Monday Marketing Minute

Happy Monday everyone! Here’s an overview of top business and marketing information ripped from recent headlines — from the continuing Sony saga to computer industry news and more.

In the news the last several weeks is the hack attack on Sony Pictures. The media leaked contents of emails sent by executives of the company, completely embarrassing them and their company. Furthermore, there’s the whole debacle of the release of their movie, The Interview. But, that’s a completely different topic that contains too many controversial and political issues to be noted in this blog. Ah, but I digress …

So, what are some measures you can take to avoid this type of email snag?
1. Develop a company policy specific to email protocol. (Even if you only have a few employees, it’s good to have a policy in place.)
2. Keep emails appropriate and business related.
3. Read and then re-read the email before sending and consider the recipient’s point of view.
4. And of course, be mindful that each and every email you write is public and can be forwarded on to anyone.

For more helpful tips, see this article  posted by the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

Anyone getting a new laptop for Christmas? A news article announcing the Top 5 Laptops of 2014 was published on Friday by Fox News. Among the top five are the MacBook Air and the Surface Pro 3, which are dominating TV advertising at the moment. See the article here for the rest of the story.

In other business news, on December 1st Microsoft said farewell to its Clip Art library. In a blog article on their website, Microsoft’s Doug Thomas announced the demise of the service. So where do we go for photos, images and clip art now? Thomas recommends that people who need images should use Bing Image Search for their image needs. Just be sure to verify if the image is free of any copyright infringements or fees prior to using it.

With the Christmas holiday just days away, folks will be hitting the road for holiday travel. Falling gas prices have been an unexpected gift this holiday season, with a possibility of less than $2.50 by Christmas as cited by AAA. This has been a boon to holiday shoppers and travelers, helping them stretch their holiday budgets a bit further this year. The cheapest spot in the country for gas right now is Oklahoma. (I have a friend in Omaha who just filled up for less than $2/gallon!)

What interesting marketing news have you seen lately? Have we missed something that you’d like to have us mention? Let us know.

Sending you best wishes for a great holiday week!