Green cleaning myths: probiotics, bacteria, enzymes and microbes

[Clinton Smith] Ignorance, as they say, is bliss - except when it involves 'green' practices that are merely harming the environment in a different way, or having no effect at all. As the popularity of eco-friendly products continues to rise, manufactures and distributors are attempting to differentiate their products through the use of inaccurate statements, skewed facts and downright myths...

Festive flights: who soared and who was grounded on social media

[Nick Paul] If engagement on Facebook is anything to go by, it looks like Mango was a clear winner...

#BrandManagerMonth: Branding with a difference

[Jessica Tennant] Here, Daisy Masiangoako, marketing manager of Woolworths Food: Long Life, explains 'the Woolworths difference' when it comes to branding...

[Orchids & Onions] KFC's kids vs Proteas pitch adds to the 'hit and giggle' of T20

[Brendan Seery] Given the realisation that junk food, fast food and sugar are all becoming health swear words, it is not unexpected that those companies that deal in them should start remaking their images as caring protectors of national well-being...

#BrandManagerMonth: Mokebe Thulo on marketing to millennials

[Jessica Tennant] Face-to-face engagement is the way to speak to our young people, says Mokebe Thulo, portfolio manager of HDI Youth Marketeers, who recently spoke on the Sunday Times Generation Next study at the Future-Ready Marketing Conference on Thursday, 10 March at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Rosebank, Johannesburg...

What's going on with M4JAM?

[Stuart Thomas] This is interesting. WeChat users signed up to microjobbing service M4JAM were on Monday greeted with a message telling them to cash out all the money from their wallets before 31 March...

#BrandManagerMonth: 1Life to live

[Nicci Botha] Let's face it, nobody wants to face their own mortality, which is why selling life insurance can be an interesting challenge...

Impact of a Moody's downgrade on property market

[Richard Gray] Serious consequences for the property market...

Omni-channel call centre dos and don'ts

[Jed Hewson] With more customers owning smart mobile devices, companies are facing an ever increasing need to communicate and respond to customers using channels, other than a simple voice call...

New Tucson is tough to beat

[Henrie Geyser] Hyundai has resurrected its popular Tucson model and it certainly won't struggle to find grip in the SUV market which it dominated with 22,716 sales between 2005 and 2010...

Constitutional Court rules against lockouts

[Aadil Patel] In the case of the Transport and Allied Workers Union of South Africa (TAWUSA) vs Putco, the Constitutional Court has ruled that the Labour Relations Act does not permit an employer to lockout the members of a trade union that are not a party to a bargaining council, where the dispute has arisen and has been referred for conciliation...

The 'whys' and 'hows' of local SEO

[Vinod Jethwani] Local SEO stopped being about the usual mom-and-pop shops by the corner. Google has made sure that now any business can benefit from local SEO...

Capitalising on the psychology of your site's visitors

[Vinod Jethwani] Optimising the design of a website is vital if you want to increase the number of conversions. Unfortunately, the information on how to get this work done is not all that straightforward. The truth is...

What Trump teaches us

[Damon Stapleton] I read two articles this week, which I found pretty interesting. The first was a piece in the Telegraph. It was about how television spend in the UK had exceeded 5 billion pounds for the first time...

Grab your smartphone - anyone can contribute to Google's Mzansi Experience

[Jarred Manasse] If you are one of the 23 million smartphone users in South Africa, there's a good chance that you can contribute to Google's Mzansi experience...

Developing your personal brand

[Deirdre Elphick-Moore] In a world that has 'six degrees of separation' between you and a potential employer or client, building a personal brand is essential...

Every business is driven by data

[Gary Allemann] The term 'data-driven' has emerged to describe a decision making process that is compelled by evidence (data) rather than by intuition. It has received particular attention in marketing...

Could a smartphone app really help combat crime in SA?

[Stuart Thomas] South Africa has a brutal crime problem and it affects everyone. The rapes and murders of teenage girls in Khayelitsha (one of Cape Town's poorest areas) and Tokai (one of its wealthiest), bears witness to that fact...