Car Insurance

There are, when you think about it, many similarities between car leasing and buying technology on a hosted basis. People lease cars for a lot of reasons: they’re not sure what their lifestyles will require in three or more years and don’t want to be stuck with a purchased vehicle that doesn’t suit them. Some people lease because they like having the latest and greatest cars and car options, and few people can afford to replace their automobile with a newer model every two to three years. Many people are attracted by the fact that leasing generally requires less money up front. Leasing can also lessen mechanical and maintenance headaches, as the term of the lease will almost always coincide with the period in which the warranty is the strongest. Finally, many people choose leasing to prevent themselves from being stuck with an old car at the end of its useful life; with a choice of either junking it or trying to sell it to a non-choosy college student.

Many people choose hosted delivery of call center technologies for the same reason: hosted delivery requires less up-front investment and is much more conducive to easy technology upgrades. In terms of maintenance, that headache is removed entirely. If you have a limited or nonexistent IT budget or department, you needn’t worry, as administration stays off your shoulders and rests on those of the technology provider. And with hosting, there is no “end of life” in the technology’s life-cycle; in fact, there is no life-cycle. You’re never stuck with a technological jalopy you need to either turn into a door-stop, send to a museum or try to pawn to a garage business.

t’s important to note, however, that there is one area in which car leasing and hosted technology differ: in scaling usage up and down according to need.

Many people don’t lease cars because the amount of driving they do is unpredictable and can widely vary from month to month, year to year. Leasing a car works best when you have a solid estimate of how much use the car will get while it’s in your possession. If you go over your “allotment,” it’s likely to cost you a great deal of money.

Hosted technology, on the other hand, is perfect for companies that cannot or do not wish to predict their level of business in the future. Most consumer catalog companies do a steady stream of business throughout the year and then experience a strong spike at the holidays. They need to be able to accommodate this spike; it’s the bulk of their annual business. But during the rest of the year, they’re left with unused licenses that waste money. With the hosted option, these call centers can scale up or down depending on need, and nothing goes to waste.

A final notation to my analogy: whereas car leasing isn’t a great choice for slobs, it’s impossible to leave candy wrappers, broken ice scrapers, coffee stains, single gloves without mates and melted crayons inside a hosted technology solution.

Turning off unused lights, insulating your house and buying energy-efficient appliances are all great ways to save energy, which decreases air pollution and saves you money in the process. And if everyone were truly conservation-minded, we would save thousands of megawatt-hours of electricity every day. But now you can go a step further. Without buying any equipment or making any changes to your house, you can purchase clean energy from non-polluting sources . The problem is, not many people are choosing “green power,” though it’s available in every state.

It may seem confusing at first, but when you buy green power it doesn’t necessarily mean the electricity you actually receive comes directly from a wind turbine or solar panel. That’s because the nature of the grid means that all power–green or not–is combined. Instead, the amount of clean power you buy is generated on your behalf and added to the larger pool of electricity. You still receive your power through your home’s same wires and local grid.

“A switching program through your utility means that your power company buys a REC for your power, and that power is added to the grid,” explains Bob Wall, New England’s regional director for Smartpower, which is a Connecticut-based nonprofit marketing campaign working to promote energy produced by solar, wind and hydrothermal sources. “While it’s a little tough to explain, it’s really easy to do,” says Wall. “Just call your utility and ask.”

“The problem with clean energy is that it’s positioned as an environmental issue,” argues Brian Keane, president of Smartpower. Why would a marketing campaign for dean power be critical of using an environmental message to sell the product? Because they’ve done their homework.

Smartpower has done some serious polling, convened focus groups, and generally behaves as if it were launching a new soft drink. It has spent more than $2 million to find out why the clean power industry is floundering, even while most people support the idea of non-polluting energy from the sun, wind and other clean sources. The key word here is “idea.” As Keane explains, “We found out that people know dean energy is better for the environment, better for our health and benefits national security by making us less dependent on foreign oil. The problem is, they don’t think it works. They don’t think it can keep the A/C on in the summer.”

New England Leads the Way

Smartpower has a plan. “We have to convince people that clean energy is real, strong and working; that it’s just as strong as coal and oil,” says Keane. A nationwide program piloted in the Northeast is showing that it can. Connecticut has led the way, with Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island more recently joining in the “20 Percent by 2010″ campaign, in which towns sign up to pledge to get 20 percent of the town’s energy needs met by green power by 2010.

Households that sign up to receive their energy from renewable sources accomplish several goals: under the campaign, for every 100 signups, the town receives a solar array (which puts the onus of some of the promotions on the town if they want the freebie). More importantly, the more customers that are lined up to buy clean energy, the more wind turbines and solar farms can be built in the future. “Windmills and solar farms are built on speculation, so we need to build demand,” says Keane. He points out that just as more hybrid cars are being built because so many people want one, so we need to build clean energy demand for the future.

And while your new fuel-efficient car might make the neighbors instantly aware of how committed to the environment you are, making the less-visible, “on paper” choice for clean energy may be just as important, since making electricity contributes more to air pollution than any other industry in the U.S.

Signing Up Is Easy

To find out if clean energy is available in your area, John Savage, senior vice president of the sector’s largest U.S. company, Green Mountain Energy, says, “You can call your electric utility and ask, and they’ll tell you exactly what is available in your town. If it’s not available through your utility, you can still buy credits online to offset your carbon footprint.”

“We’re where organic foods were 15 years ago,” Savage says of how popular clean energy is right now. “A handful of people know we’re here, and the market is going to evolve as people catch on, but we’re not quite on the radar yet.” Green Mountain has only been around since 1997, but operates in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, Oregon and Ohio, and serves more than 600,000 customers. Several other companies and cooperatives serve other areas. Green Mountain says the monthly cost premium for a typical household choosing clean energy amounts to about the price of seeing a movie.

A Capital One Auto Finance Gender Rules of the Road survey of automotive buying habits shows most women still feel disadvantaged in the car-buying process. The national survey of 1,000 female car buyers found 77 percent plan to bring a man along for their next vehicle purchase - a slight increase from the 75 percent who indicated the same in the Capital One’s 2004 survey.

While 85 percent of women feel they were treated fairly during their most recent car purchase, the study findings suggest women bring men to better manage the financial transaction. Nearly seven of 10 women feel they are at a greater disadvantage than men when buying a car. Seventy percent of women find the financial aspect of the car-buying process the most difficult.

It’s troubling to see that women still do not feel empowered to manage the car-buying process on their own. It’s important that women realize that confidence and purchasing power requires education - not a male companion. Rather than turning to a man for support, women should instead take advantage of the variety of educational resources available to them, said Diana Don Colby, director of financial education at leading financial services company Capital One.

Kelley Blue Book Consumer Advice Editor Joni Gray said there is a distinct link between a woman’s ability to manage the car-buying process with confidence and her level of knowledge about the financial aspects of the transaction.

Managing the car-buying process with confidence means doing your homework, said Gray. Women have become savvier car buyers but they often forget about shopping for financing, which can cost thousands of dollars over the life of the loan.

Auto loans are often overlooked by women car buyers. When asked to rank where they spend the most time researching, auto financing ranked last at 4 percent. Nearly 18 percent of women did not conduct any research on their vehicle purchase whatsoever.

Experts say to treat the car-buying process as three separate negotiations: 1) vehicle price;

2) trade-in value; and

3) financing.

Stay in control of the process - it’s OK to walk away. If it’s not the price or deal you want, be ready to walk away. There is another dealer out there who will be willing to accept your price.

For the Gender Rules of the Road survey, Braun Research conducted 1,003 interviews with females age 18 or older in the United States. Surveys were conducted by telephone from May 10 through May 12. The margin of error for the interview is plus or minus 3.09 percentage points. Interviews were monitored at random.

What do a stock-car driver, country music legend and a couple of NFL legends have in common? They’re all pitchmen for the outdoor power equipment industry.

Manufacturers, looking to establish or strengthen their brands, have long hired celebrity spokesmen to tie their products to certain images in the minds of consumers. The approach is now gaining steam in power equipment industry. Recent examples:

* RedMax/Komatsu Zenoah America has signed on to be the official handheld power equipment of Petty Enterprises, and is corporate construction partner with The Victory Junction Gang camp in Randleman, North Carolina, a 72-acre camp established to honor Richard Petty’s grandson. Adam Petty. It provides a true summer camp experience for children who might never have the opportunity because of severe medical needs.

At a recent open house on the grounds of the team’s racing facility, Richard Petty fan club members got an inside peek at the equipment that keeps the Petty Enterprise headquarters grounds well groomed. RedMax set up its display trailer and conducted product demonstrations to show off its outdoor power equipment. Petty autographed equipment that RedMax will auction at a future event and donate the proceeds to The Victory Junction Gang camp.

* Ariens Co. chose legendary country music artist Charlie Daniels to serve as spokesman for Gravely’s 90th anniversary in 2006. The company says Daniels was selected because he personifies the all-American spirit of Gravely.

“Who better to help us communicate the heritage of this American-made brand?” says Dan Ariens, company president. “We were drawn to Charlie Daniels because he has an incomparable ability to tell the stories that capture the soul of America.”

A Gravely special edition Charlie Daniels Band CD that features a playlist of America-inspired music will be made available to dealers as part of the celebration. The partnership also features special marketing opportunities for Ariens/Gravely Partner Plus dealers, including ticket packages for 100 concert dates, “meet and greet” events and personal appearances at dealerships. Daniels is also featured in Gravely anniversary advertising and point-of-sale materials throughout the year.

* Cub Cadet has drafted former U.S. Marine Gunnery Sergeant and current television host R. Lee Ermey to pitch its commercial mowers, including the TANK line. Ermey is host for one of the History Channel’s highest-rated shows, “Mail Call.” The show features military technology from the past, present and future, making him a natural to help sell the TANK.

“Each week the Gunny is on TV praising the technical merits of high-performance gear, and performance is the hallmark for Cub Cadet Commercial products,” says Dan Lamb, brand manager for Cub Cadet. Ermey, who helped Cub Cadet introduce the TANK at EXPO this year, will make other appearances and will also be featured on a variety of print ads and point-of-sale materials. The ads will begin appearing this month.

* Green Bay Packer quarterback Brett Favre was hired by Simplicity Manufacturing, Inc. to help promote its Snapper brand of residential lawn mowers, with the help of brand development and communications firm Lindsay, Stone & Briggs, Madison, Wisconsin. Favre, a lawn mowing enthusiast, likes to cut the grass at his home in Mississippi during the off-season. Troy Blewett, manager of corporate communications for Simplicity, says, “Brett Favre is one of the most respected and recognized athletes in the world and he’s made no secret of his passion for mowing, Teaming up with him to promote our line of Snapper mowers makes perfect sense.”

Snapper has used Favre in a variety of communications to homeowners in the past year. Simplicity Manufacturing is part of the Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group, LLC.

* Ferris Industries has been using former NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Terry Bradshaw to pitch its mowers. Bradshaw won four Superbowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s. He’s gone on to become an Emmy Award-winning broadcaster for CBS and Fox Sports. Bradshaw has appeared in Ferris ads and other materials.

* Briggs & Stratton spokesman and HGTV host Pat Simpson (host of “Room to Improve,” “Before & After” and “Fix-lt-Up”) visited the home of a contest entrant this fall and helped prepare his lawn care equipment for storage and brought along a new tree he helped plant. Simpson has been a Briggs spokesman for several years.

Briggs also uses John (Trey) Rogers, Ph.D., a professor of turf-grass science at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. He is regarded as one of the country’s leading experts on growing and maintaining healthy lawns. A consultant to Briggs, Rogers is a frequent guest on television and radio programs around the country and has been quoted in numerous print publications. A member of the Michigan State faculty since 1988, Rogers’ expertise and experience have been foundational to the training of the best golf course, baseball and football field groundskeepers in the country. He also has led essential research in the improvement of athletic fields and golf courses around the world. His research has been awarded two patents. He answers questions on the Briggs Web site and in printed materials.

A GRIEVING 9/11 widow is being shunned by friends and neighbours… for buying a pounds 30,000 sports car with her compensation money.

Eileen Cirri, who received pounds 1.7million for the death of her policeman husband in the 2001 terror attacks, has seen the sympathy she first received turn to jealousy.

Neighbours now jeer her when she takes her twoseater Dodge Viper out of the drive of her New Jersey home. And she claims the nightmare of living with the huge payout is almost as bad as the loss of her husband.

Eileen told a Channel 4 documentary 9/11 Millionaire Widows: “Perceptions have changed since the attacks. I am living in a goldfish bowl with jealousy and vengeance coming at me. When I pull out of my drive I hear my neighbours say cruel things. But it was always my husband’s dream to own a sports car. I am just honouring his memory. And I would do anything to see him again and say goodbye properly.” Robert, a police lieutenant and part-time paramedic, died in the north tower trying to help a wheelchair-bound woman out of the building.

Eileen’s money came from a pounds 41billion government and public donation compensation fund set up after the attacks to help families left without an income. But widows who took the money had to give up their right to sue the World Trade Centre or the airlines involved in the attacks.

Initially Eileen rejected the offer - branding it “blood money” and vowing to get justice through the courts. But she was forced to accept the payout after her stepchildren sued her for their share. And Eileen is not alone in finding the cash has caused problems. Fellow 9/11 widow Kathy Trant tells how she went on a wild spending spree after receiving pounds 2.6million for the loss of her husband, bond trader Daniel Trant.