The Promo Direct Blog

If you are a die-hard fan of sports, here is some good news for you! Amazon has added sports memorabilia to its gargantuan online store. This was announced recently. The Amazon store will have more than two million licensed items in its Sports Collectibles Store. Many top sports companies like NFL, NBA, FIFA, including Major League Baseball will showcase their sports items on this store. Shoppers can search and sort items by sport, team, type of item, price, and year. The items include trading cards, autographed apparel, game-worn jerseys and tickets stubs which are most popular among the sports lovers.

Amazon says it will take great take care to validate the quality and authenticity of the items in its store so that its buyers can be assured of the originality of the items they buy. For this they will go so far as to get conditional ratings from memorabilia authorities such as Professional Sports Authenticator, Beckett Grading Services, and James Spence Authentication.

Peter Faricy, VP Amazon Marketplace, concluded in an official statement that Amazon would provide its a-to-z Guarantee protection on all purchases to prioritize authenticated selection.

Fans can get items depending upon their budget. For high-end memorabilia they can pick up a Babe Ruth autographed baseball for a nice chunk of $46,434.95 or for a low-budget item that still has great start value, they can pick up Dennis Rodman basketball cards for just $14.99. There’s something for everyone.

Dan Jamieson, CEO of Icons, a FIFA-licensed memorabilia company, expressed a positive note about the new venture of Amazon and concluded that it would be interesting and beneficial for both vendors and buyers of sports items.

Jamieson, in a delighted mood, also said, “This is a big deal for us and our customers because Amazon provides a great opportunity for Icons to reach millions of soccer fans in an easy way and serve them with high quality, unique, genuinely hand-signed items.”

All-in-all this new memorabilia store is ready to become the buzz among sports fans. This is going to be another popular platform where sports fans can find some unique collectibles they always wanted. This store will bring to life many dreams and aspirations of sports lovers everywhere.

Tags: Amazon, News, Sports Store

The success of every business depends on the implementation of right kind of marketing techniques to position its product(s) or service in the market. In order to achieve that, the marketing team of every business has to understand the behavioral psychology of their consumers including various nuances and preferences. In short, marketing guys should be able to promote a product in the most unique manner at the right time and place after knowing people’s requirement and their affordability. These are the basic marketing-mix theories even the most efficient marketing guru will follow to build a brand in the market.

However, the right marketing mix can be produced only if your business/product(s) have certain attributes to be promoted. Most importantly, your products should have the features and quality that are hard to find in the market currently. You need to understand the pulse of the market in order to identify that. If your product can promise these aspects to the consumers, there is a great chance that your product will sail across smoothly.

One more crucial characteristic of any product promotion is its price in the market. Consumers should be able to compare it with its quality and uniqueness. In other words pricing is not what you decide after considering your cost and reserving profit margin—it is how consumers perceive it in terms of its actual worth for which they are spending.

The next important aspect that comes in the marketing mix is the way products are made available to the consumers in the market. This includes transportation, storage—in short the entire channel of distribution.

The final and the most essential facet is the promotion of your product(s). Promotion is a way of connecting your product(s) or service to your consumers in a way that is impressive, transparent and with a prospect of adding value to overall market offerings. Effective product promotion will also include quantity and cost of making those available to the consumers. Your promotion should also highlight what your peers are missing as a part of your product feature. In fact effective promotion creates new needs for the market and gives your consumers a valid reason to spend.

Any business, irrespective of size and geography of operations, if includes these basic rules in their marketing mix, can see their revenue and business growing multi-fold and successfully.

Tags: Business Promotion, Marketing Techniques

Boosting the morale of entrepreneurs, the Obama Administration is making funding easy for business start-ups by introducing various Tax breaks and also making it easier for IPOs.

The idea behind the proposal is to make funding small businesses with start-up capital more attractive. By doing away with taxes on capital gains on investments this will happen easily. In addition, it would also increase the amount of money that will not need to be routed through SEC registration from $5 million a year to $50 million. This proposal is going to be part of Obama’s 2013 budget plan.

A few other highlights of the proposal

• Tax reduction on startup expenses
• A policy that will allow businesses to deduct cost of equipment and software
• Grow the Government small business investment program by $1 billion

Addressing The Associated Press, director of the White House National Economic Council, Gene Sperling said that the Obama administration is aware of how much small and new businesses drive job growth in the national economy; leveraging on these new business starters by certain federal supports like tax breaks is the most logical aspect that is being practiced.

Sperling further informed the AP, “Our small business agenda has a specific focus on removing the barriers that have for too long blocked startups and entrepreneurs from getting the financing they need to accelerate their growth and hiring.” While some welcomed the policy, some think making public funding by relaxing regulations would be prone to fraud.

Tags: Obama, Small Business

The conglomerate that was once rated as the eighth largest company in the world by the Forbes Group is the brainchild of the smartest man on Wall Street. A sagacious investor by nature, Warren Buffet, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, built his empire through strategic investment, which was came intrinsically to him. He first filed his income tax in 1944 and at the age of 11 he first bought stocks of Cities Service.

The empire of Berkshire Hathaway spreads across pharmaceuticals, oil and gas, media, insurance, to financial services, food, construction, and many more. Apart from this, Berkshire Hathaway owns several companies in diverse industrial sectors, making it almost a $ 50 billion company in terms of equity valuation.

In 1962 Buffet started investing in a textile manufacturing firm in Berkshire Hathaway and in 1965 Buffet’s partnership started buying Berkshire shares very aggressively. In 1988 Buffet bought shares up to 7% for $1.20 billion of Coca Cola Company. Buffet became a billionaire when Berkshire Hathaway started selling class-A shares in 1990. During a sub-prime phase Berkshire’s earnings dropped 77% in the third quarter of 2008. Buffet helped Dow Chemicals with $ 18.8 billion takeover of Rohm and Haas and became the single largest shareholder in the enlarged group with his Berkshire Hathaway.

Tags: Infography, Warren Buffet

The ongoing economic threat has pushed America to reconsider its worldwide financial aid when things at home front are looking bleak. Many believe that the Federal Government should take cognizance of the fact that economic hardships are growing for Americans and home issues should top the priority list for any policy formulation. However, looking at history, it was never in the American spirit to ignore things even at the darkest hour, even in times like the Great Depression or economic struggle that would otherwise affect general life. The American spirit of courage, sacrifice, and passion to bring a change has always won and survived the onslaught of economic turmoil.

Fact is that you can help others when you yourself are strong enough to survive. Is US fit to help others? With an unemployment-rate of 9.2 percent in June 2011, and the Great Recession in 2008 unemployment is still a massive problem. The Federal Government’s unemployment benefit schemes are just a Band-Aid and no lasting solution to the problem. The ever-growing trade deficit is a perennial concern along with the surging Chinese economy. Moreover, the valuation of Chinese currency (kept artificially low) is further affecting the American Dollar. With all this going on, critics believe America should hold back its humanitarian aid to the world.

It is worth mentioning that even with the global economic crisis, an average American still has a better lifestyle than his counterpart anywhere else in the world. People in third world countries and in Africa still don’t have access to basic amenities like pure drinking water, proper education and still fighting with diseases that have a cure. The counter-argument is that helping others is not all about resources. All it takes is courage, sacrifice, and a solemn obligation towards building a bigger community. The American dream is characterized by equality, freedom of living, and upliftment of communities worldwide.

However, there is another school of thought—one that believes the world is no longer taken in by American philanthropy and there are countries which don’t like America meddling in their internal affairs. This faction says that instead of trying to help others, America should focus on its own affairs.

These debates are never-ending. We just wait and watch—how much of these donations will affect the home economy and will the US economy improve with the immediate suspension of these aids?