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UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Peyton Smith's 12 points helped Fairfield hold off Vermont 67-66 on Sunday. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Peyton Smith's 12 points helped Fairfield hold off Vermont 67-66 on Sunday. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Peyton Smith’s 12 points helped Fairfield hold off Vermont 67-66 on Sunday. Smith shot 4 of 7 from the field and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line for the Stags (3-4). Prophet Johnson scored 10 points, finishing 4 of 6 from the floor. Makuei Riek had 10 points and shot 4 for 9, including 2 for 4 from beyond the arc. TJ Long led the Catamounts (3-4) in scoring, finishing with 18 points. TJ Hurley added 17 points for Vermont. Jace Roquemore finished with 13 points and two steals. NEXT UP Fairfield takes on Fairleigh Dickinson at home on Sunday, and Vermont hosts SUNY-Plattsburgh on Wednesday. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar. AdvertisementKyne Lim —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Kyne Lim is the regional business manager of Southeast Asia at Emma, the world’s largest direct-to-consumer sleep brand with revenue of $1 billion in 2023. He was the country head for the Philippines and Korea prior to his new assignment. In this interview, he shares insights into Emma’s entry into the Philippines. Question: What was Emma’s market entry strategy for the Philippines? How did you tailor your approach to fit the local market, and what challenges did you face? Answer: We had a twofold challenge in entering the Philippines: one, overcome top-of-mind brands that are synonymous with mattresses and two, differentiate ourselves from those available in the market. These are important because if people are not aware of your brand, then they won’t even consider you when they do want to make a purchase. READ: Playing to win: Entrepreneurship and the competitive spirit These were the areas we dedicated our efforts to. We mainly used social media and influencers to spread our key messages. We used these channels to not only inform potential customers that Emma exists, but also to educate them about what’s different about our product. An example is how our ads, even back then, were communicating our seven-zone technology and motional isolation technology. Marketing became a cornerstone of our market entry strategy to the point that we may have appeared too often for some people. Q: I researched Emma mattresses and found that they have multiple layers of foam, including memory foam and Airgocell foam. Briefly, why do people need these? How do they differ from what’s available locally? A: Our combination and configuration of these layers of foam and spring allow us to offer our seven-zone technology and our motion isolation technology. We believed these features would help us in the Philippines. To quickly explain, our seven-zone technology is a feature wherein your body part “sinks” to a different level depending on which part of the mattress you are. This is to allow your spine to remain aligned whatever your sleeping position may be. We were probably one of the first to market these technologies extensively to the public, so Emma stood out versus other available brands. Q: Emma undercuts the price of high-end imported mattresses. Beyond price, why should people consider Emma? A: Emma really values innovation; we value the technological part of our mattresses. Our mattresses undergo validation across these third-party test companies in Europe whose main job is to rigorously test mattresses across different dimensions. So, when we say, for example, our Diamond Degree graphite foam dissipates heat, these are backed up by testing. This is genuine. Our mattresses are also consistent award-winners in multiple countries, so Emma has both the technological proof and the social proof. Q: You are an online company with no physical store. How did you come up with this channel decision? A: Our principle is centered on customer satisfaction. By operating primarily online, we can offer a 100-day home trial period, allowing customers to experience our mattresses in their own environment and ensuring they make a fully informed decision. This is in contrast to in-store trials, which only last a minute or two. Additionally, we do have physical stores in Europe to be closer to our customers, and partner with wholesalers globally to reach those who prefer to try the mattress in-store before making a purchase. In the Philippines, our products can be found in showrooms like Abenson and Habitat. There are numerous factors to consider when establishing physical stores, including the costs of construction, rent and staffing. These expenses can be substantial, especially with multiple locations. By saving on these costs and investing in online marketing instead, we can pass the savings on to our customers. This strategy allows us to offer competitive prices compared with other international brands, making us an affordable premium brand. Q: Prospects can actually try Emma in some of your partner stores like Abenson Home and Habitat. How do you protect these retailers when you also encourage prospects to buy directly from you? A: It is a win-win partnership. The sleep market is gigantic; everyone that sleeps needs a mattress. They see our potential and instead of only acting as a competitor, they want to profit from our growth. By having our products, we bring traffic to their stores and if we grow, they grow. I believe both of us, Emma and our partner stores, recognize the reality that online purchase of goods is a recent phenomenon and that a sizable number would still choose to purchase offline given the chance. But, at the same time, for us, partnering up with retailers allows us to reach that customer that still prefers to buy it offline. To give more insight, we do have marketing activities that we do for our retailers, but even when we market normally, it has a trickle-down effect wherein people who are interested—but are not yet convinced of buying an Emma mattress online despite the 100-night trial—will still head to one of our retail partners to test out. In this sense, there is no clash at the moment. Q: How does the 100-night risk-free trial work? What is your return rate for online purchases compared with in-store purchases, and how does this compare with the 12-percent industry average? When do you offer a 100-night versus a 200-night risk-free trial? A: The 100-night trial is our guarantee wherein after you receive your order but are not satisfied with it, we’ll take back the mattress and refund you how much you bought it for within the next 100 nights. This stems from our belief that it takes more than just a few minutes to understand if a mattress is for you or not; you need to have slept on it for a few days or even weeks to really know if it suits you. Emma is a company that values that local insight–this is what has helped us grow wherever we set roots on. The team here surveyed the Philippines landscape and deemed the 100-night trial was the most effective duration. In fact, from those that returned their Emma products, we see that Filipinos tend to return them much earlier than 100 nights. To add though, what I can say is that our return rate is lower than the industry average, which is a good indicator for us that Emma’s products are being accepted by the market. Q: How has influencer marketing impacted your brand’s reach and customer engagement? What strategies have you found most effective in working with influencers? How do you measure its effectiveness? A: One of the things our company is good at is performance marketing. We think of ways to measure our marketing. When available, we use the platform’s available data. For example, if we use Facebook, they have Facebook Ads Manager that allows us to see this information. For influencers, it’s a mix of a few things. We have our own created attribution model, which is a mix of factors–part of it is the coupon code usage. For influencers, we ask them to also include a coupon code that they can share to their followers, so we’re able to measure performance through that. In addition, if we use influencers in our ads–we’d measure those ads’ performance too. We then put it all together, we have a better view of how this influencer was able to help us. We learned that in working with influencers, it is very important to play to our strengths. This means that instead of dictating 100 percent of the content, we work with their branding and their style to communicate the key messages that Emma wants to say. We follow and watch influencers because we enjoy the way they present after all. Q: Filipinos appear to be sleeping an average daily of six hours and 22 minutes, less than the seven hours recommended average. What should Filipinos know about quality sleep? A: Quality sleep is very important. We need good quality sleep to tackle the next day ahead. In the Philippines, we chose our influencers such as Kryz Uy, Small Laude, Anne Curtis-Smith–all of whom are personalities who demonstrate a tight schedule juggling different things. At Emma, we believe that they are able to perform at their 100 percent all day because of having a good-night sleep. Our mission statement is to “awaken your best,” because we believe in the power of good sleep. It allows you to rejuvenate not just your body, but also your mind–and that in return allows you to do your best in your day ahead, to achieve whatever you want to achieve. —CONTRIBUTED Disclosure: This interview had been requested by Emma but no compensation or other considerations were received in exchange. Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . Josiah Go is the chair and chief innovation strategist of Mansmith and Fielders Inc., as well as the coauthor of Marketing For Beginners (the No.1 book in marketing) and Entrepreneurship: The Four-Gate Model (the No. 1 book in entrepreneurship.)In the Name of Open Economy, We Gave Unfair Advantages to Others: EAM Jaishankar
With Chicago skid at 10 games, finale can't come soon enough for BearsBAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — In the wee hours Sunday at the United Nations climate talks, countries from around the world reached an agreement on how rich countries can cough up the funds to support poor countries in the face of climate change. It's a far-from-perfect arrangement, with many parties still deeply unsatisfied but some hopeful that the deal will be a step in the right direction. World Resources Institute president and CEO Ani Dasgupta called it “an important down payment toward a safer, more equitable future,” but added that the poorest and most vulnerable nations are “rightfully disappointed that wealthier countries didn’t put more money on the table when billions of people’s lives are at stake.” The summit was supposed to end on Friday evening but negotiations spiraled on through early Sunday. With countries on opposite ends of a massive chasm, tensions ran high as delegations tried to close the gap in expectations. Here's how they got there: What was the finance deal agreed at climate talks? Rich countries have agreed to pool together at least $300 billion a year by 2035. It’s not near the full amount of $1.3 trillion that developing countries were asking for, and that experts said was needed. But delegations more optimistic about the agreement said this deal is headed in the right direction, with hopes that more money flows in the future. The text included a call for all parties to work together using “all public and private sources” to get closer to the $1.3 trillion per year goal by 2035. That means also pushing for international mega-banks, funded by taxpayer dollars, to help foot the bill. And it means, hopefully, that companies and private investors will follow suit on channeling cash toward climate action. The agreement is also a critical step toward helping countries on the receiving end create more ambitious targets to limit or cut emissions of heat-trapping gases that are due early next year. It’s part of the plan to keep cutting pollution with new targets every five years, which the world agreed to at the U.N. talks in Paris in 2015. The Paris agreement set the system of regular ratcheting up climate fighting ambition as away to keep warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The world is already at 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) and carbon emissions keep rising. What will the money be spent on? The deal decided in Baku replaces a previous agreement from 15 years ago that charged rich nations $100 billion a year to help the developing world with climate finance. The new number has similar aims: it will go toward the developing world's long laundry list of to-dos to prepare for a warming world and keep it from getting hotter. That includes paying for the transition to clean energy and away from fossil fuels. Countries need funds to build up the infrastructure needed to deploy technologies like wind and solar power on a large scale. Communities hard-hit by extreme weather also want money to adapt and prepare for events like floods, typhoons and fires. Funds could go toward improving farming practices to make them more resilient to weather extremes, to building houses differently with storms in mind, to helping people move from the hardest-hit areas and to help leaders improve emergency plans and aid in the wake of disasters. The Philippines, for example, has been hammered by six major storms in less than a month , bringing to millions of people howling wind, massive storm surges and catastrophic damage to residences, infrastructure and farmland. “Family farmers need to be financed," said Esther Penunia of the Asian Farmers Association. She described how many have already had to deal with millions of dollars of storm damage, some of which includes trees that won't again bear fruit for months or years, or animals that die, wiping out a main source of income. “If you think of a rice farmer who depends on his or her one hectare farm, rice land, ducks, chickens, vegetables, and it was inundated, there was nothing to harvest,” she said. Why was it so hard to get a deal? Election results around the world that herald a change in climate leadership, a few key players with motive to stall the talks and a disorganized host country all led to a final crunch that left few happy with a flawed compromise. The ending of COP29 is "reflective of the harder geopolitical terrain the world finds itself in,” said Li Shuo of the Asia Society. He cited Trump's recent victory in the US — with his promises to pull the country out of the Paris Agreement — as one reason why the relationship between China and the EU will be more consequential for global climate politics moving forward. Developing nations also faced some difficulties agreeing in the final hours, with one Latin American delegation member saying that their group didn't feel properly consulted when small island states had last-minute meetings to try to break through to a deal. Negotiators from across the developing world took different tacks on the deal until they finally agreed to compromise. Meanwhile, activists ramped up the pressure: many urged negotiators to stay strong and asserted that no deal would be better than a bad deal. But ultimately the desire for a deal won out. Some also pointed to the host country as a reason for the struggle. Mohamed Adow, director of climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa, said Friday that “this COP presidency is one of the worst in recent memory,” calling it “one of the most poorly led and chaotic COP meetings ever.” The presidency said in a statement, “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator. We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.” Shuo retains hope that the opportunities offered by a green economy “make inaction self-defeating” for countries around the world, regardless of their stance on the decision. But it remains to be seen whether the UN talks can deliver more ambition next year. In the meantime, “this COP process needs to recover from Baku,” Shuo said. ___ Associated Press reporters Seth Borenstein and Sibi Arasu contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .
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Governor R.N. Ravi and various political leaders condoled the death of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday. “An embodiment of wisdom, humility and integrity, he made invaluable contributions to India’s economy and guided the nation through challenging times,” Mr. Ravi said. “Deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Manmohan Singh, whose intellect and leadership steered India’s economic transformation. His tenure marked an era of steady growth, social progress, and reforms that improved the lives of millions,” Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said on X. BJP Tamil Nadu president K. Annamalai said Mr. Singh was a leader with a strong acumen in economics. His tenure as the Finance Minister steered the country towards a liberalised economy. PMK founder S. Ramadoss said Mr. Singh brought in various economic reforms, which resulted in the country eventually becoming the fifth largest economy in the world. TMC (Moopanar) president G.K. Vasan said Mr. Singh’s death was an irreparable loss. He recollected his interaction with Mr. Singh when he was a Union Minister in his Cabinet. Published - December 27, 2024 12:24 am IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp RedditYour guide to a self-indulgent stay in the Maldives
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UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Peyton Smith's 12 points helped Fairfield hold off Vermont 67-66 on Sunday. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Peyton Smith's 12 points helped Fairfield hold off Vermont 67-66 on Sunday. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Peyton Smith’s 12 points helped Fairfield hold off Vermont 67-66 on Sunday. Smith shot 4 of 7 from the field and 4 of 4 from the free-throw line for the Stags (3-4). Prophet Johnson scored 10 points, finishing 4 of 6 from the floor. Makuei Riek had 10 points and shot 4 for 9, including 2 for 4 from beyond the arc. TJ Long led the Catamounts (3-4) in scoring, finishing with 18 points. TJ Hurley added 17 points for Vermont. Jace Roquemore finished with 13 points and two steals. NEXT UP Fairfield takes on Fairleigh Dickinson at home on Sunday, and Vermont hosts SUNY-Plattsburgh on Wednesday. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar. Advertisement