loreal,gillete and dove among the world's top 3 most valuable beauty brand

LOREAL, GILLETE AND DOVE are among the worlds best beauty Brands by brand value .With a combined brand value of over  $36billion, LoReal  Gillete and Dove are  rated AAA+ ( the highest brand rating )
LOREAL is the number 1 most valuable brand  with a brand value of $12480million in 2015. No 2 was Gillette with a brand value of $8988million. ( $89billion). Dove ranked 3rd with a brand valuation of $5821 million( 58.2 billion USD).



Meanwhile Pantele, Nivea and Chanel is ranked 4th to 6th among the top 10 most valuable beauty brand

mobile users formed 57% black friday eCommerce visitors

Mobile Shopping this holiday season has replaced desktop/ PC shopping . During 2015  Black Friday mobile consumers made up  'more than 57% of visits to e-commerce sites . That's up from 50% last year, and less than 6% a mere six years ago. Similarly, more than 36% of online e-commerce sales closed on mobile devices, up from less than 4% in 2010.

technology industry's top 5 biggest mergers and acqusitions

Dell's $67 billion purchase of EMC is the biggest pure tech acquisition ever. (AOL's $162 billion buy of Time Warner in 2000 was larger, but Time Warner was a media company, not a tech company.) This chart from Statista shows some of the largest tech acquisitions of the past decade, measured in 2015 dollars.

The Dell : EM2 merger remains the biggest till date a $67 billion deal , followed by HP and Compaq's $33.6billion. Facebook's buyout of whatsapp for $19billion was another milestone along with Google and Motorola deal in 2011 for $13.2billion

global banner advertising revenues from mobile set to outgrow desktop

Ad Revenue  led by "Banner Advertising" amounts to USD 17,699 million  2015.  Banner led advertising revenue from the desktop  currently accounts over 65% of the total banner advertising revenues, while the rest comes from mobile advertising.

 In 2016 the gap between desktop banner and mobile banner advertising will decrease as global smartphone penetration  will break all records. By 2017  banner advertising revenues across desktop and mobile  will be identical..

By 2018 Combined desktop and mobile banner ad revenues across the world  is set to grow  to $24885million ( $24.8billion). At this point 2018 and beyond.. mobile banner ad revenues will outpace revenues from  banner advertising across Desktop

UK's Top 10 brands with highest brandindex score

BrandIndex Score : BrandIndex is the authoritative measure of brand perception. Unlike any other brand intelligence services, BrandIndex continuously measures public perception of thousands of brands across dozens of sectors.
YouGov's BrandIndex is a daily measure of brand perception among the public, tracking many brands across multiple sectors simultaneously. The BrandIndex score is   is based on 6 metrics that take into account

• Brand Buzz 
• Attention 
• Sentiment
• WOW ( word of mouth)
• Value 
• Customer Satisfaction
• Reputation
• Recommendation 
• Brand Awareness 
• Purchase intent

UK Top 10 Brands with highest brandindex score include Aldi, LidL, BBC iPlayer, Netflix, Dyson in the first 5 positions  : 2015 top 10 Brands :

UK Brand Rankings 2015 : top 10 Brandindex Score

121 million to shop online this year on cyber monday,4% fewer than last year

A study which was released today by the NRF (National Retail Federation )and Prosper Insights & Analytics,  shows that   121.3 million consumers will shop online tomorrow, on Cyber Monday 2015.This number is  down 4.4% from 126.9 million last year. That 121.3 million number represents 49.5% of all consumers

The 2015's Holiday season started off  briskly  with Black Friday seeing   $2.72 billion in e-commerce sales, up 14% from 2014. Meanwhile online shopping on Thanksgiving Day 2015 too  saw a higher jump in online spending, with $1.73 billion in sales, up 25% from the  2014 .Black Friday and Thanksgiving online sales saw consumers spending   $4.47 billion

However in store sales—excluding e-commerce—fell about 10% on Thursday and Friday to $12.1 billion, according to ShopperTrak, which monitors traffic to stores and malls.

US states with highest motorbikes: california, florida, texas among top 3

Which US states boasts of having the highest number of motor cycles on its highways ? Based on the number of registrations,California has the highest number of motorbikes in United States, followed by Florida and Texas.This  chart above from statista c represents the leading U.S. states based on motorcycle registrations in 2014. With some 799,900 motorcycle registrations, California was ranked first that year. The total number of motorcycle registrations exceeded 8.4 million units in 2013.

However in terms  of per capita motorcycle ownership.South Dakota ranked the best. There are a total of 69,284 motorcycles registered in the state, according to the Department of Transportation, and with a total population of 816,598,
South Dakota comes in first with 12 people for every motorcycle beating the national

Firebrand named in the Top 20 IT training companies in the world for the sixth time

 By Sarah Morgan

Firebrand has been named one of the Top 20 IT training companies in the world for the sixth year running by TrainingIndustry.com.

The Top 20 IT training companies 2015 list recognises companies over the past year, that have displayed excellence in the following areas:

• Leadership and innovation in IT training
• Breadth of IT training and delivery methods offered
• Company size and growth potential
• Quality and number of clients/users
• Geographic reach
• Awards, recognition, and competitive differentiation

The final category is a new addition from previous years and is particularly applicable to Firebrand’s accelerated learning format, which separates Firebrand from other training providers. This, combined with the outstanding quality of training, is why customers continually return to Firebrand.

Emma Seaman, Managing Director of Firebrand Training UK said:

“Being named one of the Top 20 IT training companies in the world is an amazing achievement and shows Firebrand’s continued growth and commitment to high quality training. Achieving the award six years in a row is a terrific reward for everyone within the company who has worked so hard to provide great training for everyone who sits one of our courses.”

This is now the seventh award in as many months for Firebrand, demonstrating how high standards are being achieved, maintained and recognised across so many areas of the business.

About the Author:        

Sarah writes for Firebrand Training on a number of IT related topics. This includes exams, training, certification trends, project management, certification, careers advice and the industry itself. Sarah has 11 years of experience in the IT industry. 

Gaming continue to be the biggest revenue generator across digital media

chart 1

US Digital media market generated  revenues of  $ 29 billion ( 29,953.2 million) in 2015.With a share of over 30%,online gaming continues to be the  biggest contributor to over online media revenues ." Online Gaming or  "Digital Games"generated over  $10billion or $10,734.4 million  in 2015. 

Digital Gaming is set to continue to be the largest contributor  to the over digital media market till 2018. In 2019 , digital video( see chart 2)  will be the  number one activity in terms of overall digital media revenue contributor, followed by  Gaming 

chart 2 :2019 will see online video streaming  revenues emerge as the number one revenue contributor, replacing online gaming&nbs

Cyber security red alert on Cyber Monday

Cyber Monday creates an ideal opportunity for malicious hackers to attack your business systems. As company servers are hammered by millions of genuine requests from eager buyers, the opportunity for a hacker to breach your system undetected increases. The consequences of which can be severe, considering the financial and public image implications a single breach can create. 

The current strain being exerted on IT infrastructure is strikingly similar to a common hacking technique. The tactic involves a single hacker targeting a network, followed by hundreds of hackers joining the attack to create a diversion. The noise created by the hundreds of additional hacker presents a smoke screen, enabling the initial hacker to breach the system. 

Attacks like these can collapse your infrastructure, forcing websites and whole servers offline. They are becoming all too common as cyber criminal look to cash in on the details stolen. 

Protecting your assets on Cyber Monday 

Today, on Cyber Monday, you should remain vigilant, especially if you're an online retailer. Loyal customers are currently creating the diversionary tactic which could allow a hacker to breach your system. If your attention is being distracted by sales, you should start focusing on security. 

A single breach could expose your data to criminals, or take your website offline for hours. Not only will you miss out on the valuable revenue created by these marketing ploys, the financial ramifications of a breach could collapse your business. Take TalkTalk for example, November’s breach of the telecoms giant is estimated to cost the organisation in the region of £30-35 million. 

Take the following steps to protect your assets on this busy day: 

• Ensure you follow routine daily security checks – do not let your IT team be distracted by sales
• Segment systems on separate protected networks – this tactic ensures that if one system or network is breached, an attacker won’t then have free roam to take down multiple systems simultaneously 
• Increase monitoring of endpoint devices – pay regular and close attention to public facing systems to ensure any suspicious activity doesn’t go undetected. Now is the time to be paranoid, it’s the ideal time for an attack 

Future planning 

Whilst Cyber Monday is high risk, it’s important to prepare for the long term. A cyber-attack can happen at any time, it’s vital you and your team have the security skills implement a long term strategy. 

Investing in training employees is critical. Certification courses like the Certified Ethical Hacker and CISSP will develop the technical and strategic skills required to protect your company assets. You can learn to attack your own systems to identify weaknesses or devise a comprehensive and water tight security system. Stay vigilant.

face care & mass skin care to see the highest growth in personal grooming industry

The biggest markets in Global Skin care Category is US, China & south east asia  along with australia The worldwide  personal grooming  market was valued at US$110.69 billion in 2014, and its estimated to reach $121 billion in 2016. And by 2018, the U.S. skin care including personal grooming and beauty  market will reach $10,717.4 million. Another report on the cosmetic and global skin care industry  by  Transparency Market Research  pegs  it at US$155.4 bn by 2021
In 2014, the No. 1 skin care brand in the U.S. was an anti-aging brand: Olay Regenerist, owned by Procter & Gamble. Their total sales in 2014 amounted to approximately $103 million

Global Skin Care  market will be dominated by Japan, China  and US followed by  Germany. 86% of  personal grooming products, industry growth this growth will come from face care products , followed by mass skincare with 68% growth.


The market will be led by  increasing demand for organic ingredients in personal care products and the rising demand for anti-aging products are the key factors driving the market for skin care products in Europe and North America. However the personal skin care market in  Asia Pacific will be led by  the demand for skin glowing products across mid and low-income households 

global companies with biggest staff worldwide

The below list shows the top 5 global companies with the biggest staff worldwide.Along with having global operations  they also have with multiple locations and diverse workforce Some of the biggest companies in the world also sport the biggest payrolls

Among the top 5 biggest employers  list are 1)Walmart 2) Hon Hai Precision( Foxcon's subsidiary) 3)GS4 which is biggest security services in the world having presense in over 125 companies .4)Volkswagen and  oil and gas major 5)PetroChina .

These data is based on "Fortune's compilation on its first-ever list of the world’s 10 biggest employers among publicly listed companies, based on latest fiscal-year-end figures from FactSet Research Systems, annual reports, and other publicly available information. : Each of these top 10 companies are listed according to the size of their staff, the business vertical,country of origin, sales figures, revenues per employee

No 1:WALMART :Retail

 Employees: 2.2 million Counttry:
country of origin :United States Industry:
Retail Sales: $476.3 billion
Market value: $245.8 billion
 Revenue per employee: $216,500

No 2 : HON HAI  : Electronic Manufacturing ( part of Foxcon Corporation )
Employees: 1.1 million
Country: Taiwan
Sales :$133.2billion
Market value: $47.3 billion
Revenue per employee: $120,000

 HON HAI is a part of Foxcon which is well knows as a electronic manufacturer component supplier who assembles everything from smartphones to display panels for customers such as Apple,Cisco, Dell, and Sony . Apple is among Foxcon's biggest client and contributes about 40 % of the company's






No 3 :GS 4:  security company
Employees: 618,000
Country: United Kingdom
Sales: $11.6 billion
 Market value: $6.3 billion
Revenue per employee: $18,800

No 4 : VOLKSWAGEN : Car Manufacuring
 Employees: 572,800
Country: Germany
 Motor Vehicles Sales: $261.5 billion
 Market value: $101.3 billion
Revenue per employee: $456,600


No 5 :PETROCHINA: Oil and Gas
 Employees: 544,083
Country: China :
Sales :$351.0 billion
Market value: $225.6
billion Revenue per employee: $645,000

UK's largest public sector employers:British army and RAF among top 10

This list of the top 10 UK public sector employees as and the number of employers which they  employ according  to the office of  national statistics:The NH England and Scotland are the biggest public sector employers, followed by  Revenue and Customs, UK. The British Army established in1660 is the no 3 biggest employer in United Kingdom having 125,430 employers .
The UK Royal Air Force  has 37,200 in its rolls. The Ministry of Justice and ministry of defence has  around  68,000 and 65,000 employers

, UK Statistics are available on an ad hoc basis from public company annual reports.Currently Royal Mail, G4S, Tesco and Compass Group are the largest plc employers.

10 companies with highest profit per employee ratio

These 25 companies have redefined " the  financial metrics of an organization "   which  has achieved the highest profit ratio per employee
Revenue per employee, or profit per employee  is a measure of how efficiently a particular company is utilizing its employees. In general,  relatively high revenue per employee is a positive sign that suggests the company  is more productive

Among the first company with highest profit ratio per employee is  a biopharma company : Gilead Sciences, a that develops and sells over a dozen popular drugs, many of which treat patients with HIV, hepatitis or influenza. With an estimated team of just 7,000, Gilead has less than 10% the workforce of giant pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer (~78,000) or Novartis (~135,000).

After Gilead Sciences comes a series of crude oil and natural gas companies, like EOG Resources, Marathon Oil and Hess Corporation. The number 5th and 6th companies with highest profit per employee  are NewField Exploration and Range  Resources Cop

Typically  Oil and gas companies have fewer personnel needs and more infrastructure needs, like transportation, factories, processing and other activities that can be automated or scaled without many additional workers.

walmart,volkswagen and yum brands among 10 largest employers

Walmart  is america's  biggest employer with 2.2million americans employed by the global retail chain.  Walmart   employs almost  four times the size of runner-up Volkswagen  which  is ranked no 2 with about  583,423 employees working for the German auto company   in the United States

  Meanwhile Yum Brands, which operates  the licensed brands Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and WingStreet worldwide ranks 3 with 537,000 Americans employed with the company.Meanwhile, McDonald’s ranks seventh with 420,000 employees. Petrochina ranks no 4 with 534,652 Americans in its rolls .

general electric concludes $14billion acquisition of alstom

General Electric  has  received a green light from the European Union to buy French energy and transportation firm Alstom for $14 billion.Earlier In April 2014, GE was in talks to acquire the global power division of French engineering group Alstom for a figure of around $13 billion.

Last month General Electric ( GE)finally  concluded the €9.7bn acquisition of the power businesses of Alstom of France after securing the last regulatory approvals it needed,

GE's acquisition of energy giant Alstom's  including its lucrative energy business, is one of the its largest deal in the this vertical which  will bring together two of the world's biggest manufacturers of power plant hardware .

How does GE stand to gain from this acquisition ?

• The Alstom businesses give GE a much stronger position in steam turbines used in coal-fired, gas-fired and nuclear power plants, and in power grid equipment, as well as a much larger installed base of power plants for its service operations.
• The market for heavy duty gas turbines  has only four globally active full technology competitors: GE is the market leader followed by Siemens, Alstom and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS). This is due to the large upfront investments in R&D, testing and manufacturing required, setting very high technological and financial barriers to enter the market.

The merged entity would account for more than 50% of the EEA market for heavy duty gas turbines and also very high market shares on the worldwide market for 50 Hz frequency heavy duty gas turbines.

how much did consumers spend on the biggest online shopping day in history

Since the term “Cyber Monday” was officially coined back in 2005, the Monday after Thanksgiving has swiftly become the most important day of the year for online retailers in the US. While 2013 saw  whopping $1.7 billion, making it the biggest online spending day in history.  2014  was ever better with 2.03 billion. According to recent estimates from adobe.. 2015 saw online shoppers spend $2.72billion, which is the  biggest amount consumers have spent since 2005 onwards

To know about the black friday 2015 shopping data ,check out " 32% mobile shoppers accounted for $1.5billion  ecommerce spends

the average cost of thanksgiving dinner down the years

45 million turkeys are killed every year at Thanksgiving, compared to just 22 million at Christmas. This year, a Thanksgiving dinner will be more expensive than ever - $50.11. Back in 2000, it cost an average of just $36.78. Most Americans are going to drink wine around the dinner table this year, followed by liquor/spiritis/cocktails and non-craft domestic beer.

top 10 retail websites with highest unique mobile visitors

Amazon, Ebay, Apple sites Walmart and Netflix make among the top 10 US retail sites with highest mobile unqiue visitors. ( Smartphone and  tablets +mobile  users make up the  universe of mobile visitors)
More than 158 million U.S. consumers browsed retail sites and apps on their mobile devices. Not surprisingly, Amazon.com, eBay and Apple were numbers 1, 2 and 3, respectively.

best black friday deals from dell

Dell’s 2015 Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals available on www.dell.com/blackfriday include:

Dell's Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals began on Wednesday, November 25, 2015, with select laptops starting at $149.99, 2–in-1s at $299.99, desktops starting as low as $99.99, Alienware gaming PCs starting at $449 and tablets starting at $149 - and all purchases made on Dell.com come with the option of free shipping.

 To see the entire range of discounts click here

1.  Inspiron 14 laptop 3000 Series @ $149.99 – doorbuster starting Nov 26. 
2. Inspiron Micro Desktop @ $99.99 – doorbuster starting Nov. 27 
3. Inspiron 15 5000 Series notebook @ $299.99 – doorbuster starting Nov. 26 
4. Inspiron 15 3000 Series notebook @ $379.99 – doorbuster starting Nov. 27
5.  Inspiron Small Desktop @ $199.99 - doorbuster starting Nov. 26
6.  Inspiron Desktop w/Dell 24 Monitor bundle @ $499.99 – doorbuster starting Nov. 27
7.  Inspiron 15 7000 Series 2-in-1 @ $499.99 – doorbuster starting Nov. 26 
8. Inspiron 11 3000 Series 2-in-1 @ $299.99 – doorbuster starting Nov. 27 
9. Alienware gaming PCs – Up to $500 off select systems 
10. Venue 10 5000 Series tablet @ $149 Dell 24 Monitor @ $179.99 Dell 27 Gaming Monitor @ $629.99

UK best black friday deals from amazon

Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals from Amazon UK

Following  the spectacular success of last year black Friday  deals, when Amazon sold 5.5 million items,  within a week of limited-time "lightning deals" with new promotions being unveiled every 10 minutes.

Now the giant internet retailer for  the first time ever, hundreds of UK-based Amazon Marketplace sellers will take part in Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals
Here are some of the selected best offers from the Amazon marketplace

• Guitar Hero Live 2 Guitar Bundle (PS4 and Xbox One, exclusive to Amazon), was £124.99, now £74.99 
• Ted Baker London Rockall High-Performance Over-Ear Headphones with Built-In Remote/Microphone, was £109.65, now £69.65
• Amazon Kindle Paperwhite, was £109.99, now £79.99
• Philips Wake-Up Light Alarm Clock with Sunrise Simulation, was £57.56, now £39.99
• Pommery Brut Royal Champagne Gift Box 150cl Magnum, was £90, now £49.99

Black friday best deals :hits and misses

heres a look into some of the epic black  2015 friday fights " where survival of the fittest ensures whatever you paid for comes back into your home 

Now that Black friday sales have been " done with" here is a look back on what sold the most and what hardly sold.. What were the hits and what product bombed

Adobe’s report also reveals the top five selling electronic items on Black Friday which were

1. Samsung 4K TVs, 
2. Apple’s iPad Air 2, 
3.  Microsoft Xbox One, 
4. Apple iPad Mini and S
5. Sony’s PS4.
6. 
   

 Others findings for Black Friday sales include consumer electronics that  have alread gone out of stock or  will be out of bounds until you hurry. These are

1. Amazon Fire 7” 8GB tab, 
2. Beats Solo on-Ear Headphones (Red),
3.  NBA 2K16 Game for Sony PS4, 
4. Pie Face Game, and The Force Awakens 6” figure.

On Thanksgiving Day,   which saw consumers spend a whopping $1.73 billion, ( 25% increase based n 2014 figures

1.  smartphone sales  reached all time high generating over $639 million in sales. 
2. The top selling products for the day included Samsung 4K TVs Microsoft Xbox One, Lego Dimensions, Barbie Dream House and Lego Creative Box.
3.  Even Sony which has sold 30.2million units of its latest gen console, announced price cuts for its PS4 console across the globe ahead of the US  holiday season 

$1.5billion mobile shoppers accounted for 32% thanksgiving day and black friday e shopping

The first two days of the holiday sales period have netted $4.45 billion in U.S. online purchases, ( this  includes  $2.72 billion spent on BlackFriday and $1.73 billion on Thanksgiving)

However  sales from mobile devices — led by smartphones — have  seen a a record $1.5 billion of that entire $4.45billion online sales during  thanksgiving and black friday  has "broken all previously held records. That means mobile shopping made up around 32% of all digital shopping during thanksgiving and black friday

However Adobe expects total online sales during the 3 days ( Thanksgiving +black friday+ Cyber Monday) would reach around $7.4billion .. in 2015 compared to last years  $6.4 billion ..  expected growth of 15%

The numbers come from Adobe, which has been tracking some 4,500 sites, including 80% of the top 100 retailers. IBM says Black Friday outpaced that with the average basket size of $134.45, and sales up 20.7% on a year ago with popular items including Apple Watch, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4, and TVs from Samsung, Sony and LG.

This chart illustrates the rise of holiday season e-commerce spending in the United States from 2005 through 2014 

how smartphones is being used as a online shopping comparison tool this holidays

How Smartphones will play a huge role in " Holiday shopping this year .

A record 78% consumers would be using the smartphones for  checking out  their best holiday deals

Online Store Locations are among the most popular smartphone activity during this years holiday shopping with 60% consumers saying they would use their mobile to check out instore locations.

Online Price comparison  and reviews were the next most important smartphone usages, with 55% saying they would be using their smartphone to read reviews and comparison prices online

45% consumers would be using online coupons to redeem the offer, 43% users would be checking the product via the mobile phones, with 41% ready yo make a purchase via their smartphones.27% would be using it to scan barcode information

black friday and thanksgiving online sales exceed $4.45billion, ipad, Xbox tops electronic sales

COMPARISON OF THANKSGIVING DAY , BLACK FRIDAY AND CYBER MONDAY SALES DOWN THE YEARS

This year Black Friday sales brought in n $2.72 billion in e-commerce sales, up 14% from 2014. ecommerce spends on Thanksgiving Day saw a higher jump in online spending, with $1.73 billion in sales, up 25% from the previous year

During the two day period, 33% of online shoppers used their mobile phones to make purchases. Online  sales on Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day exceeded  $4.45  according to data released by Adobe.

Among  the " top 5  best selling  electronic products on  Thanksgiving holiday sales were

•  Samsung 4K TVs, the Apple iPad Air 2, the Microsoft Xbox One, the Apple iPad Mini, and the Sony PS4. 
• The five most popular toys were Lego Dimensions, Shopkin dolls, Lego Star Wars, Barbie Dream House, and Lego Friends.
•  Consumers sought out the promotions on Thursday and Friday, with sales from limited online deals accounting for 40% of all online sales. 
• In total, products sold online saw an average discount of 24%.