Sunday, October 4, 2015

Three Products that Have Never Failed You

Ok, I'll start..... my three products that have never failed me would include:

Sunlight Dishwashing Liquid,

Clorox Liquid Bleach

Kellogg's Corn Flakes.....



I know branding is sooooo vital...because it can take many years before a brand name becomes entrenched into the social psyche as a "reliable" and "valuable" brand name item.

Let's take "Johnson and Johnson", which provides, among a myriad of other products, skin care products that are suitable for the very youngest humans, our precious babies.  I would not hesitate to purchase any item that Johnson and Johnson has labeled as suitable for babies. But I would also be the first to admit that it has taken Johnson and Johnson many decades of deliberate hard work and public relations efforts to foster that sense of trust that the brand evokes in my mind.  It has also helped their cause that their company faithfully snails mails out high value coupons to any consumer that bothers to email or call them on the phone.

Building a brand name attracts not only faithful consumers, but also interest in the investment world.
Folks who follow the edicts of the Legendary Warren Buffet, try to focus on "simple" companies that market
products that we all recognize and use almost daily. Johnson and Johnson succeeds in that front as well.

Ok, now it's your turn. What are three products that, in your mind, have never failed you? Does their brand name pop easily into your mind?
Looking forward to reading your comments in the section below.

Peaceful productivity,
Carla


Thursday, October 1, 2015

Who Decides there is an OIL GLUT? Or Dwindling Supplies?

With all the ruckus about low oil prices, I've really come to wonder about the ACTUAL reality of oil supplies in North America.

Apparently, according to the media.... there was an "OIL GLUT" over the past year which has caused the price of a barrel of oil in North America to plunge below $50 on a regular basis.

But then again, I just read more blurbs from yet more media this week about "dwindling supplies" of oil in
the U.S.  So really.....go figure. Who is right? How much oil do we really have "seen or unseen" in storage tanks within North America?

What I find amusing is that there seems to be more of a market for hyped opinions than for actual scientific facts. Yes, my friends.....oil can certainly be literally measured....but really isn't it just more fun to make up stuff?

There could be professionals who make it their life's work to go around to all the major oil storage facilities in North America and actually MEASURE how much oil is sitting there. But perhaps it isn't feasible to have that kind of broad "access of information" regarding our precious oil resources. Maybe REAL data is too valuable to disseminate to the general population.

So perhaps we need to continue just be like blind sitting ducks and wait and "believe" whatever hype the media wants to sell to us on a daily basis.

Oil and Gas is a huge industry that props up huge swaths of our economy. And no, there's nothing wrong with that. But it appears that folks make a tad too much money from selling "hype" when it comes to the oil and gas industry. People like talking about "plunging prices" or conversely, about "peak oil" scarcity when the mood suits them. News channels love to report about how many good folks are to be laid off from working in the oil fields.

But I would like to encourage myself and any other willing souls to simply determine to seek out the facts, where ever they might be available or even if they are "hard to find"..... and to use ONLY the facts to form the opinions that we  want to hold.


Peace and prosperity,
Carla