Marina Mann

Apple’s Market Cap Closing In On Microsoft’s (MSFT, AAPL) Remember when Apple was on death’s door and needed an investment from Microsoft to survive? Well, a lot’s changed since then.  In May 2000, Apple’s market capitalization was $17 billion. Today it’s $182 billion. Meanwhile, Microsoft was around $356 billion in May 2000. Today it’s around [...]

Cost per click for paid search is on the rise forcing companies to spend more on their Search Engine Marketing. With Google’s monopoly on search growing, expect average rates to continue to rise. Using superficial metrics, such as click through rates and cost per click to inform your Search Marketing decisions can reduce campaign effectiveness.  [...]

Two big things happened at iTunes on April 9th, 2009. First iTunes unveiled three-tier pricing and ended their practice of selling individual songs for $0.99 each. Now customers will pay $0.69, $0.99 and $1.29 for songs. The price change is due to pressure from the record labels to increase their profit share and Apple’s firm [...]

With consumer confidence down, consumer spending down, why bother spending money developing Marketing applications for the iPhone/iTouch? Well, ongoing research is demonstrating that brands that ignor iPhone application strategy for their products are, and will be,  leaving money on the table. In market research terms, iPhone users have now become their own “segment”. Not only [...]

The Social Media conversation is powered by Web 2.0 which is now effectively more popular than porn, it’s clear it’s not a fad. Social Media is a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. Brands that understand the importance of an intimate conversation with their customers stand to benefit with runaway growth. Online communities are [...]

According to Chris Anderson, the idea of “feeconomics” is not a new one; making money by giving something away has been going on for some time. Chris Anderson is one of my favorite speakers. I had the exalt and the pain of following Anderson at an Infopresse conference last year. At the time, he was [...]

“Yahoo, which doesn’t have to pay any termination penalty, now says it’s moving on.” The proposed partnership deal, first announced in June 2008, would have allowed Yahoo to display ads from Google and then take a portion of the revenue.  Google’s current share of the online ad market is estimated to be as high as [...]

The National Do-Not-Call List goes into effect today! According to the CBC, telemarketing is big business in Canada. In 2006 alone, $4.1 billion was spent on telemarketing in Canada, generating $26.1 billion in sales and creating 155,000 jobs. However, telemarketing is by far the most intrusive marketing in Canada.  As of today, Canadians are now [...]