London 2012 providing boost to ‘Brand Britain’ - sportbusiness.com
A survey of 6,000 consumers by Deloitte, the official professional services provider to London 2012, found that around 80% of respondents from China and India are more likely to want to visit Britain in light of the publicity surrounding the Games. More than 60% say they would like to buy more British products, whilst 77% want to learn more about the UK as a whole. The research also shows that 76% of respondents in China and India associate the Olympic Games with the UK, a higher proportion than consumers elsewhere in Europe or the United States. Only the UK’s history, universities and London itself are attributes more closely associated with the UK in the minds of Chinese and Indian consumers.
“London 2012 clearly provides a direct and immediate opportunity for consumer businesses,” said Nigel Wixcey, UK head of consumer business at Deloitte. “However, our research shows the potential is there for a longer term benefit too, but only if companies are prepared to exploit the opportunity. As the global population is evolving, so consumer spending power is shifting. The emerging middle classes of China and India are increasingly powerful consumers of Western goods – both as visiting tourists and increasingly as strong consumer markets develop in their home countries. This trend will continue to accelerate over the next few years.”
Deloitte has noted that the impact of the publicity surrounding the Games has not been so pronounced in Europe and the US. However, despite this around half of consumers surveyed in France, Germany and the US said they are more interested in visiting Britain as a result of publicity surrounding the Games, whilst roughly a fifth would like to buy more British products.
Simon Oaten, director in the consumer business industry at Deloitte, added: “There has always been a strong underlying demand to visit Britain, but London 2012 is giving the UK a shot in the arm. Given the UK economy’s growth prospects, it is important for consumer businesses to develop relationships with overseas customers, particularly from markets such as India and China. Retailers and hospitality operators in the UK who understand the shifting global demographics will reap the rewards. London 2012 provides the UK with a unique moment, a unique competitive edge over other countries.”
London Olympics 2012: Lewis Attacks Fat Jibe After Ennis Record - ibtimes.co.uk
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"Have you ever seen someone so obviously at the top of her game, both mentally and physically.
"She has to judge her strength to bodyweight ratio all the time, which is most difficult in heptathlon because it's such a fine balance when you need some weight behind you to deliver in the throwing events. But fat? Quite absurd."
During a two days which were littered with personal bests, Ennis struck a potentially decisive physiological blow, having lost her world heptahlon and world indoor penthalon titles in the past nine months.
However, the Sheffield-born athlete showed signs of having learned from those defeats and appears in ominous form heading into this summer's Olympics.
And according to Lewis, Ennis' rivals should expect a dramatic improvement in London.
"This is no guarantee of Olympic gold. Götzis is not London and Chernova won't lie down," she added. "She got hammered by Jess at Götzis last year and responded powerfully to win the World Championships but she must now fear that Jess still has more improvement to come.
"Jess can run quicker still in the hurdles. She doesn't need to go faster than Saturday's remarkable 20.88sec run in the 200m but still might.
"We already know that, at the death, she can run a quicker 800m if needed - she was well outside her best here - and she's a 1.95m high jumper who cleared 10cm less in Götzis , which represents a difference of over 100 points."
The 26-year-old admitted after claiming the British record, and the Gotzis title for a third successive year, that losing her two world titles helped improve her focus.
"I've learned from those times," she said. "I learned what I need to do in the long jump, what I needed to do in the javelin and I've been able to rectify those events. It's been a bit of a learning curve, which is good."
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London market boosts house prices up 0.2% - myintroducer.com
A 0.6% growth in London house prices saw national house prices increase by 0.2% during May according to today's Hometrack house price index.
The South East and East Anglia saw a 0.1% growth, whilst all other regions either remained static or saw a drop on April.
May also saw a continued slowing of new buyers registering with agents – up 0.4% in May compared to 2.1% in April and 4.4% in March. The volume of new listings also slowed, up 2.2% in comparison to a 4.8% increase in April 2012.
9.3 weeks is the average time taken to sell a property and sellers achieved an average of 93.2% of their proportion of asking price as a sale.
Richard Donnell, director of Research at Hometrack, said:
“Increased mortgage rates and mounting concerns over the impact of the Eurozone on the UK’s economic growth and employment are likely to keep demand and prices in check as we move into summer."
Fine and dandy: London's men's fashion shows - The Guardian
The menswear industry used to be a little on the lean side – the Stan Laurel to womenswear's Oliver Hardy. The numbers were smaller but the sizes larger, and the places to find it few and far between. Step into a department store and you'd have to wade through armies of girls squirting Estée Lauder Happy to find the escalator that led you to all things manly; visit a fashion website and you'd hope there'd be a small tab tucked away on the side indicating that there might be a little for him as well as a lot for her.
Well, all that has changed. The menswear industry may never rival that of womenswear, but it's growing up mightily quick. So quickly, in fact, that the British Fashion Council has finally deemed it necessary for menswear to have its very own fashion week. London Collections: Men launches this June with a three-day festival of shows, parties, exhibitions, dinners and talks. The fact that London's menswear shows will now be on the fashion calendar alongside those of Milan and Paris is no mean feat and is the reason why both the mayoral office and HRH the Prince of Wales are lending their support – the latter is to celebrate the occasion with a party in the state apartments of St James's Palace.
This is no vanity exercise. In the past year or two, menswear sales have gained momentum across the world. In the States, a key territory for most British designers, last year men's clothing sales increased by 4% to $55.71bn. Department stores such as Selfridges and Harrods have invested unprecedented space in their menswear floors recently, and it's no coincidence that last year Net-a-Porter decided the time was right to launch a brother e-commerce site for its successful womenswear one. As editor-in-chief of mrporter.com, I was delighted to sit on the London Collections committee (our own bash on the Friday night will probably be a little racier than HRH's).
So why, with a wobbly economy, have the sales of men's fashion – especially at the luxury end – taken a turn for the better? First, Asia, and especially China, has proved to be a huge growing market, with a strong appetite for designer brands with clout and heritage – many of which are British. And in times of increased competitiveness in the workplace, most men realise the importance of looking smarter, stronger and fitter. Sales of tailored clothing jumped 26% in the 12 months to February, with a lot of vendors seeing a sharp rise in their made-to-measure business.
There's also the sense that when times are tough and news is bleak we seek comfort in the things that surround us. This spring, for example, retailers have seen surprisingly strong sales of brightly coloured shirts and trousers. Not long ago, you would never have imagined that our city centres would be populated by men happily sporting emerald-green trousers, pastel-pink patterned polos and dusty-blue suede brogues (step forward, Prince Harry).
The joy, and saving grace, of the British men's fashion industry is that it has so many facets: Savile Row, an institution whose traditions and aesthetics are copied the world over; a shoe industry in Northampton that boasts unparalleled levels of craftsmanship and expertise; and a neverending supply of talented and innovative young designers emerging from the country's leading fashion colleges. All these and more will be celebrated in London as the ideas, talent, polish and skills of the British menswear industry are paraded in front of an international audience – not just those seated at the events, but also those eagerly watching on Twitter, Facebook, street-style blogs and magazine websites.
And not only have the country's leading style makers, magazine editors and industry leaders come together to support this venture, but so, too, has a host of fashion-conscious celebrities, including David Walliams, Tinie Tempah, David Furnish, David Gandy and Downton Abbey's Dan Stevens.
If you're still wondering what all the fuss is about, take a look at some of the talent here that will be on display in June. British menswear is looking very fine and dandy indeed.
London Collections: Men runs from 15-17 June. For more information, go to londoncollections.co.uk
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