United States Influences on Australian Lighting Design
Powered candle brackets with wrought iron or aluminium holders and brass or timber candelabra with small individual fabric shades in imitation American colonial or mission style were common during the 1920s and 1930s. They were hung in Spanish mission or neo-colonial styled homes and also in Californian bungalows.
It was quite often the case that different styles of light fittings were mixed in one home. The entrance hall and internal passages could have wrought iron lantern fittings either circular or rectangular in shape. The dining room might have one or more American colonial style wrought iron candelabra; the lounge, French revival chandeliers; the master bedroom, a floral ceramic rococo chandelier. All these rooms may have wall sconces matching the central piece. The children’s rooms usually had English styled Arts and Crafts fittings; the bathroom a modern fitting — similarly the servants quarters — and the kitchen, fluorescent strip lighting.
By the 1950s the standard or table lamp had become a major focal point in a room with the new television and blinds. Sometimes a metal standard lamp came incorporated in a side table or large ashtray. The background lighting was very faint. Except for the table lamps little attention was drawn to the light fixtures.
Mass production churned out inexpensive plastic, plaster, metal and buckram lamp bases and shades. The traditional colonial motifs had been replaced by a plethora of folksy designs and do-it yourself instructions on how to make ballerina lamp-shades or African and Fijian raffia shades. The style was kitsch: a multitude of designs for table lamps was-available, from Russian ballerinas, Spanish matadors, Chinamen, happy Mexicans with cacti, Arabian snake trainers, African dancing girls, happy couples and leopard or tiger skins. The colours were gaudy and beautiful. For football player agents and sales training options, visit digitalbrands.com.au.
Sales Training - Goal Setting Explained
Did you know that ‘Goal Setting’ is the secret to fulfilling ANY dream or desire you want in life? In many sales training courses goal setting is ignored.
Did you also know that SUPER Successful sales people use ‘Goals’ to attain the knowledge and wealth and sales success they have today?
Some of you reading this right now might agree and some of you might not. That decision is yours to make.
The reason people find it too hard to achieve their goals is simple because they’ve set their Long-Term goals before setting Short-Term ones, or they just didn’t plan their goals out carefully.
Goal setting strategies are VERY important, especially for those who want to achieve Long-Term goals.
Well, your in luck because I’m going to share five ‘Goal Setting’ techniques to help you realize your TRUE goals today.
Your only requirement is to keep an open mind.
So, with that said, lets go to Technique #1.
Technique #1. Start with Short-Term goals.
Sometimes, people start with short-term goals unconsciously.
Why unconsciously?
Some of them may have considered the goals to be long-term at the time they planned them; and after achieving a goal, they realize that they are in fact, looking forward to a longer one.
Some are contented with their short-term goals, but after a while will realize that they also need to attain long-term ones.
Short-term goals seem to be our starting point for our Long Term ones.
They also motivate the person to plan for longer goals, which will usually take some time before achieving them in full.
Technique #2. Make sure you really want the goal.
By this, you have to ask yourself: “Do I really want this goal and will this goal give me a better life?”
Answering this ONE question will give you more passion and motivation to achieve your goal.
Some people often recall their past to find out Why and How they came up with such goal.
Technique #3. Speak up.
What I mean by this is you shouldn’t keep your goals to yourself only. By sharing your goals with other people it’ll help you get the support you may need in order to fulfill them.
The problem that usually occurs though is some people are just too shy to tell others about their goals for reasons like they are afraid they cannot achieve them in the end, or they lack the courage to speak their minds.
This is not a good habit to get into because when the time comes that you really need their support, you will have a difficult time getting it.
You’ll then be left to achieve your goals all by yourself.
Don’t make this mistake.
Technique #4. Write down your goals.
This strategy is critical and more advisable for those who have a long list of goals.
After writing them down in as much detail, it is advisable that you review them on a daily to weekly basis because this will encourage and motivate you to achieving them, plus, this will also keep that vision of your goal alive.
Technique #5. Stay on track and never give up.
Reviewing notes will help open your mind to see if you are on the right track. While on track, you may have to face challenges that might change your personality.
A person who is overconfident might suddenly feel depressed after finding out that he is going the wrong way in achieving his goal.
Thus this might lead to abandoning the goal. Never be discouraged. Facing obstacles is a test on how passionate one is to realizing his or her goals.
There you have it. Give those a try and keep a visual picture in your mind everyday of you fulfilling that goal you desire so much.
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Tax Haven Strategies
The use of tax havens in day to day business life has grown to be almost mainstream these days. To the small businessman and the private investor, the use of tax havens still probably seems a little shady.
This shouldn’t be the case any more as the use of tax havens to reduce tax or just defer it for a while is now accepted practice all over the world with many of the largest Australian accounting and audit firms having departments advising major corporations how to structure their operations offshore.
Tax havens have a strong appeal for many multi-national companies established in foreign countries because of the advantages they offer for the legitimate reduction or deferment of taxation on certain profits earned offshore. Profits harboured in a tax haven enable working capital to be used in the cheapest way possible.
Traditionally, the tax haven has been used as a central point for handling paperwork and preparing and processing international trade documents. Many companies utilise tax havens for the passage of title of goods, so these transfers can proceed without the need for mountains of regulations and fees.
Tax havens are also popular as places to administer patent, trademark and royalty agreements. Because of the intangible nature of patents, trademarks and royalty agreements, they are easily moved from one jurisdiction to the other and the cost of doing this is very low in tax haven jurisdictions.
For instance, if a company with branches and subsidiaries overseas is a resident of a country with strict foreign exchange regulations, it may not want to repatriate the profits simply because if it did, it may have problems being able to transfer the funds back out if it wanted to reinvest them offshore. To solve this problem, it establishes a foreign intermediate holding company in a tax haven, not for tax reasons, but to avoid the foreign exchange control problems that its own country has imposed.
By simply interposing a tax haven company in a corporate structure does not result in the reduction of onshore taxes in most cases, but it may allow tax deferral. Eventually, the parent company will receive the income and when it does it will be taxable and possibly without the benefit of foreign tax credits that may have been available had the profits been repatriated from a tax treaty country. Most tax havens don’t have tax treaties with major countries such as Australia, which prevents the favourable use of lower withholding taxes that would have been available had the country been a signatory to a tax treaty.
Offshore Licencing and Patent Holding Companies
Royalties or licence fees can be, in certain circumstances, can be feed of tax obligations by using an offshore licensing company. For instance, the owner of a patent can incorporate an offshore licensing company and assign the rights to that offshore company. In turn the offshore company then has the right to licence the patent to a foreign subsidiary. By having the royalties paid to the licensing company in a tax haven, profits are effectively shifted from the foreign subsidiary to the offshore patent owning company, which pays little or no tax on the royalties that it receives.
Income from other intangible rights, such as trade marks, copyrights, know how and franchising rights, can be earned without incurring withholding or income tax if a tax haven company is established to sublicence other companies in various countries. Tax savings can be made also on patent royalties by combining tax havens.
Australia only deducts 10% withholding tax on Dutch companies. Therefore, if a tax haven company was established in the Netherlands Antilles with a Dutch subsidiary, and licences its Dutch patents to the Dutch company, the Dutch company, in turn, can licence to the Australian manufacturer.
The Australian company can then pay the Dutch subsidiary patent royalties incurring only 10% tax. The Dutch company can then pay the royalty to the tax haven company (which is the patent owner), thereby avoiding Dutch withholding taxes on dividends. The Dutch company is not taxed in the Netherlands, and the tax haven company avoids any further taxation. Total tax is 10%.
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Helping Aussie businesses with online advertising during hard times
While times are tough, online advertising spend has increased “Online advertising is surpassing $1.7 billion for the 2008 calendar year, representing an increase of $364.25 million or 27% year-on-year growth according to figures released today by IAB”. Clickfind is the first Australian business directory to help fellow Australians out in a time of need by offering free online advertising accounts to promote their business online for a limited time.
Clickfind is helping out by completely removing its already low monthly fee and allowing any Australian business who is experiencing hardship to advertise online for 3 months at no cost at all. Contrary to other business directories, a clickfind listing also allows advertising of products and services online.
To sign up just email free-2009@clickfind.com.au and we’ll send you further instructions via email, if you make a donation to the Victoria Bush Fire appeal http://www.redcross.org.au/default.asp let us know and we’ll provide a 12 months listing. This promotion is valid for 2 months.
Looking for a business for sale ?
If you are looking for a business for sale, visit business2sell.com.au
This web site is for buyers, sellers and business brokers. Categories include food, retail, automotive, transport and every other imaginable category. There’s businesses for sale there at all levels of investment.
With the uncertain economic climate it make sense to investigate owning your own business.
Although running your own business can be very hard work, your future is very much in your hands. With the risks involved often go the rewards.
According to the ABS, in 2006 there were over 1.12 million small business in Australia employing a total of over 2.5 million people.
Small business is an attractive option for those who want to leave the corporate grind and build an asset that they can pass on to generations.
Business2Sell.com.au is 100% free website for business brokers. Brokers can join the service and add unlimited businesses.
If you are and owner selling your business, a 3 month listing is just $45. Note that at the moment business2sell.com.au are running a special offer. If you get a listing with business2sell for three months, they will run your listing for unlimited time or until it is sold.
As a buyer, you can search by location, business type and keyword. You can also search by price range.
So if you are looking to buy a business, sell a business or if you are a business broker, visit business2sell.com.au today.
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Establishing a Unique Selling Proposition
Your brand image is primarily an emotional construct. Emotion is probably always more powerful in swaying people than reason, but people like to be able to rationalise their choices. This is where awareness of another advertising theory - the USP - can be helpful to you.
The USP, or unique selling proposition, formula was developed by Rosser Reeves, an ex-copywriter who became head of the Ted Bates agency in New York. He wrote an excellent book, largely dealing with this theory but also covering other aspects of advertising, called Reality in Advertising.
To establish your USP, you compare your product or service with your competitors. Then you determine one feature you have which no one else can offer. This is your unique selling proposition. It is this which you must promote single mindedly.
A 1987 issue of Marketing Week, the British trade paper, gave a wonderful example of how little the average marketing executive understands the phrases he deploys with such gay inconsequence. The subject was ‘Store credit cards’. A bank executive said: The whole point of a Marks & Spencer, Boots, Dixons or even Fortnum & Mason card is to bring people into the store - and to provide a bit of a LISP’ (my italics).
How a credit card can be a unique selling proposition when the same facility is offered by any number of retailers is difficult to comprehend. It reminds one of people who refer to things as being ‘rather’ unique, or ‘fairly’ unique. Here are some typical USPs:
‘Cleans your breath while it cleans your teeth.’
Colgate toothpaste. ‘The too good to hurry mint.’ Murraymints. ‘There’s more for your life at Sears.’ Sears Roebuck. ‘It ain’t fancy but it’s good.’ Horn & Hardarts. ‘The mint with the hole.’ Polo Mints. ‘It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.’ Perdue Chicken
And, finally, another gentleman in the chicken business: ‘It’s finger lickin’ good.’ Colonel Sanders
One of the problems with the USP is that you sometimes have to rely upon some pretty trivial points of difference to arrive at your proposition - as you can see from the list above. And although, for simple products a good USP may often supply a successful selling idea, I think it is difficult to arrive at one for complex services such as American Express or The Consumers Association.
However, comparing yourself against your competition to discover what USP may exist is a great aid to clear thinking. For example, I was able to improve results for Odhams’ Kathie Webber Cookery Club by writing a headline which was simply a personal way of expressing a USP: `My cookery cards mean you control your weight without giving up luscious food you love to eat.’ This did well in the UK, and even in France, home of gastronomy. Moreover, subsequent approaches to selling this product revolved around this original thought. ====
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Validating Your Company’s Service Positioning
Once you have decided on possible positionings for your product or service, it’s wise to research them and see which of them your market finds believable and appealing.
For example, one of our clients sells a wide range of doors and home hardware to the public through shops. We wanted to find out what the right positioning for them could be - and then reflect it in their advertising.
Accordingly, a number of lines were written, each reflecting a different position. I am going to give you these lines with a brief indication as to how consumers reacted to them. This should prove salutary if you ever feel tempted to brag or misrepresent what you offer.
- ‘The best DIY store in town’ - consumers appreciated that the stores were not DIY outlets, so this was seen as inaccurate.
- ‘The ideal home improvement store’ - consumers thought this dealt only in superlatives, which were glib and self-congratulatory.
- ‘The store for top quality home improvements at value for money prices’ - consumers thought this was not distinctive; it was overused phraseology; nor did it appear credible - people expect to pay a premium price for quality.
- ‘The home improvement store where service really is personal service’ - the idea of service was good news, but not enough; products had to be good, too. In any case, this claim was seen as something other stores like Marks & Spencer could make.
- ‘Find out what “the trade” has always known’ - people had mixed feelings about the trade. Some thought of it in association with craftsmanship; others thought of cheap workmanship and cowboy operators.
- ‘The store traditionally used by the trade’ - here the same negatives aroused by the previous trade line came up, though in a better sense because of the use of the word ‘traditionally’. One problem, however, is that the line implies such products need proper experience to install.
- ‘Made to last by us. Sold direct to you’ - this conveyed that the company was personally involved in the making of the products, as opposed to being an importer.
Moreover, the line was seen as patriotic, because it clearly meant these were UK goods. It also conveyed craftsmanship, durability and the good value you get by buying direct. Readers also appreciated that the line was to the point, not gimmicky. This line came out on top.
Successful companies tend to have a clear positioning from which they rarely if ever deviate - and then only with great care. I make no apology for reintroducing American Express. It was positioned single-mindedly for many years as ‘the world’s most prestigious financial instrument for business travel or entertainment’. This positioning came out in everything American Express did. For instance, the letter sent out to solicit new members which began: ‘Quite frankly the American Express card is not for everyone …’. This reflected the positioning so well that for many years in most countries of the world it was the most cost-effective direct mail used.
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Marketing Segmentation and the Rise of Database Marketing
Marketing academics have noted increasing media fragmentation. In recent years, the role of advertising and promotion in the overall marketing process has changed considerably. The audiences that marketers seek, along with the media and methods for reaching them, have become increasingly fragmented. Advertising and promotional tactics have become more regionalized and targeted to specific market segments.
The extraordinary expansion of media options to reach niche markets has been fully documented. Along with the growth of products and services and the segmentation of types of consumers has come an extraordinary proliferation of media. There are new kinds of media, new developments in the traditional media, and new uses for media. Increasingly, the new media are tools for targeting rather than for saturating the mass market.
Information and the role of the marketing database In the information age marketers are not only focusing on analysis, but also understand the value of information collection.
In the past, direct marketing has been distinguishable from other marketing disciplines because of its emphasis on initiating a direct relationship between a buyer and a supplier, a relationship that until recently centered primarily on the exchange of goods and services. However, in today’s market, exchanging information is becoming almost as important as exchanging goods and services. With rising costs, crowded supermarket shelves, and over stuffed mailboxes, smart marketers are not just efficiently consummating a sale, they are also providing a chance for customers to communicate with them.
Of all these changes surely the most revolutionary is the ability to store in the computer information about your prime prospects and customers and, in effect, create a database that becomes your private market. As the cost of accumulating and accessing the data drops, the ability to talk directly to your prospects and customers — and to build one-to-one relationships with them — will continue to grow.
The new marketing landscape The effects on consumers of overwhelming change and the acceleration of change in our time have been brilliantly documented by Hugh Mackay in Reinventing Australia: So apparent is our national malaise that it has become fashionable to talk about the Age of Anxiety.
For people given to applying labels to decades, the 1980s was popularly described as “The Anxious Eighties” and there is no doubt that the decade lived up to the promise of that rather anxious label. Australia has not been alone in all this. All around the Western world, social commentators have been impressed by the rising level of angst over the past 20 years. The mind and mood of consumers in the 2000s provide interesting challenges.
The growing number of market segments and the simultaneous increase in available products have made marketing much harder. Manufacturers are in a quandary about what to produce; retail merchandise buyers are overwhelmed by the task of product selection; and advertisers feel swamped trying to convey appropriate messages to so many market segments about so many products …companies are grappling with the fact that mass advertising campaigns have become less and less useful in reaching diverse groups of consumers.
Marketers must now fight to establish the relevance of their products in an extremely noisy marketplace. The marketing future will undoubtedly look different in another respect as well: customer information technologies will change the relative roles of retailers, manufacturers, and media companies.
Retailers have a natural advantage because they can directly measure customer response and get first option at the broadest range of information. Indeed, point-of-sale scanning systems have already played a significant role in shifting power from manufacturers to retailers.
Most important, the balance of power between large and small companies will change. As customer information technology becomes more prevalent, only those companies that can invest the resources and show technological leadership will succeed.
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The Fascinating History of Grape Wine
It is said that an attempted suicide by a woman thousands of years ago gave birth to wine. This article looks at the fascinating history of wine.
While the origin of wine is still unknown to the world, ancient Persian fable credits a woman as the discoverer of wine. According to the fable, the woman lost to the King and wished to end her life by eating spoiled table grapes stored in a jar. The suicide attempt did not go as she planned; instead she got intoxicated and eventually passed out. When she woke up, she felt as if all her troubles had vanished and this event encouraged her to continue taking the spoiled grapes. So going by this pleasant story, one can say that wine is not an invention of man but was rather found by luck.
The history of wine is as old as the civilization, the agriculture and the man himself. Archeologists suggest that wine was discovered accidentally during 6000 and 5000 BC. in the Fertile Crescent area, a region in between the Nile and the Persian Gulf. Archeological evidence has uncovered the earliest European wine production from crushed grapevines in Macedonia 6500 years ago.
From the time of discovery of wine to this present date, wine has played a very crucial role in many rituals and customs of the society. . In the ancient Egyptian period, wine became an integral part of ceremonial life, mainly funerary ceremonies. Only the wealthiest Egyptians like the Pharaohs were able to enjoy wine. Wine was also common in ancient Greece and Rome and in many other Western European countries.
The Egyptian Era
Though scientists have identified a wine jar from Hajji Firuz Tepe in the Northern Zagros Mountains of Iran, the widespread knowledge of wine cultivation is believed to have come from ancient Egypt. The wine- making process was represented on tomb walls dating back to 2600 BC. Maria Rosa, a master in Egyptology says that wine in ancient Egypt was of great importance and only the upper class people and kings had access to wine. Rosa further points out that the ancient Egyptians labeled the wine jars with product, year, source and the vine grower’s name, but there is no mention about the color of the wines. A recent discovery has shown that the wines in ancient Egypt were predominantly red.
The Greeks
Arrival of wine making process in ancient Greece is not well documented; many believe that wine- making tradition was introduced to Crete by the Phoenician traders. Strong evidences of wine production have also been collected from Minoan Mycenaean cultures.
Wine was a very important trading article in Greece commerce. The Greeks were able to set up their colonies throughout the Mediterranean and this in turn eased the export of Greek wines in the region. The Greeks learned how to prevent wines from spoilage by adding different herbs and spices. Wine in ancient Greece was stirred in a bowl before drinking.
Apart from trading, the Greeks used wine in the field of medical sciences. One of the well known medicine practitioner, Hippocrates, also known as the “Father of Medicine” studied wine extensively for its use in medical sciences, specially to cure fever, convalescence and as an antiseptic. It must be mentioned here that the Greeks were equally aware about the negative health effects produced by drinking wine.
The Roman Empire
The Romans developed the viticulture (cultivation and study of grape growing) and oenology (the science of wine and winemaking). In the Roman Empire, wine formed a vital part of their daily meals as water could not always be trusted to be safe and healthy. During this period, wine- making technology became more established with a significant impact on the Roman business. The Romans developed barrels to store and ship wine, while bottles were used for the first time in the history of the wine world. The Romans are also known to have dissolved pearls in wine for their better health.
With the expansion of Roman Empire, wine production expanded to all of its provinces. During the Dark Ages when Roman Empire fell and when Europe passed through social and political turmoil, wine production was kept alive by the efforts of monasteries. Churches are known to have developed some of the finest vineyards in Europe.
Wine in Ancient China
Although wine was not much of a favorite of the ancient Chinese people, its production and consumption was popular in three different periods, mainly the Han Dynasty, Tang Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty. In ancient China rice wine was not as much popular as the grape wine.
Wine in the Middle Ages and Modern Life
Wine became popular in the Middle Ages, it was considered as a social drink for all occasions. In the northern regions of the Europe where no grapes were grown, beer and ale were predominant and in the Eastern part Vodka was the preferred drink.
America, Chile, Argentine, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand that produce wide varieties of wines are considered as the New World Wine Producers. The products of these countries were not well known to the wine lovers until late in the 20th Century.
The industrial revolution in the 20th century has provided wine manufacturers with new technology and innovation that has made production much more efficient. Considerable R&D advances in viticulture and oenology have helped the present day manufacturers to produce more varieties of wines of much superior quality.
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Copy then Artwork
A good marketing advertisement pays attention to both content and layout. But always, always, always, compose the copy first. The design must reemphasize the strongest points in the copy, and never be created independently of it.
Otherwise, your stuff might look great but have too little substance, or have a visual message that conflicts with the copy, or force your most important points into some hard-to-read corner.
Copywriters often have a sense of good design, and prepare a rough layout for the graphic artist to work from (or, if the design is simple, actually create both elements together). But trying to fit text to suit illustration and design is a definite mistake.
The only exception is in a very small piece. In some instances, like a business card with a strong graphic, you may have a very clear idea of the look before you write the words. If the whole idea is to dominate the page with a graphic, such as your company logo, and fit in contact information around it, obviously the words come second place.
But always ask yourself if this card is doing the strongest selling job it can. Maybe you need a sales sentence and should shrink the logo down a bit unless your product, too, is graphically oriented. Make sure the graphic is appropriate to your message and if it is not, throw out the concept.
Effective Copywriting and Wonderful copywriting:
1. Catches the reader’s attention with something relevant;
2. Addresses the reader’s fears, anxieties, or aspirations;
3. Stresses benefits to the user, not the features that lead to those benefits;
4. Offers to solve the reader’s problem, in the most specific terms possible;
5. Gives the reader with a chance to acquire something of clear value, but only for a limited time;
6. Pulls the reader toward an immediate next step;
7. Shows the consequences of a failure to act;
8. Backs up claims with comparisons to the competition;
9. Includes solid, substantial proof of your claim by someone else (a customer, an expert); and
10. This should be obvious, make sure you provide the necessary order form, address, telephone number and e-mail to allow the reader to take action.
You may not get all ten in every marketing document, but aim to include as many as you can. These group together into several bunches.
Writing promotional material is both a science and an art. Doing your own press release or flier copy is pretty straightforward. But if you’re going to spend a lot of money doing a brochure or newsletter, make sure the copy is worth the investment.
Certainly you can try to do your own, following the principles outlined above. But before you print the final, try out the advertisement on people who will give you accurate and detailed feedback. Writers who sell are writers who revise, so be prepared to do several drafts. Then leave it for a few days and come back to it with a fresh mind.
Or call in outside help. Either outline the project to a writer and wait for a draft, or write the first draft yourself and then let an editor put the magic in it. Whether you or the outside consultant prepare the first draft, expect to play with it. Make sure each section uses strong sales language. Examine the different sections together, to see if they fit well and are in the right order.
Where do you find writers and editors? Get recommendations from other business owners whose marketing materials you respect. Look in the Yellow Pages under Editorial Services, Marketing Consultants, Public Relations, or Publicity. Or, of course, have a look on web sites like elance.com or getacoder.com
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