Top 10 Legal Issues for Marketers in the Coming Year

Self-Regulation at the Crossroads
Great strides were made in kids' advertising, food marketing and online behavioral tracking. The Children's Advertising Review Unit is self-regulation at its best. Marketers in the Food Initiative made practice changes legislatures couldn't pass without violating the First Amendment. About Ads is state-of-the-art in tracking data on the internet. But Congress and the FTC are impatient, and tensions could boil over in the coming year.

Celebrity Embarrassments
A surge in unseemly social-media behavior by celebrity endorsers indicates an affliction of bad judgment. It will get worse before it gets better, and brands will be embarrassed to the point of terminating contracts. Smart marketers will ensure that agreements allow them an escape from edgier celebs.
Clouds Ahead
The financial incentives make it inevitable that marketers will move their data and applications to the cloud. But with that transition comes the headache of security and privacy breaches. Once moved to a service in the cloud, control of data is reduced and risk increased. Will all the cost savings be lost to class-action lawyers?
Social Media Recalculated
The gold rush has been startling. Marketers have flocked to online services, including Facebook and LinkedIn, with no measurable ROI, at least not by any industry standards. But a study on digital measurement by the ANA, 4A's and IAB might finally lead to a currency everyone can agree on. Or it might not.
FTC vs. CFPB
Watch for a classic Washington standoff as the Federal Trade Commission parries with the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau over regulating financial-services marketing. Dodd-Frank created the CFPB to watch out for consumers and the financial biz. But Congress left the FTC with jurisdiction, too. They're supposed to work out an agreement on who regulates what. And no doubt they will do that. But then come appropriations. The honeymoon will end there.

source:http://adage.com

Microsoft's Monster Moat and Marketing Issues

There seem to be thousands of articles written about Microsoft's (MSFT) valuation, poor leadership and stock price. I am surprised, quite frankly, that by now no one has coined, "Steve the Stink Ballmer." People are calling for his resignation even though the underlying business performance has been pretty great.

There is no doubt that Microsoft is cheap at these levels. A P/E of 10, throwing off loads of free cash flow, low debt, tons of cash, great returns on assets and equity and a solid projected earnings growth rate of 10% plus. The important questions to ask at this point are:

What will probably happen in Microsoft's future domestically and internationally?
Can Microsoft's business prospects generate enough investor optimism to move the needle on the stock price?
How much intrinsic value has Microsoft built for itself over the years?

The purpose of this article is to answer these questions and to build a case that Microsoft is undervalued relative to its intrinsic value and its moat is bigger than people think. I will do this by addressing the following areas from a QUALITATIVE perspective:

Microsoft's moat is bigger than people think.
Microsoft's poor marketing and branding in the consumer segment are fixable.

Read More