DeLaRue

Printing money has been like, well printing money for De La Rue over many years. A shame if paper making problems cause them to loose a major contract for Indian banknotes. You must be on top of quality at all times!

20 Years ago I read a book ‘The Brotherhood of Money: The Secret World of Bank Note Printers’ by Murray Teigh Bloom and recently came across this review on Amazon ‘…..deals with the production, corruption, counterfeiting and screw-ups in the world money-makers and you suddenly find yourself thinking very differently about those little pieces of paper in your pocket!

The bloggers at Blogstorm generally know what they are talking about and they are well worth following by RSS, email or Tweet.

This link is to their latest offering ‘Common Mistakes Big Brands Make in SEO’.   I particularly like the quote ‘give the channel the respect it deserves.’

How well would your brand score on these 5 mistakes?  Do you give this channel the respect it deserves?

Is the future of R&D Tax credits fading fast with Vince Cable and George Osborne in charge.

Currently your R&D expenditure can be grossed up, by 170% or 130% depending on the size of your company, when calculating your tax relief.

For tax purposes it’s not enough that a product is commercially innovative. You can’t claim in respect of projects to develop innovative business products or services that don’t incorporate any advance in science or technology.

It seems the Netto brand will disappear in UK after the sale of  193 stores to Asda. So this search button will no longer help!

Market share seems to be the mantra for supermarkets and this deal may keep Asda at number 2 behind Tesco.

The question for the brand is will Asda be able to compete with Lidl and Aldi

Triumph, the heritage motorcycle marque has Lord Digby Jones as Chairman.
According to the Guardian Jones ‘cites Triumph’s strong brand, new products and a big push at domestic and overseas sales’ as a reason for succeeding post receivership. Add to that the benefit of currency movements, particular the Yen. and you will know why 80% of sales are now exports.

Keep your eye on currency movements to aid purchasing and selling strategies.

We are all covered by rules and codes of conduct, moral, professional or legislative.

New Advertising Codes for all for advertisers and media owners  come into force on 1st September 2010. ‘They include general rules that state advertising must be responsible, must not mislead, or offend, and specific rules that cover advertising to children and ads for alcohol, gambling, motoring, health and financial products.’ More information from Committee of Advertising Practice.

The Office of Fair Trading runs an Approved Code of Practice for customer protection with members entitled to use a special logo. See if it fits your business by reading more.

In the competitive world of seed merchants the more outlets for your product the better.
Thompson Morgan have a well developed Affiliate Programme that works for websites like mine. All the hard work around product, payment, distribution and content management will be done by the brand owner.

In the unlikely event that you want to water your garden with a new irrigation system this summer try this affiliation link

The Unauthorized Guide to Doing Business the Duncan Bannatyne Way: 10 Secrets of the Rags to Riches Dragon by Liz Barclay

The Unauthorized Guide to Doing Business the Alan Sugar Way: 10 Secrets of the Boardroom’s Toughest Interviewer by Emma Murray.

The Unauthorized Guide to Doing Business the Bill Gates Way: 10 Secrets of the World’s Richest Business Leader by Des Dearlove.

The Unauthorized Guide to Doing Business the Richard Branson Way: 10 Secrets of the World’s Greatest Brand Builder by Des Dearlove.

The Unauthorized Guide to Doing Business the Jamie Oliver Way: 10 Secrets of the Irrepressible One-Man Brand by Trevor Clawson.

Once known as a “bling” brand  clothes label Tommy Hilfiger has sold out to join Calvin Klein at  Phillips Van-Heusen after 4 years ownership by Apax partners.

The brand’s eponymous founder will stay on as “principal designer and visionary” .  “Calvin and Tommy are global iconic mega-brands” and since Apax worked wonders relaunching the company it may deserve the €0.7 billion  it is reported to have made on the deal.
That is one heck of an uplift in brand value even discounting product investment along the way.

Property consultancy Drivers Jonas, that is in the process of merging with Deloitte, has been found guilty of “parasitisime” or parasitical behaviour by the Paris Tribunbal de Commerce. Rather than pay for a stand at an exhibition they hired the nearest restaurant to entertain conference delegates. In France that is ‘just not cricket’ according to the 100,000 euro judgement.

I have had clients who have done a similar thing in the UK to contain overall costs and wonder where we all go from here? Take up Boules perhaps!