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Fuel wage talks hit deadlock

Written on July 23, 2011 – 7:13 am | by Ashley Johnson

Petrol sector talks have reached a deadlock, the National Petroleum Employers’ Association (NPEA) said on Saturday.

Photos from the front linesM&G photographer Oupa Nkosi arrived in the industrial area of Alrode in Alberton to a sea of disgruntled workers. He approached the volatile situation with patience and, several hours later, emerged with the shot.More slideshows”We concluded that we have reached a deadlock yesterday [Friday] and the next steps were not confirmed,” said spokesperson Mxolisi Ratsibe.

He said parties did not agree on when the next meeting would take place.

The Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Worker’s Union (CEPPWAWU) were demanding a wage increase of 11% to 13% and a minimum wage of R6 000.

Employees also wanted a ban on labour brokers and were asking employers to address issues of compassionate and maternity leave as well as the number of working hours and the shift allowance.

CEPPWAWU spokesperson Cedrick Maluleke was not immediately available for comment.

Workers went on strike two weeks ago causing fuel shortages in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo.

On Saturday, the SA Petroleum Industry Association’s Jean Dennis said the delivery of fuel “had definitely improved”. Read more…

Tags: Deadlock

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Greek deal to put country in default

Written on July 21, 2011 – 1:48 pm | by Ashley Johnson

Greece will be ruled in default on its debt as a result of a new eurozone plan asking investors to take losses on the country’s bonds, Fitch ratings agency said Friday.

However, the move is unlikely to trigger payment of bond insurance — easing a key concern for Greek and European leaders seeking to contain the continent’s debt crisis.

The new rescue plan includes asking bondholders to accept new debt with lower interest rates and a longer 30-year repayment to help cut the country’s debt burden and give it time to reform its economy. The lower rates over time will mean investment losses for those holding the bonds.

When a debtor changes the terms of a loan to the creditors’ disadvantage, it is considered in default, and European leaders knew their plan would probably force the downgrade.

But Greece’s stay in default — expected to happen in the fall — will likely be brief. Fitch Ratings said on Friday that it could move it up to junk-level as soon as it issues the new, replacement bonds. Read more…

Tags: Default

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Optimising for your most profitable long-term customers

Written on July 20, 2011 – 11:57 pm | by Ashley Johnson

As hardworking e-commerce marketers, you might measure success using ROI, Customer Acquisition Rate, Net Profit, and so on. 

However, while these tactics are essential to the growth of any successful company, they don’t tackle the ultimate objective: managing campaigns to maximise customer lifetime value (LTV).

Within most marketing channels, ALL customers and orders are created equal, which means you’re paying the same amount to acquire customers, regardless of quality.

The best way to approach this problem is to ask a simple question: “which customers do I want to come back, and which ones are destroying my margins?” In other words, what’s a given customer’s true lifetime value, and how is s/he driving the success or failure of my company?

It’s more than likely that the 80/20 rule applies to most companies, where 20% of your customers account for the largest portion of your ongoing business.

Does your company currently measure the LTV of your customer base? Do you know wh

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Three reasons why the digital display ecosystem will fail

Written on July 20, 2011 – 8:08 am | by Ashley Johnson

Here are the three reasons most of the companies within Terence Kawaja’s display advertising landscape map will fail, and the three types of companies that will win big.

Much has been written about the notorious “logo vomit” map of famed internet banker Terence Kawaja. I reference his handy charts on my blog, and often his “Display LUMAscape” as a reference point for thinking about the digital display business, and what will happen to it.

Many have tried to navigate through the various categories and dissect what may be “happening” in the space, which is a favorite pastime of company executives trying to raise money for many of the identified advertising technology outfits referenced within.

Nobody ever really tries to explain the whole thing, though. It’s just too complicated, I guess. Allow me to try:

A few years ago, people started to figure out that you could use technology to target advertising to people on the web. Ever since th

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Tags: Fail, Three Reasons

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To prevent cord cutting, cable networks embrace the web

Written on July 19, 2011 – 7:09 pm | by Ashley Johnson

Are cable customers ditching their cords, or shaving them? While the debate over what cable customers are doing and planning to do with their cords continues, one thing is clear: cable players are concerned.

So in an effort to prevent cord cutting, they’re increasing looking to find ways to embrace the channel cord cutting is blamed on the internet.

Already, HBO makes its programming available to subscribers over the internet via its HBO Go service.

The logic behind the service is simple: subscribers to HBO shouldn’t be forced to enjoy HBO’s programming on the small screen if they would prefer to enjoy it on desktops, laptops and internet-connected mobile devices.

Yesterday, CNN jumped into the fray with a similar approach. It’s now offering live streaming of CNN and HLN to customers of large cable services, including Comcast, AT&T, Verizon and Time Warner Cable.

All told, some 50m cable customers in the United States can now stream CNN and HLN over the internet via cnn.com and the CNN iPad app.

According to Turner Broadcasting Vice Chairman Andy Heller, “We’re trying to lead by example. W

Read more…

Tags: Cable, Cable Networks

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