Sony PS3 faced calendar problem...now solved

Sony's competition with Nintendo Wii and Microsoft XBOX has taken another small dip yesterday as a problem with the PS3 has left many owners unable to access the PlayStation Network or even worse play some other the most sought after games including Heavy Rain.

PlayStation 3 owners worldwide yesterday report huge issues where they were actually locked out of their online accounts and were unable to use any of the PlayStation 3’s online features. An undisclosed number of games have fallen prey to the problem too, presenting perplexed PlayStation punters with a mystifying error code whenever they try to log on.

The issue has been taken very seriously by Sony who has put most of its engineers at work to identify the issue and come up with a solution. The solution was found a few hours after a it was discovered that the PS3 was recognising the year 2010 as a leap year and hence affected the switch from February 28 to March 1 date.

Sony took all steps to communicate updates to the public and has also been using its twitter account to distribute updates (http://twitter.com/SonyPlayStation)...this helped a lot relieving some of the pressure that gaming groups could have exercised if left in the dark!

HSBC thinking to take bonuses in shares rather than cash

After the huge issues that banks all over the world faced, with some of then having to be bailed out by public funding there is a huge issue around the issue of senior management bonuses. Some of the bank bosses of these banks, including Lloyds and RBS have already announced that they will be forgoing their bonuses. Now it's HSBC turn...although the bank hasn't been bailed out from public funding it still had to resort to a gigantic right issue (£12 bn) and public opinion was not in favour of such bonuses being handed out.

Michael Geoghegan, HSBC's chief executive, is believed to be ready to announce that he will not be taking the bonus in cash (as this could be a drain on the bank liquid finances) but instead could opt in taking his bonus in shares rather when the bank reports its full year results tomorrow.

HSBC is expected to announce it made profits of more than $11bn during 2009. But its chairman, Stephen Green, who is paid a salary of more than £1m will once again announce he will be waiving his bonus entitlements for the third consecutive month.

Will this surge of public anger in the face of huge bonus paid to banking executives lead to a new era of banking executives?

Milka to attract Dairy Milk...will it end up as the battle between Kraft and Cadbury?

Kraft...after it managed to acquire Cadbury it decided to go head to head with it's flagship brand...Dairy Milk. In this regard, Kraft is gearing up for a UK roll-out of its flagship Milka chocolate brand in the UK

Kraft will launch Milka with a TV campaign, created by Ogilvy, on April 19th. Shooting for the spots are expected to start next week. The activity will include multi variate advertising including adverts in the press to promote the six different Milka variants and highlight the fact that they are made with Alpine milk.

Currently Dairy Milk is market leader in the UK, with sales of £371m last year, (nearly twice as much as its nearest competitor Mars' Galaxy which made £192m last year).

Will this start causing distress already between these two confectionery brands?

A new flavour will hit the market soon...discover the fifth taste

A new ingredient will hit British kitchens...it cannot be described as sweet or sour, bitter or salty...it is simply the Fifth Taste. This new taste is being launched by Laura Santtini, a chef and food writer.

The Fifth Taste, is basically a tube of umami, whose Japanese name roughly translates as "deliciousness".Waitrose will be the first supermarket to stock Taste No 5, a paste made from umami-rich foods such as tomato, Parmesan cheese and porcini mushrooms.

The new flavour, can be used as a main ingredient in stews, meat, and even as a condiment spread for panini, crostini and dressings. The existence of the umami taste was first discovered early last century by the Japanese and, although widely adopted in Italian cuisine, has only recently been accepted by Western scientists.

Will you be one who tries it? Let us know what you think about it...next week will be on sale.

Toyota is still not out of the woods

Toyota's problems might not have ended at all as it is considering the global recall of 300,000 Prius hybrid models as it is being claimed that these might be suffering from braking problems on icy roads.

A spokesman for Toyota in Great Britain said that the company is looking at all the customer feedback and data they have from US and Japanese bases. However for the time being the company hasn't yet decided what to do.

Should it be admitted that yet another problem has affected another Toyota model, it prove to be a huge blow to the Japanese automotive giant, which has already launched the recall of eight million vehicles suffering with an accelerator pedal fault.

Toyota is actively working on PR to help reassure consumers on the quality promise of the brand. These promotions have been launched five days after the marque rolled out a similar campaign in the US.

Toyota is closely monitoring customer opinions and concerns and no decision has yet been taken on whether to run further marketing activity later on this week. In my opinion, Toyota should not look at costs of marketing at the time being and go aggressive to reassure its current and potential clients. One must remember that Toyota is associated with quality and such link must be defended as it represents a competitive advantage for the brand.

Dominos change their route and take onboard Web2.0

Do you remember when Dominos was hit by a wave of negative publicity after some of its employees decided to put a video of their wrong doings online? At the time Dominos did not have any Web2.0 presence but was forced to go in and reply to the video in a few days.

From them on, Dominos looked at the internet as a good medium to promote. They have now issued a facebook campaign, basically a superfans app that sends users a promotional code linked to an offer. In addition there is an online competition to find Domino’s biggest followers or the 'Superfan King' and 'Superfan Queen'.

Fans have to compete between themselves on the number if fans they recruit. The winner will get prices from Dominos. The Domino's fan page on Facebook will also feature Domino's news, events and details of how to order online. Their change in online strategy can also be seen from the words ofDominos the outgoing marketing director who said that Facebook is central to Dominos social media strategy and this application will enable them to leverage the importance of brand advocates in growing their customer base.

Is this an admitance of the importance of the internet?

HP seeks to make their offer more attractive to the online community

As more consumers turn online to listen to music and on such sites as Spotify, it is being made clear that to attract more customers these sites are a good tie up potential. HP has recognised this and has agreed a deal with subscription music provider Omnifone for 16 of its PCs in ten European countries to offer access to unlimited streamed music from all four major labels and leading independents.

Consumers who buy Pavilion, Presario and Envy PCs will be offered a 14-day free trial for the Musicstation service. The downside of this offer is that the service is time barred and that consumer, after the 14-day trial will be asked to pay £8.99 a month to continue receiving streaming access of up to ten MP3 downloads each month. Is this worth it after all?



Michael Paull, executive VP of global digital business for Sony Music Entertainment, said, “Consumers are asking for innovative digital music services that blend both access and ownership, and come pre-bundled with devices.” However my concern is that, will customers be lured to buy an HP because they are offering a 14day free trial? Most probably such free trials are already being offered by some of the sites themselves and hence this offer could end up not being attractive at all.

What is your opinion on this?