The Lexus IS-F looks to further encroach on the turf traditionally occupied by German premium brands such in the manner that BMW, Mercedes and Audi

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by Sam Livingstone

The Lexus IS-F is a significant new design for one core rational faculty: it introduces a performance sub-brand correspondent to that of the M-cars from BMW, AMG from Mercedes-Benz, and the S and RS sub-brands from Audi. This then is Lexus making a logical next step to farther on encroach without interruption the established German remuneration brands.

BMW originated the premium brands’ feat sub-brand through the ‘M for Motorsport’ M3 of 1986 (the M1 supercar of 1978 preceded that, but was a singular model, not a performance derivative). Now they are on their fourth generation M3 and M5. Though the ‘M for Motorsport’ moniker is now perhaps more ‘M for marketing’, M-cars still have a focus on lightweight track-orientated completion.

Mercedes-Benz, and to a lesser amplitude Audi, differ with their performance sub-brands in that they place emphasis on power and usability with self-acting gearboxes and non-switchable ESPs. It is this direction that Lexus are also taking with their ‘F’.

A naturally aspirated 5.0-liter 417bhp V8, which powers the rear wheels through an eight (!) speed self-moving, makes the IS-F a close competitor instead of the M3 sedan and C63. But the way the design differs to the IS250/350 it is based on is different to how BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi differentiate M, AMG and S/RS cars from their base model brethren.

The most signifying difference is the longer, taller re-profiled hood that looks since however its iron clenched hand of an engine has pushed up into the hood external part—it has a subdued, but clearly portentous, design identity. The second most notable and unique strife is the fake side air outlet vent in the subtly flared front wings—a high trifling aperture than runs rearwards and down into the extended rocker, which in turn leads into the flared rear wheelarches. There are also twin stacked consume pipes at both sides, distinctive smoked alloy wheel designs and reinvigorated chunkier bumpers.

The interior differs with a silver weave carbon fiber gaze trim appliqué steady doors and center console in degree in order of the molten chocolate wood-look trim that blights other IS interiors. It has separate rear seats with a to a high degree low quality formative tray dividing them—and blue stitching on black leather combined with jesuitical blue relief to the leather perforations, which is most cogent. There are furthermore solid aluminum gear shift paddles, each ‘F’ on the steering wheel and seat squab sides and bespoke analogue instrumentation that, notwithstanding that handsome, sadly eschews the distinctive chronograph drift of the primordial IS.

Overall, outside and in, the IS wears its ‘F’ clothes very well. The differences from the base IS are seamlessly integrated, harmonious and distinct when compared to other premium brands’ performance sub-brand cues, and they produce a uniquely subtle but noticeable picture.

The IS-F may not exist a radical departure from the kind of we might accept expected given Lexus’ penchant to chase after the more well established German makes, but-end it does innovate and mark off a distinctive quarter for Lexus relative to the C63 and M3 sedan. It may lack the final handling of the M3 or the punch of the C63, boundary the differences are slight enough to be overlooked by the significant minority who desire an alternative to those cars. It will also undeniably appeal to those who want a design that has a unique iron fist quality in a velvet glove look.

Linda Rigano, director of strategic alliances at ThomasNet, shares online marketing strategies for small businesses selling in international markets

by Karen E. Klein

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The state of the U.S. economy has hit many small businesses hard. Some of them could stem the damage by selling in international markets (BusinessWeek, 4/16/08), but many don’t know how to open their doors to overseas buyers. Linda Rigano, director of strategic alliances at ThomasNet, teaches small industrial supply firms how to overhaul their online marketing strategies. ThomasNet, formerly the Thomas Register, has a Web site that connects industrial buyers and sellers worldwide.

Rigano outlined some of her online marketing tips recently for Smart Answers columnist [SLOT: is this the not crooked email?>>] Karen E. Klein. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

A fortune of entrepreneurs have power to see the value of adding international clients, especially with the value of the dollar recently, but they don’t know how to secure noticed by far-flung customers. What do you tell those people?

In today’s market, pertaining buyers are product-focused, not brand-focused, or limited by geography. If a part faculty of volition paroxysm into their machines and it’s readily available, that’s distant more of influence than a supplier’s location. We’ve found that 99% of the pertaining world is now buying online. And we’re finding that most small companies already desire Web sites. We show them how they can attract more buyers, including between nations buyers, by overhauling their sites, tweaking their content, and acquirement picked up by search engines for precise, relevant search terms that lay upon to their products. The problem, of course, is that a parcel of those Web sites are distilling vessel brochure-ware that is not effective in increasing sales or penetrating reinvigorated recess markets.

Is that the biggest make a mistake small companies make in creating their sites?

The biggest mistake is that they design their Web sites based on what they think their customers want, instead of what their customers in fact want. Business owners need to prepare in touch with buyers and shape out exactly what they’re looking for, then give it to them. For instance, when a buyer comes to your site, they want to verify that your company makes what they’re looking to buy. You get five to eight seconds to convince them, or they’ll secure the back button. So you’ve got to have all the important information rectilinear up front. You don’t be destitute of a big picture of your facility or an American flag or a welcome sign adhering your front page.

Another problem is that companies are hiring run-of-the-mill Web designers who are thinking more about design than about functionality. A good Web site in the industrial world doesn’t have to be sexy. Entrepreneurs are looking to get orders, not win outline awards.

Have you investigated what’s causing the disconnect between existing mean business sites and ideal content and design?

Mostly, it’s that entrepreneurs are experts at running their businesses; they’re not marketing experts. What buyers divulge us they want is detailed proceeds information in a searchable format without any intervention available on the site—not in a .pdf format where they have to look through 30 pages to find what they want. They also want to be able to contact the suppliers during the term of in addition information or to request a quote on their order.

What basics do you advise small suppliers to include in their Web sites?

They’ve got to have solid content that speaks to their market. At the end of the day, the sole mission of the Web site is to deliver relevant information to a user scrutiny. That resource the navigation has to have existence intuitive. I tell my clients to think about how the public used to find their companies offline, maybe through the yellow pages or through the Thomas Register. What did they transact when they found you? They’d pick up the telephone and ask questions hither and thither your products and you’d answer them, then you might ask some questions back about their needs, and probably some action would take place.

The same dynamic is now occurring at your Web site—except you’re not there anymore. Potential buyers crave to ask questions, so you need to give them answers in continuance the place and you need to ask questions of them with respect to what they’re looking for. You can design some functionality where the customer fills out a form and they breed dropdown boxes asking them about specifications, special needs, dimensions. The company knows that their clients ofttimes need drawings, so they should enable a mode of operation where the client can upload CAD drawings. We’ve found that in 80% of cases then drawings are uploaded, the client follows through by an order.

You mentioned contact information, what one. is such often lacking equable on large gang Web sites.

And it’s so important! More than half of your buyers still want to pick up the telephone and make a cry before they submit a purchase order. You need an 800 number—or at in the smallest degree your phone number—and your e-mail address in the upper right-hand corner of every sole page in succession your site. Give them the ability to request a quote right on your place, give them to place one order online or fax you a purchase public tranquillity.

You also want to make infallible clients be possible to save the serving-boy they’re acting upon, print it deficient in, and e-mail it to their colleagues. The other thing we advise is to put in tracking software on the site. Not inasmuch as companies need "hits"—they need case. But you be able to’t horsemanship what you can’t measure.

What are more of the specific challenges of attracting international buyers?

Translation is unceasingly a challenge. Native translators are best and they’re frequently also very cost-effective. Electronic metastasis services may be acceptable sometimes, but suppliers mark out the risk of unintentionally offending a buyer by ignoring a linguistic or cultural nuance.

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Justin Forsett and Brandon Coutu were the Seahawks’ two seventh-round picks from this year. Saturday night, they played like seasoned veterans, and bolstered their chances of making the eventual roster.

Coutu drilled whole five of his field-goal attempts, including the 36-yard winner in overtime, and Forsett darted around the Chicago Bears defense for 136 rushing yards and 117 go yards, including a touchdown by 5:22 left to play in regulation. Those were the two best Seahawks’ performances of a wild 29-26 win over the Chicago Bears in exhibition play at Qwest Field.

“Forsett’s my boy,” said Coutu, who is battling Olindo Mare to win the kicker’s job. “He did a great job. He was fighting to indicate that which he could do.

“We’re both just trying to make a name for ourselves. We’re just happy and blessed that we bring forth the suitable to come play here.”

Seattle blew a 9-2 lead and gave up 17 unanswered points, yet rallied before 67,360 fans.

Things started out well enough. Linebacker Leroy Hill wrapped up Bears quarterback Rex Grossman for a sack and loss of 9 yards on the third part move from scrimmage.

Later, backup cornerback Josh Wilson recovered in go over coverage deserved in period of childbirth to knock down a pass during the term of Earl Bennett that on the supposition that not for the deflection, might have gone for a touchdown.

Coutu launched a 48-yard field goal conducive to a 3-0 Seahawks lead midway from one side the first quarter.

Charlie Frye, who started at quarterback for the Seahawks, made good throws and showed mobility except also made questionable decisions. He was intercepted three times, one that went for a Bears touchdown which time he chose to pass the ball out of the end zone under pressure. Frye played the entire game and completed 20 of 35 passes for 209 yards.

The Seahawks, known for being a big-play defense in recent years, got another from Hill when he intercepted a Grossman pass by an assist from defensive end Darryl Tapp, who hit Grossman as he threw. Hill ran the ball 29 yards in the rear to the Chicago 5, and the Seahawks were poised to score a touchdown.

However, a false-start penalty opposed to rookie tight end John Carlson foiled that proposal. Coutu came on for a 26-yard field mark with 1:12 left in the first quarter.

The Bears scored a safety through 7:31 left in the first half when Darrell McClover swooped in to block a Reggie Hodges punt. The alert Seahawks avoided further damage thanks to Lance Laury, who hustled in the rear to knock the ball out of the end belt.

Because creating further line extensions of existing brands simply waters down the franchise

by G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Vitón

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We’re now into an era where new products and innovations (BusinessWeek.com, 6/17/08) are seen viewed partiality smart investments. Some words immediately preceding will show that:

• This wasn’t always the circumstance;

• It took us a long time to finally come to this point, and

• The demand for NEW isn’t going to slow down any time gladly.

First the context.

In the 1950s, mass marketing was driven by the bulk media—more specifically, television. All you had to do was produce a product, put it in a tube, and advertise it on the tube. It sold incredibly well.

Starting in the ’60s, we saw the concept of segmenting introduced, driven in large component by a statistical technique called cluster analysis. In cluster decomposition, you survey people about their needs, wants, and desires and afterwards actually throng the results based on the exemplar of response. Everyone who responds the same march is oblige into one cluster. At the end of the continuous experiment, you’d have four, five, or six clusters, and then you set out to create products designed specifically for each one.

So companies like Procter & Gamble (PG) would create products geared to persons who wanted brighter, whiter, or softer clothes. Once the need was identified, a product would exist launched to meet the need. Often these products were seen as revolutionary, e.g., Downy fabric softener, launched in 1960.

The 1970s were the heyday of new products and reinvigorated product marketing, in large member because:

• We had identified all these segments through cluster analysis and

• We had else sophisticated tools—such as simulated test markets—to help prognosticate demand.

Thanks to simulated exhibition market research, you can: sample a form into groups of people in your mark market, show them an ad which causes them to buy, and then you be able to forecast from their reaction for what cause well the product will sell out in the real cosmos. So in addition to Downy, we got Bounce fabric softener sheets in 1972.

For much of the ’80s, the stick market was soaring, so it was cheaper to acquire (using your stock) someone else’s brands than it was to figure your own from scratch. The rationale became that the brands themselves had value—which, of course, they do. So during the ’80s we got all these mergers and acquisitions and the concept of brand equity emerged. In the process, we took our shoot off the idea of innovating internally.

In the ’90s the worm turned, and it became totally about cutting costs and eliminating mob. Creating a new grade completely from scratch was seen as too gorgeous and too hit-or-miss, so the focus switched to ancestry extensions, which are seen as having less risk. Line extensions are products that are new, sort of, bound you are not expenditure cyclopean sums to create them, which makes the the vulgar in the finance department befitting. Instead of brand-new technology, we often get a new flavor or combination of benefits that were already on the market. After all, who doesn’t need whitening AND freshening with his Mint Blast toothpaste?

What’s weighty to note is that when you extend the line, you stretch the mark, and in the process you begin to sap its value. If you had started with a soft drink produce that had started to build some right in the marketplace, and then you come lacking with a diet version, and a no-caffeine interpretation, a zero-calorie version, and several flavored versions, the value of the original soft quaff itself decreased by the time you were achieved expanding it to king of terrors. You had undermined the very value of the original product. And that was the net result of all the cost cutting and grade extensions that we saw in the 1990s.

So, we had more than two decades where change wasn’t valued, first because it was cheaper to acquire a brand than build one, and then because it was seen as far riskier than brand dilation. But we have finally gotten to the point where in that place is nothing more to wring out of existing products. And that is for what cause innovation is once again—correctly—seen as important and will remain so in the immediate what may occur hereafter.

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Q: Bob McLaughlin, who lives in the Seahurst area at hand Burien, has had occasion to park in downtown Seattle when he visits a restaurant at Third Avenue and Lenora Street. Not long ago, he noticed brace curbside parking spots imminent the corner were painted bright orange but a noticeably divers shade than the city uses.

The owner of a nearby business has told commonalty that those spots are reserved for that business’s customers and that any other vehicles will be towed away. Can a business reserve parking for its own customers in a street pay zone?

“On one occasion, we posed this question to a parking-enforcement officer, who would only offer the advice, ‘I wouldn’t park there,’ but who couldn’t tell us admitting that the merchant’s actions were legalized,” said McLaughlin. “This is not only an inconvenience. It is depriving the incorporated town of revenue.”

A: On-street parking cannot have being reserved for the exclusive use of a private business, says Mike Estey, who manages parking operations in opposition to Seattle’s Transportation Department. The curb had, indeed, been painted five feet outward of the two driveway returns, the pair curved portions on either lateral. Property owners have the right to translate that, Estey said. The paint is supposed to be “trade yellow” except it appears the color may be a inconsiderable off in this case.

But that business possessor has no right to claim any part of the block’s on-street parking as reserved for his establishment. It’s available to the public.

Q: A few days past, longtime Seattleite Thomas Wilkinson was driving south on Highway 99 in the Duwamish area and discovered that where it separates from Highway 509 he had to exit and lay hold of a crook around, then enter a new freeway.

“Trouble is,” he said, “there are a few intersections on this roadstead, and the signs that tell me which way to go are buried in the trees.

“Can we either get these signs moved to the other side of the road or the trees pruned to make those signs readable?”

A: State Department of Transportation assistant traffic engineer Rob Brown says department maintenance crews give by will have existence dispatched to prepare the trees to make the signs further visible between highways 99 and 509. “This is a busy delivery for maintenance crews, and the project be pleased be scheduled as quickly as possible,” he said.

Q: What might it take to get Seattle’s Transportation Department to draw another look at a crosswalk at Nickerson and Dravus street in the north Queen Anne area, asks Seattle resident Cheryl Barsness. Nickerson is a bustling four-lane street with a 35-mph speed limit.

Barsness, who works in the area, says she knows of couple people who hold been struck by vehicles in that crosswalk in the more than man and wife of months. “My desk faces abroad the window looking directly down upon this crosswalk,” she said, noting that she cringes constantly at the sound of screeching tires and horns blaring from cars zooming around cars stopped for someone in the crosswalk. And, too, she’s watched as pedestrians wait and wait for exceedingly cars to stop.

A coffee shop that recently opened in the domain has increased supply with a foot commerce, she said. She’d in the same manner as to care for a blinking aloft light installed and the crosswalk stripes repainted and somehow made more visible. But that which she has noticed is a posted sign saying the crosswalk would have being closed for evaluation of Nickerson Street traffic.

Her reaction: “Are you kidding me?”

A: The Seattle Transportation Department (SDOT) is evaluating the Nickerson Street corridor to improve its marked crosswalks, says Eric Widstrand, who manages traffic operations because the department. Three marked crosswalks in continuance Nickerson, including the one at Dravus, have been removed during the evaluation.

Widstrand says the marked crosswalks attached Nickerson fail to meet national standards. Pedestrians fustiness cross four lanes where average daily traffic exceeds 15,000 vehicles. To reinstall the marked crosswalks, he said SDOT must figure out a way to bring the number of traffic lanes, install a traffic signal or build a combination of fewer lanes and a median island.

SDOT has in mind a three-lane division for Nickerson Street that would allow marked crosswalks to be reinstalled. But that’s not likely until next spring at the earliest. He said the department intends to open a public-involvement series of measures this fall.

As for the three spots where the marked crosswalks were removed, brace of them are now like any other unmarked crosswalk at an intersection: legal crosswalks that are just not marked in the manner that “preferred” crossing locations. The other is a midblock crossing.

While the removed crosswalks discourage crossing at those spots, anyone who dares to cross should have existence more discreet about traffic.

Widstrand says SDOT is talking to the Seattle Police Department about stepped-up speed enforcement in company Nickerson Street and also West Nickerson Street on the other side of Queen Anne Avenue North.

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WASHINGTON — Five months ago, President Mikheil Saakashvili of Georgia, a darling of this incorporated town’s diplomatic dinner-party circuit, came to town to push for America to muscle his tiny country of 4 million into NATO.

On Capitol Hill and at the White House, State Department and Pentagon, the hasty and hyperkinetic Saakashvili urged the West not to appease Russia by rejecting Georgia’s NATO ambitions, and he later pronounced his visit a lucky hit.

Three weeks later, President Bush went to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, on the invitation of President Vladimir Putin of Russia. There, he received a message: Putin warned that the push to offer Ukraine and Georgia membership in NATO was crossing Russia’s “red lines,” said an administration by authority close to the talks.

Afterward, Bush before-mentioned Putin had been very truthful and “that’s the simply way you can remark belonging to all ground.”

It was one of manifold moments when the United States seemed to have missed, or gambled it could manage, the depth of Russia’s anger and the resolve of the Georgian president to provoke the Russians.

The story of how a 16-year, low-grade be inconsistent over who should establish two small mountainous regions in the Caucasus erupted into the most serious post-Cold War showdown between the U.S. and Russia is one of miscalculation, missed signals and overreaching, according to diplomats and senior officials in the United States, the European Union, Russia and Georgia. In many cases, the officials would talk with articulate sounds only on condition of anonymity.

It is also the story of in what plight both Democrats and Republicans have misread Russia’s determination to dominate its traditional sphere of influence.

As by many foreign-policy issues, this one highlighted a continuing fight within the the ministry. Vice President Dick Cheney and his aides and allies, who saw Georgia because of example a prototype for their democracy promotion campaign, pushed to sell Georgia more arms, including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, so that it could defend itself against possible Russian aggression.

On the other side, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, national-security monitor Stephen Hadley and William Burns, the unaccustomed undersecretary of rank for political affairs, argued that such a sale would provoke Russia, which would see it viewed like arrogant meddling.

The officials give an account of three leaders put on a collision road. Bush, rewarding Georgia for its troop contribution to Iraq, promised NATO community and its accompanying umbrella of U.S. military support.

Putin, angry at what he dictum as U.S. infringement in his backyard, decided Georgia was the line in the sand the West would not be allowed to cross.

Saakashvili, unabashedly pro-American, was determined to show Georgia was no longer a vassal of Russia.

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Two semi-trucks and an SUV were involved in a collision today on southbound Interstate 5 at Spokane Street, prompting the closure of the HOV and left lanes and backing up traffic during the morning commute , authorities before-mentioned.

Shortly before 10 a.m., reports came in that an SUV had rolled over after the interference. It’s unclear exactly the kind of happened, but the 45-year-old driver of the SUV was taken to Harborview Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries, said Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Dana Vander Houwen.

The contingency has been cleared from the roadway.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. mean proportion retail price for gasoline fell to its lowest level in 14 weeks, as cheaper crude oil costs are passed on to the pump and Americans drive less, the government said on Monday.