| The New Focus Groups: Online Networks
The sites often bear some resemblance to other social-networking sites, where members create profile pages and post to discussion boards. Companies use them to administer polls, chat in real time with consumers and even ask members to go to the store to try out specific products. The rapid back-and-forth between the company and the online community can help substantially shorten the product-development cycle. It can typically take a year or more from the time a company comes up with a product idea until the item arrives in stores. For Snausages Breakfast Bites, that process took six months. During that time, Del Monte contacted "I Love My Dog" members dozens of times, both as a group and individually. The company has also tapped members for prelaunch insights into other products, including a 50-calorie pack of its Pup-Peroni treat that recently landed on store shelves.
Iggle Piggle co-star 'fired over suit complaint'
The trained dancer, from Cardiff, began working on the show in March 2005 and had his contract terminated in July 2006. At the tribunal in Birmingham, Mr Blake said production company Ragdoll Limited ignored his concerns about the faulty camera inside his suit, which allowed him to see out while wearing a mask. On one occasion in November 2005, Mr Blake says he was told to jump up and down on a chair but feared for his safety when the camera cut out. Mr Blake said: "When the camera failed I had no way of seeing where I was going. I was concerned at the difficulty of acting in the suit when I couldn't see anything. .
Internet China Bans American Movie Sales; MPAA’s Glickman Responds
China is blocking the import of American films, said MPAA CEO and Chairman Dan Glickman in an official statement released last week. "Although we have not received official confirmation of such a ban from the Chinese Government or China Film, the indicators are strong that our information is correct," read the statement. "If such action has been taken … it would represent an enormous step backwards in terms of China's efforts to develop a strong … and legitimate film exhibition and distribution market." In a move that some suspect is retaliation for a recent U.S.-filed WTO complaint over China's alarmingly high piracy rate, the Chinese government appears to have stopped granting import requests to American filmmakers -- of which it normally allows for about 20 movies per year.
2 major insurers launch 'green' policies
That's already happening on the commercial building side and in auto insurance, where insurers in some states are offering breaks to hybrid-car drivers. "Some insurers perceive a 'halo effect' in which adopters of climate-change mitigation technologies are viewed as low-risk customers," according to a report by the nonprofit research group Ceres, called "Insurer Responses to Climate Change." Ceres directs the Investor Network on Climate Risk, a group of 60 institutional investors that collectively manage more than $4 trillion in assets. .
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