No More Blogging Until Saturday Morning -- March 9, 2018

It's been an incredibly good day -- biking, lunch, the equity markets, yada, yada, yada -- I think I'm going to take the rest of the day off.

I'm going to see "the play" again tonight (posted earlier). I will be picking up Sophia from Tutor Time in a few minutes. The weather is gorgeous -- windy for biking but otherwise great.

I've got several books I want to read. We'll be celebrating later (and late) this evening after the play. May has already bought the sparkling grape juice (no alcohol at this party for the granddaughters).

By the way, having said that, how's this for an exotic cocktail, discovered in the book I picked up at the library today on octopuses:

An octopus's garden cocktail: shake three parts gin and one dry vermouth with ice; strain and serve garnished with a charged baby octopus and a black olive.

Our adult daughter doesn't (actually both of them don't) drink alcohol, but she will enjoy the thought of the recipe. 

She and I had planned to buy a large Spanish octopus, marinade it overnight to "soften" it up, and then grill octopus shish kabobs. We had thought of grilling what she normally gets, the large common Spanish octopus, but baby octopus sounds so much easier.

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The Tesla Page 

Ouch is "right."

Tesla's shrinking solar business: declining at an astonishing rate -- Motley Fool.

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The Apple Page

2018, link here:

For millennials (typically individuals in their early twenties to late thirties as of 2018), Apple earned the top spot as the most intimate brand in the U.S. In second place was Disney, followed by YouTube, Target, and Amazon. The top four spots last year for millennials were Disney in first, followed by Amazon, Netflix, and then Apple, so the company has climbed and beaten out a few well-known brands this year. 

Apple and Disney ranked as the first and second most intimate brands for millennials. Comparatively, in MBLM's 2017 report, Disney placed first, followed by Amazon and Netflix.

The other brands that round out the top 10 are: Target, Amazon, Nintendo, Google, Xbox, Netflix and Whole Foods.

The age group of 18-24 year-olds had a slightly different mix of top companies. The top 10 for the group are: Apple, Amazon, YouTube, PlayStation, Starbucks, Nintendo, Google, Netflix, Coca Cola and Walmart.

Back in 2014, all ages, not just millennials, the most intimate brands, link here:

Here, are the 20 brands with which Americans feel most intimate, in descending order: Apple, Sony, Nike, Dell, Starbucks, Samsung, Ford, Clorox, Tide, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Nabisco, Kraft, Volvo, Amazon, Toyota, HP, Whole Foods, Levi’s, and McDonald’s.

Biggest surprise: Volvo made the list.

Other surprises:

• Whole Foods made the list
• for the 18 - 24 demographic -- Walmart; Starbucks; and, Apple made the list; but no Disney or Netflix
• for millennials: Disney, Netflix -- they like their DVD
• Microsoft, Android, Samsung do not make the list
• no pure Chinese play makes the list

Not surprised: Toyota made the list. But I was surprised that Honda did not make the list.

Not surprised: no airline made the list.

Another surprise: Tesla did not make the list (perhaps it had to do with the denominator -- too few customers to date). F-150 did not make the list. 

From a google search:

“Brand intimacy is an essential relationship between a person and brand that transcends purchase, usage and loyalty.”

In other words, price (within reason), means little, and customers will keep coming back to their intimate brands, no matter what.

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The Apple Page

Page 2

Another example of analysts watching the wrong metric.

It's no longer about the iPhone, it's about cash flow.  And has been for quite some time.

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The Apple Page

Page 3

Another example of another revenue stream for Apple -- and another way the Apple Watch will be making money for Apple. Apple Watch can accurately test for high serum potassium (K+) and atrial fibrillation.