Moms Love Tech
A recent NRF study shows about 12.7 percent of consumers plan to buy tech this Mother’s Day. Sixty-six percent plan to buy flowers.
Price – Still the Driving Factor for Purchases
NPD is reporting 85 percent of U.S. consumers say price will be an extremely important/important factor in deciding where to shop in the near future. This is consistent with CEA research that continuously finds price and feature set are the two primary factors influencing purchasing decisions. While other factors – notably environmental-related factors like use of recycled materials […]
On AmEx Sync
Lately, American Express has been very active integrating promotions with social platforms. I first noticed foursquare deals a few months ago and this past week noticed Amex has several Twitter-related promos running. Both leverage Amex’s recently launched (relaunched?) Amex Sync. Essentially, Amex card holders get pre-specified discounts when they perform certain tasks on social platforms (ie […]
Is Square Footage the Issue?
Over the last 2+ years, Wall Street analysts have pounded BestBuy on the size of their big box store fronts. Best Buy recently announced another 42 store closures – bring to 50 the total stores that will shutter in 2012. Best Buy has also worked over the last year to shrink their footprints. In some […]
Food Trucks: A Bubble in Food Service
CEA’s HQ is in Crystal City– an area that is perhaps a square mile at most (here’s a map: http://g.co/maps/tdcfy). There are roughly six thousand residents and about 60,000 daily employees in Crystal City. Like any urban setting there are a plethora of restaurant choices. And yet today there were at least 5 food trucks in Crystal City – District Taco, Doug […]
One of the Key Problems in the US
In 1982 Lenny Skutnik became the first to be invited by a President to sit in the President’s box during the State of the Union address. This year the President invited Debbie Bosanek, Warren Buffett’s secretary, so he could make a political point. We take what was once reserved for recognizing true American spirit, an […]
On Apple’s 1Q12 Numbers, iPads and other Apple-related Musings
Apple surprised to the upside (though it really shouldn’t be a surprise) with their quarter results today. Here is a quick overview of what they reported for fiscal 1Q12: Revenue: $46.3bn (+64% q/q +73% y/y) v. consensus of $38.9bn and company guidance of $37.0bn. Gross margin: 44.7% for the quarter (up 440 bps q/q) v. […]
Tablet and eReader Ownership – How to Read Apple’s Numbers
Later today, Apple will report Q1 figures. We know much has changed in the tablet market over the last three months. Earlier this week, Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project reported tablet and eReader ownership (unsurprisingly) surged during the 2011 holiday season. This is consistent with what I expected (and subsequently reported) following Black Friday […]
The Fat Part of the Digital Data Adoption Curve
I’ve written in the past how adoption always follows an s-shaped adoption curve. When it comes to digital data adoption we are in the fat (steep upward sloping) part of the adoption curve. Reuters reported on Monday that Google is now streaming 4 billion videos a day. Moreover, 60 hours of video content is uploaded every minute […]
Trends from the 2012 CES
Here is my presentation on some of the trends I was tracking headed into the 2012 International CES. I also highlight some of the product launches at CES. You can skip past the opening video which takes you through the week of CES in 3-4 minutes. [prezi id=’gx1myc0u1-ka’ width=’600′ height=’450′]
