CC Video Insight
Tuesday
Recreational Marijuana: The birth of a new retail market?
CC Insight
Whether or not you agree with the legalization of marijuana, from a marketing perspective what is evolving is certainly an intriguing case study on how markets evolve. In some respects, this market can be examined from a Product Life Cycle (PLC) standpoint, with the legal recreational marijuana retailing business being in Introduction stage. However, PLC analysis is somewhat less effective in suggesting that the current purchasers are considered Innovators and Early Adopters. Such analysis is generally limited to New-to-the-World products rather than something that has been available, albeit illegally, for a long time.
Maybe a better way to analyze this is to say recreational marijuana is a new retail distribution outlet. While currently limited to Colorado and soon to the state of Washington, over the next few years many predict this channel will expand into many other areas of the country. As the market grows, it will also be fascinating to see the retail strategies marketers use to broaden distribution. Currently these products are sold within small independent retail stores, but some day we may see marijuana sold in large corporate chain stores and retail franchises. We could also see other retail options, such as sales through vending machines (see included YouTube video) or as discussed in this National Public Radio story, via mobile truck retailer.
Of course, distribution will not be the only marketing area impacted. For instance, promotional decisions will also be significant. While mainstream media are not likely to accept direct advertising of marijuana any time soon, it will be interesting to see if they permit ads that indirectly allude to the drug by using creative words and images to get the point across.
While some marketing options will be limited by government regulation, expect marketers to find creative ways to take advantage of whatever opportunities are available.
For more information, visit http://www.knowthis.com/
Brazil 2014: Ignored Ike Uche scores again
Nigeria striker Ikechukwu Uche scored his 14th goal in the La Liga on Sunday as his Spanish club defeated Real Sociedad 2-1 away from home. He scored in the 69th minute to increase the lead before the home team cut it down to 2-1.
The striker, who was ignored by Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi, also scored last week as Villarreal won 4-0 over visiting Rayo Vallencano at the Estadio El Madrigal. In the game against Vallecano, a 22nd minute goal from the Nigerian put the Yellow Submarine ahead before goals from Bruno Soriano, Jonathan Pereira and Jaume Costa sealed victory for them.
The Villarreal goals and win on Sunday were very significant as they confirmed their place in the Europa League for next season. They finished seventh although they tied at 59 points with Sociedad.
Uche now holds the record for the highest scoring Nigerian in Spain having broken Finidi George's haul of 11 goals with Real Betis in the 1990s.
But in spite of his goal haul, the player has been left out of the Brazil 2014 World Cup party and his exclusion has continued to generate mixed reactions from Nigerians particularly former Nigeria internationals. A former Green Eagles defender Yisa Sofoluwe, who spoke with our correspondent on Sunday, said the exclusion of such a key player should not create much cause for worries as the coach of the team understands the level of opposition at the World Cup.
He said, "The coach has watched his players all through the year and believes he could achieve the set target with the squad he has and so we have to let him move on with that decision. I am sure he consulted extensively with his assistants before arriving at the decision to drop Uche and I guess it was taken in best collective interest of the team.
"Personally, I like Uche but I am not the coach and so there's nothing I can do about it. Another coach can equally use the same squad or completely alter it depending on his approach to the game. He may be playing well and scoring well but many other things are put into consideration in selecting a team and so he didn't make Keshi's list, and that's it."
Uche, who missed out on the 2010 World Cup in South Africa on account of an injury he had, has since put the disappointment behind him and wished the Super Eagles the best in Brazil using his Twitter handle.
"I wish my colleagues all the best in Brazil. To the fans, I’d like to thank you for your support. Let’s get behind the Eagles in Brazil," he tweeted.
Monday
Chibok: Boko Haram, Northern-Nigeria elders and the United States.....
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| David Femi Fani-Kayode |
On May 4, 2014, Abubakar Shekau, the leader Boko Haram, proclaimed: "I am going to marry out any woman who is twelve years old, and if she is younger, I will marry her out at the age of nine. I am the one who captured all those girls and will sell all of them. Slavery is allowed in my religion and I shall capture people and make them slaves. We are on our way to Abuja and we shall also visit the South.
I am going to kill all the Imams and other Islamic clerics in Nigeria because they are not Muslims since they follow democracy and constitution. It is Allah that instructed us, we will soak the ground of Nigeria with Christian blood, and so-called Muslims contradicting Islam.
We will kill and wonder what to do with their smelling corpses. This is a war against Christians and democracy and their constitution".
It is self-evident that Mr. Shekau is not only a dangerous, barbaric, sadistic, bestial, delusional, homicidal, misogynistic, paedophilic, psycopathic and sociopathic vampire and cold-blooded murderer all rolled into one, but his words adequately reflect the sheer ruthlessness and callousness that has seized the Haramite mind.
There is no doubt in my mind that he is possessed by the most vicious and cruel demons and that he has a blood-lust that is second to none. Even Al Qaeda condemned the latest atrocity committed by Boko Haram in Chibok.
Yet despite their sheer depravity they appear to have a few friends at home who insist on speaking for them. Permit me to give just one example.
Some northern elders have said that the Federal Government ''should pay billions as ransom to Shekau and release all detained Boko Haram members'' and that there must be ''no foreign forces in Nigeria". They have also demanded that ''force should not be used'' in securing the freedom of the abducted girls.
These demands are repugnant. It is the same people that did not want troops to be deployed in the area in the first place.
It is the same people that did not want state of emergency to be declared in the North. It is the same people that have been urging the government to negotiate with Boko Haram in the last three years.
It is the same people that have consistently asked that Boko Haram should be treated lightly and that they should be offered amnesty even though they have slaughtered no less than 10,000 innocent people.
It is the same people that are suggesting that Boko Haram is actually a creation of the CIA, MOSSAD and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).
It is one of these northern elders that referred to Boko Haram as ''freedom fighters'' who are simply ''fighting for justice" only last year. It is another that said that members of Boko Haram ought to be treated ''in the same way as the Niger Delta militants'' and that they should be rehabilitated, resettled and paid large sums of money only last year.
It is another that said that ''Muslims should only vote for those that would protect their interests" and that he would see to it that ''Sharia law is implemented and applied throughout the whole country" in 2001.
It is another that said that Nigeria was created by the British and granted independence by them in 1960 on the clear understanding that ''a northern Muslim would always lead the country" in 1994. It is another that said that if the North does not have it's way on the voting formula at the Constitutional Conference he would lead his people ''out of Nigeria and into the Cameroons" just over a month ago. It is another that said that they would make our country ''ungovernable" if a southerner was elected into power in 2011.
It is another that said, only a few weeks ago, that our country ''would burn" if President Jonathan or any other southerner contests for the presidential election in 2015. It is another that told us last year that ''poverty was the root cause of Boko Haram'' and that the South was receiving too much money whilst the North was not receiving enough. How much more of this can we be expected to take?
Just three weeks after the Haramites have abducted almost 300 young school girls at Chibok, burnt down their school and kept them as sex slaves, just a few days after they abducted eight more at Warabe Village, Borno state, just two weeks after two bombs went off in Nyanya, Abuja killing a total of 150 people between them and just three days after no less than 350 innocent people were slaughtered by the terrorists in Gamborou Ngala, a border town with the Cameroons, these northern elders are saying that force must not be used against them. This is unacceptable and their suggestion must be treated with the contempt that it deserves.
I do not know what it will take for the Nigerian people to accept the fact that Boko Haram is the greatest evil that our country has ever had to contend with and that there can be no dialogue with such demons. I do not know what it will take for these northern elders to accept the fact that evil is evil, that you must never negotiate with terrorists and that their ''gentle way'' simply cannot work.
The truth is that until every single one of the Haramites is hunted down, brought to justice and dispatched to hell there will be no peace in our country. We must also eliminate those who secretly encourage, fund and protect them.
I have always viewed those that suggest that Boko Haram should be treated with kid gloves with the utmost suspicion. It is either that we live in a secular state where the rule of law prevails, where beasts have no place and where murderous animals are treated like the savages that they are or we shall have no country at all.
All this talk about ''not using force'' must stop because it is nonsensical, it is counter-productive and it presents a very real threat to our desire to continue to live as one nation.
Those that abduct, rape, kill and enslave children do not deserve to live.
Those that say that ''force should not be used'' should give up them their own daughters in exchange for our missing girls. After they have done that they can be as gentle as they like with Boko Haram.
In all this, President Goodluck Jonathan has much to learn and I would be the last person to endorse what I consider to be his inexplicable restraint and obvious weakness in the fight against Boko Haram. Mr. President has failed to protect the lives and property of the Nigerian people and no responsible, self-respecting and rational human being, including those that consider themselves to be his friends, should shy away from telling him so.
We expect far better from him and if he fails to deliver he would not only have betrayed his mandate, violated his oath of office and let down the Nigerian people but he would also play right into the hands of his critics.
These include the American Senator John McCain, who told the world that ''no government exists in Nigeria'' and Senator Hilary Clinton, who said that the Federal Government of Nigeria had ''squandered their oil wealth, allowed corruption to fester and now they are losing control of parts of their country''.
These are timely admonitions from the Americans but they made their share of blunders as well. For example, one wonders why it took the Obama administration up until early this year (2014) to formally recognize Boko Haram as a terrorist organization despite repeated calls to do so earlier by many prominent Nigerians including Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the President of CAN.
When Senator Clinton was Secretary of State, the State Department refused to label Boko Haram as a terrorist organization even though they had butchered thousands of Nigerians. Perhaps if they had done so more lives would have been saved.
There is no doubt that our government has handled this matter in an unacceptable manner but the Americans must carry their own fair share of the blame. For Jonathan, the words of Mr. Opeyemi Agbaje are instructive. On May 9, 2014 he wrote:
"We warned Jonathan. We called for action against Boko Haram and we screamed until our voices went hoarse. Now the people who advised him against taking strong action and called for dialogue, the very people that said it was caused by poverty, the very people that promised that traditional rulers would resolve the matter, the very people that encouraged him to vacillate and do nothing or little, are the ones mocking him. Well, that is why leaders must exercise leadership. The buck stops at his table. The credit or the failure goes to him. I hope he learns!''
A word is enough for the wise.
* David Femi Fani-Kayode is a Cambridge educated former Minister of Aviation, Culture and Tourism as well as Special Assistant to former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Wednesday
Vigilantes in Northern Nigeria rout Boko Haram militants as mutiny rears its ugly head within the military
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| President Jonathan - A clueless leader? |
Residents of three villages in northern Nigeria have repelled an attack by suspected Boko Haram Islamist fighters, according to eye-witness reports.
About 200 of the militants were killed during the fighting in the Kala-Balge district of Borno state, he said.
The witness said the residents had formed a vigilante group.
Meanwhile, disgruntled soldiers opened fire on the convoy of a top military commander in Maiduguri, the main city in Borno, witnesses said.
No-one was injured when angry soldiers opened fire as the convoy was entering the Maimalari barracks to protest against poor pay and a lack of equipment to tackle Boko Haram, the sources said.
Maj-Gen Chris Olukolade confirmed an incident had taken place in Maiduguri, but said it was an internal matter and there was no reason for public concern.
It is exactly a year since President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno and its neighboring states of Adamawa and Yobe in an effort to curb Boko Haram's insurgency.
The area which came under attack by the suspected militants on Tuesday is not far from the site of a market massacre in the town of Gamboru Ngala 10 days when more than 300 people were killed by gunmen.
A security official told reporters that the vigilantes in Kala-Balge, which is near Lake Chad, were ready for a fight after learning of an impending Boko Haram attack.
Residents also seized three cars and a military vehicle from the attackers, sources said.
On Tuesday, Nigeria's government said it was ready to negotiate with Boko Haram after it abducted more than 200 girls during a raid on a boarding school in Borno state a month ago.
Their kidnapping has caused international outrage, and foreign teams of experts are in the country to assist the security forces in tracking them down.
Monday
Again, Nigeria's government shows it doesn't get it in Finance Minister's interview with Katie Couric
CC Global Insight
In this interview with Katie Couric, Nigeria's Finance Minister and former World Bank Executive, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala seems bent on promoting the "success" of the World Economic Forum event in Abuja (Nigeria's capital), rather than speak on what concrete steps the government is doing to ensure the safe return of the kidnapped Nigerian girls.
In this interview with Katie Couric, Nigeria's Finance Minister and former World Bank Executive, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala seems bent on promoting the "success" of the World Economic Forum event in Abuja (Nigeria's capital), rather than speak on what concrete steps the government is doing to ensure the safe return of the kidnapped Nigerian girls.
Thursday
Boko Haram leader Shekau made group more ruthless
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| Nigeria's President G.E. Jonathan |
Born in a village in Nigeria's northeastern Yobe state on the border with Niger, Shekau had a traditional Islamic education in neighboring Borno state, where Boko Haram was founded more than a decade ago by the cleric Mohammed Yusuf.
After meeting Yusuf, Shekau joined his movement made up largely of radical youths who believed that the prevalence of Western education and values were to blame for many of Nigeria's problems, including egregious corruption and crippling poverty.
Boko Haram, which loosely translates as "Western education is forbidden", is a nickname that the Islamists have disowned, referring to themselves as Jama'tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad (People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad).
Awareness and condemnation of Shekau spread across the globe this week after he released a video boasting about the April 14 mass abduction in Chibok, Borno state, in which he threatened to sell the hostages as "slaves".
But for Nigerians, the chilling video was consistent with an Islamist leader who is believed to have masterminded waves of horrific attacks since he took charge of Boko Haram several months after Yusuf was killed by Nigerian police in 2009.
"With Shekau at the helm," the International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a report last month, "Boko Haram has grown more ruthless, violent and destructive."
Shekau's extremism is perhaps best highlighted by the decision of Ansaru -- a Boko Haram offshoot which has kidnapped foreigners and published their execution online -- to cut ties.
Ansaru "distanced itself from the rest of Boko Haram because it disapproved of its indiscriminate killings and Shekau's lack of tact," the ICG report said, citing security sources and people with close ties to both militant groups.
There were significant outbursts of violence under Yusuf but the group was nominally committed to spreading sharia (Islamic law) across northern Nigeria, a goal some in the deeply conservative region support.
Yusuf's ideology and anti-corruption preachings have been largely buried by Shekau's repeated attacks on defenseless civilians, including mass kidnappings and the slaughter of scores of students in their sleep, analysts say.
Even before Yusuf's death, Shekau had accused him of "being too soft", according to the ICG, and Shekau signalled the new direction he meant to take Boko Haram roughly a year after taking charge.
Major attacks in Nigeria's capital Abuja in 2012, including a bombing at the United Nations headquarters that killed scores, raised concern that Boko Haram's new leaders had received jihadist training abroad, perhaps in Algeria or Somalia.
The specific details of those foreign links have been much debated by experts but little has been confirmed.
Since 2011, the Islamists have attacked churches, mosques, politicians, police and the military, among various other targets.
The United States has declared Shekau a global terrorist and put a $7 million (5.3 million euros) bounty on his head.
The US Justice Department lists 1965, 1969 and 1975 as possible years of the birth.
And Shekau's videos have become the primary channel through which the insurgents speak.
At times he makes threats against specific Nigerian targets.
At others he seems completely disconnected from current events, threatening world leaders who are dead, like recent warnings against ex-British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, and the late pope John Paul II.
A quote from one his first video, released in 2012, has been cited by experts as perhaps providing a window into his character.
"I enjoy killing anyone that God commands me to kill the way I enjoy killing chickens and rams," Shekau said.
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