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 [Stafford Thomas] From a crippling 16% a year ago, food price inflation had receded to a far more palatable 1.6% by January, its third lowest level in 35 years. Hard-pressed consumers can rest easy that food prices are unlikely to resume their climb soon. Read more >>BASEL, SWITZERLAND: After a difficult 2009, luxury watchmakers and jewellers said there was a glint of recovery in the sector but warned that the "years of extravagance are over." Read more >>[Mariam Isa] Retail sales fell more slowly than anticipated in January, signalling that the weak link in SA's economic recovery — consumer demand — might be on the mend, official data showed Wednesday, 17 March 2010. Read more >> Wholesale trade sales at constant (2000) prices for January declined -11.2% year-on-year, after a revised -6.4% (-6.3%) y/y decline in December, Statistics South Africa data showed on Wednesday, 17 March 2010. Read more >> CaesarStone recently announced the winners of its first CaesarStone Kitchen Competition that invited South African kitchen designers to create kitchen designs that incorporated the company's product. Read more >>Associations
[Kgomotso Mathe] Following a general meeting last week, Furniture Traders Association (FTA) board members decided it should merge with the Consumer Goods Council of SA (CGCSA). Read more >>  [Kgomotso Mathe] Either you shape up or you ship out as the Consumer Goods Council of SA (CGCSA) redefines its purpose in the industry and meets strategic objectives. Read more >>Brand news
 The KWV Reserve wine label now sports embossing and gold font to add to the premium feel of the label, following a packaging upgrade. Read more >>Durbanville Hills Chardonnay wins silverThe 2009 Durbanville Hills Chardonnay recently won a silver award at the 17th annual Chardonnay du Monde competition in Burgundy. More than 887 wines from 37 countries were sampled in the French-based event, with just one third of the total number of entries earning medals of any kind, making the achievement of the cellar's white winemaker, Gunther Kellerman impressive. It is expected to retail for around R50 per bottle.  Distell purchased the Bisquit cognac brand in 2009 from the Pernod Ricard Group and have so far released the VS Classique and VSOP Fine Champagne in South Africa. The XO Excellence will be released later. The Classique retails for around R265 and the VSOP at around R445. Read more >> Givenchy received the Prix d'Excellence award in the Care category for its Le Soin Noir and Guerlain's Rouge G de Guerlain was voted the best product in the Make-up category at the local Marie Claire Prix d'Excellence de la Beauté Awards 2010 at The Venue in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, earlier this week. Read more >>BlackBerry sees redThe BlackBerry Curve 8520 in red, built for smartphone lovers with a sense of style, is available now from Vodacom and Research in Motion for a limited period for both prepaid and contract customers. It has many features to enable users to use social media from almost anywhere, offers a large, colourful screen, full QWERTY keyboard, 2 MP digital camera and its innovative touch sensitive trackpad. [Louise McAuliffe] Timeless beauty and world famous super-model Iman will be visiting South Africa later this month to launch her cosmetics range. Read more >>  Four new chocolate truffle-flavoured lip glosses, Truffle, Chocolate Orange, Strawberry Cream and Caramel, have been launched by jane iredale under the trade name chocoholicks. Read more >> Professional Management Review (PMR) Africa has awarded TNT Express with a Golden Arrow Award in the category ‘Foreign Owned Courier Companies Operating Internationally'. Read more >>Clothing & Textiles
Nike N98 is backThis season sees a fusion between innovation and sport heritage in the Nike Sportswear N98 men's jacket. The Brazilian national football team amongst others wore it when it was introduced in 1998. Flexible and easy to wear, the enhanced 2010 version of the Nike Sportswear N98 jacket is defined by attention to detail. With flat knit rib collars and cuffs, double knit fabric, bonded seams and double-welded zippered pockets the jacket is effortlessly comfortable and is as iconic today as it was in 1998. It is available in three colours from January - March 2010.  The Disability Workshop Development Enterprise (DWDE) announces the launch of its Ukwakana School Uniform Design Competition. The competition is based around the theme “sustainable development” through working with the community and has financial support of DPOD (Disabled Peoples Organisations of Denmark). Read more >>LONDON, UK: The company behind Calvin Klein has bought fellow US fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger for €2.2 billion (US$3.0 billion), Hilfiger's current owner said in a statement on Monday, 15 March 2010. Read more >>Commercial property
[David Reid] Currently there is some prime office space available at highly competitive rates, in arguably one of the most convenient locations to be had, in Isando Business Park in Kempton Park, adjacent to Rhodesfield Gautrain Station, operational in June 2010, and just three kilometres from OR Tambo International Airport. Read more >> CRM
[Badri Srinivasan] In this decade, First Contact Resolution, or FCR, has matured into a must-have for CRM teams. Contact centres across the globe have fostered an FCR culture, thereby raising service andcustomer experience standards. However, some influences have pulled back this innovation, and they need to be tackled head-on. Read more >> [Chris Coles] Even as the general economy shifts into recovery mode, consumers are still greatly concerned with spending money wisely. Businesses will also be slow to rouse from hibernation. How can companies deliver the kind of quality and value cost-conscious consumers want while maintaining focus on their financial results? Quality assurance helps find the balance between cost of delivery and of good service. Read more >> e-Commerce
[Chris Drake] All new e-commerce businesses should address one vital question first and foremost: Will you collect and store payment card information on your web site or offload credit card processing to a PCI-compliant merchant like PayPal? The answer to this question is paramount and should be well thought out when you are planning and developing your e-commerce Web application. Read more >> Exhibitions
 The Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) system allows users to consume electricity in one part of the country and ‘trade' this usage against a green power source. This was done at the recent Meetings Africa show by Scan Display, which powered its exhibition stand this way. This is reportedly the first time that an individual exhibitor has used renewable energy for its stand's lighting and electrical appliances. Read more >> IBM has confirmed it will be the platinum sponsor at the interactive kiosk and self-service digital media conference and expo, JusTTouchIT 2010, to be held at the Midrand Conference Centre on 4-5 May 2010. The event, in its second year, has attracted key speakers and exhibitors. Read more >> Calvyn Gilfellan, CEO of Cape Town Routes Unlimited (CTRU), fresh back from his team's trip to this year's Asia-Pacific Incentive and Meetings Expo (AIME) in Melbourne, observed a number of trends at the meeting and they appear to bode well for South Africa as a prime destination for conventions and similar events. Read more >>Franchising
[Sasha Planting] Famous Brands' acquisition of the Black Steer and Bulldog Pub & Grill trademarks and franchise agreements was a surprising move for a company that prides itself on the ability of its brands to “surprise and delight” its customers. Read more >> Green sustainability
Hosted in association with South Africa's industry professional institutes, the Green Building Conference and Expo 2010 will again attract the leading decision making members of these organisations who are committed to learning about and embracing green building techniques. To be held at Gallagher Convention Centre Midrand on 29-30 April 2010, the exhibition hopes to attract more than the 1000 delegates and 100 exhibition stands featured at the 2009 expo. Read more >> Climate change and the environment are key issues for Primedia Broadcasting, which has taken active steps to ameliorate its own house and promote these concepts to others. Read more >>Health & Safety
BEIJING, CHINA: China has impounded shipments of imported designer clothing from famous labels such as Hermes and Versace after finding they contained potentially hazardous chemicals, authorities said on Monday, 15 March 2010. Read more >>Hospitality
The Rendezvous Workspace software enables organisations to have efficient management and co-ordination of meetings, video conferencing and flexible working, provides a user interface designed to be fully integrated with the Outlook desktop environment and enable staff to conduct room, desk and resource scheduling from a mobile device. Read more >>[Lauren Cohen] Consumers have been urged to act on unfairly high accommodation prices by reporting establishments to industry bodies in the run-up to the World Cup. Read more >>  Protea's second Fire & Ice Hotel opened on Monday 15 March 2010 at The Piazza, Melrose Arch, joining the group's luxury brand, Melrose Arch Hotel, to broaden the offering of both accommodation and restaurants to visitors, travellers, residents and office staff. It is a decision that is already paying off, with both hotels booked solid for the much-anticipated FIFA 2010 World Cup in June. Read more >>Import/Export
 BORDEAUX, FRANCE: Hong Kong has emerged as the fastest growing wine hub while China's seemingly unquenchable thirst for wine has ousted the United States as Bordeaux's number one client outside Europe. Read more >>Logistics
At a media briefing held in Sandton yesterday, 18 March 2010, Chris Wells, Transnet's acting chief executive, announced the targets of the company for the new financial year, which starts next month, and detailed its agenda, including projections, for the next four years - a first for the company. Read more >>The sixth ‘State of Logistics' survey was launched on Tuesday 16 March 2010 by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Imperial Logistics and Stellenbosch University. Its aim is to provide a comprehensive picture of the state of logistics in South Africa. Read more >>Manufacturing
The red dot awards, made recently in Munich, Germany, are considered by many aficionados to be one of the most important awards in the world for product design, have been awarded to designs from the BMW Group. Read more >>[Mariam Isa] Confidence in SA's manufacturing sector has increased but remains patchy so far, with exports performing better than domestic sales and output, details of a key survey showed late last week. Read more >> Recycled extra white paper from FranceArjowiggins, a French paper manufacturer, has launched Cocoon, a new extra-white FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) 100% recycled range of paper. The range begins with two new products Offset, an uncoated offset paper available in 80 g/m² to 350 g/m² suitable for offset printing and converting and Preprint, an uncoated preprint laser paper available in 80 g/m² to 160g/m² suitable for digital and laser printing. The paper is now available in South Africa from Antalis.Packaging
 [ActivRetail] The BRC (British Retail Consortium) Global Standard certification, a leading global product safety and quality certification programme used by certificated suppliers in over 100 countries, has been awarded to Nampak Flexible in Ndabeni, Cape Town. Read more >>Regulatory
[Kgomotso Mathe] Brewery giant SAB has filed for the Competition Commission's complaint referral concerning its anticompetitive behaviour to be dismissed or struck off the roll because of a lack of evidence. Read more >> The Competition Commission, subsequent to its investigation into collusion in the wheat milling market, has referred its findings against the five companies allegedly involved to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution. Read more >>Research
 At an AMPS scrutiny meeting held last week, SAARF informed representatives of its councils that it was concerned about the reliability of the store magazines' readership figures in AMPS 2009AB (fieldwork period Jan - Dec 2009). It has therefore decided to withhold the results to give the advertising, media and marketing industries the opportunity to evaluate this sector's results carefully. Read more >>A new study, just released by the Youth Research Unit (YRU) of the Bureau of Market Research (BMR) at the University of South Africa (Unisa), in collaboration with the Film and Publication Board (FPB) and Vodacom, provided worthwhile and interesting insights into the role of media, especially new media, in the lives of high-school learners in South Africa. Read more >>[Chantelle Benjamin] With Telkom gearing up to enter the cellphone market, a recent study by research firm Synovate found that half of South Africans aged 16 and older would be prepared to buy a Telkom SIM card. Read more >>  The FNB/BER consumer confidence index (CCI) for 1Q2010 (conducted 5-19 February 2010) shows a rise in confidence of a further 9 index points to a level of +15 from the +6 at the end of last year. This is the single biggest increase between two consecutive quarters in five years. It is now at a slightly higher level compared to the one that prevailed before it plunged two years ago. However, the current level is still lower than the levels of +20 and above prevalent during 2006 and 2007. Read more >>Retail marketing
 “Contact us more frequently and consistently, but with the right material and a personal touch,” say South African bloggers to PR practitioners - a result from what Text 100 believes is the first global survey of its kind, when it examined the communications/PR preferences of technology, business and lifestyle bloggers across the globe, including the South African blogosphere. Read more >> Hansa Pilsener launched its campaign, 'Hansa Pilsener Legends' on Tuesday 16 March 2010 at Le Chatelat in Sandhurst, Johannesburg. Read more >>Retail services
 Vox Telecom joined MWeb by announcing on Friday 19 March 2010 the introduction of uncapped ADSL services for its consumers. The move will give its customers unlimited access to the internet for a fixed monthly fee with no sudden and frustrating cut-off when they reach the caps that were previously in place. Read more >> According to Michael Hainebach, chair of the Wireless Application Service Providers' Association (WASPA) Code of Conduct Working Group and a member of the association's recently announced 2010 Management Committee, the decision to require members to reconfirm consent from a subscriber to continue billing for a service when the customer's mobile content bill reaches R200 is yielding encouraging results. Read more >>Retailers
[Kgomotso Mathe] Improving consumer confidence seems to be the biggest driver of the sudden interest in South African retail stocks. Read more >>  Australian brand, Forever New, which launched in South Africa last December with two stores, will launch its flagship store at Eastgate Shopping Centre this Thursday, 18 March 2010. Read more >>Security
[Gary Jameson] An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) device is considered an integral part of any electronics equipment installation, but often has been ignored where power supply is a matter of life or death - security systems. Read more >> Shopfitting
"The management team at Morningside Shopping Centre has identified areas of improvement in and around the centre and is in the process of creating an environment that will be beneficial to our shoppers," says Annie Philippeos, centre manager, commenting on the current changes in the centre. These include easier access to and from the centre as well as the weatherproofing of the interior with the onset of winter. Read more >>Supply chain
JAKARTA, INDONESIA: Indonesian palm oil giant Sinar Mas rejected claims of environmental vandalism on Thursday, 18 March 2010, after Nestle, the world's biggest food company, dropped it as a supplier. Read more >>[Kgomotso Mathe] Poultry producer Astral Foods earlier this week said it would open a bakery in Cape Town costing at least R70m and will be looking closely at Africa for expansion. Read more >> Training
 Growthpoint Properties has awarded bursaries to five university students to study towards a career in South Africa's property industry. They are Lebogang Mangwale and Cheyeza Mkhabele - BSc Property Studies; Malcolm Mbatha - Building Science Diploma; Catherine Kirkwood - fourth year BComm Business Management; and Yongama Mabece - Diploma in Real Estate. Read more >>Retail marketing
 Guinness World Records is in the process of verifying if Duracell South Africa has broken the world record for the largest bunny made entirely of chocolate. The solid three-ton chocolate bunny was unveiled on 19 March 2010 in Sandton City, and is an exact replica of the well-known Duracell Bunny stretching 3.82 meters in height. Read more >>
 
More
 [Sindy Peters] Yoel Kenan, CEO of Africori and former senior vice president, international marketing, BMG, gave a brief run-down of world digital music consumption and how it affects the business model in the music industry. Kenan delivered his presentation after lunch yesterday, 22 March 2010 at the Music Exchange conference currently taking place in Cape Town. The scariest part of his presentation was the fact that 95% of music worldwide is downloaded illegally.
 The winners of the annual Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards, held at the Baxter Theatre in Rondebosch earlier this week, were announced at a red-carpet event featuring Premier Helen Zille and Mayor Dan Plato as guests of honour.
 [Sindy Peters] An artist in the South African music industry has plenty to contend with, such as: funding, venues, minimum support from media outlets, international counterparts taking centre stage. Sipho "Hotstix" Mabuse addressed the delegates on day one, 22 March, of the 2010 Music Exchange conference discussing why SA musicians are not resilient enough in the industry and hardly ever gain recognition and the rewards for their efforts.
 [Ruth Cooper] Wrestlerish walk the pop tightrope with their mix of heartfelt catchy tunes in their self-produced debut album; The Rude Mechanical. For the most part they do this with aplomb and class but now and again I feel like they seesaw towards a far too soppy sound. (How's that for mixing metaphors?) Though my opinion on this varies greatly on my mood, sometime I can listen to the album and love it all but at other times there are tracks that just sound too cutesy…
 [Seagram Pearce] Small theatre might not have as much of a following and broad audience as other better known theatre, yet small theatre lacks nothing in the talent, dedication and small production value by comparison. The Kalk Bay Theatre, which hosted the world premiere of London Road on 11 March 2010, was the ideal intimate location for an equally intimate play. Arriving at the theatre at about 8pm, it was somewhat chilly outside, yet inside I was greeted by Simon (the KBT owner) to make myself comfortable and enjoy a glass of red wine before the show. The atmosphere was superb.
AdExpo CADEK Media - Johannesburg, 23 March "Advertising says to people, "Here's what we've got. Here's what it will do for you. Here's how to get it."" - Leo Burnett "Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people" - Martina Navratilova "Before anything else, preparation is the key to success." - Alexander Graham Bell "Marketing takes a day to learn. Unfortunately it takes a lifetime to master." - Philip Kotler "As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information." - Benjamin Disraeli Print - Print any item in this newsletter. Email - Email any item in this newsletter. Comment - Comment on any item in this newsletter. | | Advertisement:
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