The official opening of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State Summit kicked off well on Saturday with Free Trade Area (FTA) featuring high on the agenda. 18 Aug 2008
While many retailers around the world are suffering from deteriorating consumer confidence, there is one channel of retail that will continue to boom. According to the latest report from Verdict Research, a Datamonitor company, retail sales at airports will grow by 11% in 2008 to $30bn (about R235bn), making it the fastest growing channel of retail after the Internet. 18 Aug 2008
South African Breweries (SAB) has entered the final stages of its ambitious 'Project Calabash', said to be one of the largest packaging projects ever undertaken in South Africa. The two-year project focuses on replacing 330-million of SAB's iconic 750ml quart bottles with 430-million new 'Calabash' quart bottles, for Castle Lager, Carling Black Label, Hansa Pilsener and Castle Milk Stout. 15 Aug 2008
Activia is challenging consumers to purchase the yoghurt from mid-August until October 2008 and take the '15 Day Challenge'. With its unique probiotic culture, Acti Regularis (patented by the Danone group), the yoghurt is a probiotic food that is scientifically proven to help stimulate the intestines to improve slow *transit time. If consumers are not convinced by the results they can claim their money back. 15 Aug 2008
If only SA corporates and indeed our Olympians could be more like fashion; representing a merger of usually one person's vision with passion, team work and unstinting attention to detail, in the name of making something beautiful. 15 Aug 2008
USA - Looking at its size, shape, white wrist strap and B-button on the bottom, it's easy to compare the Stix with the Wiimote, the wireless controller for the popular Nintendo gaming console. Except the Stix is for your PC. 15 Aug 2008
Indebted South Africans can temporarily breathe a sigh of relief with the announcement that the repo rate will remain unchanged. 15 Aug 2008
In previous columns, I have tried to show how branding and search can work together, but this time, I'd like to start from the opposite end of the spectrum: our brand relationships, from a memory retrieval perspective. 15 Aug 2008
Just because open-source software is free, doesn't mean that you can change it. 15 Aug 2008
I want to expose three lies that email marketers either tell or have told to them by people who should know better. 15 Aug 2008
Retail sales fell for the fourth month running in June, backing the case for the Reserve Bank to keep interest rates steady when its monetary policy committee ends its meeting today. 14 Aug 2008
Mid-year is traditionally slow for retailers but this June, which saw total sales rung up by South Africa's tills fall to R39.7 billion from over R40bn in May, was worse than economists expected. 14 Aug 2008
Following up last week's MediaPost review concerning projected out-of-home ad spending, with additional details about the Total Communications Forecast from Veronis Suhler Stevenson, total communications spending is projected to increase 5.4% to $923.91 billion in 2008, as strong gains in the institutional and alternative media sectors offset the downward pressure of declining traditional advertising spending. 14 Aug 2008
If the video game watchdog group What They Play has it right, parents are more worried about their kids being exposed to adult-themed video games than they are about kids drinking alcohol or viewing pornography. Some have questioned the study's use of "Grand Theft Auto IV" as an example; the researchers say they had to pick a specific, known game in order to avoid misleading survey takers. 14 Aug 2008
Web 2.0 represents big opportunities for small businesses. With so many free and low-cost utilities on the Web, the cost of advertising and communicating with customers and using convenient online tools is low enough for many SMBs to afford. The trick is to align your online activities tightly with your overall business strategy. 14 Aug 2008
The opening of four major shopping malls (Protea Gardens, Baramall, Jabulani and Maponya) in Soweto since 2005 has changed the entire shopping landscape and experience of Sowetans. With further retail development being planned as part of the Orlando eKhaya entertainment and business development project, past shopping behaviour trends of Sowetans to shop outside the area are bound to change. 14 Aug 2008
A new report by independent market analyst Datamonitor reveals the North American market for hosted outbound integrated voice response (IVR) services is set to more than double from an estimated $213 million in 2008 to $524 million by 2013. 14 Aug 2008
Metabolix announced that in recently-completed greenhouse trials, switchgrass plants engineered using the company's multi-gene expression technology produced significant amounts of PHA bioplastics in leaf tissues. This result demonstrates a possible means of maximizing the potential of biomass crops for bioplastics. 14 Aug 2008
As part of the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) efforts to deepen long term regional economic integration, the organisation will on Sunday, 17 August 2008, launch the Free Trade Area (FTA). 13 Aug 2008
Many economists are predicting the interest rate will remain unchanged when the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meet on Wednesday and Thursday to review current monetary policy, but it will be a close call. 13 Aug 2008
Let's do Biz