Thoughts on... Doing Business in Romania

As today's news regarding Mercedes plans to build a new car plant in Hungary and not in Romania shows,
Romania really needs to build its infrastructure if it still wants to be more than a consumption based economy.
By the way, retailers in Romania should soon see important pressures on their margins as road infrastructure will hinder their stock management strategy.

Thoughts on... Voice Recognition

The Economist wrote in May that French teachers are upset that pupils have less and less spelling skills.

Their scapegoat: "fingers are pointed not only at progressive teaching, the decline of the dictée or the legacy of May 1968. The new culprit is text-messaging." Article is here

My two cents: SMS is doing to spelling what fast food is doing to food. However, imagine what will voice recognition do to spelling... :)

Later edit: How does "br&ly urs" sound? :)

Thoughts on... Pistachio

Is it possible that pistachio is the rich man's sun flower seeds?

I've noticed that "nouveau riche" consumers are substituting sunflower seeds with pistachio. I guess old habits die hard.

This is great news for pistachio sellers and by no means bad news for sellers of sunflower seeds. As living standards improve, new users of sunflower-snacks will emerge.

Thoughts on... Reference Points

Apple leads Q1 sales in premium priced PCs (pardon the term :) ).
Now that's a shift of perspective.

"Apple's retail market share is 14 percent, and two-thirds for PCs costing $1,000 or more."

Thoughts on... Parking in Bucharest

Even though I have never driven a car within Bucharest, I also suffer from lack of parking space.
This is because as a pedestrian I have to:
(1) slide through tiny little spaces between crammed parking lots
(2) jump over impromptu placeholders such as beer cases transformed into parking place-holders
(3) pay attention to cars riding on side-walks in search for a parking space

However, having said all these, I wonder:
Would solving the parking space problem in Bucharest trigger a spike in petty theft?

Or putting it in another way: There is a number of people making money as "freelance"-parking agents in Bucharest. Should parking spaces abound tomorrow, what would you recommend that all these people do in order to get money?

Thoughts on... Trust

It seems logical to me: trust is proportional to credibility, reliability and intimacy (how close people let you get to them). Also, trust is indirect proportional to self-orientation.

So, with my meager 8.4 score, I'm asking you: What's your Trust Quotient?

Trusted Advisor Associates > Trust Quotient Self-Diagnostic

PS: Self-orientation should affect all other scores in this order: intimacy +++, reliability ++ and credibility +

Thoughts on ... Scarcity

One of the first concepts introduced in economics 101 classes is "scarcity". Now, economists broadly define it as follows: "[...]scarcity is the problem of infinite human needs and wants, in a world of finite resources." (Wikipedia)

However, I'll let maverick economists debate about the various theoretic details about scarcity and write down some brief did-you-know thoughts:

Did you know that...

• Scarcity is a the foundation of Porter's five forces? Think about it: It's scarcity which generates power for each of the 5 elements of this model.
• Scarcity is the key to higher profit margins for buyers, sellers and suppliers
• Scarcity dictates market attractiveness
• Good branding is about perceived scarcity?
  
• Strong brands command premium prices as the perceived scarcity lowers the product's / service price elasticity

I have just finished reading The Undercover Economist (Tim Harford) and, beacuse I was impressed by the compelling arguments this economist makes in his book, I am trying to jot down some ideas about how economics offers some of the greatest insight into branding and strategy. This is the first post of an "Thoughts on..." series.

I'm walking a thin line here, so please bear with me :)