The development process of vehicle design development has got significantly speedy at Audi, Pre-Series Center in Ingolstadt with the latest advancement in the 3D printing technology and its skillful application in the process of automotive production. The technology has enabled to 3D print various transparent and exact colored tail light covers and other vehicle production parts.
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Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence are some fancy words in the industry of technology, speaking of which, are playing a key role in the growth of tech-driven industries (almost all). Because of this, every industry entrant today strives to incorporate AI and machine learning in their business in some way expecting immediate and higher tangible returns. Many of them might not even understand the difference between the two or how it works.
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Neuromarketing is emerging as the key tool in the marketing industry. The idea is to let your brain reveal hidden and profitable truths for a marketer. See how market-giants are demonstrating it in their marketing strategies!
India can be called the solar hub with major parts of India being suitable for peak solar radiation. PM Modi’s solar power target and installed solar energy project investments boost the potential capacity of renewable energy power plants capturing highest returns. India already has an enormous consumer stand which is the third largest in the world.
Investment: generate 100 GW of solar power by 2022
PM Narendra Modi sets a target of 100 Gigawatts (GW) renewable power from solar energy projects by 2022. This is going to be a major part of his renewable energy project.
India will be contributing $27 million to the International Solar Alliance which is going to be a project of 5 years of recurring investment until 2021.
Solar Corporation of India (SECI) and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency ( IREADA) have individually contributed $ 1 million to create the ISA corpus fund.
While Softbank also has collaborated with Chinese company GCL System integration technology venturing $930 million worth solar power project in India last month, the Japanese company also jumps in a solar investment worth $20 million in Bharti Enterprises for solar power plants in India.
Current Projects:
Speaking of the projects until now, a report reveals India installed solar power capacity project of 16.68 gigawatts. Three years down the line, the center expects 113 GW renewable energy obtained from the installed solar power plants.
Green incentivization policy of Indian government has generated a standardized module for the demand and supply of solar energy. Some of the researchers have advocated the positive approach of government for the renewable energy sector of the country. However, research groups have admittedly raised concerns about high expectations and a bigger target in a short span of time.
Solar energy in India has geared up for a bigger transformation and there isn’t a doubt in the fact. That being stated, despite all the finance invested in the projects, the execution, direction and the achieving the expected results can be a tough row to hoe.
Having learned the changing energy landscape of India, researchers in the field have raised concerns pertaining to the price offered in the solar auctions, stating the lack of sustainability.
In order to meet the exceptional goals of the solar energy sector, the government would require strong and excellent framing of policies with active participation.
Recent studies have suggested that the solar investment in India needs to be raised to $125 billion funds if the country expects its determined solar plan to get executed properly. As per 2015 statements by government officials, the country shall meet its targets if the country manages to push up funds to $100 billion by 2022.
Talking of widespread usage of solar grid energy, around a quarter of India’s population still lacks access to electricity. Resolving all such conundrums would require $250 billion to achieve the goal. This can only be achieved if a major part of the funds comes from private sector.
Future aspects:
Although total potential energy output cannot be precisely projected in quantitative terms, the average capacity utilization factor for solar PV is approximately 20% mark. Notwithstanding, the sector surely growth in leaps and bounds signaling greater opportunities.
If the solar power plants and projects in India happen to interest the commercial and multinational investment institutes, the significant funds received from these sections would assuredly help drive growth and achieve predetermined targets.
GDPR to be implemented from 25th May which is nearer than it appears for companies. The impact is going to be enormous! Are companies ready for it?
The term GDPR has become even more familiar to customers with Google sending emails about its updated privacy policy. However, there remains a number of people who are still unaware of the ins and outs of the newly updated legislation.
General Data Privacy Regulation allows people residing in Europe Economic to have a control over the data shared and used in the area of digital marketing of all business verticals. Though the list of added rules and regulation in the GDPR is pretty long, here’s a brief version of crucial rule-frame which a marketer shouldn’t miss at any point in time.
Encourage ( or rather oblige ) companies to keep transparency in the marketing operations with respect to_
The date of regulation implementation is already nearer than it seems for marketers. In recent surveys conducted, companies were asked their opinions on GDPR and it was found that the majority of the companies are not ready for the change. Companies were given 2 years to get compliant with the change but there are a lot of undertakings who are relied on marketing based on data extracted from digital presence. The new rules are making it even more difficult for such tech giants.
Many companies which run their businesses with data collection being their core competence. Facebook and Google are some of such firms which use customers’ data on a large scale to improve the user experience. These companies undoubtedly will have to take the regulation seriously but what about others? More than 40% of businesses in England have not even heard the term GDPR.
The rules of GDPR are not only applicable in the EEA region but also to the companies who have direct or indirect operational relation with EEA region. Meaning, even if the company has headquarters outside the EEA region but conducts business in Europe, collects data from the said region, promotes themselves in Europe or has personnel working in there, they are bound to follow the rules and regulations listed in GDPR.
Entities who will violate the rules and regulations of GDPR’ provisions, the penalties imposed differ depending on the type of violation. It also depends on the person or undertaking which mishandled personal data or violated any other norms of the regulation. The penalty amount is going to cost a fortune especially for the companies who gain higher revenue but less profit. Violation of major rules could fine up to 20 million Euro or 4% of the global annual revenue (either of two depending on the greater amount)
Contradictions
There are a couple of countries in the UK which are already having regulatory bodies to look after the digital operations companies or have pre-set rules which overlap the regulation mentioned in GDPR. It will be interesting to see how the companies compliant with the new regulations and what will be the overall impact.
Speaking from a customer’s point of view, there will more power in the hands of consumers and convincing them to give consent for the data collection might just get difficult. Of course, there will be many of them who will blindly give consent but other may not. The introduction of GDPR has become the new challenge for businesses while marketing their product and services and expanding their operations on a larger level.
Virtual assistants have long been in the trend and the recent news of Google assistant update has led to several.
Google assistant adds new features to ‘your actions’ section. While you ‘Explore’ in Google Assistant, this new ‘your actions’ tab gets displayed below the explore tab and ‘all categories’. Google Assistant helps set your routine based on the frequent actions you do on a regular basis.
This and many more updates have come along to bring entertainment and better user experience to the recently transformed virtual assistant of the tech giant. If you have missed the news, here’s what you need to know:
Multiple Actions is one more feature being added to the Google Assistant tasks. You can now assign more than one tasks to Assistant. It will now perform multiple tasks assigned in one sentence. For example, start playing my songs playlist and turn on the TV.
Basic:
Amazon Echo is a smart speaker which has AI technology being employed to its virtual assistant Alexa. Google assistant, on the other hand, is also a virtual assistant but incorporated in android phones and iOS.
Device compatibility:
According to reports, Google supports 30+ languages while it claims to be available in more than 80 countries worldwide. Over 500 million devices are installed on more than 5000 home devices used across the globe.
Amazon reports claim over 12000 devices are compatible with Alexa and also available in several luxury vehicles and Mini Vehicles. Although, Google gets a plus side here since it has Android Auto program of Google has shown a great success. Alexa comprehends only English, German and Japanese as of now.
Conversational Qualities:
The new features such as continued conversation have made Google Assistant compete with Alexa which also features the same functionalities. However, Google Assistant again grabs more points since it answers multiple commands given at once which Alexa cannot do at least till now.
Family function:
Along with voice updates and other features, Google assistant also launched “pretty please’’ feature this year. It will help kids to become politer by allowing them to say words like ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.
The newly launched Echo Dot kids allow users to show child-friendly content. Both Alexa and Google Assistant allow parents to set time limits for their child to use these devices.
The assistant voice:
As said before, Google has launched new 6 voices given to Google Assistant, John Legend’s voice soon to be one of them. Alexa may not have any famous personality voice for its virtual assistant but surely has voice options in different accents.
Interface:
The interface of Google Assistant will soon to be transformed making it look similar to the one like Google Now. Google Assistant will allow playing content from YouTube which Amazon’s devices are unable to do.
Though we know Amazon Alexa used in used specifically in Amazon smart speaker, it now will also be available on Android smartphones through play store apps. When you download the app and allow your contacts, data, and media to be synced with it, it will start working similar to Google Assistant and Siri giving you weather updates, taking your commands etc.
Both the updates, Google Assistant and Alexa have added more competition to the virtual assistant market. If compared the smooth functioning and relevancy of the actions taken by both the assistants, Google seems to be better. The last year was of Amazon Alexa which impressed but this year’s first half has changed the states and now Alexa has taken a backseat with Google Assistant’s more personalized and humanlike assistance added to its features.
q1 results 2018
The first quarter results show gains which once again prove tech giants to be the real market players beating the respective top and bottom line margins. Some of the tech undertakings have shown surprisingly impressive net gain numbers and balanced share market position despite the past adverse events experienced in the last few months.
Following are some of the gradual finance shifts witnessed in the market gain Amazon’s profits attracting the market attention beating Microsoft a few months ago.
Amazon:
Already making the headlines for being the wealthiest person, Amazon founder Bezos is soon to reach a trillion in the net earnings of Amazon. Shares of AMZN (amazon.com) are up $60.26 dollars as per the latest update. Even the count of active web service users including prime numbers has reported crossing 250% more than the previous year. Amazon’s first-quarter earnings profile seem to impress the market line as well.
Intel:
Intel has beaten its market value expectation after publishing the first quarter earnings last week. The company continues to grow with a net profit of $4.5 billion. Though the earnings have shown an upward ranking, its counterparts have begun fetching its potential end users, AMD processors being the first one in the list.
Facebook:
Despite the hyped Analytica data scandal occurring last month, Facebook has managed to gain more than $50 bn on Thursday last week. Even the shares have gone back to its initial market share position with 15 % rise after Facebook owner managing the crisis of Cambridge Analytica breach.
Microsoft:
This was a weaker in the tech market players’ list as its shares sagged in after-hours trading. The fall was being witnessed despite the Q3 earnings beat. The latest disclosure shows Microsoft at $94.57 early this week.
Alphabet:
The company’s bottom line earnings show a notable growth headed upward, that being said, the company’s any new venture is predicted to have a lower margin. The operating margin excluding the long-term bets of tech colossal was more than 30% as per the reports.
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The first quarter results have shown positive and hopeful reports for the ones who were projecting lower profit margins. The reports have also risen the expectations of companies who showed a huge number of the net gains. Amazon to be precise will have greater prospects expecting it to make a trillion worth business in the upcoming quarter results.
Apple is going to announce its first quarter result tomorrow i.e. on May 1st and finance experts have already projected a remarkable growth in the net earnings of silicon valley’s market players.
Disclosure:
The author of this blog does not own any financial position in any of the above companies share or related ecosystem with no plans to do so for the immediate future.
Market leaders invest in the AI and machine learning research to offer better than the best to their customers. What will the new tech trends bring to business industries?
Artificial Intelligence is gradually getting into every sector of the industry. Be it farming or architecture AI advancements are growing rapidly. You may not feel its presence but AI technology and machine learning are the two trends which are subtly becoming a major part of our everyday life
Speaking of businesses, this technology is becoming the open secret of every leading firm’s next move in the industry. Research reports have shown a significant number of market players are investing in the AI research and development, healthcare and communication being the some of the top AI-driven industries.
Google’s parent company Alphabet has shifted its AI emphasization to the healthcare sector apart from its ‘other bets’ investments. The tech-hub has begun applying Artificial Intelligence in the healthcare solutions while partnering with some of the renowned insurance companies. They are venturing into gadgets that can manage and detect patients risks.
Another AI development booming this year is the robot-assisted surgery. The first such surgery has already taken place in March this year in Kazakhstan. The da Vinci technique has made several complex methods easy to perform offering greater flexibility and precision to surgeons. A couple of virtually assisted nursing AI tools have also been introduced to the market attracting the healthcare technology trend.
Niti Ayog, the think tank of Indian economy has partnered with a tech giant to employ AI technology driven agri-assistance for the farmers of India. The company will use satellite and sensor images, real-time weather data and machine learning to offer the advisory assistant.
Robotic harvesting tools and yield-boosting algorithms are some more AI advancements of the year making a big hit in the agriculture sector. Taking it further, the technology is creating chatbots specially designed for farmers. Using this technology, farmers can communicate in their regional language and solve their doubts through virtual assistants. These chatbots will have advanced voice modulation data to understand the local language of farmers.
Education is rapidly getting integrated with Artificial Intelligence creating advanced academic solutions for students which complement their classroom learning. The advancements are making the education more interesting and interactive with personalized doubts solving and question answering. Although technology cannot replace the conventional teacher-student education, it is certainly adding a methodological application to make the learning easier and better.
Not only students but also the teachers are getting benefited from the advancements in Edtech AI domain. One such development helps instructors to determine the weak areas of a student to help them focus more on that area eventually raising the overall learning bar of a student.
AI has been majorly revolutionized in the field of corporate communication making it more efficient and easier. Artificial Intelligence is contributing to establishing the trust determining factors of consumers. If your consumer does not trust the answers received, the credibility of your firm can be lost. AI technology is using advanced techniques to offer personalized yet accurate information to the customers and build a trustworthy communication with them.
Identity-based communication is also an emerging advancement in the field of corporate communication which will help understand the customer requirement through data fetched and will be able to guide consumers to get their needs fulfilled. In the same manner, AI and machine learning are improving the internal communication of companies to ensure smooth flow of work. It will make faster and precise response to the queries raised and may lead to greater conversions as well.
Already in the trends, the automobile industry has started thriving even more after the automated technology came in. Along with big automobile undertakings like Tesla, BMW and Volvo the AI technology in this industry has also attracted the E-commerce giant Alibaba.
There are certain drawbacks in the development, although, 2018 may become the year to overcome all shortcomings of self-driving cars heating up trends in the next few months.
Artificial Intelligence will be here to stay and will continue astonishing us with its marvelous contribution to every sector. The journey, however, is so astoundingly rapid that people are getting accustomed to interacting with technology in their everyday life.
Understanding the whys and wherefores of your project is critically important when it comes to marketing. Some of the recent data-driven campaigns outsmart the marketing tools in the industry. What role does the market research play in framing marketing campaigns?
When you launch a project and it fails to achieve the determined target, the disappointment is highly unavoidable for a marketer.
If you study most of the failed campaigns, they have a void of insights which highly affects business projects. Research is the key to fill that void and create a powerful background for your campaign.
Conducting market research isn’t a solution, conducting market research through a right channel in a right manner while gaining more insights can be called a solution.
Understanding the process of creating market research data is crucial to employ the same in your marketing plan.
Research methodology is a process. The 6 W’s of your market research help you frame this research methodology. Once you comprehend the need for conducting the research, these W’s automatically gets formed before you start working on it. It narrows down audience to a target group.
Insights, data, analysis are some complex words but often used more often in the research field. However, if truth to be told, very few people actually learn the difference between them.
Imagine a survey conducted to know why a particular product is not getting sold. You collect all the necessary information, study it twice but still cannot figure out what the consumer is looking for. If this is the case, your research is nothing but mere data. It’s you who has to discover the ‘findings’ from the data obtained and draw conclusions.
Analytical information is what matters the most rather than mere information and statistics collected through hundreds and thousands of interviews. It offers an assessment of the information.
Further, insights are the value obtained through this analytical information which helps identify new opportunities for your project.
You discover these insights into your ‘ah ha’ moments while studying the analytics received.
Take a look at your surroundings and what’s going in the market. Being with the market trends helps you make the timely connections with your consumer. Some such utilize ongoing trends to connect with their consumers faster and better while others prefer not going with the flow. Whatever path you choose, strive for optimum consumer engagement in the project.
Understanding the consumer behavior:
Generally, the end goal of conducting market research remains increasing the number of happy customers.
One consumer responding to your product in a particular way may not reveal much insight but the same respond makes a lot of sense when it contributes to the data where hundreds of others are behaving in the similar manner.
Data and statistics collected help you understand a consumer in the nick of time.
Be it a demanding consumer, informed consumer or impatient consumer every type has specific expectations for your product.
Right from the utility being created in consumers, to actual purchase and after consumption experience, every bit of the journey is crucial for a marketer. There remains a huge opportunity for marketers to offer a personalized and relevant experience to their consumers using consumer insights.
Having learned the musical interests of people through their playlist, Spotify tried playing with the lyrics of some widely popular songs.
The company only smartly used with the data that they already had and showed a different side of the company.
They ran a campaign with a series of video. These videos had famous playlists which they presented with their literal sense, depicting it in a funny way.
The song ‘Play this at my funeral’ became the one song to make the whole campaign a big hit.
The company even featured artists in these videos which added more attention to the promotional project.
Beer usually plays the icebreaker’s role in most of the meets and greets.Heineken used this insight to make their digital marketing campaign.
Heineken brought two strangers together who shared opposite principles and opinions. Their views were not disclosed until a couple of activities were performed and a bottle Heineken was offered. In the end, the couples agree to sit together and talk despite the conflicting views. The ad was pulled after 24 hours but the uploaded video got millions of views (14,790,519 views) overnight on all social media platforms.
The insight needed is rooted in data obtained or the analytical information which is already with you. Studying the ins and outs of your consumer activities reveal insights and answer the questions which you may not even have before.
You only have to discover that x-factor of the product’s utility and incorporate it in the service deliverance. Even when you find syndicate research reports, the data is usually insightful, it is you who has to cleverly employ the usage into marketing a project.
Sales is the next step in the pipeline which gives you conversions. Market research plays a crucial role in boosting your sales and gaining better ROI. Our next blog tells you how the research reports are employed to encourage sales.
The name, video and the symbol used in the above post is a registered trademark of the respective company.
Early this week, Sonos pulls its ads from Facebook following Cambridge Analytica breach. Studies forecast this as just the beginning which is likely to affect marketing utility of the social media giant in the long run.
Facebook has been the leading marketing tool for small enterprises and startups. With all the fuss going around Facebook Cambridge analytical breach, the marketing area has also affected on a global level with small enterprises being the first one to feel the heat.
A Cambridge University researcher Aleksandr Kogan made a personality quiz app which was installed by hundreds of people.
They gave an access to the tens of millions of their and friends’ data without their knowledge.This data was shared with Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm for political campaigns and marketing purposes.
Facebook is already paying dearly and taking a hit for the whole so-called ‘mishap’ that took place.
As a result, Facebook has declared that the unpaid business in the news feeds of its users will be deprioritized further here.
The scam has shaken the political world which was fetching data from such companies while also promoting their agenda in during the election.
The co-founder of popular messaging service app, WhatsApp started a campaign on 20th March via Twitter. Following the herd, a few other influencers have also started reconsidering their profile-raising activities via Facebook.
According to a research report, the online search engine shows delete Facebook account suddenly risen in the search list.
You shouldn’t be surprised to learn if the wave boycotts Facebook from marketers and public social media platforms list.
The aftermath has not only affected the front picture but has also started reflecting in the stock market price of the company being moderately dropped following the disclosure.
The changed attitude of users:
The disclosure made people conscious resulting in a freak wave of people reviewing their privacy settings suddenly thrashed questioning the use of the app.
It rose to an extent that some of the industry influencers today are planning to abstain Facebook from their marketing tools fearing the negative impact it may take up.
The #deleteFacebook started by WhatsApp co-founder has been trending on Twitter and also turning the issue into memes making fun of tech giant.
While the inactive Facebook users are thinking of deleting their account, others are withdrawing their rethinking before sharing any data on social media platforms.
There’s also a slight shift in the social media trend from Facebook to Instagram and Twitter.
While almost all small enterprises have knuckled down to reconstruct their social media promotion strategies, travel remains an unaffected domain still enjoying the perks of Facebook advertising.
Marketers looking out for alternate solutions:
Some marketers are now asking their followers for emails and getting the followers engaged in other ways. Blog subscription or running a contest on the website are some of the ways of reaching and interacting with their audience.
Marketers find their way to new opportunities for reaching the audience. If one door gets closed, there will be ten more doors open in this digitalized world. That’s the strategy is being followed by marketers today.
Global privacy enforcement: Regulating the online space may have initiated post-scandal, but the real concern starts when you start making the action plans. Resources and intelligence required to manage and govern tech giants remains a subject of distrust and dubiety.
The timeline:
2013: Aleksandr Kogan develops a personality quiz app ‘Thisisyourdigitallife’.
December 2015: News leaks the scandal of misused data
March 20th: CEO of Cambridge Analytica gets suspended.
March 20th: UK orders Facebook to testify the issue.
March 21st WhatsApp co-founder starts #deleteFacebook Campaign
March 22nd Germany summons Facebook while Brazil, Canada, the US following the same.
March 21st: Mark Zuckerberg makes a public apology, declares measures to prevent any misuse here further.