<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7486494</id><updated>2011-04-21T16:00:45.654-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Hotels - Travels - Cigarettes</title><subtitle type='html'>all about Hotels - Travels - Cigarettes</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default?max-results=100'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><author><name>Tanya</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/268/1229/320/ravz.jpg'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>8</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>100</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7486494.post-109515419525039275</id><published>2004-09-14T02:28:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2004-09-19T22:22:58.346-07:00</updated><title type='text'>25% of cigarettes in Britain 'toxic' </title><content type='html'>&lt;strong&gt;BEIJING&lt;/strong&gt; - One in four cigarettes smoked in Britain is thought to be acounterfeit produced in illegal factories in China using the sweepings ofdirty workshop floors. The cheap but toxic cigarettes pack a lethal carcinogenic cocktail of highlevels of tar, nicotine and banned chemicals, The Sunday Telegraph reported. Wrapped in cellophane, the cheap packets of Regal and Silk Cut cigaretteslook like the real thing and even carry the British government's officialhealth warning. They should, however, carry a second warning: Counterfeited in China. Each year, British smokers buy billions of these counterfeit cigarettes fromshady middlemen, not knowing that they were produced in scruffy littleworkshops in China. Very often, what they are smoking is the sweepings of a dirty floor, saidthe report. It estimates that more than 100 billion counterfeit &lt;strong&gt;cigarettes &lt;/strong&gt;are producedannually in the villages of a remote area on the border between Fujian andGuangdong provinces. The British Treasury estimates that Chinese counterfeits accounted for atleast a quarter of all the cigarettes sold in Britain last year, costing thetaxpayer &amp;pound;2.5 billion (S$6.6 billion) in lost revenue. 'The quality of fake packaging is improving all the time,' Mr Tim Lord,chief executive of the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association in Britain, told &lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;"The Sunday Telegraph".&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;'Customers only realise their cigarettes aren't genuine because they tastebad or different, and that affects our reputation.' His association wants the government to cut the tax on cigarettes - 80 percent of the packet cost - to deter smokers from buying cheap alternatives. With Western governments worried about the damage caused both to smokers'health and to tax revenues, China is coming under growing internationalpressure to staunch the supply. The Chinese counterfeits contain high levels of tar, nicotine and bannedchemicals: a powerful, carcinogenic cocktail. During a trip to Beijing to tackle the problem last week, a senior Westernpolice officer managed to win a promise of cooperation from China's Ministryof Public Security. China is affected as well. The counterfeits are also sold into its vastdomestic market, costing the country considerable amounts in lost taxes -more than &amp;pound;1 billion last year. Beijing has introduced tough penalties for bootleggers, including amandatory sentence of three years' re- education at a labour camp for anyonefound in an illegal factory. So far, the authorities in Fujian have jailed more than 90 counterfeitersand sent 70 others to labour camps, said The Telegraph. Even so, the majority of counterfeit operations have carried on unaffected. You have been selected to receive the following wholesale information: &lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7486494-109515419525039275?l=hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109515419525039275'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109515419525039275'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_archive.html#109515419525039275' title='25% of cigarettes in Britain &apos;toxic&apos; '/><author><name>Tanya</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/268/1229/320/ravz.jpg'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7486494.post-109515406068738860</id><published>2004-09-14T02:18:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2004-09-19T22:38:03.993-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Stop paying so much for cigarettes</title><content type='html'>&lt;strong&gt;Wholesale Cigarette Price List&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff9900;"&gt;We have compiled a list of 10 Wholesale Cigarette Suppliers for you to order from.These suppliers are ready to ship to you cigarettes for as low as $14.95 per carton.We are talking about Name brand Cigarettes, Not generics. Want to find out how to buy Marlboro Cigarettes for $14.95 per carton with Free Shipping? Our List of Wholesalers will save you tons of money each month.Imagine if you can save $100's of dollars on cigarettes. Don't spend any more money at you local store, buy from our Wholesale suppliers and save.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7486494-109515406068738860?l=hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109515406068738860'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109515406068738860'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com/2004_09_01_archive.html#109515406068738860' title='Stop paying so much for cigarettes'/><author><name>Tanya</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/268/1229/320/ravz.jpg'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7486494.post-109222032789982923</id><published>2004-08-11T02:30:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2004-09-19T22:41:50.706-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Top 10 Facts on Generic Drugs</title><content type='html'>&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:georgia;color:#33cc00;"&gt;Facts on how generic drugs are produced and regulated, cost comparisons, and more...!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:georgia;color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:georgia;"&gt;Did you know that nearly 51 percent of all prescription in U.S. today are filled using generic drugs? This can save as much as 70 percent to 80 percent over the cost of brand-name medications. Generic drugs are an Option you may want to consider as a way to receive high quality medication at considerably lower price&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan believes you should know all the facts about generic drugs before dedicating to try them. Remember to ask your doctor or pharmacist if generics are the right option for you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Fact 1&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="font-family:georgia;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#6600cc;"&gt;A generic drugs is made with the same active ingredients and is available in the same strength and dosage form as the equivalent brand name product.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Generic drugs produce the same effects in the body as brand-name drugs because both contain identical active ingredients. The difference is in the name. The brand name name is the name under which the product is sold and is protected by a patent for up to 20 years. When the patent expires, other manufacturers can produce the generic equivalent of the brand and sell it under its generic name.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Fact 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#6600cc;"&gt;The manufacturing process of all drugs (including generic) is strictly regulated by the U.S. government and the same standards are met by all manufacturer.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The food and drug administration inspects drug manufacturers and recalls any marketed products that do not meet production standards. The FDA can even stop the manufacturer of  products until the firm shows that it can make and test its drugs in a way that meets the high standards of the FDA. Each manufacturing plant is also inspected by the FDA and must be in compliance with the FDA standards known as Good Manufacturing Practices.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fact 3&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#6600cc;"&gt;A generic drug meets the same stringent performance and bioequivalence standards set by U.S. government as the brand name drug.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Each generic drug is laboratory-tested to ensure that the same amount of drug will be absorbed into the bloodstream as with the brand-name drug. Since 1984, no generic drug has been approved in the U.S. unless it has been shown to have the same rate and amount of active drug absorbed as the brand-name drug.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Fact 4&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#6600cc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;A generic drug is as safe and provides the same therapeutic effects as the brand-name product for patients of all ages.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;As a group, generic drugs have no proven age-related side effects that are different from brand-name drugs. Generics have been shown to be as safe brand-name drugs and work no differently in children or the elderly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Fact 5&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#6600cc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Many of the generic drugs approved by FDA are manufactured by companies that also make brand-name drugs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Many more generic drugs will become available as brand-name drugs lose their patent protection.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Fact 6&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#6600cc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Health care Professionals strongly support the use of generic drugs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;The American Medical Association, the largest organization of medical doctors states that generic drug products are acceptable for use of American public. Most hospitals routinely use generic drugs for treatment of their patients.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Fact 7&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#6600cc;"&gt;Of the top 10 prescription drugs sold in 2003, eight were generics.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In fact, the top prescription drug sold in 2003 was the generic version of vicodin.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#6600cc;"&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Fact 8&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The American public spent over $180 billion dollar on prescription drugs in 2003.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;With the price of the generic drug averaging 15 percent to 60 percent less than he cost of Brand name drugs. Overall, the savings can help control the cost of health care in U.S. without reducing the quality offered to patients.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#6600cc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Fact 9&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Every one can lower their prescription cists with generics, specially senior citizens.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Senior citizen represents 12percent of the U.S. population, and they account for 33 percent of the nation’s prescription and OTC medications used each year. Senior citizens are the largest users of prescription drugs, and because many people over the age of 65 have fixed income, a considerable amount  of savings can be gained through the use of generic drugs.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#6600cc;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Fact 10&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The decision to use generic medications is ultimately made through the cooperation of your physician, your pharmacist and you.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Ask your physician or pharmacist if any of the prescription medications tat you currently taking can be filled with a generic alternative. Once you begin using generic drugs whenever possible you can start to reduce prescription drug costs while maintaining the same strength, dosage and quality as the brand-name drug.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7486494-109222032789982923?l=hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109222032789982923'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109222032789982923'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_archive.html#109222032789982923' title='Top 10 Facts on Generic Drugs'/><author><name>Tanya</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/268/1229/320/ravz.jpg'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7486494.post-109212009668298456</id><published>2004-08-09T23:39:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2004-08-09T23:44:20.680-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Ten Cool Ways To Cut Costs</title><content type='html'>&lt;span style="color:#ffffff;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;1. BarterIf you have a business you should be bartering goodsand services with other businesses. You should try totrade for something before you buy it. Barter dealsusually require little or no money.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;2. NetworkTry networking your business with other businesses.You could trade leads or mailing lists. This will cutdown on your marketing and advertising costs. Youmay also try bartering goods and services with them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;3. Wholesale/BulkYou'll save money buying your business supplies inbulk quantities. You could get a membership at awholesale warehouse or buy them through a mailorder wholesaler. Buy the supplies you are alwaysrunning out of.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;4. Free StuffYou should try visiting the thousands of freebie siteson the internet before buying your business supplies.You can find free software, graphics, backgrounds,online business services etc.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;5. Borrow/RentHave you ever purchased business equipment youonly needed for a small period of time? You couldhave just borrowed the equipment from someoneelse or rented the equipment from a "rent-all" store.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6. Online/Offline AuctionsYou can find lower prices on business supplies andequipment at online and offline auctions. I'm notsaying all the time, but before you go pay retail forthese items try bidding on them first.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;7. Plan AheadMake a list of business supplies or equipment you'llneed in the future. Keep an eye out for stores thathave big sales. Purchase the supplies when they goon sale before you need them.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;8. Used StuffIf your business equipment and supplies don't needto be new, buy them used. You can find used itemsat yard and garage sales, used stores, used stufffor sale message boards and newsgroups etc.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;9. NegotiateYou should always try negotiate a lower price forany business equipment or supplies. It doesn't hurtto try. Pretend you are talking to a salesman at a carlot.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;10. SearchYou can always be searching for new suppliers foryour business supplies and equipment. Look forsuppliers with lower prices and better quality. Don'tjust be satisfied with a few.&lt;/strong&gt; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7486494-109212009668298456?l=hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109212009668298456'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109212009668298456'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_archive.html#109212009668298456' title='Ten Cool Ways To Cut Costs'/><author><name>Tanya</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/268/1229/320/ravz.jpg'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7486494.post-109205022415668347</id><published>2004-08-09T04:10:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2004-08-09T04:17:04.156-07:00</updated><title type='text'></title><content type='html'>&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#6600cc;"&gt;By Mohanbir Sawhney&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To paraphrase Charles Dickens, these are the best of times for marketing, and these are the worst of times for marketing. On the one hand, marketing has never been more important for companies as they struggle to grow and differentiate themselves from competitors. On the other hand, the value of marketing is being called into question in the executive suite. Marketing needs to reinvent itself if chief marketing officers want to gain a seat at the executive table. If marketing does not reform itself, it will die a slow death by a thousand budget cuts.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;What Ails Marketing?&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Marketing faces two key crises—an identity crisis in defining its role in the organization, and an accountability crisis in demonstrating the value of marketing to the organization.&lt;br /&gt;The Role of Marketing: Marketing often plays a highly circumscribed role of marketing communications in companies. Few marketing organizations are meaningfully involved in formulating corporate strategy, designing offerings and managing partnerships. My colleague Phil Kotler recently told me about a conversation he had with a vice president of marketing at a major airline. Phil asked the VP what he did in his job. Did he control pricing? "Not really," the marketing VP replied. "That's the yield management department." Did he control where and how often the airline flies or the classes of service it offers? "Not really—that's the flight scheduling department." Did he control the services that the airline provides its customers on the ground? "Not really, that's the operations department." So what exactly did he control? "Well," he told Phil. "I run advertising and the frequent-flyer program." I suspect that this is the case with most companies, with marketing becoming synonymous with marketing communications, and that, too, after the fact when products have already been developed. There are a few exceptions in the consumer packaged goods arena, but even there, the rising power of retailers and the shift in marketing dollars to promotions stands to make marketing the "discipline of cents-off coupons," in the words of my colleague Don Lehmann from Columbia.&lt;br /&gt;The Value of Marketing: Marketing faces a crisis of accountability as CEOs and CFOs legitimately question the return on investment (ROI) they get from their marketing investments. Not much has changed since John Wanamaker, founder of the first department store, made his famous statement: "One half of my advertising budget is wasted. The trouble is, I don't know which half." According to David Pottruck, CEO of Charles Schwab and a former marketing head, CMOs need to speak the language of CEOs. "Almost all CEOs are focused on revenue growth," he says. "If you don't grow your revenues, you are sunk." According to Pottruck, while CEOs can clearly see the benefits of paying salesmen more for what they sell, the value of marketing is often not as clear." If CMOs are unable to quantify the value of marketing, marketing budgets will inevitably get cut, and marketing spending will gravitate toward short-term demand generation initiatives at the expense of brand and relationship-building initiatives.&lt;br /&gt;Transforming Marketing: Marketing has failed to live up to the exalted position that Peter Drucker gave it more than three decades ago when he declared, "The business has two basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs." To claim the strategic high ground, marketing needs to reinvent itself. Here is a seven-point manifesto for chief marketing officers to transform marketing:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Point One: Market the marketing department.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;An Indian proverb says, "Under a bright lamp, there is great darkness." Marketing departments try hard to market the firm's offerings to customers, but they often do a very poor job of marketing themselves internally to the leadership team and to other departments. In my conversations with developers at technology companies, I have found that very few of them have a clue what marketers do at their firms. It is the CMO's responsibility to communicate the "value proposition" of marketing to everyone in the organization. To do this, CMOs need to clearly define how marketing adds value to the company. They need to identify a few key, high-level marketing priorities, and they need to link these priorities to the company's growth and profitability objectives. And CMOs need to learn the languages of CFOs, CEOs and R&amp;D.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Point Two: Change the marketing mind-set.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The traditional marketing mind-set is a command-and-control mind-set that relies on selling to passive customers whose demand and perceptions can be influenced and manipulated. In an age of "Information Democracy," CMOs need to evolve their organizations to a "connect and collaborate" mind-set—where the company collaborates with customers to create, deliver and share value. Cocreation of value with customers requires creating a shared vocabulary, shared interests, shared platforms and shared trust with customers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Point Three: Earn credibility through customer expertise.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Marketers often complain about the lack of authority and lack of influence over their colleagues in engineering, operations or finance. The simple fact is—nobody will give you a seat at the table; you have to earn it. And the best way to gain power is through knowing your customers better than anyone else in the organization. Customer expertise will provide marketers with the courage of conviction they need to promote their point of view to other parts of the organization. Remember that you cannot outsource customer understanding to market research vendors. You have to get in front of customers and get inside their lives. As a Punjabi proverb states: "If you want to see heaven, you have to die yourself."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Point Four: Focus on the customer experience.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Too many marketing organizations limit themselves to the products and services that they make, without realizing that it is the total customer experience that matters most in differentiating yourself and delighting customers. Focusing on the customer experience requires marketers to think holistically about every single customer touch point and every stage in the customer lifecycle. It also demands a total quality approach to designing and improving the customer experience. It is the CMO's responsibility to ensure that every employee in the firm understands how he or she impacts the customer experience. And it is the responsibility of marketing to orchestrate the customer experience across all channels, partners, business units and stages in the customer buying cycle.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Point Five: Think in process terms.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Marketing has traditionally thought of its activities in terms of the infamous four P's (product, price, promotion and place). This is a functional view of marketing activities, and it fosters the mistaken impression that marketing functions are independent silos. Instead, marketing activities should be conceptualized as a set of logically related value-creation processes. Drawing insights from the business process reengineering literature, I believe that marketing needs to be organized around processes, not functions like channel marketing, audience marketing or product marketing. These value-creation processes include the processes for understanding, defining, realizing, delivering, capturing, communicating and sustaining value. Each process has a set of activities and deliverables, and these processes together constitute the new work of marketers.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Point Six: Create an ROI culture.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;Marketing must conform to the adage, "If you can't measure it, you can't manage it." CMOs need to promote a return on investment mind-set that should permeate every marketing initiative. Marketing initiatives need to be derived from marketing objectives, and marketing initiatives need to be evaluated on a set of objective metrics. In simple terms, marketers need to define where they want to go (objectives), how they will get there (strategy), what it will take to get there (resources), and how they know if they get there (metrics). Creating an ROI culture does not mean every marketing initiative has to be quantified in terms of incremental revenue. Marketers can rely on intermediate metrics that follow customers through the "hierarchy of effects"—from creating awareness to changing perceptions, to creating demand, to enhancing loyalty and retention. More difficult but equally important questions that CMOs need to tackle include ways to optimize marketing spending across channels and establishing the financial payoffs of longer-term marketing investments.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff0000;"&gt;Point Seven: Embrace technology.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;Marketing is the last bastion for manual work in the enterprise. Most functions in the enterprise have been automated, including operations, finance, human resource management and sales. But marketing activities largely remain ad hoc and manual. This situation is beginning to change with the development of exciting new technologies for marketing resource management (MRM), marketing analytics and customer intelligence gathering. CMOs need to embrace these technologies to improve the visibility of marketing operations, to improve the efficiency of marketing processes, and to institutionalize best practices that have been encoded in software and tools.&lt;br /&gt;I believe that marketing is the most fascinating area of management, because marketers need to combine qualitative insights and intuition with quantitative analysis and rigor. I also believe that marketing is the key to continued business success in a competitive world. However, marketing needs to change with the times if it is to stake its claim as the function that creates the most value for the organization. As marketing leaders, CMOs need to combine their passion for customers with a business value mind-set, creativity with rigorous analysis and brand-building strategies with hard-nosed tactical execution. In the words of Lee Iacocca, marketing must "lead, follow or get out of the way." CMOs must step up to the challenge or risk becoming figureheads in their organizations.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff9900;"&gt;Regards&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;em&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style="color:#ff9900;"&gt;Ravz....!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7486494-109205022415668347?l=hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109205022415668347'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109205022415668347'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_archive.html#109205022415668347' title=''/><author><name>Tanya</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/268/1229/320/ravz.jpg'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7486494.post-109204590742105154</id><published>2004-08-09T03:03:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2004-08-09T03:05:07.420-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Why I Network By Thomas Power</title><content type='html'>Many members have asked me this month to address the questions as to why I network, how I network and what the secrets are to my kind of networking:The first question you need to ask yourself is how much money do you wish to earn each year? Networking is a very precise science based purely on numbers.What are the costs of your kids’ schools, your mortgage, your holidays and your running expenses? Without this question answered you cannot determine your networking activity level.It is my belief that you need 1,000 people in your network for each £100,000 you wish to earn each year. If you are crazy like me and wish to earn £1m each year then yes you need 10,000 people in your network!In other words each person you know is worth £100 per annum to you either directly or indirectly. Remember the money is in the links not the nodes. Too many people assume from this that I am talking about selling pensions to my family and friends, I am not. The value of nodes (close contacts) is that they lead you to links (distant contacts). The money, your money, resides in the distant contacts not the close contacts. Very few people I meet recognise this fact and continue to focus on their close contacts for money. This is wrong.Close contacts for knowledge, distant contacts for money is the rule.I am not talking about network marketing here and I certainly am not talking about selling Amway washing powder.Just in case you missed that, network marketing is NOT my thing!I am talking about people networking, I am talking about connecting with people and listening to and learning from what that they say. I am talking about making detailed notes in little black books, often verbatim notes on what is said during the series of questions.Questions, questions, questions is the secret to gathering knowledge and only open questions will do i.e. questions that start with who, what, why, when, how, where and which. If you haven’t read Rudyard Kipling perhaps you should.We live in a world where everyone seeks knowledge, contacts and deals. This is the new economy; this is the knowledge based economy. This is the so called high-tech, high wage economy that Tony Blair often refers to. Personally I believe this is utter nonsense as the internet is the most powerful deflationary economic network ever witnessed by man on earth. Prices are falling and the price paid for labour i.e. your salary is also falling and fast.However it is certainly true that knowledge is the new money.Knowledge is thus what you need to gather, exchange and trade in order to get money.Without lots of knowledge you won’t eat in the new economy, fact!Knowledge comes from people, books, websites, events, networking, reading, listening, observing, asking questions, pondering, debating, perusing and sharing. I also think knowledge comes from going to watch Chelsea beat West Brom 2-0 at Stamford Bridge and drinking beer with your mates.I find that the most powerful knowledge comes from listening to people. So I personally focus my mind on meeting 1000s of people and listening (very) carefully to them.I have met 4,000 of the 13,000 Ecademy members since 1998 when we started this business network. I can only meet 1,000 members per year. This is my capacity. John Bromley makes sure I maintain 20 meetings per week, every week and 80 meetings per month, every month …except August, this is our holiday month. I believe in having a month of work in August, (I think it’s that French thing)How do I get 20 meetings per week?It’s quite simple really I write to members and say “May I come and see you please?”Very few members refuse the opportunity of a meeting with me, why? Because I can guarantee to bring them knowledge, new knowledge that they don’t know or had never considered. Thus I bring and give value, if I didn’t no-one would be interested in seeing or listening me. In other words those who give, receive. Those who take never get a thing but loneliness in old age.This is the new economy, face up to it, it isn’t going away, it’s simply going to grow, so if you want to eat well, get used to doing your 20 meetings each week to gather your knowledge (money).Have I mentioned that knowledge is money in a different form?I know 1000s of people, literally 1000s. I write to them and ask them if I can come and see them. Very few ever say No, but some do. I am not fazed in the slightest by rejection, I simply ask again another time under another guise with another angle, (I literally have an unlimited range of angles)I do this relentlessly week in and week out. Fortunately for me I have a wonderful personal assistant in the form of John Bromley (my brother in law and a former policeman so he keeps very accurate records) who takes care of my manic schedule and books all these appointments into my diary. John also looks after all our money and as a result we never have any debt!Every now and then perhaps once a week I get the chance to do a speech at a conference. To me public speaking is like resting. I don’t have to ask questions, I can just talk. I can present what I currently know which is a vast amount of present knowledge. It’s almost most like a hard disc unloading its data. It feels good, very good and it’s very emotionally uplifting. I laugh a great deal at myself and I laugh with the audience. To speak is to rest. People come up to me after I have finished speaking and say “where did you learn all that stuff?” and I say "it’s because I read a book a week and meet 1,000 people each year."Why do I religiously meet 1,000 people per year?The reason is quite simple, networking works.Every £1 you invest in networking generates £5 in income for you and your team. How simple is that?Shall I say that again?Every £1 you invest in networking generates £5 in income for you and your team. There you go, just in case you missed it the first time.But what I notice is that many people around me just pay lip service to my theories. They say things to me like “it’s a nice idea Thomas but I don’t need to do as many meetings as you because I am far more focused and targeted than you are”. It is not me they are fooling, it is themselves. Networking is not selling and selling is not networking.Selling is about transactions.Networking is about knowledge.These are different concepts do not confuse them or you will neither network nor sell effectively.Selling is about closing and cutting a deal.Networking is about opening and gathering information.You can clearly see how different selling is from networking.Many people think I am crazy to do this volume of meetings, to have such a huge network of people to meet with and learn from.In the new economy knowledge is money and people are knowledge, thus people are money.If you play that forward then the winner of the knowledge game is the one with the most people in their network. Put finer:“The winner of the game is the one with all the names”.Think about that for a moment. Ponder. Absorb. Take a deep breath.“The winner of the game is the one with all the names”.Each day as a result I spend time looking at the members who have just joined the Ecademy and I think to myself …hmmm I would like to meet him or her and listen to their opinion on that. Then I drop them a little note saying “may I come and see you please?” and John books the date into my diary.The concept is noddy simple....The hard work associated with networking is that I have to work 80 to 100 hours each week and this is very difficult to squeeze into a family of three children. I hope I get the balance right, you need to check with Penny if I do or don’t. I am keen to know what she says so please email her on. After all Penny thought of this thing.In answer then to those questions addressed at the beginning of this article.Why I Network?I Network for knowledge, because knowledge can easily be exchanged for money. Without knowledge in the new economy you will not eat and neither will your family. This will become critical in the next 20 years, right now I am a freak within 20 years I will be boring mainstream.How I Network?I relentlessly maintain a simple model of 20 meetings per week, 80 meetings per month and 1,000 meetings per year. This I remind you is only possible because of the backup and support I have from John Bromley. I recommend you get yourself a John if you wish to maintain this pace. Make sure he’s old and wise and a former songwriter and policeman :-)And lastly:What are the secrets to my kind of networking?I use the Ecademy each and every day hunting for new people to gather knowledge from.I contact people and say “may I come and see you please?” using the.I cc John Bromley so John knows what I have said and who to follow up with.I visit these members. I always like to visit their location, their offices, their home as you can tell a great deal from a place particularly a home or private residence. I have a very sensitive nose, you can tell a great deal from the smell of a place, (my mother told me this and she’s right).I ask endless open questions using the who, what, why, when, how and which formula. I try never to ask a closed question like, will you, could you, do you, have you and so on?I listen very carefully to what I hear. I write copious notes in my little black books that Penny buys me from these are my favourite books, now I have hundreds. I recommend you use books that you can cherish not these silly books from WHSmiths which have no intrinsic value.I make sure I buy and read a book from Amazon each week so I have plenty in my mind to prompt my questions. I have read every book on the Internet available so now I read anything Amazon recommends to me.I visit perhaps 10 new websites a week to avoid going rusty or stale. It is so easy to go rusty or stale.And finally and most importantly did I mention I always meet 20 people a week, 80 people per month and 1,000 per year.I hope you enjoy networking like me with fellow Ecademy members; it really is great fun having friends the world over.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Warm regards,&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ravz..!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7486494-109204590742105154?l=hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109204590742105154'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109204590742105154'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com/2004_08_01_archive.html#109204590742105154' title='Why I Network By Thomas Power'/><author><name>Tanya</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/268/1229/320/ravz.jpg'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7486494.post-109117413048740440</id><published>2004-07-30T01:55:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2004-09-17T05:44:17.640-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Marlboro Cigarettes</title><content type='html'>&lt;script type="text/javascript"&gt;&lt;!--&lt;br /&gt;google_ad_client = "pub-9833885506029320";&lt;br /&gt;google_ad_width = 728;&lt;br /&gt;google_ad_height = 90;&lt;br /&gt;google_ad_format = "728x90_as";&lt;br /&gt;google_ad_channel ="";&lt;br /&gt;google_color_border = "CCCCCC";&lt;br /&gt;google_color_bg = "FFFFFF";&lt;br /&gt;google_color_link = "000000";&lt;br /&gt;google_color_url = "666666";&lt;br /&gt;google_color_text = "333333";&lt;br /&gt;//--&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;script type="text/javascript"&lt;br /&gt;  src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/script&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Philip Morris's Marlboro Cigarettes had a checkered history, as the facts listed below will show. From a ladies; cigarette it was transformed into it male macho image only as late as 1955 when the company released the "Tattooed Man" campaign showing that Marlboro cigarettes were for men. As early as 1847 Philip Morris opened and sold small amounts of hand rolled Turkish Cigarettes. In 1902 Philip Morris established a New York based corporation for selling cigarettes. Twenty-two years later, in 1924, Philip Morris remarketed Marlboro Cigarettes as a women’s cigarette. The filters on some Marlboro cigarettes were red to cover lipstick smears. The female audience was targeted showing feminine hands reaching for a Marlboro in 1926. This marketing strategy caught fire, but the economy was in a slump, and by the Second World War, Marlboro Cigarettes had lost much of its profit margin and market share. To the dismay of many women, Marlboro Cigarettes did not last through the Second World War. In 1942 Reader’s Digest published an article named "Cigarette Advertising Fact and Fiction." The aim of this article was to dismiss cigarette quality as a concept, and to display cigarettes as deadly. Marlboro Cigarettes marketers at Philip Morris saw an open door. Marlboro Cigarettes was reintroduced as the safer cigarette brand. In 1954 Marlboro Cigarettes had less than one per cent of the cigarette market. Marlboro Cigarettes had to figure out a way to acquire a new customer base: older male. In 1955 Marlboro Cigarettes was reborn again, this time with the idea of masculinity. The "Tattooed Man" campaign showed that Marlboro cigarettes were for men. This new rugged image depicted Marlboro smokers as a lean, healthy, avid outdoorsman. In 1955 Marlboro Cigarettes was re-released in New York, and within a year sales were up 50 fold, Marlboro Cigarettes was back thanks to the Marlboro Man. Studies found that the cowboy Marlboro Man appeared to be more popular than any other Marlboro Man image. Over time this same Marlboro Man has been used to equate his image with quality and the quality of other items in Marlboro Cigarettes campaigns. Today, the Marlboro brand Cigarettes continues to flourish and give smoking pleasure to millions of people around the world&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7486494-109117413048740440?l=hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109117413048740440'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109117413048740440'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_archive.html#109117413048740440' title='Marlboro Cigarettes'/><author><name>Tanya</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/268/1229/320/ravz.jpg'/></author></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7486494.post-109117385995976316</id><published>2004-07-30T00:49:00.000-07:00</published><updated>2004-07-30T00:50:59.960-07:00</updated><title type='text'>Cigarettes</title><content type='html'>SaleCigarettes.com is an online cigarette store, which provides the best selection of discount cigarettes and tobacco products. Discount cigarettes will save your money and hefty taxes! We sell a wide range of branded cigarette cartons for those who love smoking! If you are looking to purchase high quality, tax free, cheap, duty free cigarettes, you have come to right place. We offer many discount cigarette brands such as Marlboro Cigarettes, Newport Cigarettes, Camel Cigarettes Salem Cigarettes etc. Enjoy your smoking pleasure online with our discount cigarettes. You can order online premium tobacco products at the best prices on the Internet. You can purchase cigarettes at the lowest price at our discount cigarettes store. We at SaleCigarettes.com provide you with finest quality tobacco, delivered to you fresh in the shortest time possible. Our Cigarettes Store offers cheap discount cigarettes online like Marlboro, Winston, Dunhill, Salem, Camel, lights or menthol and other discount cigarettes for $17.99 and more with special offers!. Order discount cigarettes online from the comfort and safety of your home and have discount cigarettes delivered to your doorstep within minimum days and with ultimate quality.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7486494-109117385995976316?l=hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109117385995976316'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/7486494/posts/default/109117385995976316'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://hotels-travels-cigarettes.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_archive.html#109117385995976316' title='Cigarettes'/><author><name>Tanya</name><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='24' src='http://photos1.blogger.com/img/268/1229/320/ravz.jpg'/></author></entry></feed>
