Robots being blamed for market drop
For months now, the stock market has seen record highs, climbing and climbing, week after week. Then, over the past week, the market has plunged. Now, everyone is trying to figure out why, and more than a few fingers are being pointed. The “usual suspects” are being “credited” on the TV economics shows, but at least one group catching some heat is a bit unusual.
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Tide Pod challenge creates PR issue for multiple brands
The Tide Pod Challenge. It started out as the latest in a long string of stupid trending stunts on social media. By the time it made the news, parents were horrified, and several brands were doing damage control.
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Under Armour Still Struggling to Hold Its Own
After a “come from nowhere” popularity surge, athletic wear brand Under Armour is struggling to maintain market share. Quarterly sales fell again, and they fell even worse than expected. Never a good look. This news caused the company to lower its sales projections once again, hoping, at least, to meet rather than fall short of expectations.
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Legoland Hoping to Build Business in the Empire State
When families think of theme park vacations, brands that tend to come to mind include Disney, Seaworld, Universal, and Six Flags. The folks at Legoland hope to add their brand to that august and time-tested company.
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GE making waves by removing executive perks
Usually, when a brand’s top executives are in the news related to executive perks, the average reader will not be inclined to be happy about the direction of that story. This is not the case with General Electric, however. At least this time.
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Can Snapchat Really Match up Against the Bigger Hitters in Social War?
In social media, Facebook and YouTube reign supreme. But there are a host of up and comers and strong contenders, especially second generation apps like Instagram and Snapchat, which marketed to Millennials and younger audiences, leaving Facebook largely to their parents. Twitter, though it does cross generations, is not in the top three.
Read MoreCheck Out My Interview with Haute Living
I recently gave Haute Living a look inside my office, showed them the most essential items on my desk, and gave them insights to the way I run my agency, 5W Public Relations.
Read MoreApple Fund Plans to Support Manufacturing Jobs
In the recent Presidential election, the concept of “bringing back” manufacturing jobs played a big role, both in the rhetoric and the outcome. Some say that was all smoke and mirrors, that old school assembly line manufacturing isn’t coming back anytime soon, and if it does, ever, it will be robots, not people, doing the assembly.
Read MoreBebe Latest Retailer to Shutter Stores
The death watch for American retail stores continues as shoppers are still choosing online over buying at branded department stores. The latest casualty is Bebe, which defined its brand as a “unique sophisticated and timelessly sexy” line of ladies clothing. Apparently, customers did not agree … at least not enough of them to keep the brick and mortar aspect of the brand afloat. According to reports in CNN, Bebe will close all its 168 brick and mortar shops in the United States and Canada.
Read MoreHow This Baby Supply Maker Dealt with Toxic Teether
US regulators advised Highland to pull and recall its teething tablets due to a “potentially toxic” level of herbs in the medicine. Standard Homeopathic Co. of Los Angeles, the company that makes the Highland brand teething tablet quickly complied with the request, issuing a recall of an unspecified quantity of the products. They also ceased manufacturing the product last fall, and now they have notified distributors to pull any products currently on the shelves.
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