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By Posted on Posted in Sweden No Comments

Stockholm City Hall (Swedish: Stockholms stadshus or Stadshuset locally) is the building of the Municipal Council for the City of Stockholm in Sweden. It stands on the eastern tip of Kungsholmen island, next to Riddarfjärden’s northern shore and facing the islands of Riddarholmen and Södermalm. It houses offices and conference rooms as well as ceremonial halls, and the luxury restaurant Stadshuskällaren. It is the venue of the Nobel Prize banquet and one of Stockholm’s major tourist attractions.

By Posted on Posted in Brands, Sweden No Comments

GB Glace (originally Glace-Bolaget until 1991) is the largest ice cream company in Sweden. It was founded in 1942, and was purchased by the Anglo-Dutch company Unilever in 1996. Besides its own traditional brands, it now produces many of the same products as other Unilever Heartbrand subsidiaries.

By Posted on Posted in Brands, Poland No Comments

The Polish energy drink is quite interesting with 2 major players, 1 follower and few minor brands. The leader of the market, believe it or not, is not Red Bull.

It used to be called Tiger, Tiger was branded with a nickname of Polish boxer Dariusz ‘Tiger’ Michalczewski, but late in 2010 owner of the brand removed any links to the boxer and regular Tiger was replaced by “Black Tiger”, also their slogan was changed from “Power is Back” to “Power is Black“.

At present two energy drinks under the Tiger name are available on the market. One is produced by FoodCare, which resumed its production after a court in Krakow decided to withdraw a decision that had prohibited the company from producing and selling the drink.
Another producer, Maspex, introduced Tiger to the market based on a license agreement with Dariusz Michalczewski, who terminated cooperation with FoodCare in 2010. The situation has yet to be resolved by the courts.

Red Bull was the first energy drink launched to Polish market. The Austrian brand that quickly became an international leader of the energy drink category dominated the Polish market for many years. Until 2004 where a Polish company called Gellwe (now called FoodCare) launched Tiger.

Due to the lower price Tiger soon became very popular among younger people who were obviously more price-sensitive.
Tiger had a problem with its brand image – perceived as a cheap copy of Red Bull – it couldn’t compete with the Austrian brand within some key target groups.
The next step in the process of improving Tiger’s brand image was the collaboration with Porsche Design Studio which prepared the design for Tiger’s new bottles introduced in March 2009.

Tiger’s main competitor, Red Bull, did not reveal its financial results for 2010, but according to estimates, its share of the market in terms of sales value accounted for 25% last year.

Another energy drink, Burn, offered by Coca-Cola, increased its share of the market from 6.5% in 2009 to 8% in 2010. Burn’s sales volume grew by 60% year on year in 2010.

Likewise, the Green up energy drink, produced by Herbapol, reported 120% growth in sales volume in 2010, and at present controls around 3% of the market in terms of sales value.

Moreover, two new energy drink brands were introduced to the market in 2010: Adrenaline Mountain Dew offered by PepsiCo and Las Vegas Energy Drink, produced by a Polish company under the same name.

The value of the energy drink market in Poland is estimated at PLN 700m (€179.6m). According to Nielsen, up to 2009 the rate of growth of the market, calculated in sales volume, accounted for several dozen percent per year, while in 2010 it slowed to 9%.

By Posted on Posted in Domain Names No Comments

This post originally appeared on Mizalla.com

We all want attractive domain names ending with an ideal dot-com extension, but unfortunately it is almost impossible to grab good ones anymore. Unless you’re willing to pay an overpriced amount to an owner who’s keen on selling, chances of registering good domain names with 4 or 5 letters have faded and the good ones have all been purchased. This triggered the creation of senseless names for projects, sites and services. Take for instance Oyogi, Hooka, Zlio, Thoof or Heekya and Oooooc.com.

Shortly afterwards, the internet gave domain name lovers extra and new options. We’ve seen the obsolete .cc, which was supposed to be the alternative of .com, and the idea of .ws as the new “website” extension, but the whole internet was about websites and the suggestion did not make it far. Others thought that .mobi will dominate the mobile world, but this also did not work.

I personally collect domain names. I’ve managed to buy around 75 of them and most are dot-com, dot-info, dot-co, dot-mobi and a handful of European extensions. The .co extension is–if the hype is to believed–the future of the internet and the solution to all the problems that have plagued the current top level domain system.

Internet marketing gurus from around the world, and mainly the US, suddenly started preaching about that new extension, telling everyone about their chance to grab names they’ve missed from dot-com. I am one of the early adopters who have decided to invest in this, so far I’ve bought 4 dot-co domains, my latest is EDLP.co which stands for every day low prices. I payed a mere $11.95 for it. However, other companies have acquired for much higher figures, e.co was sold for $81,000, o.co for $350,000 and Twitter paid around $500,000 for t.co.

The usage of .co comes as a pleasant surprise in Lebanon. I have spotted companies using the .co extension lately, below are 2 examples, Klynn and Rosso Nero. I am not sure who else is using them, but we’ll have to wait and see as the .co extension is still not very popular in this part of the world.

Some believe that the .co extension will be another failure like all the ones before it, and that registrar companies who are heavily promoting it (take godaddy for instance) will be the only winners. Google has also confirmed that “it will rank .co domains appropriately if the content is globally targeted”. However, there are a few thoughts that come to mind when considering .co domain names. Will this sudden transition confuse the general public? Will they mistake it for a typo? On another note, some people made lots of money out of typos (check my previous post about the .cm scam).

What do you think? Are people being too negative about the new .co domain extension? Have you bought one? If so, how are using it? Let me know.

It is also worth considering that .CO is the country code top-level domain assigned to the Republic of Colombia. It is administered by .CO Internet S.A.S., a strategic venture formed between Arcelandia S.A. and Neustar Inc. , available to the public as of July 20, 2010.

So? What do you think? Are critics being too negative about the new .co domain extension? Have you bought one? If so, how are you using it? Let us know in the comments section below.

This spring, Mizalla.com invites you to discover the best way to shop that is faster, simpler, and smarter than anything you know. Dozens of local stores with hundreds of your favorite brands will soon be available anytime, anywhere.

By Posted on Posted in Brands, Packaging No Comments

Nutella wanted to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of Italian Unity together with millions of Italian families. Through the “Esperienza Italia 150” limited edition collection, Nutella ideally embraces all Italians, from the South to the North, as a sole big family.”