Two full-page advertisements stood out in the month of August for the state’s largest newspaper.

First, Wal-Mart placed a full-page ad going head-to-head with Officemax by listing 16 school items by price comparison. The key sell was highlighting the 45% savings and trying to nab the coveted back-to-school market.

Second, in response to the nationwide egg recall the egg farming industry put out a full-page ad. The key phrase in their simple letter states, “The potential affected eggs, which make up less than 1% of all US eggs, have been removed from store shelves. You may be wondering if eggs are safe to eat. Yes they are.”

See larger size of ads below.

Kantar Media shows where ad spending has increased and decreased in select industry markets. The time represents from Jan-May 2009 period and compares ti to Jan-May for 2010. Government has been increasing while travel has been decreasing.

(Data source is Kantar Media. Chart by OSBA).

In July, Starbucks announced record earnings during the third quarter as U.S. sales rose 9%.  The Seattle Coffee Giant participated in new marketing strategies to spur the record comeback that reduce the elitist view of $4 coffee drinks and offer cheaper alternatives to broaden the market outside Starbucks stores.

“There’s no question that improving customer service, quality of beverage and speed of service has had a big impact on revenues,” CFO Troy Alstead said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Burt Helm of Bloomberg reported that the corporation’s fiscal-third-quarter earnings rose 37% based on increased sales.  Starbucks also reported earning $207.9 million as compared with $151.5 million a year earlier.  In addition, revenue increased from $2.4 billion to $2.61 billion.
Some new marketing strategies include:

1.  A two-year effort to improve customer service and product quality to increase customer visits in U.S. stores.

2.  In an effort to dissolve Starbucks’ elitist image, it now offers lower-priced items in fast-food restaurants and vending machines.

3. The “However-You-Want-It Frappuccino” extended the product to accommodate individuals who do not drink caffeine or dairy milk.  This extension increased sales and represented two percentage points of the chain’s 9% growth. 

4.  Starbucks created Via Instant Coffee so it could sell its product in grocery stores to increase growth by expanding its market outside of Starbucks stores.  The corporation also expanded the Via product to more locations in the U.S., U.K. and Japan.  So far, this effort has proven successful as Via sales have already exceeded the company’s annual target for Japan. 

5. The corproation introduced free Wi-Fi service to revive its coffee shop business.

6.  Starbucks plans to open 500 new stores in the U.S. and overseas in fiscal 2011 after firing 12,000 people in July 2008 to help offset the financial damage caused by the recession.

Starbucks’ new marketing strategies have proven very successful and the corporation is hopeful that its growth will continue into the fourth quarter.

By Oregon Small Business Association,

“Buy low, sell fast” is an increasingly popular tool to make quick cash in a slow real estate market. The tactic is called Flopping and it is growing in popularity. It is also considered real estate fraud. The National Association of Realtors estimates that 12 percent of existing home sales are short sales and among those 1% are Floppings, potentially costing lenders $50 million this year. Later this summer two Connecticut real estate agents will be in federal court to be sentenced for “Flopping”. Flopping houses is essentially the opposite of “Flipping”, where the property’s value is deflated and then sold for the true value.

Flopping occurs when a real estate agent, investor or homeowner persuades a lender to sell a house on short sale for less than the balance of the loan. The seller, who already has another buyer lined up who will pay more for the house, quickly makes another sale for a profit. The seller does not disclose that there were other buyers who were willing to pay more. The lender takes a loss on the sale. Real estate fraud occurs by omission when the seller or agent fails to notify the bank of the higher offer.

A short sale is essentially a “pre-foreclosure”, where the owner has not yet gone into foreclosure and still owns the property. The lender agrees to take a small loss on the property to avoid foreclosure, which is more costly for the lender. Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance company along with the FBI and the California Real Estate Department believe that this scheme is spreading due to a slow housing market and no shortage of homeowners who have lost value on their homes and owe more than their properties are worth. The “Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternative Program” encourages lenders and homeowners to close on short sales by offering as much as $3,000 in incentives. Unfortunately, it seems the program lacks sufficient anti-fraud protections.

Nike, the footwear innovator, originally scoffed at the idea of the new trend in toning shoes. Now it seems they are paying the price for a missed opportunity as business is booming for the popular women’s athletic shoes with sales up 25% for May.  Adidas’s Reebok and Skeckers dominate the toning market, with Reebok’s share of U.S. woman’s athletic footwear jumping to 6.7%, or $90.3 million and Skecher’s share tripled to 17%, or $225.7 million.  Nike, still in the top spot for U.S. woman’s athletic footwear, saw its share dropped 7.2% points to 31%, or $412 million.  Nike continues to see a major lose in market share for Women’s sales, down 30%, to 22%.

A survey by SportsOneSource shows that six of the top 10 athletic shoes are toning.  A year ago none of the top ten shoes included toning shoes.  The explosion in popularity of women’s toning shoes has exceeded their expectations, and adidas’s CEO, Herbert Hainer, believes Reebok could sell 5 million pair of toning shoes this year.  In fact, last fall when Reebok intensified their advertising, Foot Locker couldn’t keep up with the demand.

According to the creators, toning shoes are built with an unstable sole to force the wearer to stabilize their muscles, creating stronger leg, buttock, back and abdominal muscles. With a price tag of $100-plus, toning shoes have become some of the most lucrative in the footwear industry.   

Despite the missed opportunity, news at Nike is positive with their Free brand and their popular running shoes.  The Free brand, which the company says can strengthen feet and muscles by simulating barefoot running, plans to launch new versions this fall.  Charlie Denson, president of the Nike brand is hopeful that Free can provide a similar benefit as the Toning shoes.  Nike has shown successes in other areas of footwear, Nike Running sales have improved in the high singles with their market share at 57%. Of the top five Running shoes, Nike dominates with the top three with Nike’s Air Max 2009, Nike Free, Nike Max 95.  Spots four and five go to the Reebok Zig Tech Pulse and the Asics Kayano 16, respectively.  With the success of NIKE’s historic competitive strategy people can expect that it will make up for lost ground in little time.

In San Francisco, home and condominium sales jumped 50 percent in the first quarter of 2010 from last year. According to a multiple listings analysis by Terradatum, the median price rose 5.4 percent, to $685,000. The Bay Area home values increased 16 percent in March illustrating the biggest jump of any city in the S&P/Case-Shiller Home-Price Index. The 20-city composite measure climbed 2.3 percent. Experts believe San Francisco’s unique attributes help keep home prices high and that as the tech sector recovers, buyers will pay top dollar.

Despite Portland’s unique attributes, the metro area has not been as fortunate as San Francisco. Although Portland is not a particularly bad market in comparison to the rest of the nation, the city is likely to complete 2010 without too much appreciation or depreciation of home values.

Experts expect the summer season to pick up despite long-term mortgage rates remaining incredibly low. In addition, high unemployment in Oregon continues to depress the housing market. As of now, Oregon’s immediate outlook in housing looks bleak, but those looking to buy could still find a good deal as long they view their purchase as a long term investment.

Nationally, experts expected home sales and construction to drop after the expiration of the home buyers’ tax credit. In May, the national residential-construction starts fell to their lowest level in a year. The U.S. Commerce Department recently reported that overall housing starts fell 10 percent from April, while building permits were down 5.9 percent. The biggest drops in starts came in the single-family sector and were down 17.2 percent from April. However, despite the drop, the overall starts and permits were up from a year ago, 7.8 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively.

Portland lost 23,000 jobs according to the U.S. Census Bureau. suffering a 2.82% decline. The greatest declines came from Las Vegas, Wichita, Sacramento and Cape Coral (FL) with over a 4% decline in workers. The single biggest raw number declines came from Chicago (-101,500), Los Angeles (-85,200), New York (-73,400) and Detroit (-57,000).

Portland rated high in recession rebound

Not all news is bad. Forbes put Portland in the top 20 cities to ride out the recession. Here is what they said about Portland;

“This city is considered among the most sustainable in the U.S. A growing percentage of Oregon’s jobs are in green industries. However, Portland continues to struggle with high unemployment. But with the continued interest in green energy, especially as the economy improves, the city might find itself in a better position soon.”

For more on this ranking got o Yahoo Finance here.

Earlier this week Google Inc. announced the amount of economic impact that Google had on each state in 2009. In Oregon, 28,500 advertisers and publishers benefitted to the tune of $510.5 million, either by placing their ads on Google or by placing Google advertisements on their site.  And 80 non-profits benefitted with $1.3 million donated by the search giant. 

Recently, for the first time, Google disclosed their revenue splits with search and content publishers. In a blog post on Monday, Google says it pays publishers 68% of the revenue Google collects from advertisers for content ads that appear on the publishers’ sites.  Google said it pays publishers 51% of revenue for search ads.  Previously Google had been unresponsive in requests to reveal it’s revenue splits. 

The disclosure of advertisement splits comes at a time when publishers and regulators are demanding more transparency.  Google has also been under fire in Italy in an antitrust suit, prompted by an Italian newspaper publishers’ claiming that Google is abusing their dominance.

Google says that revenue splits for its AdSense service have not changed since the service was introduced in 2003.  In comparison, the revenue splits are more generous than the 60% cut that Apple Inc. provides with the iAd advertisement service.

Some of Oregon’s 80 nonprofit donation recipients include CCI Enterprises, Mercy Corps, National Psoriasis Foundation, and Organic Materials Review Institute.  In comparison to Oregon’s $512 million, Google’s economic impact in Washington was $2.8 billion.  Google employs more than 600 people in Washington.

As a lead partner in the community, the Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce has successfully developed Job Seekers Support and Networking.  The free and open program is designed to inform and engage those adversely affected by Oregon’s challenging job market.  By connecting job seekers with available resources, we hope to maintain the area’s competitive advantage of skilled professionals.  Every Tuesday from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M. participants are exposed to various topics of discussion led by local experts and given valuable networking opportunities for professional growth and development. 

“This is easily the most helpful of the networking groups I attend.  The content is always superior and the connection to local business is unique.  Without doubt, it should be copied by the other local chambers.  The Hillsboro Chamber is to be commended for their involvement in providing this service,” said Jeff Smith, program participant, leadership team member and job seeker.  Since the start of the program in June 2009, we have collectively serviced over 1,500 unemployed participants from Hillsboro and beyond including Gresham, Vancouver, McMinnville and St. Helen’s.

WHAT:           Job Seekers Support and Networking Group
WHEN:            Every Tuesday afternoon from 2:00 to 4:00 P.M.
TOPICS and DATES:
• May 4:                   “Professional Headshot Photo Day” by Cleve Friedman
• May 11:                 “How to Ace the Interview” by Sean Harry of Career Management Solutions
• May 18:                 “Managing Change and Transition” by Leb Tannenbaum
• May 25:                 “Hillsboro Area Companies, Organizations and Agencies”

WHERE:          Rosesprings Center for the Healing Arts
5215 NE Elam Young Pkwy, Ste. A, Hillsboro, OR 97124
COST:  Free

There is a clear need to support the transitional talent in a time of economic uncertainty.  Daniel Florence, a financial advisor with Waddell & Reed believes that the chamber is providing a valuable community resource and both support the program through sponsorship.  Mr. Florence provides professional services catering to job seekers and is available to offer free advice and guidance.  For more information about this new program, contact Business Development Manager Jon-Michael Kowertz at 503.726.2151 or jonmk@hillchamber.org.

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The latest national newspaper circulation numbers show that only newspaper out of 25 largest to increase readership was the Wall Street Journal. The Oregonian performed the best out of the other top 20 newspapers.

Biggest circulation drops among top 20 newspapers ranked by drop size (1)

Los Angeles Times —14.7%
Chicago Sun-Times — 13.9 %
Houston Chronicle —13.8 %
USA Today -13.6%
The Washington Post — 13.1%
Daily News of New York —11.3%
The Arizona Republic of Phoenix —9.9 %
Chicago Tribune —9.8 %
Newsday of Long Island, N.Y. — 9.1 %
The New York Times -8.5%
The Plain Dealer of Cleveland — 8.1%
Star Tribune of Minneapolis — 7.7 %
The Philadelphia Inquirer —5.9 %
New York Post —5.9%
St. Petersburg Times — 1.5 %
THE OREGONIAN — 1.8%
The Wall Street Journal + 0.5% * increase*
The Oregonian has stemmed a much worse national downward trend with a modest decline. This speaks volumes to the cut-backs and reinventing efforts the newspaper’s leadership. The numbers are from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

(1) a few top 20 newspapers were not listed in the report due to various conditions that made comparrission unscientific during this audit period.