Here's a way to frighten the neighbours on Halloween: wear a mask looking like convicted multi-billion-dollar swindler Bernard Madoff, a vampire-president "Barakula", or the late Michael Jackson.
Rubber masks of the trio are among the most popular purchases by Americans eager to shake off the economic doldrums and go trick-or-treating on Oct 31, costume sellers say.
While this ancient Celtic pagan rite, originally held to celebrate the dead and the end of the harvest season, is primarily a children's event, it also gives adults an excuse to dress up like their favourite ghoul and behave like kids.
This year items related to the king of pop, Jackson, who died in June, are top sellers. Jackson loved Halloween, and revolutionised music videos with his 1983 clip Thriller , in which corpses rise from their graves and dance to a catchy tune.
Copies of the red leather jacket Jackson wore in the Thriller video sell well, and compete with replicas of the studded black outfit Jackson wore on the cover of his 1987 album Bad .Brad Butler, CEO of Halloween Express, said his company received a late hot seller:"Barakula", a ghoulish version of President Barack Obama's face with bugged-out eyes, Vulcan-style ears and knifesharp fangs.
"It's a mask that came late, but is going to over-sell all the others," Butler predicted. He said buyers snapped up his stock of 3,000 masks, and he has put in a rush order for another 6,000.
"It's the first time I see a presidential mask that takes it to the next level," Butler said, adding that they are more popular than the Bill Clinton masks from the 1990s.
Other political rubber masks include Obama's wife Michelle,Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and former Hollywood action star and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
BABY PRODUCTS MARKET BUCKS ECONOMIC DOWNTURN
The baby-products market has continued to grow rapidly this year despite the economic chaos, as parents, particularly new mothers, have demonstrated a willingness to maintain spending on their children by cutting their own expenditures.
Darunee Areedumrikul, marketing manager at Play for Kids, a vendor of bedding and furniture for children up to three-year-olds, said the company has not been affected significantly by the economic turmoil.
"Our sales of baby products grew by almost 30 per cent in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period last year," she said.
Darunee said that sales of toys, however, had been affected as parents had reduced the number of pieces purchased per store visit.
Sales of toys had fallen 20 per cent year on year in the first nine months of 2009, she said.
"New mothers normally budget between Bt30,000 and Bt40,000 on average for the first purchase of baby furniture and accessories, such as milk bottles and apparel," she said.
Arweewan Saliwattana, 29, saw the potential of the baby-apparel business after having her first daughter. She set up her own shop, Katie Croll, at the beginning of this year, selling apparel for children up to four years old.
"We've just have our first kid, and feel there is great potential for baby apparel, as they are considered essential products by parents," she said.
Arweewan herself has spent almost Bt50,000 purchasing baby products, accessories and toys for her daughter this year.
"I myself don't want to cut spending even on toys, as they help my child develop both physically and mentally," said Arweewan.
Tawadchai Thanyachalerm, director for consumer products at US Summit Corp, which distributes baby-care products and accessories under the Pureen brand, said the company achieved 3-per-cent growth year on year growth in the first nine months of 2009. This exceeded the firm's target of flat growth due to the Kingdom's economic and political problems.
"We have adjusted our marketing strategy by allocating money to focus on below-the-line activities, such as sales promotions and trade shows, rather than mainstream advertising. By doing so, the company is able to communicate directly with our target customers," said Tawadchai.
"We have observed, however, that parents are taking more time evaluating products for their children. They have given priority concern to the ingredients and safety of the products they want to buy, rather than prices," he said.
Krit Sakulpanich, managing director of Dream Express (DEX), which has local broadcasting and distribution rights for many well-known animated and super-hero TV series from Japan, said the company's sales of VCD products dropped by a significant 30 per cent so far this year compared to the same period of last year. The nine-month sales figure remained stagnant for DVDs.
"During the economic difficulties, we have seen a larger number of illegal downloads of our cartoon and TV series. The number of pirated VCD and DVD products has increased in the market, particularly in such locations such as Klong Thom, Sapanlek, Ban Mo and Seacon Square," said Krit.
Some pirated DVDs contain the content of five VCDs downloaded into one disc. They are sold on the black market at Bt50 to Bt100 each, Krit said.
"What we have to do to fight against piracy is to add new products, such as apparel and accessories, to our portfolio," he said.
Krit said the company would launch 10 new licensed animated and super-hero TV series from Japan next year, including "Gundam Double O", "Ultraman Mebius", "Phone Braver 7", "Bakugan New Vestroia", "Mask Rider Kiva", "The Salads World" and "Pretty Cure 3".
Sakeson Thammawon, general manager of Dream Apparel, a wholly owned unit of Dream Express set up at the middle of last year to sell licensed apparels for animated and super-hero TV series, said the company would next year open its own sales counters at department stores. The company's apparel and accessory products are now sold via wholesale and hypermarket channels.
"We plan to double the number of stock keeping units [SKUs] for our apparel and accessory products next year. There are currently more than 100 SKUs in our apparel and accessories portfolio," said Sakeson.
He said Dream Apparel expected to achieve Bt40 million in sales this year, which will amount to 20 percent of Dream Express' overall sales. The company expected apparel sales to grow by almost 50 percent next year.
Dream Express expected its sales to reach Bt200 million by the end of this year, the same level as last year.
Darunee Areedumrikul, marketing manager at Play for Kids, a vendor of bedding and furniture for children up to three-year-olds, said the company has not been affected significantly by the economic turmoil.
"Our sales of baby products grew by almost 30 per cent in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period last year," she said.
Darunee said that sales of toys, however, had been affected as parents had reduced the number of pieces purchased per store visit.
Sales of toys had fallen 20 per cent year on year in the first nine months of 2009, she said.
"New mothers normally budget between Bt30,000 and Bt40,000 on average for the first purchase of baby furniture and accessories, such as milk bottles and apparel," she said.
Arweewan Saliwattana, 29, saw the potential of the baby-apparel business after having her first daughter. She set up her own shop, Katie Croll, at the beginning of this year, selling apparel for children up to four years old.
"We've just have our first kid, and feel there is great potential for baby apparel, as they are considered essential products by parents," she said.
Arweewan herself has spent almost Bt50,000 purchasing baby products, accessories and toys for her daughter this year.
"I myself don't want to cut spending even on toys, as they help my child develop both physically and mentally," said Arweewan.
Tawadchai Thanyachalerm, director for consumer products at US Summit Corp, which distributes baby-care products and accessories under the Pureen brand, said the company achieved 3-per-cent growth year on year growth in the first nine months of 2009. This exceeded the firm's target of flat growth due to the Kingdom's economic and political problems.
"We have adjusted our marketing strategy by allocating money to focus on below-the-line activities, such as sales promotions and trade shows, rather than mainstream advertising. By doing so, the company is able to communicate directly with our target customers," said Tawadchai.
"We have observed, however, that parents are taking more time evaluating products for their children. They have given priority concern to the ingredients and safety of the products they want to buy, rather than prices," he said.
Krit Sakulpanich, managing director of Dream Express (DEX), which has local broadcasting and distribution rights for many well-known animated and super-hero TV series from Japan, said the company's sales of VCD products dropped by a significant 30 per cent so far this year compared to the same period of last year. The nine-month sales figure remained stagnant for DVDs.
"During the economic difficulties, we have seen a larger number of illegal downloads of our cartoon and TV series. The number of pirated VCD and DVD products has increased in the market, particularly in such locations such as Klong Thom, Sapanlek, Ban Mo and Seacon Square," said Krit.
Some pirated DVDs contain the content of five VCDs downloaded into one disc. They are sold on the black market at Bt50 to Bt100 each, Krit said.
"What we have to do to fight against piracy is to add new products, such as apparel and accessories, to our portfolio," he said.
Krit said the company would launch 10 new licensed animated and super-hero TV series from Japan next year, including "Gundam Double O", "Ultraman Mebius", "Phone Braver 7", "Bakugan New Vestroia", "Mask Rider Kiva", "The Salads World" and "Pretty Cure 3".
Sakeson Thammawon, general manager of Dream Apparel, a wholly owned unit of Dream Express set up at the middle of last year to sell licensed apparels for animated and super-hero TV series, said the company would next year open its own sales counters at department stores. The company's apparel and accessory products are now sold via wholesale and hypermarket channels.
"We plan to double the number of stock keeping units [SKUs] for our apparel and accessory products next year. There are currently more than 100 SKUs in our apparel and accessories portfolio," said Sakeson.
He said Dream Apparel expected to achieve Bt40 million in sales this year, which will amount to 20 percent of Dream Express' overall sales. The company expected apparel sales to grow by almost 50 percent next year.
Dream Express expected its sales to reach Bt200 million by the end of this year, the same level as last year.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Magnificent seven
In the most important, most revered event since the invention of the brontosaurus trap,Microsoft shipped the most incredibly fabulous operating system ever made; the release of Windows 7 also spurred a new generation of personal computers of all sizes at prices well below last month's offers.The top reason Windows 7 does not suck: There is no registered website called Windows7Sucks.com
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Kindle e-book reader maker Amazon.com and new Nook e-book reader vendor Barnes and Noble got it on; B&N got great reviews for the "Kindle killer"Nook, with dual screens and touch controls so you can "turn" pages, plays MP3s and allows many non-B&N book formats, although not the Kindle one;Amazon then killed the US version of its Kindle in favour of the international one, reduced its price to $260(8,700 baht), same as the Nook; it's not yet clear what you can get in Thailand with a Nook, but you sure can't (yet) get much, relatively speaking, with a Kindle;but here's the biggest difference so far,which Amazon.com has ignored: the Nook lets you lend e-books to any other Nook owner, just as if they were paper books; the borrowed books expire on the borrower's Nook in two weeks.
Phone maker Nokia of Finland announced it is suing iPhone maker Apple of America for being a copycat; lawyers said they figure Nokia can get at least one, probably two per cent (retail) for every iPhone sold by Steve "President for Life" Jobs and crew via the lawsuit,which sure beats working for it -$6 (200 baht) to $12(400 baht) on 30 million phones sold so far, works out to $400 million or 25 percent of the whole Apple empire profits during the last quarter;there were 10 patent thefts, the Finnish executives said, on everything from moving data to security and encryption.
Nokia of Finland announced that it is one month behind on shipping its new flagship N900 phone, the first to run on Linux software; delay of the $750(25,000 baht) phone had absolutely no part in making Nokia so short that it had to sue Apple, slap yourself for such a thought.
Tim Berners-Lee, who created the World Wide Web, said he had one regret:the double slash that follows the "http:"in standard web addresses; he estimated that 14.2 gazillion users have wasted 48.72 bazillion hours typing those two keystrokes, and he's sorry; of course there's no reason to ever type that, since your browser does it for you when you type "www.bangkokpost.com" but Tim needs to admit he made one error in his lifetime.
The International Telecommunication Union of the United Nations, which doesn't sell any phones or services, announced that there should be a mobile phone charger that will work with any phone; now who would ever have thought of that, without a UN body to wind up a major study on the subject?;the GSM Association estimates that 51,000 tonnes of chargers are made each year in order to keep companies able to have their own unique ones.
The Well, Doh Award of the Week was presented at arm's length to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development; the group's deputy secretary-general Petko Draganov said that developing countries will miss some of the stuff available on the Internet if they don't install more broadband infrastructure; a report that used your tax baht to compile said that quite a few people use mobile phones but companies are more likely to invest in countries with excellent broadband connections; no one ever had thought of this before, right?
Sun Microsystems , as a result of the Oracle takeover, said it will allow 3,000 current workers never to bother coming to work again; Sun referred to the losses as "jobs," not people; now the fourth largest server maker in the world, Sun said it lost $2.2 billion in its last fiscal year; European regulators are holding up approval of the Oracle purchase in the hope of getting some money in exchange for not involving Oracle in court cases.
The multi-gazillionaire and very annoying investor Carl Icahn resigned from the board at Yahoo ; he spun it as a vote of confidence, saying current directors are taking the formerly threatened company seriously; Yahoo reported increased profits but smaller revenues in the third quarter.
The US House of Representatives voted to censure Vietnam for jailing bloggers; the non-binding resolution sponsored by southern California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez said the Internet is "a crucial tool for the citizens of Vietnam to be able to exercise their freedom of expression and association;"Hanoi has recently jailed at least nine activists for up to six years apiece for holding pro-democracy banners. Iran jailed blogger Hossein "Hoder" Derakshan for 10 months - in solitary confinement.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Happy birthday Hello Kitty!
Central Department Store will celebrate Hello Kitty's 35th anniversary this year with "Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary". This year's celebration will be more extravagant than ever as five leading Thai designers from Thai boutiques including Senada Theory,Disaya, Kloset, Playhound and Kunitar will design special dresses for this little cat's birthday festival.
Chanita Preechawitayakul, founder and designer of Senada Theory, brings out Hello Kitty in a romantic French style with luxurious embroidery and diamonds, a version that people have never seen before.Disaya Sorakraikitikul creates a new look for Hello Kitty with an elegant and short evening dress, which also is related to her Autumn/Winter collection. Mollika Ruangkritya, founder and designer of Kloset,launches Hello Kitty in a loose dress with embroidered glittering bead works and chiffon to create a much sweeter look that contrasts women's dress style nowadays,which look less feminine. Ornvimon Seniwon na Ayudhya, designer of Playhound, adapts Hello Kitty under the concept of "Future in the Raw". The use of tree patterns in her design aims to express the simplicity of nature and environment.Founder and designer of Kunitar Saruda Nimpitakpong utilises a wedding theme as Hello Kitty's age. Sweet Kunitar style still remains with an addition of a bridal veil and a pink pearl necklace.
These five specially designed Hello Kitty designs will go on auction during the opening ceremony, which will be held tomorrow at Central Plaza Pinklao at 3pm. Prceeds will go to the Wishing Well Foundation, a non-profit orgaisation that brings joy to children with life-threatening diseases by providing them with their most wanted wishes in life.
Also, there will be special activities including an exhibition feturing the history of Hello Kitty, from 1974 until today, as well as a dance show and puzzle games.
"Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary" will run until November 29.Call 02-793-7416-20,fax 02-255-6959 or visit www.central.co.th.
Chanita Preechawitayakul, founder and designer of Senada Theory, brings out Hello Kitty in a romantic French style with luxurious embroidery and diamonds, a version that people have never seen before.Disaya Sorakraikitikul creates a new look for Hello Kitty with an elegant and short evening dress, which also is related to her Autumn/Winter collection. Mollika Ruangkritya, founder and designer of Kloset,launches Hello Kitty in a loose dress with embroidered glittering bead works and chiffon to create a much sweeter look that contrasts women's dress style nowadays,which look less feminine. Ornvimon Seniwon na Ayudhya, designer of Playhound, adapts Hello Kitty under the concept of "Future in the Raw". The use of tree patterns in her design aims to express the simplicity of nature and environment.Founder and designer of Kunitar Saruda Nimpitakpong utilises a wedding theme as Hello Kitty's age. Sweet Kunitar style still remains with an addition of a bridal veil and a pink pearl necklace.
These five specially designed Hello Kitty designs will go on auction during the opening ceremony, which will be held tomorrow at Central Plaza Pinklao at 3pm. Prceeds will go to the Wishing Well Foundation, a non-profit orgaisation that brings joy to children with life-threatening diseases by providing them with their most wanted wishes in life.
Also, there will be special activities including an exhibition feturing the history of Hello Kitty, from 1974 until today, as well as a dance show and puzzle games.
"Hello Kitty 35th Anniversary" will run until November 29.Call 02-793-7416-20,fax 02-255-6959 or visit www.central.co.th.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
BLACK BARBIES DRAW MIXED REVIEWS FROM A AFRICAN-AMERICANS
Mattel has launched a new line of black Barbie dolls with fuller lips, a wider nose and more pronounced cheek bones- a far cry from Christie, Barbie's black friend who debuted in the 1960s and was essentially a white doll painted brown.
The "So In style" line, which hit mass retailers last month, features BFFs Grace, Kara and Trichelle, each with her own style and interests and a little sister she mentors: Courtney, Janessa and Kianna. The dolls reflect varying skin tones - light brown, chocolate, and caramel - and Trichelle and Kianna have curlier hair.
Barbie designer Stacey McBride-lrby, who is black and has a six-year-old daughter, said she wanted to create a line of dolls for young black girls that looked like them and were inspirational and career-minded. For example, Kara is interested in maths and music.
"I want them to see themselves within these dolls, and let them know that black is beautiful," she said.
Many black women are praising Mattel for its efforts - Black Barbie hit the shelves in 1980 with white features shared by many of the dolls following her.
But some say the long straight hair does not address the beauty issues that many black girls struggle with. In the black community, long, straight hair is often considered more beautiful than short kinky hair.
Chris Rock highlights the issue in his "Good Hair" documentary and shows balck women straightening their tight curls with harsh chemicals and purchasing thousand-dollar hair weaves.
"Why are we always pushing this standard of long hair on our girls?" asked Gail
The "So In style" line, which hit mass retailers last month, features BFFs Grace, Kara and Trichelle, each with her own style and interests and a little sister she mentors: Courtney, Janessa and Kianna. The dolls reflect varying skin tones - light brown, chocolate, and caramel - and Trichelle and Kianna have curlier hair.
Barbie designer Stacey McBride-lrby, who is black and has a six-year-old daughter, said she wanted to create a line of dolls for young black girls that looked like them and were inspirational and career-minded. For example, Kara is interested in maths and music.
"I want them to see themselves within these dolls, and let them know that black is beautiful," she said.
Many black women are praising Mattel for its efforts - Black Barbie hit the shelves in 1980 with white features shared by many of the dolls following her.
But some say the long straight hair does not address the beauty issues that many black girls struggle with. In the black community, long, straight hair is often considered more beautiful than short kinky hair.
Chris Rock highlights the issue in his "Good Hair" documentary and shows balck women straightening their tight curls with harsh chemicals and purchasing thousand-dollar hair weaves.
"Why are we always pushing this standard of long hair on our girls?" asked Gail
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