Buying Into Japanese and German Exporters

Buying Into Japanese and German Exporters

With the euro down nearly 15% this year and at a two-year low against the U.S. dollar, the world’s largest exporting nation is worth a good look. So is another country that has thriving exports in spite of a stronger currency. We’re talking about Japan and Germany, respectively, the world’s second- and third-largest economies.
The top lines at leading German industrial companies are rolling in with impressive numbers for an almost zero-growth economy. Quarterly sales at Siemens rose 13%, the fastest since 2003. BMW’s sales rose by 11% in the third quarter, although high raw-material costs and pricing pressure resulted in weak net profits. A bright spot is Asia, where BMW expects to sell 150,000 cars per year by 2008.
Overall, German exports are up for the third-straight month and sales to countries outside of the European Union rose 18% annually from a year earlier. Clearly, the Germans are good at making stuff and selling it to the world, and the weaker euro is helping spur growth. Germany’s DAX stock index is taking notice and is up nearly 20% year-to-date.
Meanwhile, U.S. exports are up a paltry 2% since 2000. Although exports to China are up 35% during this same period, Americans are now buying seven times more from China than we are selling to them. A good reason why is that, according to research by Morgan Stanley’s Stephen Roach, consumer spending represents 71% of America’s gross domestic product. The figure is 42% for China and 55% for Japan.
Speaking of Japan, the aftermath of the financial bubble has obscured the fact that it too, remains an exporting powerhouse, despite a currency that has risen more than 20% since 2002 and 13% this year alone. Just look at Japan’s current account surpluses over the past three years: 3 billion in 2002, 6 billion in 2003 and 2 billion in 2004. China is a major market, and despite political difficulties, bilateral trade between China and Japan now exceeds trade between Japan and America.
A majority of Japan’s exports are manufactured goods and components. Fifty percent of its exports to China in 2004 were electrical equipment and machinery, and its top exports to the world include autos, electronic components, optical instruments, imaging equipment and computer parts.
Much is made over China’s huge trade imbalance with America, which reached 6 billion in the first eight months of this year. No doubt a sizable share of Chinese exports to America are chock full of Japanese components. While some of these components were made in offshore facilities, many were made in Japan, which has been able to hold on to its industrial base better than America.
How do they do it? First, the Japanese are continually moving up the value-added curve and are careful to keep the R&D and manufacturing of sophisticated components close to home, while outsourcing the low-end to low-wage countries.
Secondly, even though China’s wages are about 5% of Japan’s, factory automation has lessened the importance of labor costs. For advanced high tech products, it accounts for only 10% to 15% of total costs. Having manufacturing closer to home also shortens new product lead times and increases cooperation between R&D and production teams leading to a crucial edge in staying ahead of its nimble competitors. Supply lines of 2,000 miles can be problematic.
Perhaps most important, there is the critical issue of protecting intellectual capital. Having research, development and production closer to headquarters better protects proprietary technologies.
Canon, Sharp, Hitachi, NEC and Toyota are all good plays on Japan’s manufacturing edge, while Sony will continue to lag until it boosts its R&D and catches up in product development.
The iShares MSCI Japan Index exchange-trade fund is an attractive option, since it has about 50% exposure to Japan’s manufacturing sector with an annual expense ratio of only 0.59%. Similarly in Germany, the iShares MSCI Germany Index is loaded with that country’s top exporters and would be an excellent proxy for overall German export growth.

New Ideas To Put Into Your Next Mobile Marketing Campaign (2)

New Ideas To Put Into Your Next Mobile Marketing Campaign

With the increasingly widespread use of mobile devices like cell phones, smart phones and tablets, mobile marketing campaigns that make use of these devices are growing in popularity. If you are interesting in taking advantage of such a campaign to promote your business, this article can give you the advice you need to get started.

Keep your mobile marketing messages short and sweet. Although many cell phone and smartphone users are signed up with plans that offer unlimited data transfers, not everyone has this luxury. If your ad consumes a great deal of their monthly allotment of data, chances are good that your efforts will go unappreciated and even resented.

Treat your customers like people. Instead of just bombarding them with sales information constantly, consider messaging them occasionally with relevant information to their everyday lives. If you find an interesting blog on saving money, for example, send them a link. This lets them know you are not just considering them to be a source of income for you.

Harvest those opt-ins. Opt-ins are essential in mobile marketing. You need a squeeze page on you website. That page should have coupons ready for anyone wanting to opt in. You should run campaigns on TV, radio and in the newspaper to collect opt-ins. All your opt-ins gathered should be integrated in your mobile marketing.

The point of mobile marketing is to give your customers quick and direct access to your business. The longer your message is, the less likely you will be to actually pull them in. Be clear and concise. Tell them only what they need to know, and they will be easier to pull in.

When it comes to mobile marketing, one great way to connect with your customers is through QR codes. This is a great in-store idea because the customer can can scan a bar code with their mobile device’s camera and obtain either an exclusive coupon, a video or other information.

Make sure that your business has a presence on social media websites, and includes links to them on your business website. Social media have their own mobile versions of their websites in addition to mobile apps that have a relationship with them. This is another way for your business to connect with consumers easily.

Compared to general Internet marketing, mobile marketing must be short and specific. For example, when targeting users on desktops, it is fine to use a banner ad that points to the main page of your web based store. However, on a mobile ad, even if you manage to get users to visit your website, the vast majority of visitors will not spend time browsing your website. It is far more effective to choose a specific product, and use a concise message that links them directly to a purchase page.

Mobile devices are only going to continue to become more popular and their use more widespread, so any successful marketing strategy is going to have to take advantage of this fact. By applying the techniques you’ve learned from this article, you can make sure that your company isn’t left behind.

Shield Unique Papers by Binding Them into a Publication

Secure Unique Papers by Binding Them right into a Publication

You have them hanging on the refrigerator, saved in boxes, or stuck between the thick pages of a big publication until you have the moment number out what to do with them. These are the crayola drawings your kids or grandchildren have actually made; the certificates and also awards they have earned in college and also the programs from their institution plays that you have actually conserved to keep in mind those special occasions. They are likewise essential files such as Marital relationship & Death certificates, diplomas, and also profession honors. You can shield these unique documents and important documents from degeneration by binding them into a publication.

Individuals have been binding vital records and also unique papers right into publications for centuries. The technique of bookbinding even go back to old times, when the in-depth accounts of particular occasions were etched on thin stone tablets as well as then encased making use of different materials such as leather, ropes, and also wood fixes inside thicker tablets of rock to protect this details from being lost as a result of harmful toxic substances in the air, and dirt. These very early ‘bindings’ were the first books produced.

Bookbinding takes place through making use of different techniques to secure or bind with each other loosened pages or areas of a publication or pamphlet utilizing sewing, staples, cable, plastic, tape, or glue. You can bind your special papers and crucial documents right into a book utilizing these methods on your own or by having an expert binding solution get the job done for you. You can discover binding services through your regional print store, your regional phone directory, and online. The costs of having a specialist do the binding for you will certainly be affected by your option of products utilized in the binding procedure, yet these prices can be a rewarding financial investment in the time as well as function it conserves you from needing to do on your very own.

You will certainly be pleased to discover that there are many materials readily available to you to pick from for your bookbinding job. Today we have products such as: leather, strong-bond paper, as well as plastic, which are a light-weight, yet resilient option to the heavy-weight, rock tablets of ancient times. These products are used on a daily basis to create the copy-back and hard-cover publications that we purchase to review.

If you favor to bind your unique documents and also crucial documents right into a book on your own, it is no more needed that you perform the labor-intensive job of stapling, taping, or gluing individual web pages with each other in order to bind them right into a publication. Today, you can purchase a ‘binding machine’ that takes the work out of bookbinding for you. These makers can utilizing different products to bind your pages with each other and also they are a good financial investment. This is especially real for those who do not intend to, or who do not have the high-end of a great deal of time to put towards shielding unique papers by binding them right into a book.

If your spending plan doesn’t enable the acquisition of a binding device or to have your pages bound by a specialist, consider this choice: acquisition 3-ring binders with safety sleeves currently in them, or utilize an image cd you currently have and customize your publication by utilizing stickers, enhanced paper cut into various shapes, markers, crayons, and also whatever else you would like. Position your important records and also unique documents in the safety sleeves as well as after that don’t forget to make use of labels to record such essential details as what, where, when, as well as that. Binding special documents as well as papers right into a book, not just shields them from spills, finger prints, and also dirt; it additionally guarantees their long-lasting conservation also.