I came across this fantastic interview of Sir Richard Branson at TED.

I have read a lot about Sir Richard Branson over the years, and he is one hell of a marketing and business man. This interview is well worth watching.

昨日、ヴァージン・メディア（Virgin Media）のテクニシャンが来て、今までの「Broadband XL」プランから「Broadband XXL」にアップグレードしてもらった。モデムは、それまでの白のプラスチックのモデムと比べ、スタイリッシュな、光沢のあるブラック。回線スピードは今までの最大20mbpsから最大50mbpsにアップした。

ヴァージン・メディアは、ヴァージン・アトランティック航空を起したリチャード・ブランソン率いるヴァージン・グループ（Virgin Group）傘下にある会社で、ケーブルテレビ、ブロードバンド・インターネット接続、電話、携帯電話事業を行っている。イギリスにおけるブロードバンド・インターネット接続プロバイダー最大手で、28％のシェアを占める（2006年調べ）。ちなみに第二位はBTグループで23％。18ヶ月の回線改良工事の後、ヴァージン・メディアはそのネットワーク提供範囲を3倍に引き上げることに成功、この高速光ファイバー回線を最大1200万のイギリス家庭に提供することが可能になった。現在は「Broadband XXL」プランで月額£52.00だが、9月1日から£35.00ポンドに価格が引き下げられるそうだ。

最大50mbpsというスピードは現在、イギリスのブロードバンド・プロバイダーの中で最速。100mbps、1Gbpsが最大速度の、世界1、2を争う高速回線を持つ日本と比べると、大したことはないんだろうけれど、ここイギリスにとっては画期的な出来事なのだ。ちなみに、ITIFの2008年のブロードバンドランキングでは、イギリスは世界第13位（日本は、韓国に次いで第2位）。平均ダウンロード速度は、一位の日本の63.6mbpsに比べ、2.6mbpsだったから、それに比べたら、大きな一歩じゃないか。

でもこの新しい50mbps回線、特段速くなった感じはなく、むしろ少し遅くなってる感じ。どういうこと？？

Yesterday Virgin Media technician came to our apartment, and set up a new modem to upgrade the plan from ‘Broadband XL‘ to ‘Broadband XXL‘. The internet speed went up from up to 20mbps to up to 50mbps. The glossy black modem is stylish and more compact than the old boring white plastic one.

Virgin Media is a provider for home telephone, cable television, broadband and mobile services to the UK, and a part of Virgin Group founded by British business tycoon Sir Richard Branson. Virgin Media is the top UK broadband provider, and it took 28% share of the UK market in 2006, and the second BT (British Telecommunication) had 23%. After 18 months of upgrades, Virgin Media has now tripled its network capacity and is able to offer a 50Mb broadband package to 12 million homes across the UK. Now ’Broadband XXL’ plan costs £52.00, but as of September 1st, Virgin Media will slash the price to £35.00.

The 50Mb service is currently the fastest commercially available broadband connection on the UK market. It may sound a big deal in compare to South Korea and Japan, the top two countries on ITIF 2008 Broadband Ranking, where the internet speed up to 100mbps or even up to 1Gbps are available. But it is a great improvement for UK, which is the 13th on the world ranking, and the average download speed in Mbps was only 2.6 in 2008,in compare to the fastest Japan of 63.6.

But I feel like the speed of this new service is not faster but rather slower – what is going on?!

Virgin America, one of the new airline start-ups that’s “reinventing travel,” has been under fire from U.S. regulators for quite some time about the airline’s ownership status – regulators are still trying to figure out what to do. Now, it looks as though Senate is trying to move things along.

From WSJ:

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said scrutiny of the airline’s adherence to U.S. law was “no longer a routine ownership and control matter”.

The Washington senator’s call came in a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood dated July 9.

“I believe it is past time for [the Department of Transportation] to initiate a proceeding allowing for public comment,” wrote Murray.

She said DOT should review whether any new investment in the airline “represents sufficient economic interest in Virgin America so as to fully satisfy U.S. citizenship requirements.”

In April, Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., said in a letter to LaHood that recent transactions indicate the airline may be violating U.S. restrictions on foreign ownership of airlines.

Remember, to comply with U.S. law, 75% of voting stock must be held by American citizens. Currently, 25% is owned by Richard Branson (head of the Virgin Group). Earlier in the airline’s history, the carrier was forced to bring in an American CEO. Still, senators believe that the airline may be violating laws on foreign ownership of airlines.

From what I can see, Virgin America is fine where they are – they’re meeting the law requirements. However, I have to wonder how much of this comes from lobbying / support from competitor carriers, like Alaska Air Group.

ESPAÑOL:

Javier Rovira nos presentó en el Hoy Es Marketing (HEM) el término que ha dado lugar a su nuevo libro: Consumering.

En palabras del propio Rovira “Consumering rompe con las leyes del marketing tradicional”. Suena fuerte, suena a vendida de moto de siempre y lógicamente mi pregunta interior fue ¿será cierto?¿será otro vende-motos que cree haber inventado la rueda?

Para mi sorpresa, Javier Rovira resultó uno de los mejores exponentes y su libro un “must” que espero comprar a lo largo de este mes en ESIC.

¿De qué trata “Consumering”? Según el propio Javier, Consumering es “otorgar el poder del mix al consumidor”. He aquí donde radica lo innovador del término de Javier. Llevábamos tiempo oyendo que el poder lo tiene el consumidor, algunos habían dicho que había que dárselo pero Javier ha creado toda una nueva forma de ver el marketing con sus normas y sus puntos y aparte alrededor de este concepto.

El individuo/ciudadano global ha cambiado. Hoy día nos encontramos ante un nuevo consumidor cuyas principales características son el deseo por rendir en una continua comunicación, de libertad, el querer vivir una vida intensa y la necesidad de crear una identidad propia.

Vivimos en la sociedad del hedonismo donde ser único y tener exclusividad sobre lo que sea es una forma de autorrealización (esta última parte es conclusión mía).

Tal y como dicen Javier y Kotler, estamos limitando el marketing al uso de sus herramientas.

Debemos pasar a dejar que sea el consumidor el que configure la oferta de nuestros productos. Un gran error de muchas marcas es creer que saben lo que quiere su público, tanto a nivel de producto como de publicidad. Dejemos que el consumidor nos diga lo que quiere y personalice en la medida de lo posible el producto o servicio que está adquiriendo. Un gran ejemplo de esto es Nike Id que lleva años funcionando y permite al usuario no sólo configurar su deportiva y comprarla sino añadirle hasta su nombre. El valor del producto único y diferente es fundamental para el consumidor actual.

Y por último, algunos tips:

* Todo comunica.

* No dejes tu distribución en manos de terceros, crea tu propia tienda con tu propia imagen donde cada elemento esté controlado por ti y donde puedas aportar experiencia de marca para el consumidor.

* La experiencia es fundamental, es lo que llaman los americanos: yummy-yummy communication.

* Estamos todos en red y hay que dejar que la gente se comunique (esto significa que como marca debes abrir tus oídos a las críticas, no censurarlas, aprender de ellas, ver lo que tus compradores o potenciales compradores necesitan y comunicarte con ellos en una relación directa y para ello, las redes socieales son una herramienta fundamental).

* El cliente más rentable no es el que más consume sino el que consume y opina porque te permitirá aprender ahorrándote en estudios de mercado y si opina de forma positiva te hará publicidad gratis. Otra razón por la que las redes sociales son importantes: en ellas se encuentran los usuarios más activos.

* Sabemos lo que opinan los que se quejan, pero ¿se preocupan las marcas por saber qué opinan los que están contentos? ¿por qué les gusta el producto? ¿qué es lo que más les gusta? Esto es fundamental para la creación de siguientes productos y la fidelización  de los consumidores.

* La marca no es siempre la que más sabe sobre sí misma.

* Un ejemplo a seguir: El grupo Virgin

* Más sobre Consumering en www.consumering.es

ENGLISH:

 Javier Rovira made a presentation about the terminology that has given name to his last book (Consumering) at the Today is Marketing.

In Rovira’s own words “Consumering breaks the traditional marketing laws”. To me, this sounded like another guy wanting to play guru and so I couldn’t help asking myself: is it true? Isn’t this another guy wanting to sell us something that isn’t really new like he invented the wheel or something?

To my surprise, Javier Rovira was one of the best speakers and I think his book is a “must” for modern marketing developers, a book I wish to buy as soon as possible at ESIC.

So, what is “Consumering”? In Javier’s words, Consumering is “giving the consumer the power of the mix”. Here is where the innovation of Javier appears. We’ve been listening for the last years that the consumer has the power, some people even said that we should give them the power, but Javier has created a new way of seeing marketing, with it’s laws and points, a whole new round and perfect way of seeing and acting in marketing around the consumer concept.

What we knew as users/global citizens has changed. Today we find a new kind of consumer who’s most important characteristics are the desire of a non-stop communication, freedom, an intense life and the need of creating an identity.

We live in an hedonist society where being unique and having the exclusivity over anything is a way of personal fulfillment (this last part is my own conclusion).

As Javier and Kotler say, we are limiting marketing to the use of its tools.

We should let the consumer configure the offer.  A big mistake brands make is to think they know what their consumers want or need when talking about the product or the communication. Let the consumer tell us what he wants and customize as far as it’s possible the product or service he’s purchasing. A big example in this is Nike Id which has been doing this for years letting their consumers create and customize their own sneakers being even able to put your name on the shoe. The unique product value is incredibly important for today’s consumer.

And to end, just some tips:

* Everything communicates.

* Don’t leave your distribution into third parties hands. Create your own store with your own image, where every single thing you’re communicating is controlled by you and where you can give consumers a brand experience.

* Experience is really important, it’s what the Americans got to call “ yummy-yummy communication.”

* We’re all in the internet and we gotta let people communicate. This means that as a brand we gotta open our ears to criticism, not punish the critics, learn from them, see what you consumers and potencial buyers need and communicate with them with a direct and persona communication. And to do this, the Social Network is the perfect tool.

* The most profitable client isn’t the one that consumes most but the one that consumes and gives its opinion because it will let you learn as a brand without investing on market studies and in case the opinions are positive, that consumer’s giving you free advertising. This is one more reason why Social network is so important for brands right now, most active users are there.

* We know what the people who complain about our brands think but, do we know what the people who are happy with our products think? Why do they like our products? What is it that they most like? This is a very sensible information and really important that should be taken in consideraron when making new products or trying to make our consumers fan of our brand.

* The brand doesn’t always know the most about itself.

* A good example to follow is the Virgin Group.

* More info about Consumering in www.consumering.es

Julie No

In this follow-up post (click here for Part 1) I explore Brad Rosser’s ‘Survival Tactics’ from his talk. Remember both Brad’s are Australians who run business coaching companies. Brad gained heaps of experience starting-up several Virgin Group companies. These include the unsuccessful Virgin Cola and highly successful Virgin Vie At Home. He had some useful advice to share:

No, not Brad Rosser but another Ozzie
surviving in the city

Alot of Brad’s survival strategies are built around a strong sales and marketing focus. Having great sales and marketing skills is vital to any startup. The CEO must be the first to sell. As Ed Iacobucci, founder of Citrix said, “Nothing happens until you sell something.”

1. Your business idea must be “bullet proof“- Brad’s right an idea MUST be commercial and well thought out. However it’s never really going to be ‘Bullet proof’. Change is too constant especially in the  Tech sector.
2. Don’t wait for the perfect anything – Excellent point! A idea is only a science project until its out with customers. Brad makes a good point which Rachel Elnaugh also made – get a good product/customer fit and then ramp up sales. This requires a customer testing/feedback loop. We’re very keen to get our new web infrastructure monitoring service in customers hands.
3. Wasting money in a start-up is a crime – I agree bootstrappers must become lean mean fighting sales machines! Bootstapping can make fitter startups. I’ve learnt the hard way startups should not waste time. After all, time is money.
4. ”Prepare for battle” - The army’s 7P’s saying ‘Prior Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.’   Marketing starts with a Sales Crusader with a good plan.
5. Use PR to build credibility -Everyone likes a good entrepreneurial story. Branson famously will go to any length to get free PR. Would you? There are lots of PR opportunities out there they just take time and nurturing.
6. Everything is a negotiation – Sales tactics again or used  in reverse if your the buyer, employer or need investment.
7. Securing funding is not just about getting your hands on any cash you can – The right deal and the right VC!
8. Cash is king! -Both sales and cash flow is the lifeblood of any small business. I’ve heard this so many times. Don’t forget Cash is King!
9. Don’t waste time, money and effort trying to build a brand during the early days of your business. – Again get out there and start selling. What you waiting for?
10. Recognise when it is time to ‘shoot the entrepreneur’ - A hard choice. Not all entrepreneurs can manage a growing business. Recognise this before the VC does and kicks you out.  Don’t be afraid.

Another good talk from an Australian with lashings of Pommy jokes and some useful points. You can catch Brad’s full video talk here. Interestingly Brad Sugars uses the franchise business model for his coaching company. Whereas Brad Rosser’s business is centered around the founder (Brad) like many high profile companies including: Steve Jobs’s Apple and Branson’s Virgin. The question is can these companies survive without the founder?

Jenson Button sealed his 2nd victory with Brawn GP in Sepang amidst utter chaos and drama, when the race had to be stopped due to torrential rain after 32 laps. The race never started again and ‘finishers’ got half points according to FIA rules. Heidfeld, Glock, Trulli, Barrichello, Webber, Hamilton and Rosberg were declared as the points scorers.  Trulli, Webber and Rosberg received their tallies in fractions. And considering the fiercely aggressive competitiveness shown by teams this season, these half points may well decide the champion this year.

This is not a new affair in Formula-1. Here is a list of races that were red flagged. Out of these races, half points were offered at 4 races.

1. Spanish GP, 1975
2. Austrian GP, 1975
3. Monaco GP, 1984
4. Australian GP, 1991

The most significant 1 was Monaco GP, 1984 which changed the whole picture of the season. Mclaren star Alain Prost was declared the winner but got 4.5 points. Interestingly, he lost the season to his teammate  Niki Lauda by only half point!

Back to Malaysia. Before the rain, we witnessed some excellent racing action. Rosberg jumped to the pole from 4th position because of slow start by Button. Alonso found a weirdly empty passage on the grid and he was 5th from his original 9th position by turn 1. Kimi also showed some nerve by making some bold overtaking moves, but subsequently managed to settle down on 6th, gaining only 1 spot. For the first time this season, Brwan cars were struggling for pace. In the middle, Alonso was defending a convoy of Kimi, Glock and Webber for almost 8 laps, before conceading. As nobody was losing time, they were moving like a train as if an imaginary string was attached to them.

Then came the deciding moment; the pit stops. The rain delayed a bit from the initial prediction. As the first batch of cars tooks their first stops, nobody bothered to switch to intermediates. A few laps later, Ferrari brought in their lead driver for the race, Kimi and in a shocking move, put him on not even intermediates but directly on wet weather tyres. All the other drivers being on slicks, Kimi was losing 20s a lap to the race leaders. Ferrari desperately needed rain (I was picturing Stefano Domenicali and Michael Schumacher doing a rain dance in the pits!) Ultimately when the rain finally hit the track and everybody had taken their 2nd stop for tyre change, the classification showed Kimi with only 1 stop but on 16th spot! As always, a bold move by Ferrari ended up in disaster. In this chaos though, Massa surprisingly entered point scoring zone but again caved and ended up 9th.

Brawn GP were criticized for their slow and lazy pit stops in Australia. But here in Sepang, they showed perfection both in strategy and implementation which put Button back on the lead. The rain persisted long enough to summon safety car and finally when the drivers started feeling like swimming with a blindfold in their cars, the race was stopped. The long wait eventually ended with a completely different classification from what we expected.

In addition to the F1 season, I am now following yet another sport which turns out to be highly entertaining. The clash between Hamilton vs FIA is getting yummier. Last season, Hamilton won this game on sudden death by winning the title, which made all the initial troubles irrelevant. Its only been a week this season, and Hamilton already took his 1st blow from FIA. Although this time, it was altogether caused by his constructor.

We got a dramatic start to the season with 1st FIA hearing in 1st week. FIA, which has been trying to confuse itself with self made laws, ruled in favor of Toyota driver Trulli and excluded Hamilton along with its constructor. Surprisingly, this turns out to be a logical and fair judgement! (How often do you see that with FIA!) The stewards took into consideration the tape of team radio instructions to the Mclaren driver and ruled that Mclaren tried to  mislead them. How dumb are these stewards to get disoriented so easily? It takes them 2 hearings to reach such a simple  judgement. Apparently they did not have access to  the team radio tape during the 1st hearing. How convenient! I have started to imagine FIA office like administrative section of my college now. Nobody is accountable and nobody cares about the person on the other end.

Ross Brawn is arguably the happiest man on the earth right now and he should be. He managed to put both of his drivers on top in first ever race under his own title, Brawn GP. Button and Barichello were ecstatic as they walked to the podium and the crowd in Melbourne was loving it. Another person who will be as happy as team Brawn is Bernie Eccleston. He got what he wanted; F1 is alive again with a new spirit. (It would be impetuous to claim that the whole season would be as exciting as this race, being that this race was in Melbourne. But the quality of overtaking maneuvers and overall competitiveness was excellent)

The turning point of the race was a crash between Kubica and Vettel. Fighting for 2nd place, Vettel was defending his position with all his might when an idiotic overtaking maneuver by Kubica on a turn kicked them both out of the race. The safety car was summoned and Vettel tried to limp behind it for a couple of laps on 3 wheels, but eventually gave up. This changed the whole picture. Barichello, who suffered an initial blow due to a poor start, jumped right on top with Button and Trulli came 3rd. Hamilton was at right place at right time and manged to score valuable championship points due to his ability to keep cool when others were on a rampage; unlike reckless Ferrari drivers. Both Kimi and Massa had an excellent start thanks to KERS but lost the positions due to poor tyre and fuelling strategies by Ferrari. In addition to that, the amazing skill of both the drivers to go off track without anyone’s ‘Help’ made sure that the team was well out of scoring zone. Just like last year, Ferrari got a start they didn’t want. Newbie Buemi also took advantage of last minute confusion to grab a few extras, along with Alonso.

P.S- Thanks to adamant BCQC Abhimanyu organizers, I had to miss the live telecast of the race. So I planned a media blackout, just like in How I Met Your Mother (The SuperBowl Sunday episode). And it was successful!

Sir Richard Branson is a Timing Expert! He launched his Virgin Atlantic Airways 25 years ago when longhaul travel was growing up, launched Virgin Blue as the first low-cost carrier in Australia, founded (and by now sold) the Belgian low-cost carrier Virgin Express, and has entered the American low-cost market with Virgin America (maybe that seems to be a bit late, but with the credit crunch even more people may turn to low-cost travel..) and has created Virgin Nigeria to serve the most populated African country. He used perfect timing when building the Virgin Megastore chain while CD’s were best-selling items and sold it when digital downloads started catching up. He has also been the first person to actually establish the world’s first ”spacelines” (or “spaceways”?): Virgin Galactic. During all these years he has many times been courted by a number of Formula-1 teams to close a sponsorship deal, but he has always refused. Up until 2009, when he felt that the time has come. It was worth it, and of course perfect timing - the cars carrying the Virgin logo took a 1-2 victory in the first race!!

We all know the story that Honda shockingly withdrew from Formula-1 late last year and the Brackley-based team had a very rough and tough winter – with a lot of speculation about the future of the team. Finally it seemed that the potential buyers were down to only two options: Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin group and Mr. Ross Brawn, the technical director. In the end Brawn bought the team for one Euro and seemed that Virgin will still remain outside of F-1.

Following the pre-season tests, Brawn GP seemed quite strong and Sir Richard Branson used his timing-skills and announced a partnership just one day before the first race of the season. It was a quickly brought together deal in the eleventh hour, the official announcement coming just before the first qualifying session of the year. A downside to this quick deal is that the car has not (yet) received a new livery, and the team and driver overalls saw no Virgin branding at all (missing an opportunity to show Virgin at the top of the podium…), but I’m also sure that Sir Richard made a good deal in the middle of the economic recession. He must have gotten either more coverage for the same money, or is paying less for the same coverage – than would have done last year. So the famous Virgin logo – used by a number of airlines around the world – were quickly added to the cockpit area of the Brawn-Mercedes challengers and will probably be in the news around the world in the coming days – as Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello took an already legendary 1-2 finish in the first race ever of the Brawn GP team.

The official sponsorship announcement included hints that the addition of the red Virgin logo to the cockpit area is only the first step. Besides the technical partners’ logos, this was the only brand on the white livery of the cars – but a brand new, Virgin livery is expected before the following Malaysian grand priy, which is the “home” grand-prix for the Williams sponsor, Air Asia. Last year Air Asia prepared a special airplane livery for the Malaysian grandprix, we are looking forward to any similar announcements this year. We also wonder if Virgin will use a steady livery throughout the year, or will they start showing different brands of the Virgin Empire at different races – which would mean that some of the Virgin branded airlines’ logos could appear on the cars at some point of the season? I hope at least Virgin Atlantic will join a number of other airlines currently sponsoring Formula-1 teams: Air Asia (WilliamsF1), Etihad (Scuderia Ferrari), Kingfisher (Force India) and will also mark the sponsorship deal with some special airplane liveries across its fleet?

Let’s hope to see at least one of the Virgin branded Airlines’ logos on the Brawn GP (to be renamed Virgin Formula-1?) cars in 2009 and beyond as well as more special, Formula-1 themed aircraft liveries at Virgin!

by balint01

Comments on the Qualification
This was a very suprising qualification. In the first place there were a few teams that where a bit disappointing. Renault for taking 17th and 12th place. McLaren for taking 14th and 15th place. In my eyes Scuderia Toro Rosso was also disappointing with a 16th and 20th place. In the second place there were a few very good teams. Brawn GP with pole and second place was very good. Red Bull Racing with a 3rd and a 10th place were also good. Williams with Nico Rosberg on 5th was good and Toyota with two cars in the top ten, 6th and 8th was also good.

It’s good to see that teams without the disputed diffusers, Red Bull Racing and BMW Sauber, can get it to 3rd and 4th. Personally I think, and hope, that it won’t go that far that Brawn GP, Toyota and Williams will lose all the point they score in tomorrows race and in Malaysia.

Results of the Qualification

Pictures of the Saturday Qualification

Pictures of the Saturday Practice

Update : Monday, 6th of April 2009
The complete Toyota F1 Team was disqualified for the qualification.

I am tempted to compare Brawn GP with a phoenix bird, very much rising through the ashes. A team which didn’t even exist a month ago managed to put both of the drivers on the front row of the grid for the start of the season at Australian GP, 2009. The relentless efforts put by team chief Ross Brawn seemed to have worked perfectly fine. Jenson Button grabbed the pole position followed by team mate Rubens Barichello (And the team managed to get sponsorship from Virgin group) Vettel manged to go 3rd fastest in Q3 to prove that he is worth the trust put on him by Red Bull management.

The biggest disappointment of the day would have to be Alonso and Hamilton, former and reigning world champion. Hamilton barely made it into top 15 but never came on track for Q2. He will start the race from that poition. Alonso failed to make it to the top 10 after all the speculation. He is 12th on the grid. It was a mixed day for BMW. While Kubica will start the race from 4th position on the grid, his teammate Nick Heidfeld managed only 11th spot. Interestingly, Heidfeld was using the new KERS while Kubica was not. Apparently, Kubica’s weight was a problem while accommodating KERS. But it meant better weight balance and that seemed to have worked.Next surprise was Nico Rosberg. He is 5th but he could well end up on the podium tomorrow.

The qualifying started under speculations over the performance of the tricky new rear diffuser designs used by Brawn GP, Williams and Toyota. Their design is able to generate more downforce leading to better car control and cornering speeds. Though FIA has cleared those designs for this weekend, they are still under the scanner and decision to an appeal made by few other teams is under consideration. Whatever the outcome is, it seemed to have worked well for the teams as except for Nakajima, rest 5 finished in top 10.

Ferrari had a rough day. Both the drivers managed to squeeze as much as possible out of a dull F60. Massa will start 7th and Kimi 9th. The car was not tuned properly. At a particular moment in Q3, Massa actually felt that a tyre was punctured! Looks like they will have to witness the others ‘Blitz’ past them tomorrow. Mclaren have already decided to let this race go without even thinking about the points. Force India, well, lets just say this shouldn’t be how a team has to start a season.

One thing is for sure; new rules have rejuvenated the sport like never before. All the teams look extremely competitive and there is hardly anything to seperate between the top 5. This will definitely make the season more interesting.

Virgin America is now sadly part of the tied of other airlines in the US that charge for bags. This is probably because of the current economic crisis and the fact that Virgin really hasn’t been doing the very well I think they lost a good amount of money just like everyone else but, they had that added disadvantage of start-up costs on top of the losses. Anyway the airlines announced that yes it will $15 for bags one through ten and _____ dollars for the eleventh but I certainly don’t know anyone that has eleven bag so it should be a huge deal. Here are some exceptions:

“Main Cabin Select guests and guests who purchase the fully refundable Main Cabin fare are welcome to check one bag free of charge with all other bags checked for a fee of $15 each. First Class Cabin Guests are welcome to check up to two bags free of charge with all other bags checked for a fee of $15 each.”

But! There is one reason why this should be considered bad for Virgin, why? When you think Virgin America what is the first thing that comes to mind, for most I think it is Different, Avaunt Guard & cutting edge. If you think about what are they doing, being like everyone else. Even the slights association with the norm may not be health branding material. They have set themselves apart as different and many don’t think this to be different. 

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE52I5G520090319

http://www.virginamerica.com/va/infoDeskCheckIn.do

   O Grupo Virgin acaba de lançar mais uma companhia de longo alcance ao mundo. Trata-se da V Australia. A nova companhia recebeu seu primeiro B777-300ER, através da ILFC. A novata irá receber mais seis aeronaves do tipo. A V Australia inicia suas operações hoje, dia 27 de fevereiro, realizando o voo Sydney-Los Angeles.

   Outra rota que a companhia irá explorar a partir do dia 8 de abril será Brisbane-Los Angeles. O B777 está configurado para 361 passageiros nas classes Executiva, Premium Economy e Econômica.

Fonte: Aerobusiness

Honda F1

Rumour has it Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group is bidding for the Honda F1 Team. I mean really, why not, Virgin is into everything else so F1 seems like a logical match up. I can just see it now, a team with extreme personality and most importantly, ample reserves of hot bikini clad glamours as grid, pit & promo girls. F1 might even become interesting again!

Honda F1 Racing Here

The Honda F1 Team have confirmed that multi-billionaire businessman Sir Richard Branson is one of the front-running parites in the purchase of the team ahead of the 2009 season, and has put in an offer.

The owner of the Virgin group was said to be interested yesterday in a leak from the team, but today a spokesman confirmed the rumour.

“We are negotiating with several buyers and one of these parties is the Virgin Group,” a Honda spokesman stated.

“They [Virgin] have made a bid to purchase the team,”

Branson is expected to purchase the team for just £1, but needs to put at least £40million in for one season’s running.  It is believed that after purchase, Branson 58, would leave the running of the team to Nick Fry and Ross Brawn.

His Virgin group would be the leading sponsor on the car.

Branson has dabbled in F1 before, sponsoring Jordan in 2002, and then sponsoring Japanese driver Takuma Sato for the past 4 years with his Virgin Atlantic brand.  It is hot rumour that Sato would be one of the chosen drivers for the new team, alongside Brit Jenson Button.

Musicie ją przeczytać! Mimo, że sami zamierzamy wydawać książki i nie powinniśmy reklamować konkurencji to w tym wypadku musimy! Wydawnictwo Natalis zrobiło prawdziwą ucztę – wydało autobiografie Richarda Bransona, założyciela grupy Virgin. Czyta się ja w mig, tak obrazowo przedstawione są wydarzenia, że ma się wrażenie uczestniczenia w nich! To podróż przez życie człowieka, który je kocha, który nie poddaje się, wyznacza nowe trendy, pokonuje betonowe skamieliny ludzkich zachowań, niesamowite! Przeczytajcie ja – polecamy! Do nabycia już tylko w merlin.pl! 

(opis z merlin.pl: Richard Branson – genialny biznesmen i nieustraszony podróżnik. Jego życie napędza adrenalina i coraz to nowe wyzwania. We wszystkim, co robi, szuka dobrej zabawy. Twórca najbardziej rozpoznawalnej marki na świecie – Virgin. Fundator wartej 25 milionów funtów Nagrody Klimatycznej dla tego, kto znajdzie sposób na zlikwidowanie grożących nam tragicznych skutków globalnego ocieplenia. Orędownik działań na rzecz opracowania odnawialnych źródeł energii – na badania nad nimi poświęcił 300 milionów funtów. Przyjaciel Wielkich Tego Świata, wie, że potrafi zmienić świat na lepsze i większość czasu poświęca na działalność charytatywną. Lada dzień sprawi, że kosmiczna turystyka stanie się rzeczywistością, a Virgin Galactic – pierwszym kosmicznym biurem podróży. Ta najnowsza, rozszerzona i uaktualniona wersja autobiografii Richarda Bransona błyskawicznie stała się światowym bestsellerem. Nic dziwnego – pełna pasji, humoru i ważnych refleksji, sprawia, że nie można się od niej oderwać)

A tu spojrzcie na jeden dzień z życia Sir Richarda:

Spojrzcie na największe marzenie Richarda – statek, który okrążył kulę ziemską:

I was reading New York Times other day and I came across an article which was about a book compiled by Samantha Ellus – The Experts’ Guide to Doing Things Faster: 100 Ways to Make Life More Efficient.

Even though I havent read that book nor I think that book will ever reach any bookstalls near me, I was very impressed with the article about it.  It said Samantha has modelled herself on self-stylish Findologist Michael Solomon, author of How to Find Lost Objects.

In her book, Samantha has compiled writtern pieces from 100 people, who are expert in their field of interests. Some of the people contributed to this book are Rue McClanahan with break-up advice, founder and president of Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson on How to get a Loan, and Barbara Corcoran on How to sell a house..

In my opinion, in future if Samantha writes another book, it will help alot of people, escpecially men, if she can ask an expert to write about ‘How to meet and impress a woman fast’…ohh mind crazy mind at work again…i think that is the signal to stop typing and post this blog entry as fast as I could…