BASF uses the fact that it took first place in the Patent Asset Index™ to demonstrate the innovative strength of the company, and dedicates a page to Innovation strength.
They also reference the total number of patents filed by them worldwide in 2013: about 1,300.
Just two weeks ago, I wrote an article for Corporate Eye about Google+ turning three years old and Google’s strategy for the future. A few days later, Google announced that it would be shutting down Orkut.
What is Orkut? If you don’t live in Brazil, you might not know the Orkut brand. Long story short, Orkut is a Google-owned social network. Back in 2004, over half of Orkut’s traffic was from the United States, but it quickly fell out of favor. However, it stayed popular in Brazil and India, and in 2007, it was one of the most trafficked sites in both countries. In fact, Orkut operations moved to Brazil in 2008. In 2014, nearly half of Orkut’s traffic was from Brazil while nearly 15% was from India.
In a blog post, Google explained that Orkut would completely shut down on September 30, 2014, giving users just three months to export all of their profile data, community posts, and pictures using Google Takeout. Additionally, an archive of all public Orkut communities will be made available on September 30, 2014. The blog post included an apology from Google saying, “It’s been a great 10 years, and we apologize to those of you still actively using the service. We hope you will find other online communities to spark more conversations and build even more connections for the next decade and beyond.”
It can be assumed that Google hopes most of the Orkut users will shift to Google+. The blog post to users, written by Paulo Golgher, Engineering Director, stated, “Over the past decade, YouTube, Blogger and Google+ have taken off, with communities springing up in every corner of the world. Because the growth of these communities has outpaced Orkut’s growth, we’ve decided to focus our energy and resources on making these other social platforms as amazing as possible for everyone who uses them.”
Overall, the shutdown of Orkut shouldn’t be surprising. The last time the Orkut blog was updated was 2012 and other development appears to have stopped around the same time. Google+ is Google’s priority today, and Orkut wasn’t delivering the value that it needed to deliver if it wanted to stay alive. Couple Google’s current strategic focus with the legal entanglements, privacy concerns, and security issues related to Orkut in recent years, and the writing was on the wall. However, Orkut was an early player in the world of social networking. It actually debuted a month before Facebook. As a result, Orkut retains a sense of nostalgia and will hold a place in social networking history just like MySpace.
The question now becomes, what’s next for Google? What do you think?
Image: Programa Novo TV Culturo licensed CC BY 2.0
A survey of over 32,000 Consumer Reports magazine subscribers in the United States ranked McDonald’s hamburgers as the worst of 96,200 dining experiences at 65 national and regional fast and casual restaurant chains serving hamburgers, Asian, pizza, sandwich, chicken and Mexican foods.
The most important finding of the study for these restaurant chains is that they’re missing the key to fully satisfying customers today, particularly the millennial audience segment. According to the survey findings, only 20% of consumers consider whether or not a restaurant has healthy menu options when they eat out, and only 19% ordered a healthy menu item the last time they ate out.
Fast and casual restaurant chains are adding to their healthy menus, but that isn’t the top priority for consumers. The survey found that consumers are not concerned about dieting when they eat out. They’re concerned with quality and taste.
Of course, the convenience and affordability of fast and casual restaurants keep consumers coming back again and again, but recent brand strategies seem to be heading in the wrong direction. As sales for fast and casual restaurants decline, it appears to be time to re-strategize and shift priorities for these brands.
Given these important findings, let’s take a look at how the top players in the fast and casual restaurant industry fared in the Consumer Reports survey.
1st Place: The Habitat Grill
2nd Place: In-n-Out Burger
3rd Place: Five Guys Burgers and Fries
Last Place: McDonald’s
1st Place: Chick-fil-A
2nd Place: Boston Market
3rd Place: El Pollo Loco
Last Place: KFC
1st Place: Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill
2nd Place: Chipotle Mexican Grill
3rd Place: Qdoba Mexican Grill
Last Place: Taco Bell
In a press release, Consumer Reports senior projects editor Tod Marks called for large fast and casual restaurant chains to take notice of shifting consumer demands saying, “Strong regional players and slightly more upscale fast-casual chains like Chipotle are giving the heavy-hitters in the fast-food business a wake-up call. And our survey clearly shows the big guys need to respond.”
It’s important to remember that many of the restaurant brands that ranked high in this survey don’t necessarily offer healthier menu choices overall. Again, consumers have made it clear that they want quality and taste when they eat out. The opportunity is wide open for these smaller brands to steal market share from the heavy hitters.
What do you think? Do you consider diet and health when choosing a restaurant? Is it the most important consideration or is quality and taste more important?
McDonald’s and similar restaurant brands have experienced negative publicity due to their unhealthy menu options, but based on this study, it appears that the problems these brands face are actually quite different from calorie counting.
Image: Rusty Clark licensed CC BY 2.0
Interbrand has released its ranking of the best global green brands in 2014, and the results might surprise you.
What brands come to your mind when you think of “green.” What about when you think about the broader term of sustainability?
I’m going to guess it’s not Ford, but that is the #1 brand on the Interbrand 2014 ranking of the best global green brands.
Back in 2012, I wrote a post here for Corporate Eye that discussed why so many automotive brands ranked high on Interbrand’s ranking of the 2012 best global green brands. In short, a significant part of Interbrand’s ranking system relies on consumer perception of brands. Automotive brands invest large amounts of money into promoting their green initiatives, and they’re rewarded with higher consumer perception scores in Interbrand’s ranking methodology.
In 2012, eight of the 21 brands on Interbrand’s list were automotive brands. In 2014, only six of the top 21 brands on the list are automotive brands. However, this year’s list includes 50 brands, and 10 of them (1 in 5 or 20%) are automotive brands. In fact, there are more automotive brands on the list than brands from any other industry.
Here is a breakdown by industry of the 50 best global green brands of 2014:
In addition to consumer perceptions based on six key criteria (authenticity, relevance, differentiation, consistency, presence, and understanding of environmental claims), brands are also evaluated based on publicly available information related to governance, stakeholder engagement, operations, supply chain, transportation and logistics, and products and services.
Based on consumer surveys and analysis, the top 10 best global brands of 2014 are:
Four of the top 10 best global green brands of 2014 are automotive brands and four are electronics brands. One is a sporting goods brand, and one is from the FMCG sector. Is that surprising to you?
Looking on the positive side, it’s good to see so many companies that you wouldn’t expect to find on a list of the best global green brands actually investing in green initiatives. From the brand perspective, promoting their green investments is certainly paying off in terms of improved consumer perceptions. In the end, improved consumer perceptions lead to sales, so getting on this list is a success for each of the companies that prioritized green initiatives over the past year.
Below is a video introduction from Interbrand that provides an overview of what the ranking is and why it’s done.
What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts about the list of the best global green brands in 2014.
Image: Sebastian Bergmann licensed BY CC-SA 2.0
Not every first-time investor understands the annual report. BT offer a page about ‘understanding annual reports’ to explain the structure of the annual report, and what the key financial information is about.
Combined with their AGM page, which includes clear statements of the rules surrounding AGMs, this information is helpful to new investors.
