Portion control

Obesity epidemic
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080623-Obesity-epidemic.html?source=cmailer
Australia has overtaken the US to now have the highest rate of overweight people in the world, according to new research from Melbourne’s Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute.
The research shows that over four million Australians, or 26% of the population, are now considered obese, surpassing the 25% obesity rate in the United States.

The research was based on calculating a person’s BMI (body mass index), found by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms by height in metres squared. A BMI of 20 to 25 is considered healthy, while 26 to 30 is overweight, and over 30 considered obese.

Most of the overweight people in Australia are middle aged, with 60% of women and 70% of men aged 45 to 64 now classified as obese. The study warns that those classified as obese are at a serious risk of heart disease and premature death.

Frito-Lay's new chip cites portion control (in US: Frito-Lay launches 100 Calorie Mini Bites)
http://www.just-food.com/article.aspx?id=85632&lk=s
Extract: 14 March 2006. PepsiCo-owned snack foods producer Frito-Lay has announced the introduction of a new-line of 100-calorie packs of its popular snack brands. The 100 Calorie Mini Bites line will offer packs, containing no more than 100 calories, of its Cheetos and Doritos snacks.

"Consumers want products that fit in a health-conscious lifestyle and yet they are unwilling to compromise on taste," said Jeff Swearingen, vice president, shopper marketing, Frito-Lay North America. "Our 100 Calorie Mini Bites gives consumers 'snack balance' - their favourite brands in convenient portion packaging that takes the guess work out of calorie control."

Dove's new product justified by portion control (in Candy Expo highlights gourmet, premium and organic products)
http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?id=85417
Extract: The company also announced changes for Dove's tablet bar collection, which will feature 3 individually wrapped pieces in a recloseable pack "addressing consumers' desire for portion control, portability, share-ability and freshness."

Smarter Snacking Report
http://kellogg.co.uk/pressoffice/Content/204/SmarterSnackingFV.pdf
Extract: Contradictory messages make us distrust our instincts about when we want to eat. We've been scolded so many times about wanting to eat between meals that we resist our natural instinct to snack even when hunger is making us tired and irritable. As a nation we have very mixed opinions of what we believe to be right and wrong. 44%3 of Brits think it is healthier to eat just three main meals a day, whilst 56%3 of Brits believe main meals plus snacks is the healthiest option. But take a look at the facts and it’s clear that your rumbling tummy at eleven o'clock and four o’clock is talking sense.

• Eating main meals plus snacks may help control hunger so we don't overeat at meal times, a problem 55% of the nation struggle with. Preventing over eating can help people avoid the afternoon slump suffered by a staggering 82% of Brits who overeat at lunchtime
• Snacking itself does not cause us to be overweight. It may actually have a more beneficial effect on appetite and body weight control than sticking to three meals a day. With 43% of Brits unaware of the weight control benefits of snacking, it is time to bring them up to speed
• Eating small meals and regular snacks can provide the best mood and mental performance4 throughout the day. Almost three quarters of consumers (71%) believe that they would be far more productive with two snack breaks a day. And they’re right!

Sensible snacking benefits health
http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?id=85610
Extracts: Kellogg's Smarter Snacking Report makes a number of claims...

About 96 per cent of UK adults admit snacking in secret but eating three meals and two snacks a day is nothing to be ashamed of, "if managed correctly it can help maintain weight and boost mood and energy," according to the report.

The report contains other snacking facts and figures, such as sweet tasting chocolate remains the most popular snack in the UK (34 per cent of consumers say they snack on it) - but most people said they just grab what is available. Fifty seven per cent of Brits said they believe snacking will not boost health and fitness or aid weight loss - though in the 25-34 year olds the opposing view held fat greater sway.

The report was compiled from two surveys conducted by Fly Research among 1000 adults in the UK in November 2007 and February 2008, two other sources, and the company's nutritionists.



Mintel identifies key food innovations for 2006
http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/ng.asp?id=66288-mintel-omega-snacks
Extract: Knowing when to say no
Portion control is set to be the next big thing, claims Mintel, moving beyond snacks into new food categories and new parts of the world. Portion control in 2005 was popular amongst snack manufacturers, with many snacks claiming to be 100-calorie products, while Frito-Lay introduced the Doritos 75 calorie snack pack in the US.

Fit for kids - Global trends in children’s foods - March 2007
http://www.mintel.com/newsletter_email/gnpd_forum_pdf/ief_london07/fit_for_kids_final.pdf
Today’s presentation
• A few statistics about kids
• Better-for-you trends, related to kids:
– Low-in foods
– Fortification, old and new
– Portion control
– Inherent goodness
• Conclusions

UK: Portion control key, biscuit, cake makers told
http://www.just-food.com/article.aspx?id=102092&lk=s
Extract: Portion control is the key to future innovation in the UK cake, biscuit and confectionery categories industry analysts told a conference in Rugby today (24 April).

Speaking at the Biscuit Cake Chocolate & Confectionery Conference, Mintel's David Jago said manufacturers would focus more on portion size rather than drastic reductions in levels of fat, calories and sugar.

"Portion control has changed slightly in the UK market," said Jago. "It is now nothing about low-calorie but aiming at women who just want smaller portions instead of that driving low-calorie message. Kraft Foods has made a lot of money out of it and now it is being copied by many others in the market."

Candy Adapts to Health Issues
http://www.flex-news-food.com/console/PageViewer.aspx?page=11113&str=Cadbury%20Schweppes%20Cocoa%20Ghana
New candy products dominated the show with fresh approaches to sugar, cocoa butter, partially hydrogenated soybean oil and natural flavors. Candy makers also were jumping on the bandwagon of "portion control," packaging candy and cookies in 100- to 150-calorie packs, a trend that is likely to stick around. "The problem with that, though, is that you end up with about three pieces of candy," said Necco Products Chief Executive Domenic Antonellis. "But people really like it."

These are challenging times for candy makers. Obesity in children, junk food at school cafeterias and vending machines, and the availability of healthy alternatives have become hot-button issues for all food sellers. And consumers, embracing the do-it-for-me culture, increasingly are telling candy and snack manufacturers to make those decisions for them with healthier products. "That's a trend we support," said Emily Korns, health and science communications manager for Mars North America. "Consumers want the choices and want the portion control."

Mars's Milky Way bars, for example, now come packaged as two pieces for sharing or saving rather than just one big bar. Its new Generation Max line of products promises it "keeps you going" with Twix cereal clusters, Snickers cookies and Combos pizza snacks that are 150 calories or less and are lower in sugar, saturated fats and total fats.

Portion Control Pack (new product from Coca Cola)
http://www.activefactor.com.au/YourDrinks/PortionControlPk.aspx
It’s the little things that can make a big difference
We all know that when you’re counting your kilojoule intake, portion size is key. That’s why The Coca-Cola Company has launched 250ml snack sized cans of several popular drinks. So when it comes to your favourite beverage, you can easily control exactly how many kilojoules you’re getting.To help you easily identify where our products fit in a balanced lifestyle, the new 12 mini can snack packs will feature the % DI symbol highlighting the number of kilojoules in each can and what proportion of an average adult’s diet those kilojoules represent.

Portion Control: Change Your Thinking or Your Plate?
http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100171291
Research from Cornell University and Penn State has repeatedly shown that the larger the amount of food we are faced with—whether on our plate or in serving bowls—the more we will eat. We might not eat everything, but we still eat more than if we started with less. This has been demonstrated in single meals, such as comparing the amount eaten of different size sub sandwiches, and in totals over a period of several days.

For many people, eating more when presented with large amounts of food may be tied to the “Clean Plate Club” phenomenon; we have been taught to view not eating all we are given as wasteful. However, researchers suggest that we may often be unable to even recognize extra-large portions. Studies show that when an equal amount of food is presented on a relatively large and small plate, we see the large plate as having less food than the smaller plate, which seems more full.

Studies also show that we tend to eat in “units.” If we buy a package of six cookies or crackers, we usually eat them all rather than leaving part of a package. If a “unit” or package of candy, French fries or soft drinks gets larger, we are more likely to eat the whole container anyway.

Top ten food trends for 2007
http://www.euromonitor.com/Top_ten_food_trends_for_2007
7. Portion control – size is everything
Portion control is one of the keys to dieting. This principle is also having a key influence on types and presentations of food. In addition to tapas and the Greek meze, there are Japanese versions: small plates served at taverns called izakayas. Manufacturers are also developing calorie-controlled mini portions of snacks and confectionery as a response to healthy eating trends.

Minisize me: portion control as the new path to healthy eating
http://www.euromonitor.com/Minisize_me_portion_control_as_the_new_path_to_healthy_eating
Extract: Calorie-controlled mini portions is the snacks and confectionery industries' latest response to healthy eating trends. Tempered indulgence of this kind might just save "junk" food from certain decline, and possible extinction, improving its damaged image in a market preoccupied with responsible nutrition.

Portion control has traditionally been the preserve of Weight Watchers and other diet regimes but now indulgence food industries have hooked onto the merits of limiting calorie counts. With pressure from governments and consumers alike to up the nutritional profiles of their products, snacks and confectionery manufacturers are up against a wall. Many have reformulated their brands, cutting salt and fat levels and removing artificial ingredients but there are limits as to how far they can go. Sugar is central to sweets, and crisps would not be crisps without the fat. That PepsiCo-owned Frito-Lay, the world's number one snack brand, launched a 100 Calorie Mini Bites Cheetos and Doritos range in March proves portion control is being taken seriously by industry majors. Another big name to jump on the bandwagon of late is Hershey, the US's fifth-ranked confectionery player, with its 60-calorie Hershey's Sticks. Later this year, the company will extend its portion control range with a line of 100-calorie snack products.

Summa study finds portion control induces greatest weight loss
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-10/shs-ssf101304.php
Summa Health System researchers' results published in September issue of Obesity Research(Akron, Ohio) – The journal, Obesity Research, today published an article on the results of a 24-month federally funded obesity study led by Summa Health System researchers in Akron, Ohio. The study is the first to document that patients who spend a longer time in the action and maintenance stages for portion control or planned exercise were more likely to lose weight. The reverse was also true. Patients who spend less time in the action and maintenance stages for portion control or planned exercise were more likely to gain weight.

According to lead Summa researcher Everett E. Logue, Ph.D., the greatest weight loss in the study was related to portion control. "Although we saw similar patterns of weight loss related to reduced dietary fat consumption, increased fruit and vegetable consumption, increased physical activity and increased planned exercise, the target behavior that induced the greatest weight loss was portion control."

While Logue points out portion control showed the greatest weight loss, the study also suggests planned exercise induced the least. This however, does not surprise Logue.
"Portion control may be behaviorally easier to change than increasing planned exercise for many obese individuals," Logue said. "However, other research suggests that planned exercise is an important component of long-term weight management."

The study found that 38 percent of obese patients who consistently spent two years practicing food portion control lost five percent or more of their baseline weight. Conversely, they concluded that 33 percent of patients who did not consistently practice portion control gained five percent or more of their baseline weight.

"The message in the study is that you have to eat fewer calories and/or burn more calories if you want to loss weight," Logue said. "There are no short cuts. However, there are multiple ways of eating fewer calories and/or burning more calories. The trick is to find a way of eating and exercising that works for you that you can maintain for a lifetime. Since we live in an obesogenic environment, you can not rely on the overeating and sedentary signals that the environment is constantly sending. You have to block these signals out (cognitive restructuring) and change your personal environment (change the way that you shop for food, where you eat, and how you spend your non-work time). You cannot follow the crowd, because the crowd is getting more overweight each year."

Patients who inquired about the study and were primary care patients, ages 40 to 69, with elevated body mass indices greater than 27 or elevated waist/hip ratios greater than 0.950 for men or 0.800 for women were eligible for the study.
The data for the study called Reasonable Eating and Activity to Change Health (REACH) was obtained from 329 overweight or obese primary care patients from 15 primary care practices in Northeastern Ohio from July 1998 to December 2002. Eighty-four percent of the participants were between the ages of 40 and 59 years: 30 percent were males; 28 percent identified themselves as African Americans; and 45 percent had body mass indices (BMI) over 34.9 kg/m2.

Pricing strategies

How managing buyer price expectations affects sales
http://www.ami.org.au/followon.aspx?PageID=6357
Many of us probably remember 'buyer behaviour' as a subject in an undergraduate marketing course. Some recent academic research reminds us of the importance of managing buyer behaviour, specifically their pricing expectations, in achieving sales volumes and profit margins.

The 'loss leader', a product/service advertised at a ridiculously low price to get the prospect in the door so they can be up-sold to a more profitable option, is a well-known sales tactic.

In an extensive analysis of online auction results, researchers (1) from Cornell and Washington universities found that a well-chosen 'buy-it-now' price can lead to higher final auction prices for a given item, provided that the 'buy-it-now' price is set higher than the buyer's expected price for the item. A 'loss leader' price can get prospects 'in the door', and a well-chosen 'buy-it-now price can get them to pay more than they planned.

The 'buy-it-now' price is a common feature of most online auction sites, although it can operate in different ways on different sites, i.e. some remove the 'buy-it-now' price once auction bidding on the item starts. Generally, the 'buy-it-now' price offers the buyer the opportunity to circumvent the auction process and purchase the item immediately for a set price.

This research found that setting the 'buy-it-now' price higher than the 'expected' price for the item usually leads to a higher final price (provided it is not set ridiculously high), and vice versa. It also identified that the majority of 'buy-it-now' prices are actually set sub-optimally (slightly too low), probably because the sellers under-estimated the impact of competition between bidders driving up the final price.

The bidders' curse
Another set of researchers (2) found similar results, but also concluded that overbidding (the so-called 'bidders' curse') at online auctions is most common when competition is fierce and when recommended retail price (RRP) expectations have been actively managed, such as:

• In auctions with long listing periods.
• Where there are many bidders.
• Where the item has a high position on the website.
• If the item description explicitly states the manufacturer's price (RRP).

While these results are based on online auctions, they undoubtedly have implications for the marketing of any product or service in a highly competitive marketplace.

Marketers should seek to actively manage buyers' price expectations. Few buyers have the time or energy to conduct a rigorous market audit, but all want to think that that they are not paying too much. Most buyers will therefore use those value signals that are immediately available to them, e.g. the stated RRP, the quality of the retail experience, the buy-it-now price, etc., to estimate a 'reasonable' price for the item.

Value signals for 'reasonable' price
These findings suggest that if the seller actively manages these signals to create a slightly higher perceived 'reasonable' price, then they are more likely to get a higher selling price for the item.
But what about our old reliable 'loss leader' strategy; don't we need to get prospects in the door?
Research (3) conducted in several FMCG categories found that an increase in sales at a lower (discounted) price frequently came at the expense of future sales at the full price. Eventually, this led to lower volumes and lower overall profits for major market share brands.

In essence, repeated price discounting can teach buyers how to 'manage the system'. Buyers learn to expect regular discounting cycles and then tend to wait for the next cycle to stockpile their favourite brand when it is on special. This in turn leads to pressures on sales volumes, which can entrench the pattern of repeated price discounting.

The key to using loss leaders may depend upon your distribution channel. If you are a car manufacturer or similar where you have the opportunity to 'up-sell' prospects who are drawn into the showroom by an attractive 'loss leader' deal, then an occasional 'loss leader' promotion may be worthwhile. This is especially so when you make sure that you manage up their expectations of the perceived value of the item and, therefore, what is a 'reasonable' price for that item.

However, if you are a FMCG manufacturer distributing your products through supermarkets in which you don't have the opportunity to up-sell prospects on your products, then acting as the 'loss leader' may not be such as great strategy.

First, while it may lead to a temporary sales increase, eventually it may lead to an overall decrease in sales volumes and profits. Second, whenever your brand is offered at a discounted price, it probably helps to lower the expectations of what is a reasonable 'normal' price for that brand. Consumers reflect this when they lament in focus groups that 'Quality brands never go on sale'.

Maybe it is time for us all to dust off our old marketing text books and think again about how we manage our prospects' price expectations!

Why price promotions aren't the best marketing strategy - Discounts don't drive up sales
http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/10839.html
Extract: Jan. 22, 2008 -- Sorry, Charlie. Price promotions may not be the best way to increase sales of canned tuna — or any other frequently purchased consumer good. The iconic cartoon mascot never got the message: "StarKist doesn't want tuna with good taste; it wants tuna that tastes good." Some companies may not be getting the message that "if value is driven only by price, price becomes the only value proposition you have," said Chakravarthi Narasimhan.

Discounts are no way to increase business. According to Narasimhan, a marketing professor at the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, "managers can be overly focused on losing market share and get caught up in a mindless cycle of discounting - without regard to the long-term implications of their actions."

Take automobile manufacturers, for example. Dealers want to move more vehicles. In response, manufacturers initiate price promotions, offer rebates and lower buyers' financing costs. "The additional volume that comes from these promotions will slowly fall," Narasimhan said. "Why? In the mind of the consumer, there's always another promotion and no real pressure to buy at a particular time. This dynamic, in turn, leads companies to continue price promotions.
"Strategic consumers are those who form expectations about future prices," he explained. In other words, they anticipate that certain products fluctuate in price and react in one of several ways.

Food marketing

Health benefits driving the dark chocolate trend
http://www.ausfoodnews.com.au/2008/07/04/health-benefits-driving-the-dark-chocolate-trend.html
Extract: Once the poor relation, left on the sweet shop shelf, dark chocolate is steadily gaining notoriety as Britain buys into a new, healthier image.

The latest research from MINTEL shows that sales in Britain almost doubled between 2005 and 2007, with sales hitting £85 million last year. Mathilde Dudouit, senior market analyst at MINTEL, believes that the consumer trend toward ‘good for you’ foods is driving growth in the category. “Although dark chocolate is still high in sugar, it is rich in antioxidants and is lower in fat than milk chocolate,” she advised. “Dark chocolate now has the reputation as being a healthier alternative to other chocolate and this has really struck a chord with Britain’s chocoholics.”

Dark chocolate is considered the healthier option because of its high raw cocoa content. First cultivated by ancient Mayan civilisations, raw cocoa is now considered one of the world’s most beneficial super foods due to its high content of antioxidants. And, with between 50 and 95% usually found in dark chocolate, it is this reputation that is driving sales of dark chocolate. Milk chocolate, on the other hand, tends to have a mere 25% cocoa content.

At the same time, luxury chocolate has also seen sales bubble up, rising 46% over the two years to 2007, when the market reached £140 million. Small niche players have reinvigorated the premium chocolate market. “Brits may not be eating chocolate as often as the used to, but they are certainly splashing out more on premium varieties. The trick today is to eat less, but to go all out when indulging so that it really is a luxurious treat,” explains Ms Dudouit.

Manufacturers have been committed to introducing healthier kinds of chocolate as well as bars that are calorie controlled. This, combined with Britain’s recent growing desire for more expensive dark and luxury chocolate treats has given the value of the market a much needed boost.

People are cutting back on the amount of chocolate they eat but sales in the two years to 2007 still represented a 10% increase in value, markedly above the meagre 1% growth realised between 2003 and 2005.

With a further 5% growth expected this year alone, the British chocolate market should be worth £2.23 billion by the end of 2008. And the trend toward premium and dark chocolate will continue to help stem the chocolate market meltdown, with sales of all chocolate set for a further 17% growth in the five years to 2013.

MINTEL believe that the next trend in the industry could be the combination of chocolate and wine. Wine bars could do well to offer a choice of finest chocolate to go with wine tasting sessions, according to Mintel. “In the same way that wine lovers deliberate over different grape varieties, single estate chocolate and chocolate made from different types of cocoa beans provide a real opportunity for the true chocolate connoisseur,” Ms Dudouit reported.

The idea of chocolate and wine together was, in fact, recently tested by Swiss-based food manufacturer Barry Callebaut and the potential for a great combination was established, with certain wines matching different types of chocolate in the same way that they match different meal types.

New ingredient trends (in Global consumers are passionate about health like never before. But what about US consumers?)
http://www.packagedfacts.com/Emerging-Global-Health-1804411/
Abstract: Global consumers are passionate about health like never before. They’ve become vigorous about looking and feeling good, convinced that food and beverages can be tools for boosting quality of life. From Scandinavian women eating yogurt to boost digestion to Japanese businessmen snacking on mood-sharpening GABA chocolates to stay at the top of their game, health and wellness has a deliciously edible dimension. Consumers abroad are eating and drinking their way to a brighter future.

But what about U.S. consumers? Will we buy into this new world of beauty chocolates and smart waters the way they have with energy drinks? You bet we will! Even with the health and wellness market just emerging, the average American spends $90 a year on functional foods and beverages, for a total of more than $27 billion in 2007. Look at what’s happened with antioxidants, the best-known health and wellness functionals in the U.S., showing all the signs of a Stage 5 trend.

In Emerging Global Health and Wellness Trends: Culinary Trend Mapping Report, we explore a number of emerging health and wellness trends in this report, key areas we think will prepare CPG manufacturers and foodservice operators for the mainstream blockbusters to come:

• the exciting proliferation of digestive health and immunity products
• a new awareness about using foods and beverages to influence mood and fight memory loss
• the new fill-you-up foods (satiety foods) that can help you stave off cravings and keep off weight.
• edible wrinkle resistors and the early-stage concept of nutrition by color, a trend we call “huetrition.”

Emerging Global Health and Wellness Trends: Culinary Trend Mapping Report, examines the ingredients, cooking styles and ethnic influences that the Center for Culinary Development (CCD) has identified as about to hit, or have established themselves, in the U.S.

M&M's faces takes gravanity to a new level
http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/mms_faces_takes_gravanity_to_a/
Back in 2003, we wrote about M&M's personalization service, which lets customers pick colours and have texts and logos printed on M&M's. As we pointed out, it's a great example of mass customization. And of what our sister-site trendwatching.com dubbed gravanity. M&M's has now taken the concept a step further by allowing customers to have their own likeness printed on the candy: M&M's Faces.

Ordering is done online: customers upload one or two photos, pick their colours and add up to two different texts to be printed on separate M&Ms. Using a simple interface, they can zoom in or out to select which part of a photo they want to use. A 'graphic specialist' then tweaks the photo file, creating a sketch-like rendition that looks good on small pieces of candy (example here). M&M's Faces are available in 7-ounce bags at USD 14.95 per bag (minimum order: 3 bags); a 5- or 10-pound bulk box for USD 162.50 or USD 312.50; or a variety of 1.6- to 1.75-ounce party favours (minimum order: 20 bags), priced at USD 4.99–6.19 per bag.
M&M's hopes its new personalization option will entice even more customers to tell their stories using candy-coated chocolate, and to share their ultra-personal M&M's at weddings, graduations and birthdays. Given that most people love to see themselves or their loved ones in print, that seems like a pretty safe bet. ;-)

Website: http://www.mymms.com/customprint_faces/Contact: http://www.mymms.com/service/
P.S. We've covered dozens of businesses that cater to consumers' gravanity. Check them out here.

Next gen chocolate makers
http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/nextgen_chocolate_makers/
Serious chocolate lovers may be excused for knowing little about the manufacture of their favourite food, engrossed as they typically are in its consumption. But a new San Francisco start-up has just become one of only a few major chocolate manufacturers in the United States, and it's taking a high-tech approach to the confection of this ages-old delight.Whereas many companies that work with chocolate today simply re-melt the heavenly stuff, TCHO has built a factory capable of producing 4,000 metric tons of its own chocolate per year. The employee-owned firm was founded by Wired co-founder Louis Rossetto and legendary chocolatier Timothy Childs, and it's rethinking the way chocolate is made. In its factory, TCHO has recycled and refurbished legacy chocolate equipment with the latest process control, information and communications systems.

The company's "obsessively good" dark chocolate is created in limited run, "beta editions" that are available only online and at its factory store. Continuous flavour development and customer feedback mean that varieties are constantly evolving, with new versions emerging as often as every 36 hours. TCHO also aims to change the way people describe chocolate, and has created a new taxonomy based on common-sense terms like "nutty," "fruity" and "chocolatey" to help people find the types they like best. Its products are named accordingly, such as the recent Beta C Ghana 0.2x release, for example, in which the "C" stands for chocolatey (and status skills go to consumers who learn to interpret the rest!). Finally, TCHO embraces a social mission that goes beyond Fair Trade to help farmers by transferring knowledge of how to grow and ferment better beans, allowing them to escape commodity production and become premium producers. TCHO's 50g chocolate bars, wrapped in plain-brown paper, are priced at USD 4 each.

We've already covered the rise of chocolate into a snobmoddity, with premium vendors such as UK-based Sir Hans Sloane and experience-rich chocolate "bars" and lounges popping up around the world. Right on cue, TCHO is also planning a tasting room "as gracious as a European Grand Cafe and a remarkable space in which to experience TCHO’s chocolates and drinks." Let's hope this trend never fades!

Website: http://www.tcho.com/Contact: info@tcho.com

Bespoke chocolate portfolios
http://www.springwise.com/food_beverage/bespoke_chocolate_portfolios/
We’ve covered premium chocolate in the past, featuring companies like Max Brenner and the 100% Chocolate Café. Nonetheless, we were intrigued by a premium chocolate concept featured in trendwatching.com’s latest briefing.

Sir Hans Sloane, based in London, offers clients a bespoke chocolate portfolio. Customers work with the firm’s master chocolatier, Bill McCarrick, to discover which types and flavours of chocolate they enjoy most. Much like an expert vintner helps clients stock their cellar with wines that please their palate, Sir Hans Sloane designs a unique chocolate profile for each client. No two customers share the same profile, and their selections are logged in a ‘Keeper’s Book’ for future reference. Once the selection had been made and catalogued, the chocolates are made to order and packaged in a handmade wooden box.

Sir Hans Sloane’s chocolate premiumization doesn’t stop there. While other artisanal makers pride themselves on using only the finest raw materials from Madagascar or Ecuador, Sir Hans Sloane is the only chocolate studio in the UK to do its own conching—a refining process that involves up to 72 hours of rolling liquid chocolate to bring out flavours and a silky texture. Bespoke & premium: it’s a combination that should inspire entrepreneurs to come up with their own unique offerings for consumers who want to experience something über-upgraded, created just for them. (Related: Custom-blended teas.)

Website: www.sirhanssloane.comContact: bill@sirhanssloane.com

Control the urge to splurge - try dividing things up - Partitions can control overindulgence
http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/11565.html
Extract: April 15, 2008 -- Good things come in small packages — like the Nabisco 100 Calorie Pack. But do these portion-controlled offerings help dieters lose weight? Yes, according to research by Amar Cheema, assistant professor of marketing at Olin Business School, and his colleague Dilip Soman, professor of marketing at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management.

Dividing food into smaller portions creates a "partitioning effect;" a phenomenon where segmenting a resource, such as food or money, can dramatically affect consumption.
"Partitions introduce a small transaction cost. In the case of 100 Calorie Packs, the cost is the action necessary to open a second package," Cheema said. "This transaction cost gives consumers the opportunity to pay attention to how much they're eating and may help many control overeating."

Partitions can reduce the rate of consumption as well as the total amount consumed.

Premium marketing

Advertising high end products without compromising status is a delicate game
http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/8910.html
Extract: Appealing to the luxury consumer is a tricky balancing act. A product needs to compare favorably with its direct competitors, but it can't appear too similar to other items in the firm's product line. According to a business professor at Washington University in St. Louis, it's important for firms to use an advertising strategy that utilizes image-oriented appeals to differentiate its premium products from the rest. Premium products need to be positioned beyond the claim of "higher quality" alone.

Marketing to men

Mass Mag Exodus Continues as Brands Follow Men Online
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=127283
Extract: Some magazine publishers hoped that this year would see marketers shake off their exuberance for digital media. Perhaps, amid a sober reassessment of the actual results from so much digital experimentation, print could even recapture some of the ad spending lost to the internet. Fat chance. Instead, a combination of forces led by the broad economic slump is delivering as challenging a year as ever for traditional publishers. You can see it when you look at macro measures such as the number of ad pages sold into print magazines for their issues through June, which came in 5.5% lower than in the first half of 2007, according to the Media Industry Newsletter.

Magazine marketing

Mass Mag Exodus Continues as Brands Follow Men Online
http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=127283
Extract: Some magazine publishers hoped that this year would see marketers shake off their exuberance for digital media. Perhaps, amid a sober reassessment of the actual results from so much digital experimentation, print could even recapture some of the ad spending lost to the internet. Fat chance. Instead, a combination of forces led by the broad economic slump is delivering as challenging a year as ever for traditional publishers. You can see it when you look at macro measures such as the number of ad pages sold into print magazines for their issues through June, which came in 5.5% lower than in the first half of 2007, according to the Media Industry Newsletter.

Household PC and internet use

Better than free
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Blog/Josh-Catone/20080827-Better-than-free.html?source=cmailer
Galpert lays out a list of five things he thinks that people are still willing to pay for. These concepts can be applied to almost any product or service:

Convenience. People are lazy, says Galpert, which is why they’ll still pay for music tracks on iTunes, rather than get it from a P2P network. If you can offer them convenience over free alternatives, they’ll pay for it.

Quality. Access to higher quality content, products, support, or community features is something that people are willing to pay for. If a subscription fee keeps spammers out of a forum and makes it more attractive to industry professionals, then people will be willing to pony up the dough, for example.

Additional functionality. Galpert cites 37signals, which has pioneered the “freemium” model on the web by giving away a free appetiser, but charging for the full meal. The danger, as Stern points out, is knowing how much to give out so that your pay product is still an attractive upgrade for enough users.

Customisation. Customisation is a great value-added feature for many products, and people are willing to pay for it. Galpert uses Wordpress.com as an example. The site offers free blogs for anyone, but to customise the CSS or use your own domain name you have to fork over some cash.

Privacy. While privacy should be built into any service at any pay level, additional layers of privacy are something that people will pay for. Galpert talks about GoDaddy, which offers a premium service that allows people to mask their information on WHOIS searches.

Galpert’s list is helpful for anyone offering a web product or service that has to compete with free offerings. Competing with free is difficult, but as the example above show, it is not impossible.

A Quarter of Australians Favour Online Government Services
http://www.financeminister.gov.au/media/2008/mr_132008.html
A quarter of all Australians now conduct most or their entire dealings with government online, according to a report released today by the Minister for Finance and Deregulation, Lindsay Tanner.

The report, Australians' Use of and Satisfaction with e-Government Services – 2007, measures the uptake of government services provided through the internet and other channels in Australia.

Mr Tanner said “This report provides insight into Australian citizens’ views and use of online government services. It shows how indispensable the Internet has become for the delivery of those services to the Australian public.”

“Use of the Internet to access government services has changed significantly since these reports began in 2005. By measuring how citizens use government services in different ways, we can identify trends and analyse the experiences, preferences and evolving expectations of those citizens.”

“As the report shows, 25 per cent of people now conduct all or most of their dealings with government over the Internet, up from 14 per cent in 2004-05. Three in five people (59 per cent) used the Internet to access government services in 2007, a 20 per cent increase compared with 2004-05 usage rates.”

The report is based on a study of Australians over the age of 18 who had some form of contact with government in the previous 12 months.

Mr Tanner said the report also highlighted the continuing challenges facing government administration in delivering services to the Australian public.

“Citizens are telling us they value convenience in their interactions with government agencies. Some prefer the Internet, while some prefer dealing directly with real people face-to-face or by telephone.”

“However people prefer to access government services, this report provides a solid foundation for governments and agencies at every level to improve how their services are delivered,” Mr Tanner said.

This report will also form part of the information supplied to Sir Peter Gershon, who is currently conducting an independent review of the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

Sir Peter Gershon will report to the Minister by September 2008 on options to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of ICT within Government. The review is part of the broader ongoing reform agenda to improve the efficiency of government spending and deliver better value for money.

Australians' Use of and Satisfaction with e-Government Services – 2007 is available online at www.agimo.gov.au/publications/2007/december/australians_use_of_and_satisfaction_with_e-government_services__2007

Local ads pull in the punters
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080821-Local-ads-pull-in-the-punters.html?source=cmailer
Ads placed in local online media are more likely to evoke a consumer response than those conveyed through more generalised formats such as search or city-wide classifieds, a new study suggests.
Clickz reports that, in a survey of more than 2000 consumers by the Online Publishers Association, over 42% were prompted to act (either making a purchase or visiting a store) after viewing an ad on the website of a local newspaper, TV station or magazine.

Generalised search portals such as Yahoo and Google generated a lower 37% call to action rate, while classified sites triggered consumer action in only 35% of cases.

The higher response rate may have something to do with the additional trust many people have in brands they feel are tied to their local communities. Ads on local newspapers were ranked the most trustworthy by 56% of respondents, with local stations second on 55%, ahead of the generalised media channels.

The survey also provide a pointer to those businesses that might make best use of local online ads. The most commonly searched-for items were restaurants and cafes (38%), grocery stores (28%) and banks or financial services (25%).

Half of internet users visit search sites every day
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080811-Half-of-internet-users-visit-search-sites-every-day.html?source=cmailer
Using a search engine is a daily habit for 49% of web users according to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The survey, reported in Mediaweek, says search is now second only to email access (which 60% of users do every day) as the most popular internet task.

The surge in search is impressive. Back in 2002 – when Google was still building its monolithic brand – only a third of all web browsers used a search engine every day.

During the same period, the percentage of users checking email every day climbed just eight points, from 52% to 60%.

The survey also found that 39% of users visit news sites every day, while 30% visit weather sites. Interestingly, despite the huge numbers of users joining the social networking wave, just 13% of users log on to those sites every day.

Shoppers prefer retailers with online option: survey
http://www.insideretailing.com.au/articles-page.aspx?articleType=ArticleView&articleId=3376
Consumer confidence in online shopping has increased, with 81% of Australians more confident shopping online now than in the past, according to a survey by online comparison shopping site GetPrice.com.au.

And 71% of survey respondents said they prefer dealing with retailers that provide an online shopping option. "The message to Australian retailers is clear. They need to invest more in their online offerings," said GetPrice.com.au managing director Chris Hitchen. The GetPrice.com.au survey conducted across the News Digital Media network also found: · Cost savings (43%) and time savings (34%) were the top two reasons Australians preferred shopping online than in a retail store; · Two in five Australians expect to find the best low-budget items online. This option was chosen above factory outlets, budget department stores and top dollar stores; · Two thirds of respondents have never returned a product they bought online; · The most likely items to be bought online rather than in retail stores are travel fares, music and DVDs, music/concert tickets and consumer and home electronics; · Items most likely to be bought in a retail store rather than online are clothing and accessories, cars and food and beverages. "Our survey results indicate that Australia's shoppers are considerably more confident than in the past shopping online and even if they don't purchase a product online, they expect to be able to do their research on the web before entering a retail store, and that includes looking at pricing information," Hitchen said.

Are Short Videos Best for the Web?
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006454&src=article1_newsltr
Online video viewers are, for the most part, still watching as much TV and seeing as many movies on DVD and in theaters as ever.

Only 11% of online video viewers ages 12 to 64 surveyed in March and April by Frank N. Magid Associates said they had cut back on their TV time as a result of their Internet watching. One in 10 respondents said they went to movie theaters less as a result of online video, and only 7% said their DVD viewing had declined.

That may have something to do with the availability of full-length TV programs and movies online.

"The bulk of video consumed online today is typically short-form entertainment, rather than full TV episodes or full-length movies," said David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer.
Last year, about one-half or more of US online video viewers surveyed regularly watched short news pieces, humor clips, movie trailers and music videos. Only about one in four viewers watched full-length TV shows, and only 14% viewed full-length movies.

But full-length TV shows were ranked as the most highly desired type of TV content by US and Western European adult Internet users surveyed in Q1 2008 by Opinion Research Corporation for Accenture.

In addition, more than one-half of online video viewers in the US polled by Harris Interactive last November said they would watch more full-length TV shows if they were available online, and nearly one-half felt the same way about full-length movies.

So online video viewers are anxious to watch longer content on the Web. Even if they start watching less TV and going to theaters less as a result of doing so, content publishers do not necessarily worry about their total revenue pool drying up.

Most Internet users seem aware that the money for longer programming has to come from somewhere. More than three-quarters of respondents to a February 2008 Ipsos MediaCT survey said that watching advertising was a reasonable tradeoff for full-length movies online. A full 82% said ads in full-length TV programs would be acceptable. In fact, respondents were far less tolerant of the idea of ad exposure in exchange for short-form content.

Can Local Web Ads Save Newspapers?
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006427&src=article1_newsltr
Extract: One fresh indicator that print newspaper readers are shifting to news sites comes from the Readership Institute. Although two-thirds of Internet users surveyed in July 2008 said they still used print newspapers about as much as they did before they started visiting news sites, more than one-quarter said they were reading print less as a result, and that figure has grown during the past 5 years.

Advertisers spent about 7% less last year with newspapers, at the same time that Internet ad spending saw healthy growth, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus data released in March 2008.

The good news is that newspaper site ad revenues are growing along with other online ad spending, especially for local news sites. Local newspaper online ad revenues are predicted to reach $3.7 billion this year (up 19% on 2007), according to eMarketer calculations based on Borrell Associates data.

The bad news is that this spending will not make up for print ad losses for some time, according to Lisa Phillips, senior analyst at eMarketer. Ms. Phillips noted that advertisers still pay more for print readers than for online readers.

"This is a transition that will take several years," she said. "Local advertisers are paying attention to the shift in reader behavior, but it will take a while for everyone to adjust."

When times are tough, shoppers head online
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080721-When-times-are-tough-shoppers-head-online.html?source=cmailer
Slow economic times has sent newly price sensitive shoppers in Britain flocking to online comparison and rating sites, according to online ratings firm Hitwise.

Over the past 12 months, the number British people that have visited sites in Hitwise’s Rewards and Directories category, which is mostly comprised of price comparison engines, affiliates and voucher sites, has shot up 36%.

That spike in visitors is translating into increased traffic for online retailers. According to Hitwise, almost half of the downstream traffic from Rewards and Directories sites goes to online retailers, with department store and appliances and electronics sites the biggest winners.
Fashion is apparently already on people’s minds as the economy fades – a bit of therapy shopping never goes astray – with visitors to fashion sites up 60% over the past 12 months.

Local search
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Premium-Articles/Top-Story/20080714-Top-10-search-and-sale-tools-and-how-to-get-on-top-of-them.html?source=cmailer
If you haven’t noticed already, Google has made some major changes to its rankings. If you run a local business with a website, this could present you with an opportunity to get to the top of Google without having to do any serious SEO at all!

Google has thrust local search to the forefront of its new universal search results platform by squeezing 10 local results into (what’s been coined) a “local box”.

Local search results used to look like this:

So as you can see, there were three results next to the map. The three local box results were part of the top 10 at Google.

After Google’s algorithm change, here’s what we’re seeing now…

Essentially there are now 20 results on a Google page – 10 local results run alongside the local box and 10 run beneath (as standard results). If you used to rank first, you now rank 11th.
This change has propelled some businesses from “nowhere” into the top 10, and relegated others (who may have invested in SEO) to the bottom 10 results.

Life’s not fair is it?

So how do you give your website a chance at the top 10 with local results?
First off, you’ll need to create a Google account. That will allow you to create a free “local business listing” which allows you to enter all the information about your business. You can also move the map marker!

It certainly doesn’t hurt to think about keyword optimisation while you’re entering your information.

For example, if your business is a local florist in Leichhardt, you should enter “Joes Flowers – Leichhardt Florist”. Try and get important keywords alongside your business name – you won’t get in trouble if you keep it reasonable!

The next tip is to register your business with TrueLocal. Google and NewsCorp have a commercial relationship (hard to believe I know), where TrueLocal results help to power Google’s own local business results. It really helps if you’re included in both Google and TrueLocal.

I have it on good authority from an expert in local search, that at present there is no relationship between a premium listing at TrueLocal and Google rank. I guess that makes sense. If it were true, it would set a worrying precedent. You might at last be able to buy your way to the top of Google! At $900, that’d be pretty cheap in my book.

Finally, optimise your site as best you can. Spend a few dollars and obtain some strong authority links; get included in the Yahoo directory. I’ve seen websites gain dramatic ranking improvements at Google once their Yahoo directory listing was approved (with no other changes).

Top 10 search-and-sale tools and how to get on top of them
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Premium-Articles/Top-Story/20080714-Top-10-search-and-sale-tools-and-how-to-get-on-top-of-them.html?source=cmailer
The web is constantly changing, and business owners with a web presence need to keep on top of every new improvement in how your customers can keep finding your website.

SmartCompany runs through the top 10 new search tools to help you get found and sell more.

Online Reviews Sway Shoppers
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006404&src=article1_newsltr
Extract: Consumer reviews play a big part in purchase decisions for online shoppers in the US, according to a June 2008 Opinion Research Corporation study.

A full 61% of respondents said they had checked online reviews, blogs and other online customer feedback before buying a new product or service. Search engines were the preferred way to research purchases. Of those who looked for reviews and other feedback, more than eight out of 10 said such evaluations had at least some influence on their purchases.

"Businesses today exist in an era in which it's nearly impossible to escape the likelihood of being evaluated." said Linda Shea, senior vice president at Opinion Research, in a statement, "There's nowhere to hide."

The company also found that 38% of respondents first checked online product or service reviews when starting shopping research.

Online shoppers value product reviews from other consumers (29.6%) even more highly than professional reviews (21.3%), according to an InQuira-commissioned survey conducted in 2008 by Service Excellence Research Group.

It is not just new online shoppers who look for the opinions of other consumers, according to a February 2008 study commissioned by PowerReviews and conducted by the e-tailing group. Nearly one-half of US consumers surveyed who shopped online four or more times per year and spent at least $500 said they needed four to seven customer reviews before making a purchase decision.

Broadband and Internet Use in Australia
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006414&src=article2_newsltr
Extracts: In what is typically a sign of growing broadband usage, the number of dial-up subscribers in Australia showed a notable decline last year, according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Meanwhile, the number of high-speed subscribers climbed markedly.

Indeed, broadband penetration in Australia has been rising dramatically over the past several years. A clear majority of households had a broadband connection in 2007, and in 2008 more than 63% of homes, numbering just over 5 million, are expected to be high-speed Internet subscribers. ADSL is by far the most popular broadband technology, projected this year to be installed in almost 4 million households. The use of cable technology for broadband access is a distant second, with 785,000 users projected for 2008.

Across the board, whether via ADSL, cable or other technologies, broadband penetration is expected to continue to climb through 2012, when more than three-quarters of households in Australia are projected to have broadband access of some type. It is safe to say that Australia, despite its small population, is poised to take a top spot among the giants of the industrialized world with regard to broadband penetration.

Although the majority of Internet users in Australia have broadband, their preferred online activities are not bandwidth-intensive, according to Nielsen Online data released in March 2008. Some 98% of those surveyed said they used e-mail while online last year, making it by far the most popular Internet activity in the country. Financial activities were also favorites, including banking (72%) and bill payment (66%).

A minority of respondents said they used the Internet for various e-commerce activities, including purchasing airline tickets (44%), booking hotel and travel arrangements (37%) and auctions (37%). Activities related to research and information are especially popular in Australia, with 62% of respondents reporting they used the Internet for maps and directions and 59% for directories (yellow and white pages).

Putting the dominance of eBay and PayPal into context
http://weblogs.hitwise.com/sandra-hanchard/2008/07/putting_the_dominance_of_ebay.html
Extracts: eBay Australia was the leading website in the Hitwise online Shopping & Classifieds industry in May 2008, accounting for 29.07% market share of visits. The next website to follow was eBay with 4.09% share of visits. During this period, Hitwise tracked over 31,500 websites in the Shopping & Classifieds industry, ranging from comparison shopping websites to the online properties of major retail brands.

Visits to the online Auctions industry are in fact particularly high in Australia. Auctions websites accounted for 38.11% of visits to all Shopping & Classifieds websites in May 2008 in Australia, compared to 21.35% by U.S. Internet users.

This article from the WSJ surmises that "consumers Down Under have plenty of choices of where to trade their goods online." Within the Auctions space, the combined properties of ebay.com and ebay.com.au accounted for 83.3% market share of visits by Australian Internet users during the week ending 28 June 2008.

eBay's nearest competitor, Trading Post Online debuted at 3rd position (week ending 14/06/08) when it launched its auctions service and accounted for 3.78% share of visits during the week ending 28 June 2008. Oztion Auctions followed with 2.53% market share, reaching its highest point ever during the week ending 28 June 2008.

Behavioral Targeting
http://www.emarketer.com/Report.aspx?code=emarketer_2000487&src=report5_head_info_newsltr
Extracts: Held back by incomplete technology development, brand marketers’ preference to have ads appear with relevant content and concerns over violating consumer privacy, eMarketer estimates that US spending for behaviorally targeted online advertising will reach only $775 million in 2008.

The Behavioral Targeting report analyzes the trends that are driving, and delaying, development of this promising new online channel.

Things may not be going smoothly, but they are about to change.

eMarketer projects that behaviorally targeted ad spending will reach $4.4 billion by the end of 2012.

Mainstream adoption of online video advertising will be the key factor driving behaviorally targeted ad spending to nearly 25% of all US display ad spending that year.

Harvard’s Anita Elberse: Forget the “Long Tail”
http://blogs.bnet.com/bnet1/?p=476&tag=nl.e808
The Find: One Harvard Business School professor crunches the numbers and comes up with a startling conclusion for those in the media biz: forget the long tail, aim for the occasional (and old fashioned) blockbuster.

The Source: An alaysis of sales patterns in the music and home-video industries by Anita Elberse, a Harvard Business School associate professor in the Harvard Business Review and a response from Long Tail author Chris Anderson in the HBR Conversation Starter blog.
The Takeaway: Chris Anderson’s now famous “long tail” theory urges media bosses to forget hit-making and instead to take advantage of the near zero cost of digital distribution to try and make money from selling small numbers of many titles to niche consumers. Sounds solid, but Elberse looked at some real world numbers and ends up less than convinced.

At Rhapsody, the music download service, the top 10 percent of titles account for 78 percent of all songs played, and the top 1 percent of titles for 32 percent. In 2006, at movie download service Quickflix, the top 10 percent of DVDs accounted for 48 percent of all rentals, and the top 1 percent for 18 percent of all rentals. That’s a serious concentration on the “head” rather than the “tail.” “But what about trends?” you ask. The top hits will always get a disproportionate number of hits, but the tail is getting fatter, right? Not according to Elberse. She found that at Quickflix: “The number of titles that sold only a few copies almost doubled for any given week from 2000 to 2005. In the same period, however, the number of titles with no sales at all in a given week quadrupled… Rather than bulking up, the tail is becoming much longer and flatter.”
Her conclusion for producers of content: “It would be imprudent for companies to upend traditional practice and focus on the demand for obscure products.” Or in other words, keep focusing on making and marketing hits. For retailers, Elberse cautions that attempts to direct your customers to the tail too often, which can lead to dissatisfaction (maybe because hits are hits for a reason).

Anderson gamely responds in the Conversation Starter citing his admiration for Elberse and her research and laying out where he thinks her definition of the “tail” differs from his, but Elberse’s conclusion that The Winner-Take-All Society by Robert Frank and Philip Cook is a better model for media than Anderson’s blockbuster still seems hard to refute.

The Question: Is hit-making a dead art or on its way to a resurgence? And are we still “water cooler creatures” by and large - only interested in congregating around hits?

Internet advertising: $US65 billion this year, and growing
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080626-Internet-advertising-US65-billion-this-year.html?source=cmailer
Monday, 30 June 2008: Spending on internet advertising is set to total more than $US65.2 billion this year and will grow 15% to 20% a year, reaching $US106.6 billion in 2011, according to forecasts by research firm IDC.

The forecast for 2008 will account for 10% of spending across all media, and the prediction for 2011 will see internet advertising account for 13.5% of all media spending.

The highest spender is the United States by far, projected to spend more than $US45 billion for online advertising by 2011, and more than $US265 billion for all other forms.

John Gantz, chief research officer at IDC, told marketingcharts.com: “By the end of the forecast period, spending for internet advertising will trail direct mail – the third-largest form of advertising – by more than $30 billion, while spending on TV and print ads will each be nearly twice as great as for online ads.”

Email marketing gains ground
http://www.insideretailing.com.au/articles-page.aspx?articleType=ArticleView&articleId=3084&h=Email-marketing-gains-ground-
Email-based marketing is fast becoming a key tool for reaching consumers in the Asia Pacific region, according to a survey conducted by Epsilon International and Return Path.

In one of the most significant findings, nearly one in three respondents (32%) said that they would "always" respond to targeted, promotional e-mails.

The survey, which was carried out in February throughout the region, surveyed 1169 participants and sought to discover consumer email habits and attitudes to permission email marketing and spam. "Through client campaigns across Asia Pacific, we know that consumer interaction and responses to targeted permission based communications are high, and drive significant returns for our clients," said Dominic Powers of Epsilon International. "This survey further supports the fact that consumers respond to email marketing if it is directed to the right person, at the right time, and with the right message."

Another survey finding pointed to the increasing acceptance of electronic marketing when used in a controlled and targeted manner, with 76% of respondents in Australia replying that they would use e-mail coupons to buy products online or offline. "E-mail marketing is rapidly becoming the preferred method for consumers to be reached by marketers," Powers said. "Aside from the obvious environmental angles, consumers are now savvy enough to realise that targeted campaigns can offer them deals or savings above the typical promotional offers they find in their letterbox at home."

Other key findings in the survey:

• Promotional emails increases brand loyalty 45% of respondents in Australia said that promotional emails increased their brand loyalty; while one-third (34%) said they had made more purchases after receiving promotional emails.
• Customers interact on relevancy. Half of those surveyed in Australia (51%) are willing to share personal information if they believe it drives relevant and more targeted offers.
• Australian respondents have the lowest uptake (6%) of using mobile devices for email. China reported the highest at 34%, followed by Hong Kong at 29% and Japan at 27%.

Online retailing: the growth will slow
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Premium-Articles/Industry-Trends/20080423-Online-retailing-the-growth-will-slow.html
Extracts: Consumers have taken to online shopping with enthusiasm, but the industry is set to lose momentum.

The $16 billion online retailing industry, which includes e-tailers, mail-order houses and online auction sites, has enjoyed five years of strong growth as consumers have moved online. The future will not be quite as good.

This industry has grown by 8.1% a year on average over the past five years as consumer confidence in online security and technology has grown. Pet supplies and cosmetics found 2006-07 to be a particularly good year. Growth in the number of internet connections, along with a rise in PC density, has also increased sales.

Mail-order houses are more established compared to electronic shopping, so they experienced a moderate contraction in their share of total retail sales. The main cause of this has been a shift in the purchasing patterns of consumers from catalogues to the internet.

IBISWorld forecasts that the industry will grow by 4.7% a year over the five years to 2012-13.In 2008-09, industry revenue is forecast to grow thanks to a rise in disposable income and growth in household consumption. In 2009-10, industry revenue is expected to increase, but declines in the consumer sentiment index and weaker growth in disposable incomes will have an impact. In 2010-11, industry revenue will be supported by stronger GDP growth.

By 2011-12, industry revenue is expected to benefit from anticipated growth in disposable income and a recovery in the consumer sentiment index. In 2012-13, industry revenue is expected to continue a pattern of growth, with change in the unemployment rate along with stronger GDP growth predicted to bode well for retailers over the year.

This industry has experienced a convergence between traditional retailers and pure internet-based operators. This trend is forecast to continue into the outlook period as operators merge to retain profits and market shares.Another trend that is set to emerge over the outlook period is lower priced products and cheaper delivery costs.

This industry is forecast to become increasingly competitive as an influx of players give consumers more options to choose from. Industry operators are also forecast to increase their level of after sales service in an attempt to keep customers coming back to their site.

Groceries to overtake gadgets as the biggest seller on the web
http://www.smartcompany.com.au/Free-Articles/Trends/20080612-Groceries-to-overtake-gadgets-as-the-biggest-seller-on-the-web.html?source=cmailer
Thursday, 12 June 2008. Research from Britain suggests sales of groceries will overtake electrical goods as the leading online product within five years. “Food and groceries are on course to leapfrog electricals into the top spot, accounting for 29% of all online sales in 2012, compared to 22% for electricals,” the report from retail research group Verdict Research says.

Malcolm Pinkerton, senior retail analyst and author of the report, says: “The internet is widely perceived as a cheaper and easier way of finding lower prices and bargains in most sectors.” Although Coles and Woolworths dominate 75% of the grocery sector, their online services are only available in Sydney and Melbourne, with Woolworths also offering services in Canberra. But given the habits of Australian consumers, Coles and Woolworths are unlikely to rush to expand their services. Steven Ogden-Barnes, from the Australian Centre for Retail Studies, told the Sydney Morning Herald that competition for the Australian online marketplace would be an uphill battle, arguing consumers are undisciplined and purchase too infrequently.

Only 25% travel from homepage (in Web users 'getting more ruthless')
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7417496.stm
Extract: In 2004, about 40% of people visited a homepage and then drilled down to where they wanted to go and 60% use a deep link that took them directly to a page or destination inside a site. In 2008, said Dr Nielsen, only 25% of people travel via a homepage. The rest search and get straight there.

Broadband penetration 84% of internet homes (in "Aussie internet usage overtakes TV viewing for the first time" - 18 March 2008)
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_080318_AU.pdf
Extract: The Nielsen Online report found that broadband uptake in Australia is now reaching maturity, with broadband connections now found in 84 percent of Australian Internet users’ homes (up 10 points in 12 months and up 30 points in two years). Based on expected uptake, Nielsen Online predicts penetration of this technology should grow to 90 percent by the end of 2008.

Australia Internet Usage Stats
http://www.internetworldstats.com/sp/au.htm
Internet Usage Statistics:
15,300,000 Internet users as of Dec./2007, 74.3% of the population, according to ITU.

Internet Broadband Subscribers:
4,700,200 Broadband subscribers (connections) as of Sept./07, 22.8% of the population, according to OECD.

Australia: Average Web Usage - Month of April 2008 - Home Panel
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/reports.jsp?section=pub_reports_intl&report=usage&period=monthly&panel_type=1&country=Australia
Statistics about average amount of web use in Australia

Australia: Top 10 Parent Companies - Month of April 2008 - Home Panel
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/reports.jsp?section=pub_reports_intl&report=parent&period=monthly&panel_type=1&country=Australia
Which were the most visited companies or organisations

Hitwise Australia - Top 20 Websites - April, 2008
http://www.hitwise.com.au/datacenter/rankings.php
This list features the most popular websites based on Australian Internet usage for April, 2008, ranked by market share of visits across all Hitwise industries.

Rank, Website, Market Share
1. http://www.google.com.au/ 7.57%
2. mail.live.com 3.1%
3. ninemsn.com.au 2.49%
4. http://www.myspace.com/ 1.9%
5. http://www.ebay.com.au/ 1.87%
6. http://www.facebook.com/ 1.79%
7. http://www.google.com/ 1.73%
8. http://www.youtube.com/ 1.24%
9. au.yahoo.com 1.24%
10. http://www.wikipedia.org/ 0.63%
11. http://www.microsoft.com/ 0.62%
12. mail.yahoo.com.au 0.6%
13. http://www.gmail.com/ 0.59%
14. http://www.netbank.commbank.com.au/ 0.56%
15. images.google.com.au 0.54%
16. http://www.live.com/ 0.51%
17. http://www.bom.gov.au/ 0.48%
18. http://www.msn.com/ 0.46%
19. news.ninemsn.com.au 0.46%
20. http://www.bebo.com/ 0.38%

Note - the Hitwise data featured is based on Australian market share of visits, which is the percentage of online traffic to the domain or industry, from the Hitwise sample of 2.95 million Internet users in Australia. Hitwise measures more than 1 million unique websites on a daily basis, including sub-domains of larger websites. Hitwise categorises websites into industries on the basis of subject matter and content, as well as market orientation and competitive context.
Source - Hitwise - April, 2008 - based on market share of visits.

What Australians are doing online (Industry Traffic Overview - All Categories Share at Week Ending 9 February, 2008)
http://www.hitwise.com.au/press-center/hitwiseHS2004/au-whataudoonline-02222008.php
Table compares the top ranking categories of websites in Australia compared to US and UK. For example, Banks and Financial institutions account for 4.35% of all internet viewing, whilst education - reference accounts for 2.63%.

Education - Reference - was a leading sub-category partly due to the popularity of websites, Bureau of Meteorology and Wikipedia, which ranked 9th and 12th respectively amongst all websites the week ending 9 February 2008. The importance of Wikipedia as a general content source was reflected by the fact that Wikipedia was the 4th most popular website in the downstream traffic of Search Engines for the week ending 9 February 2008. Australian visits to Education - Reference accounted for 2.63% share, higher than US usage (1.62%) and UK usage (1.61%).

Online Performance Awards (most popular websites in 2007)
http://www.hitwise.com.au/images/2007_Winners_AU.pdf
Extract: The Hitwise Australian Online Performance Awards celebrate the #1 websites in over 100 industries for 2007. This unique awards program recognises excellence in online performance through public popularity.

Australia's broadband penetration is healthy regardless of world ranking
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1119606718;fp;32768;fpid;1244820943
Extract: "By 2010 we expect Australia to have a broadband penetration of 69%" said Kennedy. "Obviously growth rate will diminish to around 11% as more people adopt broadband but again this is comparable to other developed nations."

8146.0 - Household Use of Information Technology, Australia, 2006-07
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/0e5fa1cc95cd093c4a2568110007852b/acc2d18cc958bc7bca2568a9001393ae!OpenDocument
Extract: In 2006-07, 64% of Australian households had home Internet access and 73% had access to a home computer. During 2006-07, whilst the proportion of households with access to the Internet increased by 4 percentage points, in the same period, the proportion of households with access to a computer increased by 3 percentage points.

Of the 5.1 million households with home Internet access in 2006-07, 31% had dial-up access and 68% had broadband Internet access. In 2006-07, the number of households with broadband Internet connection increased from 2.3 million to 3.5 million households.

April 2006 Regular computer users perform better in key school subjects, OECD study shows
http://www.acs.org.au/icdl/content/upload/files/pdf/PISA_04.06.pdf
Extract: Nearly three out of four students on average in OECD countries - and in Canada, Iceland and Sweden nine out of 10 – use computers at home several times each week. In contrast, only 44% use computers frequently at school (see Figure 4). In some countries, the discrepancy between home and school use is marked: Germany has the lowest percentage of frequent computer users at school among OECD countries (23%) but a high proportion of frequent users at home (82%) (see Figure 3).

The relationship with student performance in mathematics is striking. Students who have used computers for several years mostly perform better than average. By contrast, those who don’t have access to computers or who have been using computers for only a short time tend to lag behind their class year.

According to the OECD study, students who had been using computers for less than one year (10% of the total sample) scored well below the OECD average. By contrast, students who had been using computers for more than five years (37% of the total sample) scored well above the OECD average.

In general, the poor performance of students who have only recently had access to computers is partly influenced by their home backgrounds: students with low home access, in particular, are likely to come from disadvantaged backgrounds. Even taking account of socio-economic factors, however, a sizeable positive effect from regular computer use is evident. This is particularly clear in Australia, Belgium, Germany, Korea, Switzerland and the U.S.

Interactive Australia 2007 : facts about the Australian computer and video game industry
http://epublications.bond.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1098&context=hss_pubs
Key points
73% of parents say computer games teach children about technology
68% of parents say computer games teach children maths.
64% of parents say computer games teach children to plan ahead.
58% of parents say computer games teach children about science.
48% of parents say computer games teach children language.

(79% of Australian households have a device for playing computer and video games – 95% of these devices are computers).

Other findings

• The average age of Australian gamers is 28 years.
• Interactive games are attracting new players. 41% of gamers are female. 8% are seniors.
• Parents and children are increasingly playing together. 35% of gamers are parents.
• 61% of gamers play for up to an hour at one time.
• Playing computer games does not compete with non-media and outdoor leisure activities. Instead it competes with other media such as TV, film and music.
• Parents in game households say the positive aspects of game play are more than just enjoyment and happiness. 73% say games help their children learn about technology, 68% say games help their children learn maths, 64% say games help children learn to plan.
• 70% of games classified by the OFLC in 2006 were rated G or PG.
• 62% of Australians in game households say the classification of a game has no influence on their buying decision Australians are very confused about the difference between the M and MA15+ classification
• Broadband penetration decreased steadily with age. Game households were 12% more likely than non-game households to have broadband.
• Playing online games ranks 10th among the list of activities Australians identify as their common uses of the internet. Email, web browsing, banking and paying bills are the top uses.