The German Government has chosen Magna

General Motor's Euripean Arm has been saved from Insolvency procedures that is expected to hit the US group after an agreement has been announced at about 2am this morning. The Canadian Group, Magna International will be taking over the business with the backing of the German Government.

FIAT, the other group which was in the race to takeover the struggling group and acquiring an good brand at a discounted price, had withdrew from talks with the German Government, GM and US Treasury as it failed to provide guarantee on the number of Jobs that would have been saved and provide clear finance plans.

Under the signed agreement between GM and Magna, shares in the European arm of GM (GME) will be transferred away from GM so as to protect Opel from an imminent GM insolvency (which is expected to be announced on Monday). The German Government will also give GME €1.5bn in credit guarantees while final negotiation take place between GM and Magna. For the deal, Magna, together with Russian bank Sberbank, is offering €700m for 55 per cent of Opel and has agreed to come up with €300m of emergency funding that GM USA says it needs immediately.

The decision by the German Government to grant guarantees to the Magna was a happy ending for all German ministers. Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, German economics minister said that he was not all that happy with the agreement. He would have been happier to see GME become insolvent rather than grant so much money as guarantee to the future owner of the brand. However due to the upcoming elections the German government had to find a solution to this problem as soon as possible and this could have led it to take a less favourable option after all.

So we might consider this deal as another recession bargain...will there be any others as more companies seek to streamline their activities and divest businesses which are not coherent with their main area of business?

Common sense wins and Youtube enable music streaming again

Last March YouTube had decided to block all premium music supplied by record lables as PRS (the society which collects Royaliets on behalf of composers and Musicians) was demanding high royalty payments without giving signs that it wanted to review its royalty prices.

Google, owner of YouTube, thus decided to take a hard decision...stop all premium music from being streamed, thus blocking any royalties to PRS. This eventually lead PRS to the discussion table and this month a decision has been finally made...

Under the PRS's new pricing structure any digital sites will have to pay 0.0085p per track streamed online. This is a sharp decrease from the 0.22p that digital sites were asked to pay before this agreement came into force. According to PRS, this new pricing policy was necessary as the prices were previously set in 2007 and were never reviewed. Now given the expansion of the digital music market this review became necessary and potentially could lead to higher returns for PRS as more tracks will be played and more digital companies will be attracted to the market thus adding the return for artists and composers alike.

The PRS is moving ahead and changing as market needs change...will other industries follow suit?

Woolworths....is it really dead?

Who said that Woolworths is actually dead...it could have gone dormant but there still seems to be activity going around the name and the number of outlets it used to have. When browsing for the name Woolworths you come across a blog for Woolworths announcing it's imminent online revival...basically the brand has been acquired by Littlewoods-owner Shop Direct, who has planned it's online relaunch.

However this is not over, Tony Page ex executive director all Woolworths has teamed up with former UBS banker Gareth Thomas in an attempt to raise sufficient capital (it is estimated that they need between £5m and £10m) to acquire the lease of about 200 ex Woolwoths outlets in the next five years. However they would have to rethink the name. Apparently they have come up with an idea of making a poll and people will be asked to vote for their favourite name. This attempt is probably being done to create more customer involvement around the reopening and create a name that is acceptable to everyone.

However is such a branding strategy successful? And what about opening with the same store concept and in the same locations of Woolworths...would history repeat itself? What are your opinions?

Ebay proclaimed innocent...is this the beginning of a new customer driven era?

L'Oreal has sued eBay in the courts of various European countries including Britain, Germany, France, Belgium and Spain over the sale of bogus cosmetics and fragrances carrying the logo of the said brand on it's site. This move was said to be a necessary step to take as the sale of fake items was on the increase on eBay. Negotiations were underway between the two companies to come to a solution on this issue however, the online auctioneer said all talks were suspended as L'Oreal was being unreasonable in it's requests.

The first decision has been pronounced by the British court...Justice Richard David Arnold ruled out the claims of L'Oreal and said that that eBay Europe was not liable for trademark infringements committed by its users. Ebay said that this decision is a one which promotes free competition and will enable users to buy products a very competitive prices on its virtual marketplace.

A similar case in France was left in the hands of both companies to come up with an amicable resolution and gave then until the May 25 to come up with a mediated settlement. Other cases elsewhere in Europe are still pending.

While eBay claimed victory, L'Oreal said the court agreed that eBay could do more to stop trademark infringement. However of the 15 products hand-selected by L'Oreal as evidence against eBay UK, none was proven to be counterfeit. Could this be a strategy to try to safe guard L'Oreal premium pricing strategy and the protection from grey imports? We can just wait and see however it's very difficult to stop the online avalanche and anybody who does not embrace it risks getting overwhelmed.

Cashing in on Problems

The recent Swine flu, like its predecessors the Pandemic flu and the SARS has caused quite a havoc amongst the worlds population. It has been a headline news for quite some days and a lot of people are interested in ways to prevent it and, if the undesirable had to happen, how to cure it. You might say this is natural as everybody needs to be informed as to what might happen and what actions need to be taken to prevent such potentially catastrophic diseases.

This natural instinct of people has push them online and billions of searches have been initiated with the words flu, swine flu and Mexican flu...so what did innovative marketers do? Just what is natural to them...analyse that the customer trends are and serve your customer needs. Companies such as google saw a huge potential in this and for example google has launched Google Trends. Google Trends uses time series analysis and tries to find a link between the search behaviour of people and the actual spread of the disease. In this way, they were able to launch the Google Flu Trends in association with the US Centre for Diseases Control.

Google is not the only company that has taken advantage of this. Online pharmacies are all flocking up to try to sell all kinds of stuff that "they say" would prevent the spread of the flu. The sell all sorts of stuff from face masks, gloves to the notoriously known Tamiflu (which is supposed to be banned from online sales). Amazon has also recognised the pontnetial and in fact started supplying anti-flu kits to it's customers (image below)...if the big companies do now there the go ahead for all companies to follow.

The use of Web2.0 is also helping companies in this regards. Website owners are linking up with sites and getting mashup content, such as up-to-date news of the spread of the flue, so that their site increase in popularity and they obtain a better natural search result on search engines...PPC campaign and Google Adsense is another option that companies have...so what are you waiting...the sky is your limit today. The most important thing is that you keep your eyes open and as in any other business try to obtain a first mover advantage...

Susan Boyle a highly requested brand personality

A numerous number of companies ranging from different industry are in search of a renowned brand personality and whose the person who's attracting the most PR currently? The answer is no sport personality but Susan Boyle, a person who before her appearance on Britain's Got Talent no person knew about. Companies are seeking to sign her up from industries including haircare, household, FMCG and even mobile however with it's contract with the production of Britain's Got Talent, she cannot sign any agreement before the end of the series later on this month.

Susan Boyle has become the brand personality to have. Anything related to her is attracting a lot of interest. In fact it's YouTube video has been viewed approximately 94 million times and it's memorabilia is selling well on auction sites such as Ebay. Even the product of the reality show is trying to cash on this wave of success as it is still seeking to close a deal with YouTube to start generating revenue from the high traffic flow that the video is attracting.

This is a clear example of how the Internet can transform a person from a complete stranger to a global phenomenon in just a couple of months...can this formula be copied by marketers to transform a complete unknown brand into a global success?

Tesla given a vote of confidence as Daimler acquires a 10% stake

The car industry all over the world seems to be facing a very challenging moment as sales continue to fall and governments go ahead with green legislations to limit CO2 emissions. Manufacturers have started investing in research and development of electric cars however with the current credit crunch companies are finding hard to find sources of finance.

This was the case of Tesla, a Silicon Valley-based manufacturer of electric-powered sports cars. However, Daimler has given it a fresh breath of air...The German company has invested an undisclosed sum of money and acquired 10% of Tesla's stake. This investment has brought the two companies closer to each other as they already contributed on a number of projects. In fact,Daimler and Tesla already co-operate on Daimler’s electric version of the Smart car as it has been providing lithium-ion battery packs and charging electronics for the first 1,000 units. About 100 of the cars are currently being tested in London, and Daimler plans to begin production of them at a plant in France later this year.

Given that Tesla is a pioneer in the development of electric cars, this strategic alliance represents an important step for Daimler to accelerate the commercialisation of electric cars. Although a number of large car manufacturers plan to launch electric cars over the next few years, Tesla is one of the first to have one available for sale on its website.