WebProNews

Category: MarketingNews

The original MarketingNewz website and email newsletter first launched in 2007.

  • Nine Essential Elements to Building Your Brand

    Nine Essential Elements to Building Your Brand

    What are the essential elements to building your brand? One of the most critical aspects of developing a solid brand is embracing who you are and what sets you apart from competitors. In addition, you need to know your target audience, stay true to the mission, be clear on the vision, create a memorable logo and develop an identity that will last for years to come!

    What is branding?

    Branding represents the image and public perception of a particular brand and its products/services. Your branding helps define who you are as a company, providing an identity for your business that potential clients will recognize. Your branding is a vital part of building your firm foundation and will help shape many decisions that go into marketing your product.

    Work out who you are as a brand.

    Identifying who you are as a brand is the first step to building your firm foundation. Next, you need to know what sets you apart from competitors and who you want to be aligned with. Once you have this information, it’s more straightforward for all your marketing and branding efforts and will help guide developing and growing these essential elements.

    What sets you apart from the competition?

    In today’s digital world, competition is everywhere. To maintain a healthy mindset and successfully build your brand, you need to determine what sets your brand apart from the competition. Please look at how competitors are marketing their products/services and use this knowledge to create a unique selling proposition that will attract your target audience. This will help to grow your brand and ensure that you’re using the right tools.

    What is your mission?

    Since your mission is what you aim to achieve, it’s essential to have a well-defined relationship between your vision and mission. You need to know which one comes first so that each marketing campaign follows one for the other. This will aid the building of a strong brand that can be recognized by potential clients and customers, which will generate more sales. Having a clear mission also means that you have a purpose for your company, which will help you to keep moving forward.

    What is your vision?

    What is one thing you want for people to think of when they hear what you do? With a clearly defined vision, it’s easier for customers to understand the core values of your brand and why they should decide on you rather than competitors. You can then use this information to develop anything from your logo to your website. To create your vision, you must use personal and business goals as groundwork to keep the picture achievable, measurable and flexible over time.

    Create memorable packaging

    What’s the first thing you need to know about creating special packaging? Custom paper labels are a great example of one way to make your product stand out. They provide a large area for your brand logo and message, which can be seen from across the room, ensuring that people notice your unique product/service offering and remember it when they’re ready to make a purchase. This is just one way that custom packaging can help build your brand and increase sales.

    Create a memorable logo

    What do you think makes for a good logo? Since your logo is the face of your company, it must represent what your business is all about. You can then build brand awareness and recognition by leveraging influencers who have large social media followings. It will help you with earning the trust of more potential customers, which will help you grow your brand.

    Using social media to expand your brand image

    When looking at ways to expand your brand image, look no further than social media. More consumers turn to their smartphones for information on brands they’re interested in and use Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to learn more about products/services. Social media has become one of the most efficient ways for consumers to receive critical information about new products, price comparisons, special promotions and sales. Using social media to expand your brand image also helps you stand out from competitors by giving an insight into what differentiates you, which will help generate more leads.

    Understand your target audience

    The first step in marketing is to understand who you’re trying to reach, one way to do this is by developing buyer personas. Please create a profile for each of your primary demographics, looking at the different characteristics that they hold. To attract your specific target audience, you need to be clear on the price, packaging and distribution channels.

    It’s essential to determine what your customers want if you’re building a solid brand that stands out from competitors. Ask yourself what’s unique about how you operate? What are the benefits that come with your company? This will give you insight into what makes your brand different from the rest, which will lead to more business.

    In today’s digital world, competition is everywhere. To maintain a healthy mindset and successfully build your brand, you need to determine what sets your brand apart from the competition. Please look at how competitors are marketing their products/services and use this knowledge to create a unique selling proposition that will attract your target audience. This will help to grow your brand and ensure that you’re using the right tools.

  • Microsoft Pulls Out of CES 2022

    Microsoft Pulls Out of CES 2022

    Microsoft is the latest company to pull out of CES 2022 over concerns about the omicron COVID variant.

    CES is one of the biggest electronic events and, like most large trade shows and events, has struggled to keep going during the pandemic. The shows organizers have vowed to go on with the 2022 event in January, but multiple high-profile companies have already bowed out over amid the omicron surge, including T-Mobile, Intel, Meta, Twitter, and Pinterest.

    According to The Verge, Microsoft is the latest company to pull out.

    “After reviewing the latest data on the rapidly evolving COVID environment, Microsoft has decided not to participate in-person at CES 2022,” said a company spokesperson.

    While CES organizers want to press forward, if high-profile companies keep dropping out, there may not be a conference to save.

  • UK Takes Aim at Adtech, Warns Against Unlawful Behavior

    UK Takes Aim at Adtech, Warns Against Unlawful Behavior

    Elizabeth Denham, the UK’s information commissioner, has penned a piece on the adtech market, warning against unlawful behavior.

    Adtech has becoming an increasingly controversial business model. No longer content to simply offer and sell goods or services for a fair price, companies have built entire businesses around treating their customers as the product, mining every last bit of data about them — whether they like it or not. Some companies are pushing back with privacy-oriented services, such as Apple’s App Tracking Transparency or DuckDuckGo’s App Tracking Protection for Android.

    Denham is throwing her weight into the dispute, calling out the adtech market for unlawful behavior that doesn’t take consumer choice and privacy into account.

    As organisations continue to evolve their proposals, the Commissioner believes that market participants should develop solutions that are focused on the interests, rights and freedoms of the individual. These should move away from intrusive tracking technologies that may continue to pose risks and struggle to comply with the law. 

    While Denham acknowledges there are multiple ways to address the issues moving forward, she emphasizes that any path forward must be a departure from current practices.

    Participants should note that continued use of intrusive online tracking practices is not the right way to develop solutions. Anything that essentially results in a continuation of existing practices will not meaningfully change the status quo. 

    Industry must recognise the need for change. It should understand that the Commissioner does not advocate for alternatives that use the same fundamentally flawed approaches.

    It’s refreshing to see an official take such a strong stance against an industry that has devolved into near-parasite practices that ignore the privacy and security of its users.

  • Mailchimp Employees Unhappy With Intuit’s Handling of Buyout

    Mailchimp employees are not happy with how Intuit is handling the buyout of their company, complaining of decreased wages and lost benefits.

    Intuit and Mailchimp made headlines in September when it was announced Intuit would be acquiring the email marketing service for $12 billion. Mailchimp’s platform is a natural compliment to Intuit’s small business tools.

    Unfortunately, it appears the merger is being grossly mishandled, according to Mailchimp employees that spoke with Business Insider. Some employees have discovered their pay will be lower working for Inuit than Mailchimp, and many employees saw their health benefits expire Sunday.

    “The general feeling from those I’m speaking to is that the transition has been so badly handled that the only explanation is that Intuit wants to drive attrition,” one employee said.

    Intuit has said the employees will be re-enrolled in health benefits, but the retroactive coverage will only taken effect once the paperwork is finalized. In the meantime, employees will have to pay for medical expenses themselves until the process is complete, leading to no small degree of consternation. For example, one employee already had to cancel treatments for a serious ongoing condition because of the cost of paying out-of-pocket, even on a short-term basis.

    As Insider points out, this is just the latest cause of employee outrage over the buyout. Mailchimp founders had long avoided giving stock options to employees, saying they would never sell the company and therefore the usual benefits of stock options weren’t a factor. Employees were also shorted on the bonuses they were promised as part of the buyout, with the amount coming in less than expected.

    Overall, the two company founders have made off like bandits, thanks to the sale, leaving their employees to keep drawing the short straw.

  • How Digital Marketing is Changing

    How Digital Marketing is Changing

    It’s no secret that marketing has changed considerably in recent years.

    All types of businesses — from brick-and-mortar stores to large tech companies — have begun using digital marketing to promote their products and services, get their ads seen, and make sure their website lands higher on search engine results pages.

    In the relatively brief amount of time since digital marketing became the norm, things have changed at a dizzying pace. Recent developments have demonstrated that digital marketing numbers are not what companies once thought they were. Nowadays, it’s clear that digital marketers need to go further than cultivating a large number of clicks, many of which may or not be from real people.

    Listed below are the top marketing trends your business needs to consider.

    Ad Clicks, Marketing Fraud, and the Bottom Line

    In the past few years, there have been some high-profile lawsuits related to marketing fraud. For example, Uber won a case against Austin-based marketers Phunware for fraudulent advertisements.

    As it turns out, even some of the largest and most respected marketing companies have been pointing to clicks as “proof” of business growth and revenue. And yet, companies such as Airbnb have discovered that they don’t lose all that much when they stop paying marketers for advertisements. Business owners everywhere are realizing that they need to pay closer attention to whether paid ads are actually making any difference to the bottom line.

    Choosing SEO-Friendly Content Instead of Paid Ads

    Digital marketing services should go far beyond placing online ads. Producing relevant content that is optimized for search engines will help your business website land on Google or other search engine results pages.

    Website copy optimized for SEO makes a huge difference to a company’s level of exposure. Working with competent SEO professionals should lead to more people visiting your site. People rarely click ads, but they do tend to click through on Google searches. If you incorporate the right keywords and frequently post blogs and web pages that are properly optimized, SEO content could do a lot more for your business than paid advertisements.

    Finding the Right Demographic

    Just because your marketing company offers your business an expanded reach doesn’t mean that the right people are seeing your advertisements. Companies are starting to realize that their digital marketing needs to reach the right people.

    Marketing expenses need to be quantifiable. Large numbers of engagements, as it turns out, don’t mean much. It simply isn’t enough to switch over from traditional marketing to digital marketing. Today, it’s imperative you make sure that your advertisements, website copy, and other methods of marketing are actually making a difference to your revenue.

    An Increasing Trend Away From Outsourcing

    In the recent past, marketing has traditionally been outsourced to agencies that provide the service for you. Nowadays, however, a lot of businesses are choosing to retain a greater degree of control and reduce expenses by keeping their marketing and advertising in-house.

    New professional-level digital tools are being released every day. There are fewer and fewer reasons to pay someone else to do your marketing. This is especially true for a large tech business with plenty of data at its disposal. If your company is doing well, you might want to think about starting an in-house marketing division. Putting more resources into marketing your own business will actually save you some money in the long run.

    An Ever-Increasing Emphasis on Social Media

    Marketing must include social media, now more than ever. While few companies are seeing significant returns on their social media efforts, there is so much potential in utilizing social channels. You can use a variety of methods to improve your social media presence. Share posts, reply to comments, and make use of the analytics available on each social media site.

    Track the number of shares and reposts from leads and influencers. Track the number of engagements. With social media, you can even do research into your target demographics. You can easily find out where they are and how you can best sell your product or service to them. Since a lot of this can be done on-site, be careful to avoid paying someone else too much to do what you could do yourself.

    Greater Access = Greater Opportunity

    Marketing has changed immensely in the age of the internet and it continues to evolve. No longer is it sufficient for your company to make a transition to digital marketing. The numbers provided by many of these companies don’t represent growth for your business.

    The number of clicks per ad, as well as engagements with ads, social media posts, and website pages need to be quantified and turned into real revenue, not merely collected and treasured as theoretical vanity numbers. Pay attention to sales conversions. Do your best to cut down on the costs of marketing while doing your best to market your business in the best way possible. These efforts in tandem will lead to the growth of your company.

  • Facebook May Change Its Name

    Facebook May Change Its Name

    Facebook is considering the possibility of changing its name, both to better reflect its future ambitions and distance itself from existing scrutiny.

    Few companies are more well-known, or less favorably viewed, than Facebook. Nonetheless, the company is the 800-pound gorilla among social media platforms, and has bought up smaller rivals, like Instagram and WhatsApp, further cementing its lead.

    Despite its roots, Facebooks is devoting considerable resources to what it calls “the metaverse,” a mixture of virtual, augmented and in-person reality. Sources told The Verge that the new name is a closely-guarded secret within the company, with Zuckerberg likely to unveil it October 28 at the company’s Connect conference.

    It seems likely Facebook may go a similar route as Google, placing Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus and its other properties underneath a parent company, the equivalent of Google’s Alphabet.

    No matter how well-planned or how valid the reasons, a name change is always a risky proposition for an established brand. Only time will tell if Facebook’s gamble will pay off.

  • Reddit 1-800 Flowers Ad Goes Viral

    Reddit 1-800 Flowers Ad Goes Viral

    “Our ads on Reddit have gotten a lot of traction and puts a big smile on people’s faces,” says 1-800 Flowers CEO Chris McCann. “That’s what we’re trying to do is just make sure we’re relevant and create that cognitive speed bump when people think about our company. They see something different and I’m thrilled with the creative team for coming up with something like that.”

    Reddit Ad That Went Viral for 1-800-Flowers.com

    As usual, some opinionated Redditers expressed their thoughts on the ads:

    1-800 Flowers CEO discusses the company’s growth that was accelerated by the pandemic:

    Ecommerce Growth Accelerated During Pandemic

    What we’ve seen is an acceleration of growth in our company that began back in 2018 and really then accelerated even further in 2020 with the pandemic. It’s driven by the need for us as people to connect and express ourselves. As a company whose vision is to inspire more human expression, connection, and celebration, and as an ecommerce leader, we’re well-positioned in the trends that we see coming out of this pandemic. We think these trends are sustainable going forward.

    We started out as one flower shop many years ago. What we’ve done is created this e-commerce platform for growth, a platform for expression, connection, and celebration. It starts with this all-star family of brands that we have led by Harry & David, 1-800-Flowers, Cheryl’s Cookies, Shari’s Berries, and our recent acquisition just this past August of Personalization Mall. You see us now as a company in the expression and connection business with a leadership position in floral, a leadership position in gourmet food gifting, and certainly now leadership and position in expressions and personalized items which is a fast-growing market.

    You’ll continue to continue to see us grow by organic product development of products that help customers express and connect. And as we’ve done through acquisition, adding to that platform and leveraging that platform that we’ve built.

    Need To Express and Connect Is a Lasting Trend

    Hopefully, the vaccines accelerate and we turn to some sense of normalcy sooner rather than later. As we look at our business, the momentum we saw began in 2018 and 2019 and then accelerated with the pandemic. We’ve been on a good momentum growth even before the pandemic and we really see ourselves now as a bigger stronger company than we were prior to it. We’ve acquired Personalization Mall just this past August and by putting it on our platform and leveraging our digital marketing expertise we accelerated the growth of that company. It grew by 50 percent this last quarter.

    A year ago August we acquired Shari’s Berries and took a business that was stagnant and losing money to now one that’s got a nice growth rate and is generating a nice contribution margin as well. If we just keep our focus on what the consumer is looking for to help express and connect then we’ll be continuing to see double-digit growth for some time to come. That trend that we’ve all learned from being isolated, our need to express and connect is a lasting trend coming out of this pandemic along with the shift from offline to online.

    1-800 Flowers Ecommerce Growth Accelerated During Pandemic

  • Ecommerce Nearing $1 Trillion

    Ecommerce Nearing $1 Trillion

    “We’re forecasting that ecommerce spending this year will be somewhere between $850 billion and $930 billion,” says John Copeland, Vice President of Marketing Science and Customer Insights at Adobe. This would be a 14 percent increase over last year. That would be more typical of what we see year over year in the ecommerce channel.”

    John Copeland of Adobe, predicts that ecommerce spending could be $930 billion, or just under $1 trillion, in 2021:

    COVID was a catalyst to the ecommerce channel last year. What we saw when you look at the full calendar year of 2020 was $813 billion dollars in ecommerce spending, 42 percent growth over 2019. That’s like combining two years’ worth of growth into a single year. Consumers have really embraced the online channel to meet their needs during these challenging times.

    We’re all kind of wondering what (the vaccine rollout) is going to do in terms of ecommerce. We’re forecasting this year somewhere between $850 billion, only a 5 percent over last year, and up to $930 billion, which would be a 14 percent increase over last year. The 5 percent increase would be if everybody gets vaccinated and rushes out and we see kind of a slowdown. The $930 billion, 14 percent increase, would be more typical of what we see year over year in the ecommerce channel.

    Buy Now Pay Later Up 215 Percent Over Last Year

    Buy Now Pay Later is very much good for retailers. In fact, what we’ve seen in February this year relative to February 2020, which is kind of on the cusp of the pandemic, is a 215 percent increase year over year in buy now pay later orders. In terms of retailers, it comes along with larger average order values. What we’re seeing is 18 percent larger orders when customers are using that service. Unlike layaway, with buy now pay later you actually get the goods upfront, you don’t have to wait until the payment’s done.

    Another trend is Buy Online, Pick Up In-Store, also known as BOPUS. In February of this year, we’re already seeing it growing 67 percent year on year. It’s always been huge and growing during the holiday season but now people are clearly working it in as part of their fulfillment options. Picking up in the store gives consumers the ability to schedule it according to their availability and knowing that stock will be there for them when they want to pick it up.

    Ecommerce Nearing $1 Trillion, Says John Copeland of Adobe
  • Intuit Acquiring Mailchimp for $12 Billion

    Intuit Acquiring Mailchimp for $12 Billion

    Intuit has announced it is acquiring email marketing service Mailchimp for $12 billion.

    Mailchimp is one of the leading platforms for email marketing. The company was founded some 20 years ago, and is used by companies around the world. Intuit sees the acquisition as a way to improve its small and medium-sized business offerings, providing its customers a marketing solution to compliment its other services.

    “We’re focused on powering prosperity around the world for consumers and small businesses. Together, Mailchimp and QuickBooks will help solve small and mid-market businesses’ biggest barriers to growth, getting and retaining customers,” said Sasan Goodarzi, CEO of Intuit. “Expanding our platform to be at the center of small and mid-market business growth helps them overcome their most important financial challenges. Adding Mailchimp furthers our vision to provide an end-to-end customer growth platform to help our customers grow and run their businesses, putting the power of data in their hands to thrive.” 

    Ben Chestnut, co-founder of Mailchimp, echoed those sentiments:

    “Together with Intuit, we’ll deliver an innovative small business growth engine powered by marketing automation, customer relationship management, accounting and compliance, payments and expense, and e-commerce solutions, creating a single source of truth for your business. We’ll also be able to offer more personalized support and onboarding, expand our international footprint, and scale our teams to innovate faster and deliver the solutions you want and need.”

    The deal is worth $12 billion, in stock and cash, and subject to the usual regulatory approval. The deal is expected to close before the end of Intuit’s Q2 2022.

  • Apple Announces ‘California Streaming’ Event September 14

    Apple has announced its next major event, “California streaming,” slated for September 14 at 10:00 a.m. PDT.

    Analysts and users alike have been expecting the iPhone 13, as well as the Apple Watch Series 7. Given Apple’s penchant for releasing major hardware updates in September, it’s a good bet we’ll see one or both of these released.

    Like most recent events, Apple’s September event will be viewable on www.apple.com or the Apple TV app.

  • Twitter Announces Shop Module, Its Foray Into E-Commerce

    Twitter Announces Shop Module, Its Foray Into E-Commerce

    Twitter is looking to help businesses bring e-commerce to their Twitter profiles with a new feature called Shop Module.

    Shop Module is designed to let businesses showcase their products at the top of their profile page. Businesses will be able to use the feature to create a carousel of their products for people to browse.

    Bruce Falk, Product Lead, Goldbird, described the feature in a blog post:

    The Shop Module is a dedicated space at the top of a profile where businesses can showcase their products. When people visit a profile with the Shop Module enabled, they can scroll through the carousel of products and tap through on a single product to learn more and purchase — seamlessly in an in-app browser, without having to leave Twitter.

    We’re starting small with a handful of brands in the United States. People in the U.S. who use Twitter in English on iOS devices will be able to see the Shop Module.

    Some see Twitter’s announcement as part of the larger evolution of the e-commerce industry.

    “Social commerce solves the agility challenges brands have experienced within other e-commerce platforms,” Eric Dahan, Open Influence CEO/Co-Founder, told WebProNews. “Moving forward, we don’t expect this evolution of e-commerce to slow down. 64 percent of small businesses plan to continue their new e-commerce strategies in 2021.”

    Twitter plans on rolling the feature out to a handful of US-based brands. English Twitter users in the US on iOS should soon start seeing Shop Module.

  • DuckDuckGo Testing Email Protection Service

    DuckDuckGo Testing Email Protection Service

    DuckDuckGo is testing a new email protection feature, designed to combat email trackers.

    Many emails, up to 70% of them in fact, contain trackers that tell the sender when, where and on what device the email was opened. The data is also used to build profiles, to coordinate with other ad services, such as those on websites.

    DuckDuckGo is looking to challenge this with its new Email Protectionservice.

    We’re excited to announce the beta release of DuckDuckGo’s Email Protection. Our free email forwarding service removes email trackers and protects the privacy of your personal email address without asking you to change email services or apps.

    Users sign up for an @duck.com email address and use it as the address they give out to others. DuckDuckGo strips out any trackers from emails sent to the address, and then forward it on to the person’s main address — all without saving anything.

    The service sounds like an excellent option for privacy-conscious users, made by a company that has built its reputation on protecting user privacy.

    The service is currently in beta. Those interested can sign up via the iOS or Android DuckDuckGo app by selecting Settings > Beta Features > Email Protection > Join the Private Waitlist.

  • Third-Party Cookies Get a Stay of Execution as Google Postpones Plans

    Google is pushing back its plans to eliminate support for third-party cookies, buying the advertising industry more time to adapt.

    Third-party cookies are one of the most commonly used methods advertisers use to track individuals as they move across the web. Apple’s Safari, the second-most popular browser behind Google’s Chrome, already blocks third-party cookies by default. This makes it more difficult for advertisers to track users and build a profile about them.

    Google had previously planned on following Apple’s lead by early 2022. Because advertisers have built an entire industry around surreptitiously tracking users as they browse the web, and building detailed profiles on them, the thought of being cut off from one of the primary ways to do so caused much hand-wringing among ad companies.

    Google is now saying it will not begin making the change until mid-2023, with the process completed approximately three months later in late 2023. The company said the revised timeline would provide advertisers the time they neede to adapt and adopt more privacy-conscious advertising methods.

    This will allow sufficient time for public discussion on the right solutions, continued engagement with regulators, and for publishers and the advertising industry to migrate their services. This is important to avoid jeopardizing the business models of many web publishers which support freely available content. And by providing privacy-preserving technology, we as an industry can help ensure that cookies are not replaced with alternative forms of individual tracking, and discourage the rise of covert approaches like fingerprinting.

  • Google Makes it Easier for SMBs to Launch YouTube Ad Campaigns

    Google Makes it Easier for SMBs to Launch YouTube Ad Campaigns

    Google is making it easier for SMBs to launch YouTube ad campaigns in its first-ever YouTube Small Biz Day.

    According to Google, 72% of small businesses in the US rely on YouTube to boost their online presence. Unfortunately, SMBs did have to fully wade into Google’s ad platform to launch a YouTube campaign, something that smaller businesses may not have had the time or experience to tackle. With the new approach, things are greatly simplified.

    We’re also committed to making it easier for small businesses to use video to reach their customers. Last year we introduced Video Builder, a free tool that allows small businesses to quickly set up a video ad using just two images and a logo. Today we’re introducing a faster, easier way to create video ad campaigns on YouTube. Just add the video ad, the audiences you want to reach and your budget to launch a campaign in minutes. And with the new mobile experience, you can now more easily measure campaign performance. Access the new experience today at youtube.com/ads.

    The move should be a big help for SMBs, especially during a time when an online presence is more important than ever.

  • Bitcoin 2021 Labeled a ‘Super Spreading Event’

    Bitcoin 2021 Labeled a ‘Super Spreading Event’

    The Bitcoin 2021 conference may have come and gone, but it’s having a lingering impact as attendees are beginning to test positive for COVID-19.

    The Bitcoin convention was held last weekend in Miami, with some 12,000 attendees. As one of the first in-person events to happen since the pandemic’s outbreak, Bitcoin 2021 had no mask mandates or proof-of-vaccination requirements. People came from all over the world, mingling for three days.

    In the aftermath of the event, people started testing positive, leading some to label the conference a “super spreader event.”

    https://twitter.com/MiguelICarlos/status/1403079171505418240?s=20

    Some Twitter users are already condemning those who attended without being vaccinated, saying it showed reckless disregard for the health of others.

    While it’s not clear how many have been infected, some users indicated entire groups of people they were hanging out with have all tested positive.

    Bitcoin 2021 illustrates the challenges event holders will continue to face, despite rising vaccination numbers.

  • Ohio AG Sues to Declare Google a Public Utility

    Ohio AG Sues to Declare Google a Public Utility

    Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has filed a lawsuit trying to have Google declared a public utility.

    Google is facing increased scrutiny on multiple fronts, with some critics saying the company should be categorized as a public utility. Such a move would subject Google to more regulation, much like a gas or electric company. Supporters of the move say the company’s monopoly in search justifies the classification and increased regulation.

    Ohio AG Yost is one such critic, and is now suing to force a reclassification of Google.

    “Google uses its dominance of internet search to steer Ohioans to Google’s own products–that’s discriminatory and anti-competitive,” Yost said. “When you own the railroad or the electric company or the cellphone tower, you have to treat everyone the same and give everybody access.”

    The lawsuit does not seek any monetary damage. Instead, it has two main goals:

    • A legal declaration that Google is a common carrier (or public utility) subject to proper government regulation.
    • To force Google competitors equal rights to its own, and not prioritize its own products and services.

    This is the second lawsuit Yost has filed against Google, the first being a lawsuit involving over 30 states, accusing the company of abusing its search monopoly.

  • Target CEO Says Digital Performance Up 50%

    Target CEO Says Digital Performance Up 50%

    “Our digital performance was up 50 percent,” says Target CEO Brian Cornell. “As we gain greater clarity around the consumer, the economy, the state of the vaccine, we feel that the consumer continues to respond to our in-store experience and the ease and convenience of shopping with some of our same-day services like pickup, drive-up, and ship. Same-day fulfillment services now represent over half of our digital channel.”

    Brian Cornell, CEO of Target, discusses their massive Q1 results in an interview on CNBC:

    Digital Performance Up 50 Percent

    We’ve had a string of really solid results going back to 2017 but this quarter may be one of the highlights. Our team executed throughout the quarter. We had a great performance from our store teams with a store comp of 18%. Our digital performance was up 50%. It was really a team effort. We had great supply chain support with our merchants and marketers all coming together to support the results which speak for themselves.

    We are benefitting from investments we’ve been making for years now. Our investment in our store experience, our curated Home Brand and national brand mix, and then the fulfillment services that we offer. That combined with the investment in our team, I think we are seeing continued strength. We feel really good sitting here right now about our outlook, not just for the second quarter but for the full year.

    We’ve Connected With The Consumer

    As we gain greater clarity around the consumer, the economy, the state of the vaccine, we feel that the consumer continues to respond to our in-store experience and the ease and convenience of shopping with some of our same-day services like pickup, drive-up, and ship. They really connect with our curation of Great Home Brand, national brands, and the service our team provides each and every day.

    We are feeling very confident about our position today. I look at the proof point from Q1, we picked up another billion dollars in market share on top of the $9 billion of share last year. That’s just a sign that we’ve connected with the consumer, we’re building relevance, and we’re providing what they need and what they want throughout the year.

    Newness Is A Huge Trend In Our Business

    When you see the combination of stores comping up at 18%, which to me is just a highlight number, and categories like apparel growing again by over 60%, that combination of store traffic and category mix really benefited us throughout the quarter. We are seeing a resilient consumer. They’re clearly shopping our stores and when they’re there they are attracted to anything that’s new.

    Newness has certainly been a trend throughout our business in the first quarter and I think that’s going to continue. That great combination of store traffic and store comps and the continued movement of same-day fulfillment services which now represent over half of our digital channel. We really like that transaction. It looks and feels more like a store transaction which from a profitability standpoint certainly is beneficial for us.

    Target CEO Brian Cornell Says Digital Performance Up 50%
  • Alphabet Scores Big on Google Ad Revenue

    Alphabet Scores Big on Google Ad Revenue

    Alphabet released its latest results, reporting a strong quarter on rebounding ad revenue for Google.

    Like many companies that rely on advertising, Alphabet was initially impacted by the pandemic. A year in, however, the company’s ad business has recovered and is continuing to grow.

    According to the results, Google’s sales came in just under $45 billion, a 32% increase over the previous year. Alphabet’s overall revenue, including Google ad sales, cloud business and device sales, increased 34% from the previous year.

    “Over the last year, people have turned to Google Search and many online services to stay informed, connected and entertained,” said CEO Sundar Pichai. “We’ve continued our focus on delivering trusted services to help people around the world. Our Cloud services are helping businesses, big and small, accelerate their digital transformations.”

    “Total revenues of $55.3 billion in the first quarter reflect elevated consumer activity online and broad based growth in advertiser revenue,” said CFO Ruth Porat. “We’re very pleased with the ongoing momentum in Google.”

  • Daily Mail Newspaper Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google

    Daily Mail Newspaper Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google

    The Daily Mail has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, claiming the search giant wields too much advertising power and newspapers see little in return.

    As Google has grown from a search engine to an advertising behemoth, it has exerted an increasing level of control over the entire advertising process. The company now controls the ad exchange, ad space on publishers pages and the inventory of available ads.

    According to Reuters, The Daily Mail has had enough and is suing Google.

    “The lack of competition for publishers’ inventory depresses prices and reduces the amount and quality of news available to readers, but Google ends up ahead because it controls a growing share of the ad space that remains,” the lawsuit said.

    The lawsuit adds to a growing list of suits Google is facing, including one by the Department of Justice, as well as one by a coalition of states.

  • J.P. Morgan Raises Alphabet Price Target

    J.P. Morgan Raises Alphabet Price Target

    J.P. Morgan has raised the price target for Alphabet stock to $2,575 from $2,390, citing the company’s fundamentals.

    The advertising industry was hit especially hard in the early days of the pandemic. Like many companies, Google’s parent initially faced challenges and uncertainty as a result. Advertising has since rebounded, and Alphabet has been aggressively diversifying into other business, especially cloud computing.

    According to TheStreet, J.P. Morgan analyst Doug Anmuth believes those fundamentals put the the company in a good position to benefit long-term.

    “We remain positive on Alphabet, as we believe it is well positioned across ads, clouds, and a number of other key initiatives to both drive and benefit from long-term digital trends,” Anmuth wrote.

    “And it has an attractive combination of top-line scale, growth and margins, supporting our view that valuation remains attractive at 27 times our 2022 estimated Alphabet GAAP earnings per share, or 22 times our 2022 estimated GAAP earnings per share excluding cash and other bets.”

  • Disney Accelerating Pivot To DTC-First Business Model

    Disney Accelerating Pivot To DTC-First Business Model

    During yesterday’s earnings call Disney CEO Bob Chapek said it has accelerated the company’s pivot towards a DTC-first business model. “Our recent strategic reorganization has enabled us to accelerate the company’s pivot, towards a DTC-first business model and further grow our streaming services,” says Chapek. “Disney+ has exceeded even our highest expectations, in just over a year since its launch with 94.9 million subscribers. ESPN+ and Hulu have also performed well, with 12.1 million and 39.4 million subscriptions, respectively.”

    Chapek attributes the company’s massive streaming growth to its huge collection of brands. “The wealth of IP from our unrivaled collection of brands and franchises provides us with an incredible breadth and depth of storylines and characters to mine for Disney+ and our other streaming services,” says Chapek. “We have the ability to interconnect these storylines and characters in unprecedented ways as we saw with The Mandalorian and WandaVision tying into the broader Star Wars and Marvel franchises. We’re excited to continue exploring the endless possibilities that this unique ecosystem provides.”

    DTC Results Improved By $650 Million

    “We believe that we’ve got a great price-value relationship,” says Chapek. “I think the best insulation we’ve got (to lower churn) is to keep the price-value relationship very high and there’s no better way to do it than powerhouse franchises cranking out regular new releases on a monthly basis.”

    Disney’s direct-to-consumer results have improved by nearly $650 million versus the prior year. “Last quarter, we guided to direct-to-consumer operating income declining by $100 million versus the prior year under our former segment structure,” says Disney CFO Christine McCarthy. “Our reported results are $750 million higher than that guidance.”

    Lower Disney Losses Attributed To Disney+

    Disney attributes their lower losses to the growth of the Disney+ streaming service. “A lower loss in the first quarter compared to the prior year was driven by subscriber growth partially offset by higher costs due to the launch and expansion of Disney+. With 94.9 million paid subscribers at the end of Q1, Disney+’s global net additions were 21.2 million versus Q4.”

    “Disney+ Hotstar subscriber additions continued their strong growth trend with Disney+ Hotstar subscribers making up approximately 30% of our global subscriber base,” said McCarthy. “We also saw strong additions to our subscriber base from our November launch in Latin America.”

    Disney Happy With Level Of Churn

    Disney is also very happy with its level of churn especially as it relates to subscribers who came into the Disney+ service via their Verizon partnership which helped power its launch last year. “We are very pleased with what we’ve seen so far on the level of churn,” said McCarthy. “And as our product offering matures and we put more content into the service and our subscriber base becomes more tenured, we expect to see our churn rates continue to decline.

    So in regard to the specific churn related to the anniversary of the Verizon launch promotion from last November 2020, we’re really happy with the conversion numbers that we have seen there going from the promotion to become paid subscribers.”

    100 New Titles a Year

    “With Disney+ originals along with the theatrical releases and the library titles, we’ll be adding something new to the service every week,” noted McCarthy. “We are very pleased with the engagement overall. We believe we’re going to reach that cadence of getting content on the service every week within the next few years. We’ve also set that target for 100-plus new titles per year. And that’s across Disney Animation, Disney Live Action, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Nat Geo. And of course, we’ll continue to add more to our library as we go through time as well.”

    “Given the value of growing our sub base, we are continuing to invest in high-quality content,” says McCarthy. “We believe that content is the single biggest driver to not only acquiring subs, but retaining them.”