for your company.

The downside is that if your company is seen as spamming Twitter or you have a bot doing all of your Tweeting, then its likely you won’t have quality followers. No one wants to read the same tweets on a daily basis linking to your site. If they wanted to visit your website, they would just do it; why would they want your tweets spamming up their homepage?

Services Section: – We’re proud to announce the launch of the Business Services section where we can offer consulting, marketing and public relation services starting at only $20. Get the same results and experience of larger firm for a fraction of the cost.

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Webmasters can get a complete Website Overhaul Analysis(Complete Site Structure, SEO, and Marketing Analysis of (1) website) for only $99.

Business & Website Consulting – $35 per hour
Business & Website Marketing Consulting – $35 per hour
Business & Website Marketing Services – $35 per hour

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Marketing Services – Starting at $20 per hour
Public Relations Services including Press Releases
Writing Services

Special First Time Bonus:
For a limited time all orders received before Sept 15 will save an additional 25% off when mentioning ad code: Anniversary. For customers with orders totaling over $100(after applied coupons) may elect to receive a free Promotional Ad.

Visit the Services section of our website for more information at http://www.thelucrativeinvestor.com/services/.

Starting as small business can be difficult and time consuming. Here are a few tips to help the process go smoother:

Save up as much money as possible before starting.
It is too often that people go into a business without any form of savings and only borrow money from banks, friends, and the small business association. No business needs to start out in debt. Many think that they can just simply start a business and begin making money, but it usually takes months or years to actually profit from a business. The last thing that you want to do is take out a home equity line of credit to fund your business because that is the best way to lose your house if things were to go south for your business.

Start on a shoestring.
Start small. You shouldn’t just rent a building or office space to work at and begin hiring employees. If you look at the first tip and have already made that mistake, then don’t make this one. You can only have employees once you have enough work to keep them business. Some people who start their businesses small start in their homes. Many even take losses on what they pay themselves to get the business off the ground.

Protect your personal assets.
You have to be able to protect whats yours when it come to your business. When you start your own business, you become liable for all the debts that your business incurs, including loans, money owed to suppliers, taxes, etc. The problem is, if you aren’t careful and don’t protect yourself, a creditor may be able to come after you and your personal assets.
The best way to protect yourself, especially if you plan on running up big debts, is to form a corporation or a limited liability company. It isn’t much more difficult than forming any kind of sole proprietorship and protects your personal assets.

Make a business plan, no matter how short.
You need to be able to have a long term business plan, you really need to know where the business is going and how it plans to get there, at least how it does it in your mind. You can obviously tinker around with your business idea every now and again, especially when the environment changes or you begin making or losing money, but the core business plan should be there…in writing…from the start.

Get and keep a competitive edge.
I think that if you have a great product, then with a bit of marketing and money behind it, people will buy it. However, if your product or service isn’t competitive, it will be very hard to play “catch-up” with the players already in the field. I call this a “chase” strategy in marketing and it doesn’t often end too well. You really need to have that competitive edge against those who are entering the market or are already in the market if you want to succeed.

There are a few steps that employees can do to make themselves known to employers to hopefully be promoted one day. Those same tactics are now being implemented by the workforce to not be fired when the next line of lay offs comes their way.

So what’s the secret?

According to BusinessWeek here are a few of the tips from the magazine:

1) Focus on the company’s success rather than your own. Most employers don’t have the time (or money) to deal with any potential problems you may have. When you’re at work, you are there to work and not create drag for you or your team.

2) You have to be more than willing to change. I don’t just mean use blue pens instead of black pens, you have to be ready and willing to change direction at the drop of a dime and be ready for it. If the company is looking to mix up the product lines or create a new mission statement for the company, its time to be the “yes man” and learn how to cooperate with the change.

3) Be great at your job and be useful in every aspect of the company. While this is a lot of work, it shows your employer that you have a commitment to the company by going above and beyond your own responsibilities.

4) Social hour should be after work, not during. The last thing a company needs is for its employees to be negative and do a lot of gossiping while on the clock. “No complaining, no blaming!”

5) You have to follow the rules, even the ones that may not have been written down. An example is to be at work early and be at least willing to stay late. When looking at this tip, now would be a good time to quit smoking and start bringing your lunch to work with you to avoid smoke breaks and long lunches.

6) You need to solve problems before they happen. If there’s a way to make the company more efficient (or make it more money), tell your supervisor. Of course, this means there will be some time away from the workplace and in your home where you may have to do some research about competitors and what they’re doing. Doing this ensures that you are seen as an asset to the company

7) Get to know people outside your department, especially those in human resources.

8 ) Social networking is important, if not crucial in today’s workplace. On the BusinessWeek article this tip is titled “Start Tweeting or Start Packing.” I think that this tip is more important to those in the marketing field than those in, say, the accounting department. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are easy to set up and use. Here’s a warning: Don’t “Facebook” too much at work.

1.     Situation Analysis

a.       The company – include company performance over the last three years.  The product – provide a description of the merchandise the store/dealership carries.

b.      Retail footprint – where are the stores/dealerships located in U.S.?  Provide map

c.       The environment

a.       Industry trends

b.      Social, economic trends

d.      SWOT -  ½ to 1 page chart of what you believe the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are.

e.       The competition – list who the main competitors are and who the indirect competitors are.

2.   Target Market Research Overview:

a.       Secondary research

Provide an explanation of databases you searched for insights on the target market.

Describe what clusters the target market belongs to from Claritas, Tapestry, etc.

Simmons results, provide a detailed explanation of what you searched for and found in Simmons data base.

b.      Primary research -

a.      Methodology – who did you ask and how did you collect data?

b.      Provide summary of results from each question

3.   Key insights (from both primary and secondary)

a.      Inside the targets’ mind – who is this person?

b.      Pull direct quotes from target market interviews, relevant articles.

4.  Target market profile

a.      Primary market

b.      Secondary

What you can learn from this ebook

In an effort to describe, understand, and quantify the growth of greenwashing, TerraChoice Environmental Marketing Inc. conducted a survey of six category-leading big box stores. Through these surveys, we identified 1,018 consumer products bearing 1,753 environmental claims. Of the 1,018 products examined, all but one made claims that are demonstrably false or that risk misleading intended audiences.

Based on the survey results, we identified six patterns in the greenwashing, which we now recognize as the “Six Sins of GreenwashingTM”.

Of the 1,018 products reviewed, all but one committed at least one of the Six Sins of Greenwashing.

These findings suggest that greenwashing is pervasive, the consequences of which are significant:

• Well-intentioned consumers may be misled into purchases that do not deliver on their environmental promise. This means both that the individual consumer has been misled and that the potential environmental benefit of his or her purchase has been squandered.

• Competitive pressure from illegitimate environmental claims takes market share away from products that offer more legitimate benefits, thus slowing the penetration of real environmental innovation in the marketplace.

• Greenwashing may create cynicism and doubt about all environmental claims. Consumers – particularly those who care most about real environmental progress – may give up on marketers and manufacturers, and give up on the hope that their spending might be put to good use. This would eliminate a significant market-based, financial incentive for green product innovation and leave committed environmental advocates with government regulations as the most likely alternative.

This seems like a pretty good idea if your job field is say, marketing or advertising (or both!), but what does a resume that is also an advertisement really do for someone that a video resume doesn’t?

First, you have to purchase airtime (if you want it on tv), otherwise, it’s a video resume because you’re just sending it to an employer.

Second, you actually have to have some kind of production equipment or you will have to pay someone to do that video for you.

I don’t know about some people, but I don’t have the kind of money to throw around on something that is expensive and may or may not work.

From the AP:

Playing up ketchup’s natural roots also feeds into consumers’ growing desire for more wholesome, natural foods, analysts and the company said. The new label includes the tagline “Grown not made.”

Heinz is also planning its largest marketing campaign since the 1980′s to get the news out about its new slogan.

Source

But, that’s what the news is telling us…that if we are offered a job to take it because the unemployment rate is ridiculous and that hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost every month. It is terrifying to me, and I can only hope that things get better by the time I (as well as everyone else I’m graduating with) begins looking for work.

Again, I’m sitting in a very condensed 2-week intersession class about advertising and promotion. The very first day of class, my professor talked about FedEx cutting the ad from the Superbowl. She asked the class what we thought about FedEx since it decided to back out. The answer was simply, “it is weak.”

We also talked about how companies cut their marketing budgets during an economic downturn. Usually advertising is one of the first things to go, but if when they stop advertising, consumers see them as weak…perhaps cuts should come from somewhere else first.

I have to say, though, I don’t quite understand the appeal of Twitter. Around the internet people are saying that they use Twitter to “network” and it’s “like an instant messaging/Myspace.” But, with Myspace and Facebook both having update boxes now where you can keep “tabs” on your friends, Twitter seems obsolete.

So my question is, do you use it? If so, why?

Sure it works, my cable company has changed it name about 3 times in five years. It holds about 80% of the market and everyone knows that its service is sub par. Your cable or internet can go off at random for days. Add to the fact that when this company decides to do maintenance work it basically shuts down the whole town of an internet connection for a few days. It has no multinetwork line backup, nothing, they are in fact a simple reseller of Quest Communications services.

You’d think with all this someone would come and knock the king off his hill. Well even though everyone in town knows that there service isn’t the best, newcomers to the town simply do not know and are force feed advertisement after advertisement from this company. It also helps that they own one of the local broadcasting channels and stream free real estate listings to your tv, with the only commercial between house listings are ads for there services. When enough people get mad, it seems that the company just changes it name, and then relaunches itself and goes on an even bigger marketing campaign in the local market to newcomers. However, I have as of yet to see a change.

So why do companies just change the name and never upgrade there level of service or product. The are many reasons some simple some complex. For starters it is easy to do a corporate name change, this might not do anything but change your name on paper, but for a simple filing fee to your local secretary of state you can now call yourself something new. It’s not quite like getting a new slate, more like pulling the cover over your potential new customers eyes. Some companies simply cannot upgrade there product/service b/c they are in fact dependent on someone or something else. If you are a reseller service and your core product has issues you can either choose to drop it or just keep relabeling it in order to keep up with the customer drop off rate by bringing in new customers.

In some cases companies rename something not because the product is bad but because they hope to increase consumer awareness by adding all sorts of marketing flare to drill into the minds of there hopeless victims(I mean, customers.) Take Wendy’s for example, a few months back Wendy’s started renaming itself in wake of slowing sales growth and a new consumer shift towards healthier eating habits. It tried to promote itself as a new better fast food place a valid start by any means, but what really stands out is it’s slogan for this marketing twist, “It’s not fast food, it’s Wendy’s”.

That’s kind of like saying a car is what people from New York drive and a vehicle is what someone from the south drives. A car/vehicle is the same thing, it’s a ford, a Honda, a shiny compact/large piece of equipment that we use to get from point A to B. There is no difference here than Wendy’s saying that they are not fast food. By fast food standards, “fast food” is defined as a drive thru restaurant one can order and receive food from in under 3 minutes. Nationally McDonald’s holds the fastest time for this with an average wait time of under 1 minute, but how can Wendy’s set itself apart.

Should we now assume that because they are no longer fast food they will take longer. No Wendy’s knows there customers don’t want to wait longer for there food to get to them. What about the salads and other “healthy” options on there menu. Wendy’s has been selling salads for years, other fast food chains had added more healthy options than Wendy’s as of late. So what has Wendy’s basically done. They basically called there car an automobile, a republican a GOP member, it’s all the same.

I like Wendy’s, some of there food is quite tasty, but if you are going to rename yourself, do it with a little more passion. Don’t put yourself in a class of other companies that simply pull the cover over the eyes of their customers. Consumers are smarter than that. The short sales spike to your bottom line, is not worth putting your corporate reputation at risk by simply putting a big shiny bow on the same old thing.

Fixed dating error on posts. Some data from various posts where incorrectly nestled in the database with a data error. This caused some XML errors with some various RSS readers and caused them to crash unexpectedly. This issue has been resolved.

We are running some more analysis tests on the site to further increase the performance and overall speed of the site to better adjust the site for the next development stages.

We would like to give out a special thanks to our partners/affiliates that have helped us setup our marketing integrations for future use.

Happy holidays and god bless.

This called into question Jobs’ health. He, a cancer survivor, has appeared frail at previous meetings and conferences. Jobs has decided to not appear at the upcoming event, and also end the event altogether in the future.

Jobs has been seen as irreplaceable to the company and if he were to step down, without some form of succession in place, the company could be in disarray.

So what’s wrong with Sprint?

As a Sprint subscriber (yes, I know. I should probably go into hiding for admitting that now), I am disappointed with the marketing tactics used. Sure, maybe in political advertising attacking your opponent doesn’t work, but when you’re trying to gain some market share in the cellular industry, sometimes you have to point out every weakness of your competitor. Look at Verizon…they are one of the top 2 cellular companies in the US, and their ads are specifically targeting Sprint. Poor little Sprint Why wouldn’t Verizon pick on At&t? Well, I believe that Verizon is trying to move as many CDMA (At&t is GSM) customers to its side as possible…

If Verizon Wireless can put Sprint out of business, that is one less carrier it will have to compete with.

I think Sprint can make a comeback. Hopefully.

The company said that it plans to scale down marketing, development, and technology advancements to help with the budget cut. As a result, most of the 7,000 employees to be laid off will be management.

Here’s another big company that has to reduce their workforce to cut the budget. It seems like this scenerio is happening more and more. With retail sales down and people more focused on not using their credit cards, American Express is likely not to be the only company to resort to huge layoffs.

Recently, I went searching for open positions related to my field of study (marketing and communications) for when I graduate in May. Even when searching through the countless positions on websites like Monster.com, most positions for my major requires years of prior experience. I also visited a college career fair, and most of the companies were not looking for business graduates, but were more interested in pharmacists. Unfortunately, four or five years of sitting through endless lectures and classes devoted to the very position they are seeking does not count toward any experience.

The odds are not in their favor either. In the second quarter of 2008 the Labor Department gave the unemployment rate for those in the 20 ? 24 year old group (the age range is the most likely for new graduates). Unemployment had risen from 7.7% last year to 9.8% this year.

Most colleges require students to intern and/or take career counseling to give them an idea of what to expect after graduation, but they still do not guarantee a job after graduation.

So you are a new graduate and cannot seem to stand out of the crowd? Here are a couple of tips to make you and your resume more noticeable to potential employers.

- Network. Networking helps you stand out to an employer. If you are currently a student, become involved in plenty of events and groups related to your major.
- An impressive resume. Making your resume stand out is not as hard as it may seem. Little things such as adding a picture of you or using positive phrases can add luster to an otherwise vanilla resume. An example of a use of positive language is instead of saying you have no experience in a certain area, saying that you are willing and open to learning is obviously more constructive. Employers are always more open to someone who is willing to conform to their job descriptions, rather than a position having to conform to an applicant.

Student loans are creeping up and you still have not gotten the position to build your career on? Some people have begun to take a more unconventional attitude on job hunting: Create their own career by starting their own business. Once thought to be something only highly experienced professionals do, new graduates are starting businesses related to their fields of study.

If you have the ambition to start your own business, either a new graduate or someone who just has some new or great ideas, here are a few pointers that may help you start:

- Since you are probably bogged down with debt (thanks to student loans), try to limit your start up costs. Internet companies generally have very low startup costs, as long as you have an idea as to what you?re doing. Starting a business with a friend can also limit your costs and you will have more than one person working toward a goal.
- Remember those old textbooks that you could not or did not sell? Some of them have some great ideas in them. I have kept marketing books just because I thought in the future they could come in handy.
- Have a business plan. If you have a business plan, even a simple one, you always have a reference point. Eventually we all hit road blocks, like writing essays and having an outline, a business plan can keep you in order.
- Finally, do not give up and work hard to achieve your goals. Getting through college was not easy (or cheap), so do not be discouraged if your business does not take off immediately. Successful businesses take patience, time and a LOT of hard work.

It is not hard to become discouraged by the declining job market. Plenty of people I know are working in fast food restaurants while waiting to land ?the job.? When the economy is good, graduates may get multiple offers with competing salaries, but now these offers are not landing in people?s laps like they once were. An applicant must do more to be noticed in today?s job market. So good luck graduates, I will be seeing you in May.

This comes after eBay announced its layoffs. Both online companies are seeing less and less profits and more decline in their stock prices.

Sometimes companies have to rely on firing people rather than finding ways to reduce spending or increase marketing to increase profits. Hmm.

Yes, their products are sleeker and more stylish, but they’re also slower and not as compatible with software and hardware… Our entire journalism department is full of brand new iMacs and Macbooks. I even own an iPod. My car’s stereo only functions with an iPod, I can use another MP3 player, but I could not use the radio controls to change the songs or volume.

So why has everyone decided that Apple is the gold standard? I’m not very sure. They claim to be stable, but my first 2 iPods crashed so bad they had to be replaced, and when working in the journalism lab, I’ve had the macs crash on me at least 3 times. My personal PC has only crashed once, due to a video card error.

There are cheaper and faster technologies available, so why are people so crazed over Apple?

Napster was once a great peer to peer file sharing program where music was free and plentiful. After being attacked by the RIAA and Lars (see: Metallica) it shut down. Then in 2002 Chris Gorog the CEO of Roxio, a CD burning program, paid $5 million for Napster’s assets (which included it’s logo). He was under the assumption that he could re-launch the program and sell legal music. He believed with the familiar logo and name would bring in millions of subscribers.

Now the service has 6 million songs and only 760,000 subscribers. Since the launch, Napster has never pulled a profit. Some unhappy investors are trying to put themselves on the board at the company’s annual meeting in September.

Shawn Fanning did a great thing, paving the way for mainstream digital downloads. However, after the RIAA went after the users, many people stopped using the program. Many moved on to other programs like Limewire. Some subscribe to other music services or download songs with programs like iTunes. Without a lot of publicity, a lot of the old users think downloading and using Napster could land them in court. Until I read about some of the investors of the company launching a proxy campaign, I didn’t even know that Napster was still around, let alone a subscription service.

They need a marketing campaign…badly.

Then again, at least Napster is in the news…no publicity is bad publicity…especially when people don’t even know you exist.

I am not the only person with this problem. There are plenty of new grads out there hopelessly looking for professional entry level work, who just aren’t finding it. We’re told when you graduate high school, the next step is OBVIOUSLY college, but does it have to be?

People are getting laid off, unemployment is up and student loans are needing to be paid. This is why you’ll find new grads working as delivery drivers for your local Domino’s. They can’t find work anywhere else.

Perhaps its time to give high school students time to really think about what they want to do with their lives rather than sending them blindly into college. Not everyone knows what they want to be when they grow up.