Making Time to Know the Trends
by Ruth Klein
House cleaning habits have undergone a revolution - and one that's proving disastrous to many market segments.Packaged Facts, a New York City-based research firm, completed a timely new study for the Household Cleaning Products market.
Sales are expected to gradually rebound in the coming years, inching back to their 1992 levels by 2001.The main factor driving growth is the increasing number of U.S. households.
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Changes in employment and family structure have fueled a decline in household cleaner sales.With increasingly hurried life-styles, meticulous and frequent house cleaning is simply not a top priority for most consumers.The industry is already bedeviled by mature market conditions, and U.S. house cleaning product sales have slid from $3.2 billion in 1992 to $3.0 billion in 1996.
With time at such a premium, many consumers and marketers have opted for heavy-duty products that clean quickly and effectively.Unfortunately, there is strong consumer conception that such cleaners not only harm the Earth's environment, but are dangerous for home use. Packaged Facts notes that "green" minded consumers are no longer a fringe group and products that are environmentally safe may be able to drive the otherwise sluggish market's growth.
Planning a Last-Minute Meeting? No Problem
(http://www.hilton.com) In the movies, Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland always seemed capable of whipping up a show in their parents' barn at a moment's notice.In real life, however, arranging a last minute group meeting can present challenges.Now meeting planners can visit the Hilton Hotels web site for help in selecting hotel locations with attractive rates on short notice. Meeting planners simply visit HiltonNet at www.hilton.com to access information about special limited-time savings opportunities called Hilton Group Value Dates.These offers for selected hotels feature discounted group rates and are perfectly suited for short lead planning and smaller group planning. "Hilton is an industry leader in using the Internet as another tool to sell room inventory," said Rover E. Dirks, senior vice-president of marketing for Hilton Hotels Corporation.Visitors can view a list of hotels currently offering Group Value Dates, the dates available, information on meeting room space and, at times, meeting requests.Response directly to U.S. meeting planners is usually within 24 hours, and 48 hours to international meeting planners.
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Due to heavy workloads and busy schedules, last minute meetings and conferences are becoming more prevalent.Internet access to hotel accommodations focuses on savings of time and cost, two invaluable assets for today's business person.
D&B Unveils OneScore - A Powerful Blended Credit Score
Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) recently unveiled its OneScore, a powerful and predictive credit scoring systems developed with Credit Management Solutions, Inc.
The new predictive systems, which D&B is demonstrating as part of its exhibit at the National Association of Credit Management Conference, revolutionizes how companies assess small business risks and opportunities by using built-in intelligence to automatically direct customers to the most predictive credit source based on the type of firm they are trying to evaluate.The new system's new score blends D&B's statistical business modeling expertise with information from leading consumer reporting agencies.
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OneScore intelligently selects the most appropriate and predictive scorecard for the type of business being examined."The blend of information provides a better overall picture of smaller businesses than an evaluation based on either consumer or commercial information alone," said David T. Kreage, senior vice president and chief economist at D&B. For example. if a customer wants to assess the risk of delinquency for a small business that has an established commercial record, D&B OneScore will provide a Blended OneScore Report, which combines business information with credit bureau information.
OneScore's ability to quickly answer nearly all small business credit risk, decisions from a single source, helps eliminate the time, costs, and inefficiency of accessing multiple sources to evaluate a small business.Customers can choose to obtain the consumer information from any of these three leading consumer reporting agencies, TransUnion, Equifax, and/or Experian.
