Great business ideas have always made a targeted individual feel special, a member of a select group, standing out of a crowd, ahead of the curve.Approximately twenty years ago, the Chief Executive Officer of a successful advertising agency asked about the next great trend in advertising, the answer at that time was referred to as Secret Rewards. This was described as a discount or benefit program to win and sustain customer loyalty, with very little promotional cost. It worked in the retail environment by simply allowing a manager to select a particular type of customer and, without fanfare, bestow a significant discount or reward on them. The resulting word-of-mouth advertising led to what is referred to today as Social Marketing. A network of reward based recommendations that reduced the cost associated with direct promotions, media advertising and telemarketing strategies.
In the savings and investing field, one was always told to follow the big money. The research that was involved in picking winners was always too expensive to benefit small investors hence, the birth of the mutual fund industry. As more and more information and tracking tools became affordable because of the internet, with most companies presenting their results and outlooks online, day traders and other small investors began to benefit. So, following the big money is no longer the best advice, if the recent construction, housing and mortgage bubble is a guide. The philosophy of Trend Investing, knowing when to get in and when to get out, is a gamblers approach but buying a long-term stake in what you regularly used gets the best results.
Social media has combined the individual’s need for personal interaction with business needs to target customers. That personal communication, via cell phone or computer, is monitored by key words to push advertising that suits the topic being discussed and if one joins a group, club or community online, ‘bots’ pulls information type ads or media releases to match the groups’ interest. Although this may sound like a bad thing to many with no interest in being targeted, at least not now and not about this topic, please remember that without those bothersome ads the cost of the underlying telecommunication service would be ten to twenty times more than you are presently paying and, those ads can be very helpful when they are needed.
As the world’s population grows and the climate change debate rages on, both driving new development models for housing, food and water, power supplies, transportation and of course, security and maintenance, many architects are busy designing Vertical Cities. A center located on the earth hardest bedrock areas and rising hundreds of stories in the air like a mountain range. Outfitted with filter and purified air at controlled temperatures, environmentally farmed and greenhouse grown food, recycled waste and desalinated water, solar wind and hydro electricity generation, cable cars moving both cargo and people horizontally and vertically, and technology based policing and instrument indicating maintenance schedules.
Rationale
T.A.J & Associates Company Limited uses this occasion to comment on topics that have been covered, both academically and by the mainstream media, to add its opinion and point out investment opportunity, not to invoke any social action.
