360 DEGREES Weblog

The day started with the Wall Street Journal reporting that the CEO of Best Buy Brian Dun shared that the iPad was cannibalizing Best Buy

Where Trendstop’s Trendtracker delivers fashion forecasts to anyone with a mobile phone, UK-based Stylesignal just announced a like-minded app for its subscribers that’s delivered on the brand-new iPad.

Stylesignal provides its customers with constantly updated fashion forecasts, trend information, news coverage and inspiration, all for prices starting at USD 99 per week. Now that Apple’s iPad is out, however, the company has ported its full package of coverage to that platform. The iPad’s high-quality display has the same colour acuity and wide viewing angle of ultra-high end photographic displays, the company notes, making it perfect for viewing swatches, photographs and designs used commercially in the fashion industry. Accordingly, instead of just looking at a picture, Stylesignal subscribers can now ?pinch to zoom, touch to see a colour palette based on industry referenced colours, or move from street style photos to catwalk pictures at the flick of a finger,? it says. The continuously updated iPad app also serves as a trend book that never goes out of date, the company says. This month and next, Stylesignal is giving new subscribers a free iPad; existing ones can download the iPad app from Apple’s App Store for free.

Taking a local approach to candy bars, Nestl? recently launched 19 new Kit Kat flavours in Japan that reflect food specialities of specific districts. Each flavour is sold exclusively in the region for which it was created, making the limited edition Kit Kats popular souvenirs for travellers.

The uniquely Japanese Kit Kat varieties include yubari melon and baked corn from Hokkaido island; strawberry cheesecake from Yokohama; cherries from Yamagata Prefecture; and sweet potato, blueberry and soybean from the Kanto region. Other varieties include wasabi, green tea, apple, green beans, chilli and miso. Tapping in to the Japanese tradition of sending students good luck wishes before their exams, Nestl? also launched a marketing campaign with Japan’s postal service to create “Kit Kat Mail,” a postcard-like product sold only at the post office.

Developing an intimate understanding of the local market and targeting it creatively has earned Kit Kat the position of number one confectionery brand in Japan.

In the 10 billionth song that Apple sold through iTunes, Johnny Cash’s “Guess Things Happen That Way”, a man other than Steve Jobs famous for black attire bemoans the happenstance of his romantic misfortune. But nothing could be further from the story of iTunes, in which Apple’s meticulously crafted ownership of the end-user experience led to a dominant position in music sales. Now, on the dawn of releasing a new device that could be to television shows what the iPod was to music, Apple has an opportunity to create as commanding a lead in TV distribution — if it is willing to again capitulate to consumers’ media consumption habits.

Apple has enjoyed great success with iTunes in part because it adopted the purchase-to-own model that had been so successful with CDs and records before them. However, Apple didn’t simply mirror that model. By allowing consumers to purchase the vast majority of songs as singles, it provided better perceived value, Such an option was also a natural fit for the iPod, where playlists made it trivial to create the digital equivalent of “mix tapes.” The iPod’s capacity for thousands of songs was also no match for most albums that typically had a dozen or so songs.

Virtual real estate is getting pricey. Recently First Planet Company which created the multiplayer online role playing game Planet Calypso sold a piece of the Entropia Universe, the Crystal Palace Space Station, for $330,000 in cold hard cash. The space station was sold through public auction to player Erik Novak (aka Buzz Erik Lightyear). In the press release, Novak said that the game changed his life even helping him meet the love of his life. He expressed confidence that the decision was a smart one and that he will recoup his money saying that “Planet Calypso is one of the few safe investments in this economy.”

The Crystal Palace, is a popular hunting destination in orbit around Planet Calypso. Players reach the space station by hiring a virtual pilot and can hunt in the four biodomes on the station. The station will now be privately operated by Novak and he can charge players fees for the services on the space station. In 2005 when gamer Jon “NEVERDIE” Jacobs bought a Virtual Space Resort now known as Club Neverdie for $100,000 and has earned money by operating a virtual nightclub and selling virtual mining/hunting rights and property on the resort.

Inside the Entropia Universe, players use a currency called PED. The currency can be exchanged at a fixed US dollar rate of 1:10. Anything that can be bought and sold inside the universe has a value. Prices can fluctuate depending on gamer demand. Playing is free but if you really want to participate and interact you need the basic supplies of virtual life which cost money. The Swedish Wire reports that the parent company recently got a license from The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority to open a real bank merging the virtual universe with the real world.

Proving once again you can find a study to prove almost anything, a report came out today showing that Redbox will bring down the movie industry by continuing with their $1 a night business model. Sounds like some sour grapes to me.

And what is Redbox doing that is so heinous you ask? Well, according to the study, renting DVD

Now that the US Cash for Clunkers program has come to an end, it’s a safe bet that many auto manufacturers are racking their brains for ways to sustain the sales levels they enjoyed while the program was underway. For bankruptcy-beleaguered GM, the solution is apparently a new marketing effort called May the Best Car Win, a key part of which is a 60-day money-back guarantee on many of the cars it sells.

Aiming to give budget-weary consumers the confidence to spend their hard-earned cash on a GM vehicle without fear of regrets, GM now offers its 60-day guarantee on 2009 and 2010 model year Chevys, Buicks, GMCs and Cadillacs, with the exclusion of medium duty trucks. Consumers who purchase and take delivery on such a vehicle before Nov. 30 can then simply try the vehicle out for 30 days. If they’re not satisfied

In a ballsy move, a metal worker at a Russian weapons factory asked the powerful former Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for his wrist watch. More surprising is that Viktor Zagaevsky actually got Putin to hand over the watch, for good.

The story is simple. While in the Russian town of Tula, Putin was touring a weapons factory and doing a speech on the economy of the region. Putin is extremely well regarded in Russia, and his actual place in politics has been debated as it sometimes seems that he does more than merely sit as a former Prime Minister. Another area of inquiry regard how Putin can afford his lavish lifestyle. Russian politicians report their annual incomes, and while they aren’t minuscule, they certainly don’t allow for a collection of luxury Swiss watches – among other luxuries that Putin enjoys (such as sport diving in a submarine). While the questions are valid, they are a bit naive. As a former Prime Minister, and currently an extremely powerful man in Russian, Putin is bound to have “alternative” sources of income of wealth upon which to draw from. The former KGB man is no novice at secrecy. Still international questions arise as to Putin’s actual status in Russia. Nevertheless, the Russian people seem not to mind. Putin is considered a national hero and symbol of Russian pride. He is fiercely nationalistic.

It was not the first time that Putin was known to gift a watch, but he is not exactly known for it. No one is to my knowledge. Putin is known as an avid fan of luxury watches, and is seen wearing them even while engaging in sporty activities where even most luxury watch owners would sport nothing more than a Casio due to fear of timepiece harm.

The watch that Putin happened to have on at the time was his well-loved Blancpain Aqua Lung Big Date, as he has been seen wearing it often. It is a steel cased watch of a modest size and very thin for a mechanical timepiece. It has a big date complication and water resistant to 100 meters with a soft black leather strap. New, the watch goes for about 6,000 euros. For Viktor Zagaevsky, the watch will certainly have a great deal of sentimental value, not to mention be a new luxury for someone who likely has never purchased more than a bargain watch. I feel that Putin made a prudent decision as the good-will attached with the move is invaluable.

Two years ago, we wrote (thanks to Springwise) about Tokyo’s Sample Lab, which connected brands with consumers by letting them test and take away new products. The concept was quickly picked up in other parts of the world. Now, the original Sample Lab has reopened as one-of-a-kind marketing cafe targeting Japanese women in their 20s and 30s with free samples in exchange for their visits and views, in a relaxed and informal setting.

Located in Shibuya, LCAFE is well-placed to attract trendsetting shoppers. To take part, women register by mobile phone, supplying basic details about themselves such as their age, marital status and where they live. With every order of food or drinks, they receive an L Coin, which can be redeemed for free samples at the cafe’s sample bar. In a true Tokyo touch, a bar-code on members’ mobile phones allows Sample Lab to track who got which sample. After the visit, members are asked to share their views via an electronic survey, in exchange for more tokens.

Samples on offer range from food and drinks to skincare products. Besides letting brands test the waters by getting consumers to try new products, LCAFE also functions as a platform for experience-based marketing. Last month, as part of a promotion for Toshiba’s new Biblio e-reader handset, the cafe printed promotional images on tables, napkins and staff uniforms. A Biblio was placed on every table, alongside a menu created specially for Toshiba.

The enterprise is proving popular. Since it opened its doors two months ago, LCAFE has already registered 2,000 customers (or, as our sister-site would say, trysumers). Operating a hybrid between a regular cafe and a sampling venue makes sense from a business point of view, since it creates two streams of income. The indirect approach is also likely to attract women who wouldn’t want to be seen waiting in line for freebies. LCAFE has plans to expand into other Japanese cities and to eventually operate worldwide as a market research firm focused on young women.