Making your value proposition clear to your customers is more important than ever in our rapidly changing economy. After a decade of focus on variety and convenience, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers are turning back to the basic issue of value.

Change, everybody is talking about change today--our two presidential candidates; consumers grappling to keep pace with inflation, falling housing prices, declining incomes, and shrinking investments; and CPG manufacturers and retailers looking to drive profitable growth at a time when they are being squeezed with soft consumer sales as well as increased costs. In the world of retailing, the magic formula of leveraging value, variety and convenience to win shopper dollars is changing, and value is the variable in the formula receiving the most attention from consumers, shoppers, manufacturers and retailers.

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Customer service is one of the most powerful weapons in the small retailer's arsenal. Using this weapon to full effect is the challenge facing local retailers this holiday season.

Call it a customer service Christmas. Consumers are expected to rein in spending this year, and the retail climate favors big-box stores that can offer bargains. But becausesmall retailers can't win price wars (BusinessWeek.com, 4/14/08), experts say independents need to leverage their biggest advantage over the chains: personal relationships with customers and the ability to deliver superior service.

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With no end to the overall Botnet threat in sight, industry and government agents say that they are making some progress in identifying and prosecuting criminal Botnet Herders. Microsoft says they are tracking 1000 botnets at any given time, each of which can have literally tens of thousands of compromised computers in its nefarious control. It takes about 30 seconds for a brand new 'unprotected' Windows computer to become compromised after it is attached to the internet for the first time.

Botnet attacks now come with their own antivirus software, permitting the programs to take over a computer and then effectively remove other malware competitors. Mr. Campana said the Microsoft investigators were amazed recently to find a botnet that turned on the Microsoft Windows Update feature after taking over a computer, to defend its host from an invasion of competing infections.

Botnets have evolved quickly to make detection more difficult. During the last year botnets began using a technique called fast-flux, which involved generating a rapidly changing set of Internet addresses to make the botnet more difficult to locate and disrupt.

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Signal has been working with BCBSVT for some time and we are proud to have helped them push through a complete redesign of their site. Not only have we helped with a fresh new look and a new CMS but we help guild them through a complete content overhaul. Using Google Analytics to determine visitor interest and the cooperation of their vendors, BCBSVT organized a completely new content architecture. With the launch of their new site, we've increased their page views and decreased their bounce rate significantly. Health insurance just got a little easier to understand for Vermonters. This is a success for everybody in our book.

Visit the BCBSVT.com web site