补习班招生最后一帖: 超越两双,迈向三双!
昨天一开信箱, 发现报名的同学已突破了个位数.更为惊喜的是,报名同学的Demographic统计也突破了纯GG类的性别单数,我们也有MM加盟了! 希望最后一天还有新的破单记录产生,比如单一国家、单一年龄段、单一…..
开班倒计时：今天午夜截止。
报名更新：迄今确认报名同学人数共11人。
报名：http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Haiguiwsj
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补习班招生启示：
* 学习材料：华尔街日报（WSJ）（The Wall Street Journal）（英语）
* 材料简介：全球最著名的财经日报之一。报道涵盖政治、经济、金融、市场、证券、职场等专题。随着中国经济的快速崛起，近年来关于中国的报道频次越来越高，几乎天天可见。是学习欧美管理经验、了解海外如何看中国的理想媒体。另外，此报活泼生动的文风也是有志精炼财经英语水平的同学的参考样板（兄弟上学时的白胡子教授说的）。网址： www.wsj.com
* 补习班学习形式：1，每人随意在线上阅读感兴趣文章
2，每周由轮值同学主持帖原文、读后感和在归
坛或EMAIL讨论。
* 招生规模：不少于5人，多多益善（往下看就明白了）
* 学制：一年 （2004年3月至2005年2月）
* 学杂费：各人的未定，总数定了。
总学费 = 40美元/年
(如有5人报名，每人学费= 40/5=8美元，
如有50人报名，每人学费=40/50=0.8美元）
* 学费缴付办法：报名后寄支票
* 招生截止日期：2月29号
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WSJ周日精彩文摘
Puma Does Fancy Footwork
To Stay Out of Mainstream
By SUSANNA RAY and MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Puma AG’S low-cut sneakers and bowling-bag purses flew out the door for a couple years at “bruce,” an upscale Vancouver fashion boutique. Then last summer, the shop’s owner, Campbell McDougall, sensed that Puma and its retro athletic apparel was losing a little of its cachet. “I think it’s cooling off. The brand has a reputation on the street as being mainstream,” Mr. McDougall says. “One can only sit on re-issuing old styles for so long.”
Stopping the slide from cutting edge to middle of the road is a challenge every trendy brand must face. It was only a couple of years ago that Puma’s low-rise suede sneakers helped the company spring out of the shadow of athletic wear giants Nike Inc. and Adidas-Salomon AG, and its leaping-cat logo could be found on the feet of fashion plates like Madonna and Leonardo DiCaprio. Now, the popular brand is widely available and commonly spotted on folks far less glamorous.
And so Puma has had to grapple with keeping its cool while growing popular in the mass market. If the brand becomes too mainstream, it risks alienating the style-setters that fueled its comeback. Yet, if its sales don’t grow, investors will flee.
It is up to Jochen Zeitz, Puma’s 40-year-old chief executive, who guided the company back from the brink of collapse a decade ago, to manage the paradox. He wants Puma to stay hip by forging links with other hot icons.
Right now, Puma is rubbing elbows with the coolest name in cars — the BMW Mini. As part of a co-marketing agreement with Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, Puma has designed a black, two-piece driving shoe called the “Mini Motion 2 part shoe,” which it is marketing as an accessory to the car. Puma says the shoe incorporates features of Formula 1 racing shoes. It consists of a flexible inner slipper, for comfort on long trips at the wheel or while puttering around the house, and a sturdier outer shoe, with ankle support and traction, to be worn outdoors and in city driving (to ease the strain of frequent gear-shifting).
Following a tried-and-true formula for maintaining an aura of exclusivity, Puma plans to limit production of the driving shoes to only about 2,000 pairs. They are expected to sell for about $120 at Puma shops and Mini dealerships.
Puma’s ‘Mini Motion’ driving shoe has an inner slipper for long trips and a sturdier outer shoe.
Puma also is limiting the availability of other shoes destined for stores. A new line created by Dutch designer Alexander van Slobbe (and there’s nothing slobby about them) includes boots inspired by 1950s boxing shoes and black shoes stitched to look like old-time hockey skates. For the spring, Puma plans two apparel lines designed by the hipster label Vexed Generation Clothing of London, including a line of unisex garments inspired by martial-arts robes and a line with protective padding, for bike and scooter riders.
And later this year, Puma says, it will unveil a line of “modern, minimalist” shoes designed by French architect Philippe Starck. As it happens, Mr. Starck’s credits straddle the divide between cool and mass market, encompassing avant-garde interiors for New York’s Paramount and Royalton hotels and also a line of housewares for Target Corp. stores. “The fact that he’s done so many different projects in different worlds is what made him interesting to us,” says Puma spokeswoman Erin Cowhig.
Mr. Zeitz points to Apple Computer Inc. and Porsche AG as examples of brands that have maintained reputations for being cutting-edge while growing in mainstream popularity, Porsche with its Cayenne off-road vehicle and Apple with its iPod and iBook. “Puma is known for going its own way,” Mr. Zeitz says. “It’s a brand for individualists.”
Puma’s concentration on fashion contrasts with Nike and Adidas, which emphasize performance of their shoes and apparel and pay a stable of superstar athletes to wear them. Even when Puma does get into major sports, it still emphasizes style. For the national soccer team of Cameroon, which is known for its on-field flair, Puma recently created a striking one-piece uniform, with red shorts attached to a skin-tight green top. After the uniform’s debut a month ago at the African Nations Cup tournament, soccer’s ruling authority banned the suit because it violates the rule stating that uniforms must be in two pieces.
Puma says it was “shocked” by the ban, because it had received preliminary approval for the design from the soccer body. Of course, Puma also welcomes the free publicity: The uproar, after all, bolsters the brand’s rebellious image, especially since the team defied the ban and wore the bodysuits for the duration of the tournament.
Mr. Zeitz’s reliance on design is a bet against expectations in the athletic-shoe industry: The style pendulum is expected to swing from fashion back to function with the approach of soccer’s World Cup and the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Mr. Zeitz, however, says 80% of the athletic shoes bought in the U.S. are for casual wear, not sports. “We will see more technical looks, but that doesn’t mean it’s shifting away from fashion,” Mr. Zeitz says.
The focus on looks, at least for now, is still paying off. According to preliminary figures reported last month, Puma rang up a 40% leap in 2003 sales to