“But once the issue has a name and a face, it changes everything, doesn’t it? God knows each of those names. God knows each of those faces. And it breaks His heart.” -Primal by Mark Batterson

I didn’t know what I was getting into that day.  The day that I still travel to with heaviness weighting down my heart.  The burden grips my soul.

I stepped out of the vehicle with a vague mission of “hanging out.”  The park felt separated. empty. I found a little girl playing near the slide.  Unlike most kids, she shied away from me. I didn’t force the conversation. We just were.

Then she led me toward the rickety dinosaur.  And it was there that I put a face to issue.

Before long, I found myself surrounded by a group of boys.  They chattered away with questions like “Do you know Chris Brown?” or “Do you have a boyfriend?” We talked about how some of them wanted to be police men while others were adamant about being doctors to help others and another wanted to be a teacher.  These kids saw what was wrecking havoc on their communities: crime, HIV/AIDS, a need for education.

Yet, what happened next slammed my heart to the wall.  The conversation blurs in my memory, but the faces stay.  The twisted look of this is just life here.  The shame. hurt. brokenness. I sat on a metal dinosaur piecing together the horrific reality of rape. of a ten. year. old. boy. sitting in front of me and that this wasn’t the first child or the last. Oh, no. The kids knew who did this. They knew that the police may put this person in jail, but before long he would be out again searching the park…for the next child.

I felt God’s heart break alongside mine. No longer could I hold onto a statistic or a number. I had a face. I had a name.  I had a hug.

Sure, I can swoop in and “save” the day, but that’s not the solution. No. I want to empower for change. These amazing kids’ dreams and hopes for a better future can become a reality.  This nation can change.

They see the problems and they see how they can bring about a transformed nation.  To bring abundant life.  And that. That gives me hope and passion to empower them. To say “I believe in you” and I want to love you, I want to equip and empower you so that you can do this with God by your side. Because when we are weak, He is strong.

Author : , LINAWATI

Perkembangan bisnis rumah makan yang pesat di Surabaya telah menimbulkan persaingan yang sangat ketat, dimana pelaku bisnis dituntut untuk dapat memberikan yang terbaik bagi konsumen. Pemenuhan harapan konsumen akan mendatangkan kepuasan konsumen dan keuntungan bagi pelaku bisnis. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengukur kepuasan dan harapan konsumen serta kesenjangan (gap) kualitas layanan yang terjadi pada ketiga cabang rumah makan Cianjur di Surabaya dengan menggunakan metode Servqual yang terdiri dari lima dimensi kualitas yaitu tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, dan empathy. Pada ketiga cabang Cianjur di Surabaya terjadi kesenjangan (gap) antara tingkat kepuasan dan tingkat harapan konsumen. Kesenjangan (gap) terjadi pada dimensi tangible dan responsiveness. Kesenjangan (gap) yang terjadi disebabkan karena standar kualitas layanan yang kurang baik dan bersifat informal.

Keyword : restorant, quality control, statistic, consumer?s satisfaction, gaps, servqual method

Sumber : http://repository.petra.ac.id/2848/

whew …saya hampir ternganga dan tidak bisa mengatupkan mulut saya saat melihat derasnya kucuran postingan blog, twitter, sms, email dan juga yang lainnya yang terlihat secara riil di depan mata. luar biasa. semakin banyak orang terjejalin dengan internet.

well, seorang bernama gary hayes mencoba menghitungnya; dan membagikannya pada pembaca. iya, gary hayes mencoba menghitung kucuran setiap detik bahkan setiap menit email yang dikirimkan oleh setiap orang, juga setiap postingan para blogger. dus, ini realtime. hasilnya cukup menakjubkan.

bisa jadi, anda menjadi salah satu penyumbangnya. apalagi, setiap orang kini tidak hanya berjejalin dengan satu media saja, facebook, misalnya, tetapi juga dengan media lainnya. gary hayes mencoba menghitungnya untuk saya, dan juga anda.

World population statistic 2008

The world population has risen from 2,5 billion in 1950 to 6,7 billion in 2008. The largest population rise in this period took place in the developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean – from a proportion of 68 percent to a whopping 80 percent. These and other interesting statistical date are presented in a document published by doXtop`s member shakti and it is titled World Population Datasheet 2008. The document contains precise official UN data about most populous countries, largest population growth, infant mortality rates and other statistics.

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In 2006, Brand Finance -a global brand consulting firm had ranked India’s most valuable brands. The list and the trademark value is given below

Brand Trademark: Value in Millions ( Rs)

Indian Oil Corporation : 250,636
State Bank of India : 137,965
BPCL : 134,673
TCS : 123,485
Reliance Industries : 122,240
HPCL : 116,271
ONGC : 88,822
Tata Motors : 84,652
ICICI Bank : 76,777
Wipro : 67,681
ITC : 64,406
Infosys Technologies : 63,534
GAIL : 58,178
Bharathi Televentures : 54,018
Tata Steel : 44,059
Larsen & Tubro : 39,658
Ranbaxy : 29,038
Bajaj Auto : 27,186
Satyam : 24,302
Hero Honda : 20,580
IDBI : 18,830
HDFC : 14,665
HDFC Bank : 11,992
Jet Airways : 10,410
Grasim Industries : 8,003

The valuaton might seem confusing since major FMCG brands are not visible in the brand league. This is because holding companies of branded products like HUL is excluded and also only those companies which are listed in BSE is taken for this valuation. The valuation also excludes those companies where information is not clear ( read Pepsi and Coke). The valuation also excludes new companies which has not made it to BSE top 500 by market capitalization.
Hence I would say that the above list is India’s most valuable corporate brands.
Another interesting facet of this study is the methodology. Brand Finance uses the technique called Royalty Relief Approach. The method simply assumes that the brand is not owned by the respective company and how much the company has to pay inorder to license the brand from a third party.

Brand valuation

The hypothetical stream of such royalty payments becomes the brand value.
The critical factor is the assessment of the Royalty rates whi

ch is usually judgemental and also by comparing with the going rates at similar deals. The royalty rates are usually expressed as a percentage of sales.
According to reports, Royalty Relief Method is the single most reliable brand valuation technique used worldwide.

Its true that no calculations have so far yielded perfect valuations to the brand. The reason is simple, a brand’s value exists in the mind of the consumer. Its intangible and to put a value to intangibles makes it the most inaccurate number.

Source : businessindia,rediff,brandfinance ,businessline

Here is some of the interesting market statistics sourced from some leading business dailies and magazines .

Market size of Indian Egg Market : Rs 10,000 crores source : Economic Times ( ET) July 26 2008

Total Mobile users in India : 270 million Source :ET 24 June 2008

Mobile Ad market size : Rs 40 crore Source : ET 24 June 2008

Courier Market Size : Rs 5000 crore. Source : ET 26 June 2008

Indian mobile handset market size : Rs 15,000 crore Source ; ET 26 July 2008

Indian Taxi business market size : Rs 9000 crore Source : ET 23 June 2008

Number of Taxis in Indian roads : Approximately 2,35,000 Source :ET 23 June 2008

Number of electric scooters in Indian roads : 1.10 lakh Source : ET 23 June 2008

Kid’s Apparel Market in India : Rs 27,000 crore.

Organized Kids apparel market : Rs 500 crore source : Business Line

Indian stationary market size : Rs 9000 crore Source : Business Line July 31 2008

Notebook ( paper) market size : Rs 3000 crore Source : Business Line July 31 2008

Home Interior market size : $ 9 billion

Magazine Advertising market size : $ 302 million Source : Business Line July 31 2008

Indian Wine Market : 1 mn cases Source :Economic Times

Pencil Market size in India : Rs 400 crore Source : Business Line 31 July 2008

Printer and Copier Market size : Rs 1800 crore Source : Business Line 31 July 2008

Wedding Management Industry Market size : Rs 400 crore Source : ET July 31 2008

Uniform Industry market size : Rs 10,000 crore Source ET 31 July 2008

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1. Dainik Jagran : 1.62 crores
2. Danik Bhaskar : 1.30 crores
3. Hindustan : 92.73 Lakhs
4. Malayala Manorama : 84.17 Lakhs
5. Amar Ujala : 80.73 Lakhs
6. Daily Thanthi : 76.81 Lakhs
7. Enadu : 68.31 Lakhs
8. Times of India : 67.12 Lakhs
9. Ananda Bazar pathrika : 66.76 Lakhs
10. Rajasthan Pathrika : 66.71 Lakhs

There exists now a confusion between AIR and TR ie Average Issue Readership and Total Readership.

Media planners use AIR to decide on their media plan. AIR refers to the estimated readers for a single issue. Average Issue readership is derived from the recency. Recency denotes the number of people who have read the publication within the publication interval. For example for Dailies , the AIR is those who have read the paper yesterday.

Total Readership is the cumulative of AIR and Claimed Readership ( CR) . While AIR is the readership for one insertion, CR is used in a broader perspective to include addons and supplements.

The readership surveys use the Masthead method. In this method , the respondent is shown the Masthead of the publication and is asked whether he has read the publication.

The major difference between CR and AIR is that AIR denotes those who have read the publication with in the publication time interval. While CR represents those readers who claim to have read the publication but may or may not have read it in the interval .

So if a respondent say that he has not read a paper yesterday then he will not be considered as an Average Issue Reader. How ever if he claims to have been reading this paper but not yesterday , he will be considered in Claimed readership figure.

From IRS 2008 Round 2 , MRUC has moved to Total Readership as the standard rather than AIR. Some media planners are of the opinion that AIR provides better information about the reach of a publication rather than TR.

Usually Claimed Readership figures are more because of replication.

The latest IRS results also has thrown in some interesting trends in the media habits of Indian consumers.

Regularity of reading print media including both dailies and magazines have come down .The average frequency of reading also has come down for all print media. The average viewing / listening time for media like TV , Radio and Internet has increased.

The average time spent on media like TV , Radio increased while the time spent on print has declined. Average time spent in television is 99.4 minutes and 81.1 minutes on radio. How ever time spent on Internet has declined.

Another interesting fact is that the fragmentation in Television media has caused a decline in the time spent with one channel. That means that viewers are not brand conscious with regard to television channels but are program conscious. On the other hand time spent per title for print has gone up.
It was also revealed that print media is losing out in claiming the attention of young Indians. The readership for print among the age group 20-29 has declined by over 16 %.
Some interesting links for further reading
Exchange 4 Media
IRS

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Indian Youth Market Demographics

This is the demographics of Indian youth as per the census 2001.
According to news reports, the Youth Population to the total population is 41.05% as per the census 2001.

Many interesting statistics regarding Youth demographics are available in the website : Youthportal.gov.in

Economic Times (25/05/09) has a very interesting and enlightening article on Indian youth. Written by Mr Rajesh Shukla, the article throws light into some important data regarding the Indian youth market.

Read the article here : Harnessing Indian Youth Power

Some of the important statistics are reproduced below :

The total youth population (13-34) is 390 million which is 38% of the total population and is expected to rise to 440 million by 2020.

70% of the youth reside in over 600,000 villages.
72% of youth are literate.
41% of these literate youth fall in the age group (13-19 years) , 23% fall in 20-24 and 36% are in 25-34 years.

59% of literate youth are male. 7% are graduates and 12% have passed higher secondary.

The article also presents a clear view about the definition of youth. According to Rajesh Shukla , youth refers to a category rather than a group. The difference between category and group is that category has diverse or heterogeneous elements unlike groups which are similar in its composition. Youth relates to an age group that is transiting between childhood and adulthod and may comprise of a conglomeration of sub-groups with differing social roles, expectations and aspirations.

UN defines youth as those in the age group of 15-24 years. UNICEF defines youth in the age bracket of 15-30 years. Indian National Youth Policy considers all individuals in the agegroup of 13-35 years as youth population. NYP divides the youth population into two groups – 13-19 years as adolescent and 20-35 as Youth.

As far as marketers are concerned, the sheer size of this market is a huge opportunity. But no one so far has been able to rightly understand the Indian Youth’s psyche.

As the article points out, the youth market cannot be considered as a group because it is not homogeneous. So does it mean that marketers cannot segment this market on the bases of age alone ? . Segmentation is based on the assumption that the members display homogeneity . So if the members of a specific age group display heterogeneous characteristics, it no longer becomes a segment.
The implication is that marketers should find out variables other than age to segment the Indian youth market.So when age becomes irrelevant, does it mean that the so called Youth Market is a myth just like the much hyped Indian MiddleClass ?
Most of the marketers tend to use Lifestyle as a variable to define segments with in the Youth market. How ever lifestyle segmentation is tricky and highly subjective in nature.

This probably explain the reason why Indian marketers are still finding it difficult to find a formula to tap this huge lucrative market.

What do you think ?

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you can download the book, just click the text below:
1. Pendahuluan Statistika Industri
2. Statistika deskriptif
3. Probabilitas
4. Distribusi Probabilitas
5. Distribusi variabel diskrit
6. Konsep Dasar Pengetesan Hipotesis
7. DistribusiNormal
8. Inferensi untuk populasi
9. Membandingkan Dua Perlakuan

Cumulative historical statistics.
Single family/ Condo / Townhouse on the market as of September 10 th, 2009

Statistic

12 Month Average is a rolling average based on the last 12 months reported sold. Percentage difference is compared to current month.

While representative of the market activity, these figures may not include all sales brokered by Member firms, and should not be viewed as all inclusive of sales transacted within the reference time periods.

©2009 – Greater Greenville Association of REALTORS®

© Flavia Westerwelle

TransDomo,LLC / ShellTree Realty
Flavia & Klaus Westerwelle
Phone: 864.908.0690
Email: info@transdomo.com
TransDomo
Westerwelle
Photos from Greenville, SC