Venezuela, Brexit, Taiwan, Blue Wave, Social Media, Play Ball, H&M, Anthony Bourdain

Marc Ross Daily
March 29, 2018
Curation and commentary from Marc A. Ross

Reporting from Alexandria, Virginia

Marc Ross Daily = Global Business News at the Intersection of Politics + Policy + Profits

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TOP FIVE

✔️ 68 dead in Venezuela police station fire

✔️ One year to Brexit

✔️ Taiwan to call businesses home from China

✔️ Blue Wave 2018?

✔️ Can social media be saved?

ROSS RANT

Enter techman

As Beijing emphasizes the need to wean China off foreign technology, and as China moves up the technology ladder to become a “cyber power” in its own right - expect more friction.

Some experts even go so far to describe the current state of US-China commercial relations as a Cold War.

Recent tit-for-tat trade actions will deepen what has become a global contest for technological dominance between the United States and China.

Plus, the Trump administration is expecting lots more investment by Beijing in semiconductors and acquisitions of international technology companies by Chinese companies.

State capitalism vs. market capitialism.

How do you power a nation's economy? Do you build it? Do you borrow it? Do you buy it?

Sleep with one eye open. We're off to a new never-never-land.

There is a silver lining to all this.

We are witnessing national economic development in real-time and will have the answer within a generation.

GEOECONOMICS

USA Today: At least 68 dead in Venezuela police station fire as angry relatives demand answers

CNN: Families demand answers after deadly Venezuela jail fire

Star wars: Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Hillier, the head of the Royal Air Force, has warned that Britain's armed forces must be ready to fight states such as Russia in space.

Poland officially signs deal to buy Patriot from US: Defense News reports, Poland has officially signed a letter of offer and acceptance for Patriot air and missile defense systems after years of negotiations.

NATO moves toward readying more troops to confront Russian threat: WSJ reports, Europe has more than a million troops in its armies, but military planners fear those ready for rapid deployment in a conflict with Russia would only be counted in the thousands. NATO, at U.S. urging, is working to change that.

Salisbury attack: ex-spy poisoned by nerve agent on his front door: Reuters reports, Russian former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a nerve toxin that had been left on the front door of their home in England, British counter-terrorism police said.

One year to Brexit: The UK is set to leave the European Union a year from today.

AFP: British PM aims for national unity, one year from Brexit

Kim’s lack of diplomatic experience ‘may have prompted China visit’: SCMP reports, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s lack of experience in summit diplomacy may have been an important motive for his visit to China, according to a former South Korean foreign minister.

Bloomberg: Two Koreas set April 27 for Kim Jong Un’s historic walk south

Taiwan to call businesses home from China, says economic minister: Nikkei reports, the island braces for trade friction between Washington and Beijing.

SCMP: After Trump’s move, taxes cut for Chinese firms from factories to farms: China will reduce taxes – worth 240 billion yuan (US$38.15 billion) a year – for factories, transport firms, builders, telecom operators and farmers from May 1, as it comes under pressure from tax cuts made by US President Donald Trump.

Will DJT take credit on The Twitter?

Or will DTJ realize China is cutting taxes for the industries Trump wants to punish, thus limiting the potential impact of tariffs on their bottom lines?

Treasury to use national security laws to shield US tech from China: WSJ reports, blocking Chinese firms from acquiring advanced US technology on the basis of national security is part of a Trump administration initiative to thwart what it sees as Beijing’s efforts to give itself an economic and military edge.

Bloomberg: US weighs use of emergency law to curb Chinese takeovers

FT: Who will fare worse in a China-US trade war? White House actions to date have offered little reason to believe that Mr Trump and his advisers understand how to play to their own advantage. “In principle, trade war is something that deficit countries with diversified economies should win and surplus countries always lose. So it’s not really an even battle,” says Michael Pettis, finance professor at Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. https://goo.gl/ZDG9pf

Trade deals take years. Trump wants them in months: FT reports, the White House has taken a contentious approach to negotiations, but it remains to be seen whether the global trading system can sustain the chaos.

CARACAL CLASSROOM

US-China commercial relations for the C-Suite: This 90-minute, small group session will cover the best strategy and necessary tactics to communicate trade and globalization with the media, stakeholders, and elected officials. Participants will receive communication checklists, partnership ideas, opinion editorial tools, and media mapping systems. More info and dates here: http://www.caracal.global/events/

AMERICAN POLITICS

NYT: Trump lawyer broached idea of pardons for 2 top ex-aides

"The episode raises questions about whether the president’s lawyer was trying to influence the advisers and their cooperation with the special counsel."

Trump’s lawyer raised possibility of pardons for Manafort, Flynn last summer: WP reports, John Dowd, who served as the president’s lead lawyer for the Russia probe, insists that he did not raise the idea of pardons with lawyers for Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. Legal experts said prosecutors could view the dangle of a pardon as a criminal effort to obstruct justice.

NYT: Trump aide spoke in ’16 to person tied to Russia intelligence

VA: Trump announced that he will replace David J. Shulkin with his White House physician, Dr. Ronny L. Jackson.

Blue Wave 2018? So far, 59 Capitol Hill lawmakers have announced their departures, the most since 1994, which was a tsunami of a midterm election.

The Hill: GOP donors fret about Dem wave

The Record: Bob Menendez, free of charges, will seek another Senate term

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens called for the repeal of the 2nd Amendment on Tuesday to allow for significant gun control legislation.

At $75,560, housing a prisoner in California now costs more than a year at Harvard.

Trump hates Amazon, not Facebook: Axios reports, Capitol Hill wants Facebook’s blood, but President Trump isn’t interested. Instead, the tech behemoth Trump wants to go after is Amazon, according to five sources who’ve discussed it with him. “He’s obsessed with Amazon,” a source said. “Obsessed.” Trump has talked about changing Amazon’s tax treatment because he’s worried about mom-and-pop retailers being put out of business.

Watch out, Zuckerberg — Congress is a trap: Politico reports, here’s how Facebook’s CEO can avoid the pitfalls that tripped up auto, tobacco and oil executives in their big Hill moments. https://goo.gl/uQmvBd

ENTERPRISE

Renault + Nissan talks: Renault SA and Nissan Motor Co. are in talks to merge and create a new single automaker.

Toyota, Suzuki team up in India: WSJ reports, Toyota and Suzuki Motor are swapping car models in India to help each other boost sales in the rapidly growing market.

USA Today: Walmart to remove Cosmopolitan magazine from checkout lines amid Me Too movement

H&M has a problem: $4.3 billion of unsold clothes: NYT reports, the company outlined the inventory buildup in its latest quarterly report, prompting questions of whether it can adapt to fierce competition and changing consumer tastes.

Tariff spat could chill China-US travel even without a trade war: Skift reports, travel companies were spared the first round of the US-China trade war. But outbound travel to the U.S. and U.S. hospitality companies could become collateral damage without too much provocation.

WSJ: CME group seals deal to buy UK’s NEX for $5.4 billion

Apple seeks to take advantage of Facebook’s woes: FT reports, Cook promotes conservative approach to using customer data amid online privacy uproar.

CNBC: Tim Cook on Facebook's data-leak scandal: 'I wouldn't be in this situation'

Tim vs. Mark

USA Today: Dunkin' Donut, Saucony pair up to create doughnut-themed running shoes

Limited edition running show created for the Boston Marathon.

Genius on many levels.

TRENDS

Smart: Lacoste unveiled a line of shirts last month that featured the embroidered motifs of endangered species, instead of its traditional crocodile logo.

Big Tech enters an era of uncertainty: Even insiders are no longer confident about predicting advances and their implications.
Bloomberg - Mohamed A. El-Erian

Can social media be saved? They exploit our data and make us unhappy. They spread misinformation and undermine democracy. Our columnist asks if salvation is possible for social networks.
NYT - Kevin Rose

CULTURE

Anthony Bourdain’s globalist mission: With Parts Unknown, now in its 11th season, Bourdain continues a restless odyssey to understand our global community through food. https://goo.gl/8vYnEP

Deadline: Roseanne revival’s huge debut stuns Hollywood, prompts soul-searching

Fast Company: This common word makes you sound more negative than you want to: This tiny word is nearly unavoidable but frequently overused. Everything that follows it tends to make you sound like a downer. The language you use shapes others’ impressions of you, but there’s a chance that some of your most common words don’t put you in the best light. In fact, I’ve already typed one of them that can do that. It’s the word “but”–a simple conjunction that’s nearly impossible to avoid yet potentially damaging to your brand and reputation, even if in subtle ways. https://goo.gl/isa1Gy

LAT: Ready Player One blends old-school Spielberg with trendy technology to create an excellent adventurehttps://goo.gl/QnLb4Z

Can NBC and USA make the Beverly Hills Dog Show an Easter viewing tradition?

SOTD

Jamie xx - Loud Places (ft Romy) https://goo.gl/eXtHG7

SPORT

Today: Opening day for the Major League Baseball 2018 season.

Go Tigers!

Global MLB baseball: MLB plans to open the season in Asia next year and in 2020. Also, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are near an agreement to play two games at London Stadium next year.

The Carolina Panthers could fetch a record sale price of about $2.5 billion.

AFP: Tearful Smith takes 'full responsibility' for cricket ball-tampering scandal

Final Four odds:

Loyola - Chicago +5.5 vs. Michigan
Kansas +5 vs. Villanova

Go Blue!

Social media marketing has been the hottest marketing concept for the past decade. And why not?

With just a little effort, the marketing machine complex has amazingly shifted the production and creativity to a workforce that does all the heavy-lifting for free.

Free.

Consumer generated content, for free.

Direct to consumer engagement, for free.

Friends and family telling what to buy, where to eat, what to watch, all for free.

But is social media marketing losing steam or are we at the pioneer stage of these tools?

This week Pew Research is out with their annual report on Social Media Use in the United States.

And to no one's surprise, a majority of Americans use Facebook and YouTube, and young adults are unusually heavy users of Snapchat and Instagram. The survey of US adults finds that the social media landscape in early 2018 is defined by a mix of long-standing trends and newly emerging narratives.

As has been the case since the Pew began surveying about the use of different social media in 2012, Facebook remains the primary platform for most Americans. But the social media story extends well beyond Facebook. The video-sharing site YouTube is now used by nearly three-quarters of US adults and 94% of 18- to 24-year-olds.

But there are pronounced differences in the use of various social media platforms within the young adult population as well. Americans ages 18 to 24 are substantially more likely to use platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter even when compared with those in their mid- to late-20s.

As was true in previous surveys of social media use, there is a substantial amount of overlap between users of the various sites measured in this survey. Most notably, a significant majority of users of each of these social platforms also indicate that they use Facebook and YouTube. But this “reciprocity” extends to other sites as well. For instance, roughly three-quarters of both Twitter (73%) and Snapchat (77%) users also indicate that they use Instagram.

This overlap is broadly indicative of the fact that many Americans use multiple social platforms. Roughly three-quarters of the public (73%) uses more than one of the eight platforms measured in this survey, and the typical (median) American uses three of these sites.

As might be expected, younger adults tend to use a greater variety of social media platforms. The median 18- to 29-year-old uses four of these platforms, but that figure drops to three among 30- to 49-year-olds, to two among 50- to 64-year-olds and one among those 65 and older.

So is social media marketing still a thing?

Yes.

But what does this social media thing mean for marketers, communicators, and advocates?

A few ideas.

Americans might say in polite company they don't love social media, but their activity says otherwise as they use these tools and use them a lot. Second, social media users take advantage of multiple platforms and embrace their unique tweaks. Finally, it may be early days of social media, but there is a lot of content and distraction out there - and frankly, most of it is junk food for the brain.

For marketers, communicators, and advocates to take advantage of these tools they must think reinforce, reward, recognize, refresh, and research.

Also, your content must be outstanding because the consumer has multiple channels for distraction, others want your audience, and if the user doesn't feel special, someone else will give them a home.

And most importantly, more and more content is being produced daily. Just like this Ross Rant, content will be easily created and then placed on a minimum of six social media and digital platforms.

So keep on using social media marketing but make sure your content and engagement reinforces, rewards, recognizes, refreshes, and is well researched.

If you want more, you can access the full report here: https://goo.gl/rWdo9g

Marc A. Ross is the founder of Caracal Global and specializes in global communications and thought leader management at the intersection of politics, policy, and profits. Working with boardrooms and C-Suite executives from multinational corporations, trade associations, and disruptive startups, Marc helps leaders create compelling communications, focused content, and winning commerce.