19 years ago...

Microsoft could have registered its Excel trademark. 19 years ago!!! I guess they care more about their brand than they do about their trademarks. :-p
however, I hear they were protected by something called common law trademark.

Trademark rights arise in the United States from the actual use of the mark. Thus, if a product is sold under a brand name, common law trademark rights have been created. This is especially true once consumers view the brand name as an indicator the product's source

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Rechargeable subscription? Who needs it?

Orange Romania has launched a service called rechargeable subscription. How can a subscription be rechargeable? The service details are here.
Is orange having strategy problems in Romania? No.
Is this a good initiative for the future of orange? Yes. How come? I have found the answer by trying to find out who would need such a strange and restrictive service. And I think the targets are parents. With just a few weeks left until Christmas orange seems to be trying to lure parents into buying a subscription for their children. Is this good for business? Hell, yes. Orange is recruiting young users by offering parents the possibility to control the costs easier (it eliminates the need to recharge the prepaid by visiting dealers).
Orange scores against my beloved Connex.

PHILIP KOTLER in Bucharest

"The father of marketing" is coming to Romania!
Hope to be there. My options are as follows:
1.) Buy a TV set
2.) Save a few bucks and buy a digital camera
3.) Save $$$$$$$ and go see and talk to Mr. Kotler

Hm...

The Conference with Philip Kotler

Content

* How to develop better theories, strategies and tools of marketing and sales
* Strategic marketing capabilities and tactical marketing
* How to make marketing drive the business planning process
* The advanteges of focusing on identifying and winning niche markets
* The skills needed to understand target consumers and build stakeholder relationship
* How to achieve marketing efficiency and precision through marketing dashboards, modeling and simulation and sales automatisation
* A five-step model to improve the quality of marketing

The final agenda of the conference will be adapted to Romania, taking into account the questions that are of interest to the participants. <-- Nice!

One can submit questions to Mr. Kotler by following this link.