Daily Intent

Santa Barbara, CA
“Green”…

What emotion, idea, feeling, impression, and/or image does this word invoke in you? 

Do you think of nature, the “Green Movement”, a loved one’s eyes, a favorite color, a type of tea, or a green beer which you drank Wednesday in honor of the patron Saint of Drinking, O’Patty?

If you can see the image above, the Market Street Report’s header image, what effect does the green in the picture have on your eye?  Does it stand out?  Blend in?  Or accentuate?  Does it offer a feeling of nature into the city scape?

For me, Saint Patrick’s Day inspired an inquisitive mind pattern.  It goes something like this:

Green shirts, hats, socks, stickers, and shoes. 
Green cookies, spirits, balloons, and tattoos.
Green ear rings, necklaces, flags and banners. 
Green napkins, plates and forks, “O’laddie, mind your manners.”
I couldn’t help but query the effects this color has on me and you…
as it was draped across, around, about, in front and behind all these joyous woohoos. 

In all seriousness, aside from the aesthetics of colors, there are profound psychological, physiological, emotional, and cultural impacts colors have.  The study of color can have positive impacts on your business and how you market yourself. 

It can also have very negative impacts. 

When aligning your business with certain colors, be sure to give respect to not only colors you like but colors that have proper influence. 

Many great organizations have used green to inspire participation and camaraderie.  The Seattle Supersonics, the Seattle Seahawks, and the Utah Jazz of late…these three teams are exemplary in proving green isn’t the color for sports success. But it is great for a group/organization that is looking to promote harmony and a sense of calm like Team in Training.  Or a financial company like Pivot Independent that works hard to convey calm, money, and growth. 

My inquiries about green has led to some obvious findings along with a few more peculiars.  For example, “Green is the most predominant color on the planet.”  This makes sense. 

What is less intuitive but quite helpful: “It represents purity and harmony.”  “It has a calming effect…It is soothing to the nervous system.”  And its key features are “balance, growth, calming”. When you are stressed, it can be used to help calm oneself down.  “If you are exhausted, green initially has a beneficial effect, but after a time, it becomes tiring.” 

It is also the color of “envy, jealousy, and superstition.”  With this knowledge, you might see it fit to begin gifting your husband or wife “blue” instead of green gifts.  ”Those seeking their own identity, fulfillment of their heart’s desire, and/or are searching for a new direction, are drawn to wear this color…Green heals the heart, eases tension, and regenerates cells.”  Then again, maybe green would be good in your relationship. 
Darker green is associated with “terms like conservative, masculine and wealth.”  Think of a masculine library with dark woods and greens and the feeling and sentiment in such rooms. 

While lighter greens hospitals use, as they are known to be soothing during a time of high stress. 
In short, determine your purpose, align it with the triggered emotional response you want your client to experience, then begin researching colors.  You may not end up with your favorite color representing your dream, but you will set yourself on track to great business success and enough green to book a trip to Ireland for Saint Patty’s Day next year.  Cheers!
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PLAN 
Catalyst for Thought.  I’ll be hosting the Sync event, a 150 entrepreneur gathering, coming up March 30th.  John Greathouse, co-founder of ExperCity/Citrix Online will be the focus.    Sign up today.  With regards to the executive lunches, MINDS, David Fortson, founder of LoaTree, will join us April 1st.  And April 15th we’ll have Wayne Rosing, an early participant in the creation of Google and founder of Las Cumbres Observatories.  Register at www.CatalystforThought.org to ensure you receive the registration emails. 
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LEARN
Buzzword: Godfather Offer
“An irrefutable takeover offer made to a target company by an acquiring company.  Typically, the acquisition price’s premium is extremely generous compared to the prevailing market price.  Therefore, if the target company’s management refuses the offer, shareholders may initiate lawsuits or other forms of revolt against the target company for not performing their fiduciary duty of looking out for the best interests of the shareholders.

The offer is even harder for the target company’s management to refuse when its stock price has been flat or declining for an extended period of time, as long-time investors would jump at the opportunity to cash out at an elevated price. 

Similar to the famous Godfather in the trilogy of movies, the bidding company is essentially making an offer the target company cannot afford to refuse.”  -Investopedia.com

  Six Points to Ponder:
1. 9 In-A-Row?  The Dow is streaking forward in hopes of doing something it hasn’t done since 1996. 9 consecutive days of gains?  Today we’re down, though. - During this streak The Dow has only seen modest gains, now at 10,724. The S&P 500 is up slightly, 1159.  The Nasdaq is nearly flat, 2369.  Oil is $80/bbl.
2. Negligible Inflation.  Are we negligent in believing inflation won’t be a concern for some time?  The Fed doesn’t think so. They chose to keep their overnight lending rate near zero and confirmed halting of MBS purchases.
3. Home Buying Confidence.  Many data points give reason for home buying cheer, starting with California home prices up 11.2% in February.  However, home builder’s confidence fell for the fourth time in six months.
4. Batch 19.  If you’ve ever wondered what beer tasted like pre-prohibition, MillerCoors, LLC will be test marketing a beer recipe from 1919. 
5. Paperless Barnes and Noble.  Barnes and Noble announced their new chief executive will be William Lynch, their current president of its website.
6. March Mayhem.   Five double-digit seeds won yesterday to start off the opening day of the tournament.  Were they poorly ranked or did the favorite miscalibrate?   Tiger.  He’ll be back to entertain you April 8th.

Positives:
• The markets all moved forward this week as a runner does on a slight incline with no end in sight, pressing forward, but not sprinting with recklessness.  The data points supporting these positives were in manufacturing and the Fed’s commentary mostly.  Manufacturing numbers coming out of the mid-west continued to look stable and improving.  The inflationary concerns, due to high government money printing, continues to be tempered by the slack in the overall economy.  Companies are having a tough time increasing prices and employees are having an even tougher time getting pay raises.  Lower energy costs does help as well.  Deflation still invades conversations.  All in all, inflation is running at a 2.1% year-over-year clip, which is within economic theory parameters and the lowest we’ve seen in six years.    Moreover, there are some positives in the real estate estate sector, starting in California.  California saw rises over 11% in February ‘10 over February ‘09.  10% year-over-year gains are significant and give reason for some to believe we hit the bottom last year.
• The Fed said it would be several more months before they raise interest rates.  The economy, they acknowledged, is improving, but slowly.  The step taken in pulling back their $1.25 trillion mortgage-backed securities purchases gives some concern about home loan rates rising, however the markets have known this is coming and rates didn’t rise as a result.  We expect rates to remain low for sometime moving forward. 
• Here’s an interesting reality: higher inflation raises the government’s receipts (ie. income) more than it raises its spending.  So higher inflation would actually help the US Budget deficit.  1% increase in inflation over 10 years would lead to a $462 billion budget deficit reduction. 
• MillerCorrs has seen its market share drop over the last few years.  Batch 19 is one attempt at regaining favor and sales, while satisfying your emotions.  “True, authentic, original beer.”  Pick it up in Chicago, Milwaukee, San Francisco or the District of Columbia. 
• 65 teams working months, possibly years together start battle.  One dream.  One champion.  And millions of disappointing brackets.  I’m sorry for whoever picked Georgetown to win it all…

Negatives:
• Housing starts (down 5.9% month over month) and builder confidence are forward leading indicators.  They were both down.  Moreover, housing defaults were up 19.7% in February over January.  Defaults are indicators of future foreclosures.  Coupling these restraints and waning sentiments with the number of homes sales dropping 3.8% in February and the reality of the tax credit ending in a couple months, there are still many causes for concern.  Unemployment looks to be the best long term solution out of these question marks, hence the reason the President just signed in the $17.8Bn job stimulus bill.   Jobless claims did decline last week as well. 
• One of our main book retailers has placed a web guy at its helm.  Online book retail continues to become more profitable and necessary for these chains.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my Kindle, however I still love going into a book store and perusing the isles, ultimately spending $40 more than I intended on books that will eventually get placed alongside the 10 other books with dog ears at chapter 5. 
• The media surrounding Tiger Woods in the coming weeks. 
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GET INVOLVED
Local:

Go Gauchos!
Where: Anywhere there is a television.
When: Tonight, Friday, 6:30pm
Cost: $0
Why:  Our very own Gauchos will take on Ohio State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
For other fun ideas, go to www.lovemikana.com

Live and Be Well,

Jeff Bochsler