Tokyo stocks rebound on upbeat machinery orders, economic stimulus

 

From the Blackship.com Business › 09 April, 2009 12:14

TOKYO - Tokyo stocks rebounded Thursday morning with investors cheering better-than-expected Japanese machinery orders data and Japan’s plan to have the largest-ever spending in its fiscal 2009 supplementary budget.
The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average advanced 158.38 points, or 1.84 percent, from Wednesday to 8,753.39. The broader Topix index of all First Section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was up 12.61 points, or 1.55 percent, to 827.87.
Gainers were led by glass and ceramics, machinery and real estate issues. Major losers included gas and electric, pharmaceutical and warehouse issues.
Tokyo stocks remained strong in the morning as a spate of good news came from the domestic front, starting with government data — released shortly before the market opened — that showed core private-sector machinery orders in Japan rose a seasonally adjusted 1.4 percent in February from the previous month to 728.1 billion yen.
”Tokyo shares were boosted by the machinery orders data after the results beat market expectations,” said Hiroichi Nishi, equities chief at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc.
The results compared with the average market forecast of an 8.1 percent drop in a Kyodo News survey.
Predictably, machinery issues came out strong. Among them, leading machine tool manufacturer Mori Seiki rose 54 yen, or nearly 6 percent, to 1,008 yen.
Construction issues like general contractor Obayashi, which gained 2 yen, or around 0.4 percent, to 495 yen, were also firm due to the Japanese government’s economic stimulus plans.
”Investors were hopeful about economic stimulus measures coming out amid media reports that the government is eyeing an extra budget that will involve actual fiscal spending of 15 trillion yen, the largest ever of this kind,” Nishi said.
The extra budget proposal comes as the government and ruling bloc are set Friday to finalize a fresh stimulus package for the coming three years, to be financed partly by the supplementary budget.
Brokers said Thursday’s rise in stocks was also helped by an optimistic market mood owing to the Cabinet Office data released Wednesday showing that business confidence among workers with jobs sensitive to economic trends in Japan improved for the third straight month in March.
Turning to overseas factors, which usually sway the Tokyo market, Nishi said investors were heartened by a rebound in U.S. stocks Wednesday partly in response to a Wall Street Journal report saying Washington will use public money to bail out struggling life insurers.
On the First Section, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones 1,247 to 328, with 119 others ending the morning unchanged.
Morning value leader Toyota Motor advanced 70 yen, or nearly 2 percent, to 3,820 yen. Investors were encouraged by the automaker’s launch of its new Prius gasoline-electric hybrid car in May as the world’s most fuel-efficient gasoline-using car at a time the government plans to offer subsidies for purchases of hybrid and other energy-saving cars.
Banking shares were mixed, but volume leader Mizuho Financial Group edged up 1 yen, or 0.5 percent, to 200 yen, as pessimism about the global financial sector eased.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group fell 1 yen, or 0.2 percent, to 487 yen, after its key brokerage arm, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities Co., said Wednesday an employee sold the personal data of more than 49,000 customers to three dealers of personal data lists.
Trading volume on the main section came to 951.13 million shares, down from Wednesday morning’s 1,164.28 million.
The TSE’s Second Section index was up 6.77 points, or 0.37 percent, to 1,857.51 on a volume of 19.77 million shares. On the Osaka Securities Exchange, the near-term June Nikkei 225 index futures contract was up 190 points to 8,770.
© 2009 Kyodo World News Service

Tokyo stocks rebound on upbeat machinery orders, economic stimulus – The Black Ship: Japan News and Forum

See me, hear me, touch me

As reported in rAVe Europe…

Gartner Research analysts predict HD based video meeting solutions will replace 2.1 million airline seats annually. Speaking at the annual Gartner Predicts 2009 briefing, Gartner Fellow Steve Prentice said, "The challenge of the current economic conditions demands that every organisation revisit the need for face-to-face meetings."

He went to tell the audience “… there is no doubt that Telepresence and other approaches to virtual collaboration such as Immersive Workspace, which is built on top of Second Life, or yet to be released solutions will provide a real alternative for many businesses. Companies should put aside previous prejudices and bad memories of older video-conferencing services and seriously investigate these new technologies."

As rAVe editor Gary Kayye notes, Gartner is… “powerful enough in the IT industry that their predictions can actually accelerate processes already in action.” However, much like the “Digital Signage Revolution” that took a decade to actually get going, while the idea is sound, reality has yet to catch-up with the vision.

The technology behind telepresence has come a long, long way from the clumsy and expensive ISDN systems of yesteryear. I can remember being involved in a videoconference meeting with some colleagues in Dubai many years ago. Once we totalled –up the cost of renting the equipment and the phone lines, it would have been cheaper to actually fly there!

With the advent of cheap, high-speed data transfer over IP networks, we now have a practical technology infrastructure to build workable systems upon. And I think Gartner’s predictions of a future in which virtual meetings are commonplace are essentially correct. But we are still a long way from finding the right medium for that form of communication.

Total immersive workspaces are really the Holy Grail of telepresence. Second Life showed early promise, but I can’t really visualise the CEO of a major corporation chairing a board meeting dressed as a Goth. It seems that the business world shares my views, with many big names reportedly scrapping their Second Life presences.

No, I think the future lies in a technology that allows people to interact naturally – with the technology (or technologies) providing an invisible layer in between. There have been some interesting experiments that predict some of the forms that telepresence might take, such as the virtual CEO addressing a shareholders meeting in Melbourne last year via an HD video link and some clever projection.

But it’s in the realms of personal virtual interaction that the real interest lies. There are some really exciting experiments being done by many companies, including Microsoft, who are working on a revolutionary form of interactive display called Touchlight that allows telepresence users to see and hear each other naturally, and even swap documents and virtual objects by “passing” them to each other. Read more about Touchlight here.

So – telepresence? yes I think it’s inevitable; and when it does arrive it will have an impact on business and personal communications equal to that of email and the internet. Some time soon? maybe not.

AJ

Interaction is the key to success in recession marketing

In the current business climate, survival means being adaptable and resourceful enough to create opportunities where others see none. Easy to say, but not so easy to do when your competitors are also leaving no stone unturned in their own survival efforts. In tough conditions, interaction with your customers is absolutely vital. Interaction makes it easier to judge whether your marketing is working; face-to-face negotiation gives you the chance to close the deal rather than merely talk around it. To fully explore every opportunity, you need a way to talk directly and cost-effectively with your customers and potentials, and to gauge their response quickly. You could invest in advertising; you could spend hours on the phone, or visiting them in person. But is this really the most cost-effective use of your valuable time and marketing resource?

The email newsletter is hard to beat in terms of its immediacy and cost-effectiveness, and is perhaps the reason why electronic forms of customer relationship management are experiencing such unprecedented interest at the moment.

Proctor and Gamble’s CEO A.G. Lafley is reported to have once said, “We have a philosophy and a strategy. When times are tough, you build (market) share.” Building share means staying active and engaged with the market; looking for opportunities rather than running for cover when the clouds of recession gather. The logic behind this strategy is not hard to understand. In difficult times, customers are looking for the best possible deals and competition for every euro of revenue is more intense. The pressures bring existing business relationships under scrutiny and incentivise the hunt for alternatives. This means that while there are clearly threats, there are opportunities too for those with the courage to fight for them. Previous recessions have shown that those businesses that stayed engaged with their customers, kept up their marketing and were quick to seize upon new opportunities gained – and retained – significant market share once conditions started to improve; usually at the expense of their more cautious competitors.

A well-written and presented email newsletter gives you the opportunity to engage with your target audience in a way that no other medium can deliver. It’s versatile, fast and responsive, with a very low unit cost. High-quality content is the key to success: Anyone can send an email, but as PR professionals we know better than most how counter-productive a poorly written or poorly-targeted message can be.

The keyword is “value”: To be effective at building a relationship with your customer or prospect, your offering has to deliver value to them. Nobody likes being spammed, but informative and useful email newsletters are generally very welcome and give you the perfect platform to portray your organisation as being both pro-active in its customer relationships and an opinion leader in its field.

The need for PR or journalistic skills in this environment is self-evident. Companies engaged in this kind of activity are effectively moving into the publishing business and consequently it is vital that content is conceived and delivered with the utmost professionalism if it is to be effective. This is why we’ve launched our own email campaign management system, Eido Direct – to be able to deliver both the content AND the delivery of email communications within the context of a broad PR campaign. Eido Direct allows us to create and manage email campaigns of any size – from tens, to tens of thousands of recipients – quickly and easily. Visit www.eido-pr.eu or email enquiries@eido-pr.eu for more information.

Mitsubishi Electric and C-nario Announce Partnership in Benelux, Eastern Europe, Russia, CIS and Turkey

Mitsubishi Electric’s Visual Information Systems Division in the Netherlands, and C-nario, a global provider of digital signage software solutions, today announced a strategic partnership to provide comprehensive digital signage solutions. Mitsubishi’s product offering, including professional LCD monitors, multimedia projectors, LED display systems and display wall cube systems, will be combined with C-nario’s digital signage software products as turnkey solutions for all system integrators offering digital signage solutions. Mitsubishi Electric Benelux office is responsible for Benelux, Eastern Europe, Russia, CIS and Turkey.

The announcement comes at an exciting time for both parties, with Mitsubishi Electric looking to increase its presence within the narrowcasting/public display sector, and C-nario expanding its digital signage solutions portfolio in the AV and IT channels, strengthening the company’s relations with AV and IT integrators. Both companies expect synergy for all partners in this multi-channel approach.

C-nario’s software-based platform has proven extremely successful in numerous demanding applications, meeting the requirements of a wide range of customers. Through the partnership announced today, Mitsubishi Electric’s and C-nario’s expertise in advanced visual information technologies and applications will enable both companies to deliver complete turnkey narrowcasting/public display solutions, supported by the resources of Mitsubishi Electric, one of the world’s largest engineering businesses.

"We always strive to make digital signage projects implementation as simple as possible, without compromising quality. A standard package of high quality Mitsubishi displays and C-nario’s digital signage operating platform aims to do precisely that. This is an exciting business opportunity to our partners and customers," said Rami Bahar, C-nario’s Vice President Sales and Strategic Planning. "We strongly believe that our partnership with Mitsubishi Electric will greatly enhance our digital signage offering, add further momentum to our strong growth in this sector, and enable integrators to simplify digital signage projects. "

"We are very pleased to announce our partnership with C-nario," said A.C. ter Meulen, President, Mitsubishi Electric Benelux. "We are confident that C-nario’s knowledge and experience within the digital signage sector coupled with Mitsubishi’s comprehensive product range will prove a highly-successful and mutually beneficial partnership".

CEATEC 2008: OOH is getting bigger; ITH is getting skinny and 3D is getting everywhere

I recently visited the CEATEC electronics show in Tokyo and was completely knocked out by some of the technologies on display. CEATEC is perhaps the premier event in the world for the showcasing of new electronics products and technologies. Although I have followed reports of the show religiously for a number of years, this was my first time actual visit – and it didn’t disappoint.

Nearly 200,000 people poured through the doors over the five days of the show; on the day I visited the gate was nearly 48,000. It was packed! But somehow the frenetic atmosphere and jostling to peer through the assembled masses at the latest gadget actually added to the excitement.

The great thing about CEATEC is that it is part pro-equipment and part consumer, so it’s possible to see what’s around the corner in both sectors of the displays business at once.

From a professional standpoint, it’s clear that the digital signage movement has finally gained the momentum that many have been predicting for a number of years. Mitsubishi Electric dedicated virtually the whole of its professional products area to a digital signage display based around its Resolia LED screens and flat panel displays. Image content was delivered to the mix of displays by a new Video over IP solution. Unfortunately, my Japanese didn’t stretch to finding out more, but I’m sure it’s not the last we’ve heard of this particular technology.

 

Aside from Mitsubishi, there were plenty of other manufacturers there hawking displays clearly intended for DOOH applications. Large-format LCDs from a number of companies were much in evidence, and particularly noteworthy was the number of really big format screens – 72” and above – being showcased by Chinese and Korean producers that are as yet unheard of in the West. Possibly an early indication of a price-squeeze in the channel at DOOH hots-up around the world?

The other big trend is for wafer-thin displays, with Sony leading the field with its astonishingly gossamer-like OLED screen. So thin is this screen, in fact, that my camera couldn’t get an accurate focus on it side on – it really is quite remarkable. The picture quality was also quite impressive, and it seems that Sony might be onto something with its OLED. But other manufacturers are following closely and Sony will have to be careful not to make the mistake it did with LED and take its eye off the ball.

The other interesting new display technology on show at CEATEC was Mitsubishi Electric’s Laservue laser powered rear projection TV. The new displays were demonstrated in special private viewing theatres and visitors queued for up to an hour at a time to get a glimpse of this new technology. Aimed at the home market, the colour rendition of Laservue is quite remarkable – the colours really punch-out of the screen – putting this display pretty much at the top-end of the market. both in terms of performance and price. Mitsubishi finished its presentation of Laservue with some 3D footage that was impressive. Although perhaps not quite so interesting at some of the other 3D technologies on show.

3D display has been around for quite a while in various guises but continues to suffer the perennial problem of how to get two separate images onto the same screen without the use of special glasses. That is, until now.

Panasonic had this interesting device on show – a full colour, full motion 3D screen that requires no glasses. As I understand it, special optical strips restrict image crossover between the viewers eyes to give an illusion of depth. It really does work, however as you’d expect, the viewing angle is quite restricted to get the full effect. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting approach. The obvious application is in mobile devices, and on the KDDi stand, they demonstrated just that – a phone with a 3D display. Again, it worked – albeit with the same provisos as the Panasonic.

But perhaps my favourite exhibit of the whole show was a new range of concept mobile phones inspired by Yamaha that really exemplifies the Japanese genius for design and ingenuity: We’ve all heard of playing music on your phone, but how about REALLY playing music – as in strumming a guitar, pounding the keys or blowing some cool sax? Well, now you can, and so can all your friends.

The new phones contain built-in musical instruments that allow you to play by “plucking” strings or hitting tiny piano keyboards or blowing through an electronic mouthpiece. The ensemble shown here demonstrated the possibilities in an onstage jam-session, each member playing a different “instrument”. There’s no denying the genius of the idea, although I suspect the novelty will wear pretty thin on commuters forced to endure endless tinny renditions of ‘Smoke On The Water’ on the 5.17 from Charing Cross.

You can view more pictures of the Mitsubishi stand at CEATEC HERE

The rules of engagement

We recently read an article in The Journalist – the magazine of the National Union of Journalists – that illustrates perfectly how misunderstanding the rules of engagement between journalists and PRs (and their clients) can result in massive problems on both sides.

At Eido we encourage our clients to engage directly with the press, but only if they are comfortable doing so, and with one simple but vital proviso: If you don’t want it printed – don’t say it!

PRs are often criticised by journalists for demanding unreasonable editorial control over interviews given by their clients. And quite often this criticism is justified. We do not condone the practice of demanding “first sight” of any copy written. It is not the PRs place to tell the journalist what they can or can’t write: It is, however, up to us to ensure our clients come across in the best possible way. The first step in achieving that is by making sure our clients understand the rules of engagement.

A journalist writes solely for the publication they’ve been commissioned by – not on our behalf, nor that of our clients. They are independent and guard that independence jealously. Their responsibility is to report what was said fairly, accurately and without bias. This is what they are trained to do, and their professional reputations (and livelihoods!) rest squarely on their ability to do so. Nothing rubs journalists up the wrong way quite like someone questioning their integrity and professional skills by demanding first sight of their work. How would you like it if somebody with little or no experience in your field of expertise insisted on “checking” and “improving” your work? Pretty irritated, I expect.

By simply approaching media contact in the right way, these problems need not arise: Interviews should always be approached as if they were on live TV, with no second chances to correct mistakes. In the light of the above knowledge – that as soon as words leave your lips they are outside of your control – it’s clear that the importance of choosing those words carefully and deliberately can never be overestimated. It occasionally comes as a shock to some when they realise with horror that their ill-thought out or inappropriate comments are destined for the newsstands and that there is very little they – or us – can do about it.

We always tell clients not to expect to see anything before it’s published. That’s not to say we don’t appreciate it when a journalist keeps us in the loop with regard to an interviewee’s contribution. We do, and it certainly helps to keep the relationships between business and media running smoothly. But we don’t expect it and we never demand it. We would like to see greater awareness in PR of the journalist’s perspective, and in so doing, help stamp-out this practice of demanding “first sight”, which does our profession no credit.

Click here to view the original article in The Journalist

This work is licenced under a
Creative Commons Licence.

InAVate – Big screens around the UK for 2012

The London 2012 organising committee has announced the roll out of the UK’s largest-ever network of public giant screens. The network will be funded by private partners and the national lottery, and will include permanent structures in the centre of six large towns around the country.

The total network will be nearer 30 LED screens by the time the 2012 Olympics arrive, but what has been interesting is the reaction of portions of the press to what is being termed the “digital wallpapering” of the UK.

Whilst the Olympic organisers argue that the screens will provide town centres with a lasting legacy from the games, opponents have drawn comparisons with George Orwell’s vision of 1984, in which the public are subjected to information 24hrs a day with no way of switching it off.

From InAVate Magazine. Click below for the original story

InAVate – Big screens around the UK for 2012

Asia.view | This is Japan | Economist.com

The Economist writes about what a 50-year-old periodical tells about how the country has changed—and how it has not

THE cover is a cliché: a frothy crested wave with Mount Fuji in the background. Emblazoned on the image of Hokusai’s woodblock print from the 1830s are the words “This is Japan” and “1958”. At a hefty two kilos and 420 pages, the oversized coffee-table book was published annually by the Asahi newspaper between 1954 and 1971. Early editions came nestled in a wooden box.

The book was designed to present the emerging country to foreigners, largely to drum up business. The articles cover the spectrum of all that a Western reader might associate with Japan, from rice and kimonos to sake and shrines. Their very titles stand as totems of an earlier era: “Japan’s Ports—Past and Present”; “Iron and Steel: A Success Story”; “American Girl Finds Japan.” But while the articles appear self-conscious, the advertisements offer a more candid account of where the country was headed.

From The Economist – click below to read the full article

Asia.view | This is Japan | Economist.com

The power of the internet still under-utilised by business, says new report

The internet has 10 times more influence than traditional print media on the average consumer, says a report from global PR agency, Fleishman-Hillard. According to PR Week, the company interviewed 5000 internet users in the UK, France and Germany to determine the influence that the internet held over their buying patterns. The study concluded  – not surprisingly perhaps – that the internet was the most powerful medium for this group, with television second and traditional print media ambling in a disappointing third. The report cites travel, leisure and health as the sectors most dependent on internet usage.

Whether these results would be accurately duplicated within the industrial world is debatable; nevertheless, the fact that the internet wields incredible power in the b2b world is undeniable. And this makes another key finding of F-H’s research entirely relevant.

Despite all the evidence pointing to the diminishing effectiveness of ‘traditional’ approaches, promotional budgets are still grossly slewed towards print advertising, with online spend only making up a paltry 8% of the total in 2007. The report also notes the increasing influence of online PR , as advertising planning fails to adapt to the web 2.0 world. Yet many companies are apparently still cautious about using the power of PR to reach and influence customers. Surprisingly, it appears that technical b2b businesses are the the worst culprits.

While PR can sometimes seem like a black art, the simple fact is that a well-written press release can reach parts of the internet – and therefore customers – that other forms of communication simply cannot reach.  Well-written in this case means being accessible by both human and non-human readers. Combined with basic search marketing and clever dissemination, well-written PR is an extremely effective way to reach out to potential customers at a fraction of the cost of an advertising blitz.

Wired editor hits back against PR spammers

Sorry PR people: you’re blocked – writes Chris Anderson of WIRED magazine

Fed up with receiving vast quantities of inappropriate or badly written press releases, editor-in-chief of WIRED magazine, Chris Anderson, decided to hit back with some spamming of his own. By publishing the email addresses of the guilty senders, Chris hopes their email addresses will be picked up by spambots, resulting in them being similarly deluged by mass-mailed junk.

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 I’ve had it. I get more than 300 emails a day and my problem isn’t spam (Cloudmark Desktop solves that nicely), it’s PR people. Lazy flacks (American PR agents -Ed.) send press releases to the Editor in Chief of Wired because they can’t be bothered to find out who on my staff, if anyone, might actually be interested in what they’re pitching. Fact: I am an actual person, not a team assigned to read press releases and distribute them to the right editors and writers (that’s editor@wired.com).

So fair warning: I only want two kinds of email: those from people I know, and those from people who have taken the time to find out what I’m interested in and composed a note meant to appeal to that (I love those emails; indeed, that’s why my email address is public).

Everything else gets banned on first abuse. The following is just the last month’s list of people and companies who have been added to my Outlook blocked list. All of them have sent me something inappropriate at some point in the past 30 days. Many of them sent press releases; others just added me to a distribution list without asking. If their address gets harvested by spammers by being published here, so be it–turnabout is fair play.

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From my perspective, this is an interesting  - though fully understandable – escalation of hostilities in the sometimes uneasy relationship between PR and editor. Understandable, because nobody likes to be spammed: Off-the-shelf “media databases” and “journalist lists” combined with inexperienced or over-zealous PRs naturally exposes editors to torrents of unsolicited email. Inevitably, a high percentage of this will be rejected as “junk”. On the one hand, I can really sympathise with the editor on the receiving end of a seemingly endless stream of dull, irrelevant or badly written press releases. But on the other, I think there has to be a little understanding that effective PR does sometimes require us to “chance our arm” a little. Being banished from the land of credibility on your first offence does seem a bit harsh. However, it does also underline the need for PR companies to build and maintain their own databases of contacts rather than rely on bought-in third party products. Journalists are taught to “Do You Own Research”. I don’t think it is unreasonable for journalists to expect the same courtesy from PR companies.