DM Blog

We covered the Tua Spa in our Gadget Show, let us know, if you liked this product review and if you would like us to review similar products – Raman Singh, Reviewer

The new Tua Spa which is a really fantastic beauty/grooming gadget with five different treatments.

It essentially maximises your usual skincare routine by ensuring that you properly exfoliate, cleanse and moisturise as well as a special anti-ageing setting and skin booster setting.  It’s good for those with dry skin and blocked pores and can help reduce spot breakouts and even ingrown stubble. It’s particularly good for those that experience problems with their skin during the winter months.

Tua Spa treatments include:

• Hydro washes pores with sonic
• Gently exfoliates by ultrasonic vibrational peeling
• Massages in facial moisturisers with ultrasonic waves
• Hydro electronic micro-currents tone the face and neck, diminishing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles
•  An exclusive sonic and micro-current skin booster treatment

Price: £195

Stockist. www.tuaspa.com

Flowd is a free social networking app – think foursquare with a musical twist… Flowd brings music fans and artists closer, by letting users be the first to know where and when their favourite acts are performing and interact with them directly.

Flowd has recently announced some exciting updates to its web and mobile applications, including YouTube and Soundcloud integration:

• - Fans can now watch and listen to their favourite artist’s latest tracks through YouTube without leaving Flowd
• - By integrating Soundcloud into Flowd, music fans can now listen to originally-created sounds from their favourite artists through the app, and share tracks with friends across Flowd, Facebook and Twitter without switching through endless apps and web pages.

By using your phone’s in-built GPS, Flowd also allows users to “check-in” to concerts, festivals and other live events, while bands and artists can run contests and promotions that reward fans for attending their gigs. So for example, Flowd recently teamed up with Sony Entertainment to promote Britney Spears’ new single to find ‘Britney’s biggest fan’ and rewarded the first 1,000 followers with a free copy of the single.

Other artists that are already using Flowd include Armin van Buuren, Markus Schulz and rock band We are the Ocean.

We covered the www.iwantoneofthose.com website in our Gadget Show, let us know, if you liked this ‘webster’ review and if you would like us to review similar products – Raman Singh, Reviewer 

Pen Fishing Rod:

You’ve never got a fishing rod on you when you want one. Oh how we remember all those times strolling along the banks of the Limpopo, when up pops the fin of a marlin, or perhaps we hear the splash of a leaping sword-fish, and darn it if we’ve forgotten a fishing rod. If only we’d had a Pocket Fishing Rod to hand? Of course marlin and swordfish are not fresh-water fish and we’ve never been to the Limpopo, but it sounded more appealing than watching a dead perch floating in the Grand Union Canal. We’re getting off the point somewhat (again!). Ok, this clever little gadget is about the size of a large marker pen at only eight inches long, and yet opens up to become an aluminium alloy 4ft fishing rod, complete with a left and right handed reel (packed separately), a 5lb breaking strain line, and even includes a triple hook spinner. Never again will you be caught short when you spot a fish rise, and it’s small enough to carry with you everywhere!

Please note: To cast the Pocket Fishing Rod line you need to pull some slack from the reel. The reel will not automatically cast just by flicking the rod

• A 4ft fishing rod that compacts into a slimline case, designed to look like a large pen.
• The rod has a minituarised reel with a switchable rachet ideal for left and right handers.
• The rod has a line brake and line fastener for exceptional stability.
• The rod itself is made from aluminium alloy.
• The line has a breaking-strain of 2.5kg.
• A triple hook and spinner are included.
• Suitable for ages 14 years+.
• Size: 22 x 1.5 x 1.5cm (in ‘pen’ form).

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A competitive market place will need business to source out why should customers come to them?

 
When starting with an idea ,you will be taking a chance on the idea to work
Of course, sometimes the idea works anyway, in spite of a lack of market research. Unfortunately, other times, the idea crashes and burns, halting a business in its tracks. We’d like to help you avoid the latter. This how to on researching your business idea is just what you need to keep your business goals on track.

Market research is for discovering what people want, need, or believe.

 It can also involve discovering how they act.

Once that research is completed, it can be used to determine how to market your product.

Market research is a key factor to get advantage over competitors.

Market research provides important information to identify and analyze the market need, market size and competition.

better product or services
better understanding of your customer  needs
allows you to increase your business

Determine the goal of your research. Do you need to improve customerservice or increase sales? Are you looking for the right market for a new product?

2
Use trade journals, marketing magazines, government reports and chamber of commerce market profiles to determine the demographics of your market. These publications also provide data on purchasing trends that will clue you in on the buying habits of your target market.

3
Conduct mail and telephone surveys using randomly selected addresses and telephone numbers in your local area.

4
Collect information from existing customers. Use questionnaires, personal interviews and focus groups to get feedback on your products and services. If you have a Web site, start a chat room or message board and encourage customers to participate.

5
Observe customers at various points of contact in yourbusiness, including reception, sales, and customer service. Watch for glitches in your operation and how your employees interact with the customers.

6
Analyze your sales records. Knowing your best customers and most profitable products can help you to better focus your marketing efforts.

7
Organize the research data you’ve collected and determine – or reevaluate – your marketing strategy based on the results

DIFFERENT ways to target your research ?

EMPLOYEES

the best people who interact with your customers

COMMENT CARDS

1/2 a page asking basic questions

1) where you satisfield with our service?

2)how can we provide a perfect service?

3)are there any additional services you would like to see?

COMPETITION

What is your competion selling?

Ask People who shop there?

YOUR OWN CUSTOMERS

The best way to find out by asking them when they visit you.

SURVEYS BY MAIL

promise a discount if they fill and post

TELEPHONE SURVEYS

contacting your data base

Advertising on the web  E MARKETING

Social Media
Social media is quickly becoming the best source for obtaining information and in some ways it’s already replacing traditional media. Social media can be used in a lot of ways to market online one of them being the use of social media. It is possible to locate niche markets on social sites like facebook.com, twitter.com and linkedIn.com. That said the use of social media requires some skill and dedication for it to work well. With this type of media the focus must be on interaction rather than the outright promotion of a product or service.

Search Engines
Search engines are the go to place for consumers when they’re searching for products and services. Considering that a lot of searchers usually find what they need within the first few results it is important for businesses to ensure that their websites are listed at the top. They do this by making use of search engine optimization to get ranked for their target keywords. Even though it is not absolutely necessary a website is needed to ensure that prospective buyers can get additional information concerning the services furnished.

Article Marketing
In article marketing a business or service is promoted by making use of articles. Since information is given away for free article marketing is proven to be a highly effective online marketing strategy even now. The articles furnished should be written in such a way that enough information is furnished but not too much that it leaves the reader uninterested. The objective is to get the reader to click through to the author’s resource box to obtain more information.

Paid Advertising
Paid advertising is the model that many businesses prefer in their online marketing strategy. It can come in the form of directly getting in contact with a high traffic site that offers paid advertising or making use of a paid advertising program like Google AdWords or Facebook Ads. These programs usually charge on a Pay Per Click (PPC) basis though there are also variations.

Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most effective strategies. The goal of the other ways are to generally get prospective clients to buy the goods or services which are being offered. Email marketing is important because whenever a prospective client is interested enough to sign up for alert and information, a repeat customer is there.

Every business needs to think about getting the most out of its marketplace. If you’re not increasing turnover every year, your business is shrinking .

Advertising can be anything from your shop sign or a website, to an advertisement in a trade magazine or a 30-second radio slot.

the guidline is invest 10% to get the 90%

Local advertising

Advertising locally can benefit any business, especially small businesses and sole traders. Examples of local advertising include:

leaflet drops
supermarket boards, postcards in shop windows
advertising space rented at railway stations, bus stops or on buses, roundabout islands, leisure centres or doctors’ surgeries
local organisations’ newsletters, fete programmes and parish magazines
a sign outside your business premises, which must conform to planning regulations - find contact details for your local authority through our Contacts Directory  
local and regional newspapers, magazines and directories
Local and regional newspapers

Weekly, evening and morning local papers, whether paid-for or free, provide a variety of ways to advertise:

Advertising on the internet and in online directories

Advertising on the internet can be cost-effective and gives national and international coverage that you may otherwise be unable to afford. It will also allow you to compete with larger businesses in your industry on a level playing field. There are three main types of internet advertising – your own website, advertising on other websites, and online directories.

Your own website

Ensure you design and position your website carefully for maximum effect. Take time over it, it’s important – it can be your electronic shop window, an information provider, a sales person and an order form all in one.
Consider the internet user - your potential customer – at every stage. Make it easy for them to find their way around your website, and to order from or contact you.
Keep your website updated and relevant, and check that all pages, images, links, etc open correctly.
Ensure your website is geared towards increasing sales. Making your site interactive and interesting
Find out how to optimise search engines, eg Yahoo! or Google. Internet browsing habits mean that appearing near the top of a search list can make a huge impact as to where your found.

It is more about who you know than what you know

“It’s not what you know, but who you know that counts.” Well, while at one time this may have made some sense, it is certainly not true today.
However, today we operate in a highly advanced ever changing marketplace beset by a volatile economy, fluctuating home values, upside down debt structures and a modern, educated consumer who has more options than ever before. Add to this the flood of agents, brokers and lenders that burst on the scene during the boom-years, and the result is that to succeed in today’s environment,
Employee training is an important part of any business. It can help to fill any skill gaps in your business, improve morale and employee development, and increase your business’ productivity.
Training is more than just building the skills and knowledge of each individual of your team for their own personal benefit. Companies that have invested in training report the following benefits:

Improved recruiting.Today’s job applicant is looking for an environment that fosters personal growth and development. For many job hunters, training is every bit as important as the compensation package. Plus, an effective training program allows you to cast a wider net by hiring people with the right attitude. Developing the skills can come later.
Higher retention.When people know that a company believes in their personal growth, they are likely to stay with that company for a longer period of time.
Better output. The lower your turnover rate, the more productive, enthusiastic and motivated your workforce. Employees will pack their new knowledge and skills into everything they design, produce and delivery.

Buy-in from the top.Without a commitment from top management, training will be nothing more than a charade. All layers of the company must believe that training is a process and not a singular learning event. But getting support is more than just a line item in the budget. Top corporate leaders must embrace training enthusiastically in corporate communications, business plans and individual performance goals. If personal development is part of the formal appraisal, your staff will know that a direct correlation exists between training, acquiring new skills and their career success.
Alignment with corporate goals.Training should fit hand-in-glove with the company’s strategic plan. In fact, if the goal-setting is done correctly and stretches corporate performance to new heights, it should be next to impossible to meet the new objectives without upgrading the skillset of your workforce. Training should help employees develop both technical mastery, as well as effective communication, dispute resolution, quality management and team building.

If you decide to offer training in your business, you must consider the following:

whether the training will be in-house or external
the cost of the training
the space required if the training is done in-house
how much time is needed
how your business would benefit
in-house training and external training.
 

External training

If you don’t have the skills or resources to train your employees internally, you may need to use an external training provider.

The advantages of using external training providers are:

they are specialists in both training and in your business sector
they can bring you and your employees up to speed on current best practice and new ideas
your employees may interact with employees from other businesses, giving a different angle, and improving the effectiveness of the training
your employees may learn better away from their usual work environment

Different types of training offered to business

Customer Services

Sales Training

Marketing

interviewing

IT Training

Product Training

Presentaion skills

Public speaking

Tendering/bidding

leadership

Management

how to manage performance

 Time management

Winning deals

COPILOT LIVE : Design philosophy

The best choice of route. CoPilot Live Premium provides a choice of ways to a destination to help you decide the best way to go.

• Intuitive, context- sensitive design. CoPilot Live Premium all-new menus and controls are designed specifically to give you easy access to the features you need, when you need them
• Safety First. CoPilot Live Premium is designed to avoid distraction by providing drivers with clear, easy to follow 3D, 2D or directions only guidance views and. Large turn arrows, and lane indicators ensure you can see the way to go at a glance.
• Connected but not dependent on your mobile connection. CoPilot Live Premium gives you access to a wealth of useful real-time location-specific information to help you make informed decisions on the move. Yet maps are stored locally, and can be used ‘off-line’ so you can navigate without a mobile signal and avoid huge roaming charges when travelling abroad.

Which devices does CoPilot Live Premium run on?

CoPilot Live Premium is available for iPhone; 3G iPads, Android Smartphones and Tablets.

New innovation in CoPilot Live Premium

• Personal Routes™ – CoPilot Live Premium helps you find the best way to any destination with a choice of up to three routes, displaying journey time and mileage for each. Fine-tuning the route is easy: simply drag the route or a destination flag to a preferred street or location.
• Intuitive and Interactive User Interface – CoPilot Live Premium puts all the features you need right at your fingertips. The stylish new interface allows you to tap anywhere on any map within the app to navigate there, discover more information or share it with friends. Context-sensitive menus provide access to the features you need, when you need them.
• Your sociable CoPilot – CoPilot Live Premium is a more sociable way to navigate. Share your journey details through Twitter or check-in with Facebook Places. You can access community content easily with integrated access to Wikipedia and Bing Local Search directly from the app.
• Tap, Discover, Go – Tap on the map to go there, discover more information or share the location with friends.
• ActiveTraffic™ – CoPilot’s optional ActiveTraffic service uses real-time traffic conditions to intelligently calculate the fastest route to your destination and automatically avoid delays.
• All new Offline walking Mode with digital compass support

Additional features

Superior guidance: sleek dashboard-style map display provides clear, non-distracting directions. Choice of 3D, 2D and Directions-only guidance views. Lane Assist arrows and realistic ClearTurn™ display. All-new walking mode makes it easy to find the way around a city on-foot

• Enhanced map features with clearly labelled parks, rivers and lakes as well as country-specific road colours
• Detour feature: immediately find the best way around unexpected delay
• Text to Speech (TTS) voice directions as standard: detailed guidance, pronouncing actual street names such as “Turn left on Redgrave Road”
• Park my Car: to save the exact location of your car and easily find it later
• Door to door trip planning: enter up to 50 stops and optimise the itinerary
• Photo Navigation: drive to a geotagged picture taken by your smartphone
• Copy/paste a destination into the address entry screen
• Live Weather with 5 days forecast where you are and at destination
• Live Fuel Prices (premium option) to find the cheapest petrol station around your area
• In-app news and updates to keep you informed about improvements
• Speed limit display and excess speed warnings
• Millions of points of interest (POI) pre-loaded

Pricing

• CoPilot Live Premium Single Region: from £24.99
• CoPilot Live Premium Europe: from £39.99

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We covered the Hasbro Transformer and Nerf products the Gadget Show, let us know, if you liked this product review and if you would like us to review similar products – Raman Mac, Reviewer

Nerf N-Strike Barricade RV-10 Blaster

Introducing the Nerf N-Strike Barricade RV-10 blaster, a motorised, semi-auto Nerf blaster with a revolving dart barrel that will unleash an unrelenting stream of darts. The Nerf N-Strike Barricade RV-10 is able to hold up to 10 whistle darts and is compatible with the Tactical Rail System and alternate N-Strike stocks.

Age: 8 years +

Arcbot Arc

Join the race to the secrets of the CYBERTRONIAN spacecraft in the penultimate battle between the AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS. This space-age ark is armed for a cosmic clash with the enemy – and its secrets are yours to uncover.

Your guide? None other than the pilot of the mighty starship that at one time was the flagship of the AUTOBOT fleet. The AUTOBOT ROLLER figure is ready for you to join him and protect the vast expanse of outer space from the DECEPTICON threat. So prepare to convert your trusty ship to an impermeable space station, start firing missiles and stash captured DECEPTICONS in the ship’s holding cell (additional figures sold separately). Ship comes with exclusive pilot figure.

Requires 2 “AA” batteries (not included).

Ages 5 and above

We covered the ECO Saveometer in our Gadget Show, let us know, if you liked this product review and if you would like us to review similar products – Raman Mac, Reviewer

You may have heard that “smart meters”, which provide homeowners with minute-by-minute information on energy consumption, are to replace traditional gas and electricity meters by 2020. The Government has instructed the leading power companies to introduce the technology in an exercise described as one of the most significant changes in the energy market for decades.

However, most consumers are unaware the technology is already available to buy and can be installed in most homes in a matter of minutes.

The Saveometer smart meter uses wireless technology to monitor both gas and electricity consumption, sits in its own battery recharge holster and is designed to be both unobtrusive but easy to read. Information displayed at a touch of a button includes the cost of energy consumed within the past hour, day, month or year with a bar graph helping to illustrate trends at the bottom of the display panel.

Some may ask why they should purchase an item which their electricity supplier is likely to fit in their home within the next few years. However, issues over who would own the technology have yet to be resolved and may even delay the introduction of smart meters in the UK.

Ownership would not be an issue for homeowners purchasing a Saveometer while, with regard to cost, Yorkshire-based supplier Eco1 has pledged to refund the £79.95 retail price if the customer has not saved an equivalent amount on their energy bill within 12 months of installation.

With households facing difficult financial decisions this winter, we hope you will agree the Saveometer could be considered a useful gadget to have in the home – and therefore would make an excellent Christmas gift.