Despite the sensual images and emotional reactions associated with fragrance, the chances are when you think about Valentine's Day gifts this year, you'll think about flowers, chocolates, or a dinner at your favorite restaurant, before you consider a bottle of perfume.
That's not a huge surprise given the downward trends in fragrance sales. Except for a brief pick-up beginning in 2006 — when a number of celebrities began selling their own fragrances, generating new interest in the category — fragrance sales have languished since the economic downturn that followed the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
As consumers clamped down on discretionary spending in the latest recession, sales dropped precipitously.
"The recession just kind of put the last nail in the coffin, to put it bluntly," said Rochelle Bloom, president of the industry's trade group, The Fragrance Foundation.
According to market researcher NPD, sales of so-called prestige fragrances — typically the high-end, designer scents sold by department stores — fell 10 percent in 2009 from the prior year. This was a sharp acceleration of the 6 percent decline from 2007 to 2008, and a 1 percent decline from 2006 to 2007.
With a bad situation turning worse, the fragrance manufacturers — who are often secretive, and most certainly fiercely competitive — are banding together to do a national campaign to encourage men and women who use perfumes and other scented products, to do so more often.
Although the organization was founded in 1949, Bloom said she believes this is the first national, multi-media campaign the industry has done through the trade organization.
According to Bloom, the slowdown in consumer spending certainly dealt a body blow to the industry, but there were other things that were going on that were hurting business as well.
"Fragrance gets a bum rap," Bloom said, explaining that many people starting believing it was unacceptable to wear fragrance in the workplace. It began to get a perception that it was bad for the environment or that it triggered people's allergies.
Plus, in an attempt to spark consumer interest fragrance companies began churning out tons of new products each year, hoping that at least some of them would resonate with shoppers and energize the category.
Bloom thinks the opposite happened. Consumers became confused, she said.
...

Read the full CNBC article here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/35257856/

U.S. retail e-commerce sales in Q3 2009 rose 4.5% on a quarterly basis, from $32.5 billion to $34 billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. On an annual basis, they rose 1.8%, from $33.4 billion.

As a percentage of overall U.S. retail sales, e-commerce sales slightly rose on a quarterly basis, from 3.6% to 3.7%. On an annual basis, they rose from 3.4%. In terms of dollar value, overall U.S. retail sales totaled $922.2 billion. This represented a 1.7% increase from $906.4 billion in Q2 2009 and a 7.5% decrease from $997 billion in Q3 2008.

The retail industry has displayed a number of signals this year suggesting e-commerce is growing in popularity with consumers. Amazon.com, the leading pure play e-commerce retailer, reported strong Q3 2009 results, with a 68% increase in net income and 28% increase in net sales. Continued ...

Found on Retailer Daily.

The loved and influential women in our lives are at risk. 

About 1 in 8 American women will be diagnosed with breast cancer next year.  Of these, about 40,000 will die.  In North America, breast cancer death rates are higher for women than those of almost any other cancer.   And so each year, the month of October is dedicated to raising money and awareness for breast cancer research and prevention.

This year, the founder of Estée Lauder, Mrs. Evelyn H. Lauder, welcomed a large pink-laden crowd to the fashion house's headquarters in NYC, for the official launch of the worldwide October Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign 2009.  Few realize that one of the fragrance world's leaders, the house of Estée Lauder, is also a forerunner in the fight against breast cancer.  

In 1992 Mrs. Lauder co-created the now infamous pink ribbon to help raise breast health awareness and 85 million ribbons later, these sweet little advocacy tools are as legendary as the fashion house itself.  For the Fall 2009 campaign, fifteen different associate companies of Estée Lauder are presenting a stock of products with partial sales proceeds going to the fight against breast cancer.  At the NYC launch, the crowd of media and beauty bloggers browsed through tables of showcased product while sipping pink lemonade and munching on pink cupcakes and chocolate-dipped strawberries.

Some of the Estée Lauder fragrances offering proceeds to cancer research are the limited edition DKNY Cashmere Mist eau de parfum, Beautiful by Estée Lauder, Sean John's I Am King cologne, and Be Delicious Fresh Blossom by Donna Karan.

Even better for the million more who weren't in attendance, Perfume.com is showing its support of the fight against breast cancer by donating a portion of the proceeds of select pink perfumes to the National Breast Cancer Society. Shopping never felt so good!

Some of Perfume.com's  PINK PERFUMES include:

Love Of Pink by Lacoste: Rosy hues dance around this gentle fruity floral scent intended for young romantics.  Love Of Pink is soft and zest, with ruby orange and passion fruit warmed by musk and vanilla.

Rock'n Rose Couture by Valentino: Heady amounts of rose are challenged by a solid base of edgy bergamot, a fresh scent for the woman who is a rose on the outside and a rocker on the inside.

Brit Sheer by Burberry: A playful and joyful fragrance, with fresh citrus notes over soft florals and a base of musk and blond woods.

Ma Dame by Jean Paul Gaultier: A brilliant and electrifying fragrance for women, this scent is young, free-spirited and bold.  A floral scent balanced by zesty citrus and romantic woods.

Kenzo Amour: A serene fragrance with a woody base, Kenzo Amour is both vibrant and gentle, with frangipani playing with vanilla, cherry blossoms and rich woods.

Euphoria by Calvin Klein: A sharp, seductive fragrance that contrasts exotic fruits with lush florals.  Champaca flowers with liquid amber and crisp greens spells out the smell of sophistication.

Very Irresistible by Givenchy: An irresistible blend of sparkling fruity-floral notes, mixing with five varieties of rose. 

Rockin Rio by Escada: An explosion of fresh citrus and a sugary heart of candy.  A warm base with sandalwood and coconut milk add a relaxed and sensual essence.

Blog post found on Newsweek.com:

The well-deserved success of Mint.com, and what other Web businesses can learn from it.

Earlier this week, Intuit, the software company that owns the popular personal-finance software programs Quicken and TurboTax, agreed to pay $170 million in cash for Mint.com, a two-year-old startup whose free tools allow chastened customers to manage their personal finances online. Some critics, such as Web entrepreneur Jason Fried, view the deal as a defeat for upstarts: A wounded incumbent that charges hefty fees for its services is taking out a free competitor for a relatively small sum and increasing its market power. (Last year, Slate's "Shopping" column tabbed Quicken.com and Mint.com as the best online tools for keeping track of personal finances.) But the all-cash deal, which will provide a hefty payday for the company's founders and venture capital investors, represents a triumph of a new business model. Indeed, the sale of Mint.com may be the first big payoff for a Web 2.5 company.
Web 2.0 refers to the generation of companies and services built on the wreckage of Web 1.0.

Live Current Media and Domain Name Strategies are happy to announce that karate.com is now live.

Karate.com is the Number 1 site for those who love Karate. It is an online
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Please scent yourselves accordingly here.

In June 2003 at The Rose Bowl in Hampshire, England, the very first game of Twenty20 cricket was played between the two English county teams Hampshire and Sussex. Rather anti-climactically, the first ball was a wide. But the bowler quickly ran back to his mark to bowl again displaying a sense of urgency seldom seen in this most parochial of sports.
The inventor, former English Cricket Board (ECB) Marketing Manager Stuart Robertson had been instructed by his employer to research ways in which cricket could be made more accessible. Market research had shown that people felt excluded by the longer versions of cricket because of the time required to complete a game. Something was required that people could watch after school or work with their family and friends that would only last a few hours.
Twenty20 ticked all the boxes and became a big success. Four years later the ICC held the inaugural T20 World Cup in South Africa and the money started rolling in.
The winners of that first World Cup, India had largely ignored T20 cricket up until that point. But as the legions of fanatical Indian cricket lovers celebrated, plans were underway for what is now one of the most watched sporting events on the planet - the Indian Premier League (IPL)
There is quite rightly, a sense of national pride in India associated with the IPL. This tournament alone will go along way to redefining the game of cricket.
T20 is very much a game for the modern want it now generation and has many purists worried. Test Cricket - the very rock upon which cricket was built - the ultimate test of not just individual cricketing skills but of inner strength and character is on the wane.
After a very successful - albeit forced foray into a foreign market (the second season of IPL was held in South Africa this year because of security concerns in India), the entrepreneurs behind the IPL are eyeing up further expansion. This time - in America. America is not seen as a traditional cricketing nation but the prospect of a second season of IPL to be played in the US during the summer has become a very real possibility.
With the number of sub-continent and Caribbean expats in the US it is estimated that there are 15 to 20 million cricket fans in America. With a potential audience of more than double that figure it makes America the second biggest cricket market - for Twenty20 - outside of India.
The real challenge lies in how to sell Twenty20 to your average American who may have never seen the game before. The skeptics will wonder how on earth cricket can be a success in America when its main sporting rival, baseball, is so popular.
The Chairman of the IPL, Lalit Modi - points to many interesting statistics when eyeing expansion into the US. In the IPL for instance, 70% of the audience attending matches had never been to a game of cricket before. Out of that 70%, 80% of these people went to 2 or more games. Modi is confident and rightly so.
It may surprise some to learn that America does have a cricketing history. In fact, the first ever game of International cricket was played between the US and Canada in 1844. The match was held in New York and was watched by more than 10,000 spectators.
There are currently no professional cricket leagues or teams in the US however, but interestingly, the game is played extensively at grass roots level. The next step is there to be taken and the canny marketers behind the IPL are ready to pounce.
There are other cricketing frontiers that the International Cricket Council (ICC) is eyeing for expansion. The most notable country on the hit list is China. - A fledging cricketing nation in every sense of the word who has set itself the target of participating in the 2019 World Cup. If China falls in love with cricket it is quite conceivable that they could become a cricketing super-power the equal of India in 20 or 30 years from now.
The game of cricket, once the most English and exclusive of games is now well on the way to becoming entrenched in the global sporting consciousness along side sports such as football and to a lesser degree rugby. The reach and appeal of the IPL is testament to the cultural and economic growth of India. The spiritual home of cricket may well be Lords in London. But the future of the game most definitely lies elsewhere.
Thanks to Twenty20, the game of cricket is on the up. The modern game is being shaped by the masses of IPL fans in India and by the players who can now command huge salaries like never before. The game is no longer being run by a group of pipe smoking, walking stick wielding, old school tie wearing fuddy-duddies. Cricket is going global.

by AndrewBurns on Sunday, 28 June 2009 at 05:53 UAE time.

Found on guardian.co.uk:

Manchester United have been rated the eighth most valuable sports brand in the world in a new study which for the first time has assessed the comparative worths of 200 brands across the sporting spectrum.

Brands from the United States head the list compiled by SportsPro magazine, with the National Football League's value of $4.5bn (£2.75bn) ranking it No1, ahead of Major League Baseball ($3.936bn), and the National Basketball Association ($2.344bn).

United are valued at $1.495bn, three places and £200m behind the Fifa World Cup, worth $1.7bn.

The headline success story is the fledgling Indian Premier League which despite being two seasons old is rated only a place and £100m less valuable than the World Cup, the flagship property of the planet's most popular sport.

The Premier League, though, was not considered in the analysis. "The EPL and some other leagues did not make the list because they are owned by the clubs and are effectively revenue distribution entities not properties," said Tom Rubython, the editor-in-chief of SportsPro.

"As in the case of the EPL shares are returned on a team's relegation and handed over to the promoted teams. Effectively they are like a mutual ie, an old-fashioned building society. The EPL is obviously valuable but not in a monetary sense, which is why the top teams in Europe will eventually form their own league they can actually own.

"Conversely the NFL and all the other leagues in the table is a permanent league with no promotion or relegation."

While the $1.55bn-valued Ferrari is the top-ranked team, a place ahead of United, the Premier League champions are ahead of formula one ($1.45bn), which is ninth, the $1.1bn Champions League (13th), and Real Madrid, worth $1.073bn in 14th place.

Arsenal is the next highest English club in 21st, with a value of $910m, six places above Liverpool ($801m). Chelsea's $634m pushes into 55th.

Blog found on TechCrunch:

Yahoo Is Now Resorting To Selling Killer Domain Names On The Cheap
by MG Siegler on June 17, 2009

No sooner do we finish writing up Yahoo deadpooling yet another project, Gallery, do we get a tip that Yahoo apparently has another money saving/making plan: Selling off domains it owns. That's exactly what it has done with contests.com, which sold during a live auction last night.

What's really odd though (aside from an Internet giant actually selling a domain rather than buying one), is the price at which it sold. Contests.com is a killer domain name. People like my mother love nothing more than going online and searching for contests to enter to win stuff. But what's crazy is that Yahoo sold it for only $380,000.

Let's put that in some perspective. In February, Toys.com sold for $5.1 million in auction. Sure, that's a better domain, but not over 10 times better. And a few weeks ago, Candy.com sold for $3 million.

How Yahoo failed to secure even a million for the name is beyond me. Just poor luck in the auction? This guy, who apparently left right before the auction started last night is flabbergasted as well.

I just really would like to know why Yahoo would even sell it in the first place? I know times are tough at Yahoo but is $380K really going to help much in the long run? No. Hell, it'd probably be better to keep the domain and just put a load of ads on it, perhaps even Google ads. Or, I don't know, run some Yahoo contests on it. People on the web love that stuff, I hear.

Matthew Hayden, enjoying huge success in the Indian Premier League, which reaches its climax in South Africa this weekend, has called on the game's governing body to take note of the success of Twenty20 cricket and make future international programmes reflect this.

...

Read the whole "guardian.co.uk" article HERE.

Check it out here and don't forget Mother's Day is Sunday, May 10th.

The IPL will now finally take place in SA after IPL chairman Lalit Modi met CSA chief Gerald Majola at an undisclosed venue to discuss the possibility of hosting the second edition of the Twenty20 event here. They both attended a joint press conference and the salient points of the press conference are here as follows...

Please continue reading here.