Scientists Reveal Exercises That May Help Fight Off Alzheimer’s

Science and Health

Getting your steps in could help fight off Alzheimer’s, new research has found.Regular aerobic exercise was linked to a reduction in markers in the brains of in rats that associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s, including amyloid plaques, according to a new paper in the journal Brain Research.Doing cardio could therefore help fight off the development of Alzheimer’s, the researchers say.”Alzheimer’s is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with no known cure, impacting millions worldwide,” study co-author Augusto Coppi, senior lecturer in veterinary anatomy at the University of Bristol, said in a statement.”While physical exercise is known to reduce cognitive decline, the cellular mechanisms behind its neuroprotective effects have remained elusive—until now.”This research highlights the potential for aerobic exercise to serve as a cornerstone in preventive strategies for Alzheimer’s.”

Stock image of an older couple running (main) and amyloid plaques in the brain (inset). Alzheimer’s disease could be slowed by aerobic exercise, researchers say.
Stock image of an older couple running (main) and amyloid plaques in the brain (inset). Alzheimer’s disease could be slowed by aerobic exercise, researchers say.
ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS
Aerobic exercise, also known as cardio, refers to physical activity that increases your heart rate and breathing while engaging large muscle groups over an extended period.Examples of aerobic exercise include walking, running, cycling, swimming, dancing and team sports.In the paper, the researchers describe how they examined how aerobic exercise impacted the development of amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the hippocampus brain region of rats, as well as the accumulation of iron in myelin-producing cells known as oligodendrocytes.Alzheimer’s disease primarily affects memory, thinking and behavior—and has no cure. Symptoms of early Alzheimer’s include memory loss, misplacing items, disorientation, and impaired judgment, while late-stage Alzheimer’s can involve severe cognitive decline to the point of an inability to recognize familiar faces, as well as motor issues that can impair walking and even sitting.A hallmark of Alzheimer’s is the abnormal accumulation of proteins in the brain—such as amyloid plaques and tau tangles—which interfere with normal brain function.Amyloid plaques accumulate between neurons, disrupting communication and leading to memory loss and cognitive decline, while tau tangles accumulate inside neurons, disrupting their normal function and leading to neuronal death.Iron accumulation in myelin-producing cells called oligodendrocytes is also a marker of Alzheimer’s, as excess iron can result in oxidative stress, affecting myelin—an insulating layer that lines the outside of our nerve cells—production and subsequently disrupting neural communication.”Iron overload in the oligodendrocytes is an inducer of ferroptosis in aged brains,” the researchers wrote.The researchers found that increased levels of aerobic exercise in the aging rats reduced the appearance of these markers, indicating a slower onset of Alzheimer’s.Their results revealed that there was a 63 percent reduction of tau tangles, a 76 percent decrease in amyloid plaques, and a 58 percent decrease in iron accumulation in the brains of the rats who regularly exercised compared to those who did not.”Physical activity has been investigated as a preventive tool to defeat the main biological features of Alzheimer’s disease: pathological amyloid protein plaques, tau tangles, myelin degeneration and iron deposits in the brain,” the researchers wrote in the paper.”Our results indicate that iron overload in the oligodendrocytes is an inducer of ferroptosis; physical exercise reduces inflammaging [chronic, low-grade inflammation] and improves axon-myelin volume relations; tau, amyloid, iron, and hippocampal formation cells present statistical correlations,” they said.The researchers hope to progress to testing if these findings carry over to humans too.”Our data suggest the beneficial effects of physical exercise in Alzheimer’s disease,” they said.Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about Alzheimer’s? Let us know via [email protected], R. C., Rocha, P. R., Graciani, A. L., Coppi, A. A., & Arida, R. M. (2024). Tau, amyloid, iron, oligodendrocytes ferroptosis, and inflammaging in the hippocampal formation of aged rats submitted to an aerobic exercise program. Brain Research, 1850, 149419. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2024.149419

‘I hate this movie, and I haven’t even seen it’ – Americans won’t let a chimp Robbie Williams entertain them

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Despite the terrible box office performance, and movie theatres cancelling screenings, Americans are at least talking about the Robbie Williams biopic, Better Man.“I hate this movie, and I haven’t even seen it … it makes me angry and I don’t know why!” complains TikTokker Jasmine Dayra, one of thousands posting similar videos. Others claim they’ve been “gaslit” into believing he’s a huge star, or that the film is the result of “the Mandela effect”, a false memory shared by a large group of people. “I just found out Robbie Williams is real,” says one angry poster.This sense of seething affront has arisen because a film on general release in the US is a biopic about a popstar most Americans haven’t heard of. Aside from the song Millennium which was a radio hit in 1999 (and doesn’t even feature in the film), Williams has always struggled to make it in the US.More confounding is that Williams is portrayed by a CGI chimpanzee, and voiced by the real Williams. As one person on X put it: “Robbie Williams had a huge hit here in 1999 … So Brits need to understand that to us this movie is like a Lou Bega biopic but for some reason he’s an iguana.”For uninitiated Americans reading, Robbie Williams rose to fame in the British boyband Take That before going solo and becoming one of the most famous men in the UK, as well as a star in Australia, Europe, much of Asia and Latin America (in Argentina, for example, he had sex with the model Amalia Granata, who became a celebrity by revealing the story on television and eventually levied her fame into becoming a congresswoman). He has sold 75m records worldwide – only the Beatles have more number one albums in the UK – and his 1997 hit Angels was for years the most requested pop song at British funerals.Williams was the perfect star for an era of shiny-floor Saturday night TV shows and tabloid newspapers, known as much for his answering-back-to-teacher cheek as his platinum-selling albums, which were all pilloried by the serious music press. But in recent years his peerless pop songwriting – particularly his work with his longterm collaborator Guy Chambers – has been reappraised, with even Vice describing him as “the Eucharist of live entertainment”.If you want to learn more, you’re in luck: Better Man is the third telling of Williams’ story in the space of a year. November 2023 saw the release of a four-part Netflix docuseries that focused on the singer’s panic attacks, extreme drug use and disastrous move into comedy-rap during the peak of his solo career in the 2000s. Two months ago, the BBC released an outstanding three-part documentary, filled with unseen footage from deep in the archives, on the history of the British boyband. Williams was a central contributor, narrating his own career in Take That as well as analyising the imitators that came later. Those seven hours of documentary can be added to the two biographies of Williams by the legendary Smash Hits writer Chris Heath, which are two of the best books about fame’s destabilizing effect on the human psyche you’ll ever read.You might fairly assume that the baggie of Williams’ life story has already been emptied and licked clean. But Better Man is the richest telling yet, an unusual and emotive biopic that centers Williams’ relationships with his father and his ex-girlfriend, the singer Nicole Appleton from All Saints (a British girlband even less famous in the US than Williams). Their relationship lasted less than a year but provides the film’s emotional core, especially the abortion Appleton was forced into having by her management and record company.Having Williams depicted by an ape is so surprisingly effective that you almost forget about it after 10 minutes; it would have been far worse had the role been played by some Rada graduate doing a dodgy accent. But it’s also a reflection of Williams’ continuing desire to be the centre of attention. The animated element allows him to provide the speaking and singing voice for his own life story, a move not seen since Eminem’s 8 Mile (and that wasn’t technically a biopic, as Eminem played Jimmy Smith Jr, a character heavily based on his own life). It works: only Robbie Williams can really capture the unique charisma of Robbie Williams.Still, it’s far from perfect: the over-reliance on CGI renders scenes about abortion and self-harm strangely Pixar-fied, and the voiceover from Williams, delivering unexceptional post-hoc reflections about his depression and addiction, suggests that while he has found the right director to tell his story, he could do with a better shrink. But overall the film is taut and entertaining with an unlikely message for such a mainstream multiplex musical: that fuck-ups remain fuck-ups, bad fathers don’t redeem themselves, and you can either accept people with their painful flaws or face oblivion.Reviewers tend to agree. New York Magazine praised its “blazing, restless inventiveness” and the Washington Post said the director Michael Gracey “has managed to reinvent the biopic”. There are plenty of sops to American viewers too, with characters going to great lengths to explain that playing Knebworth is a big deal and the value placed by Britain’s chart-focused music industry on having a No 1 single.View image in fullscreenUnfortunately, very few people will find that out for themselves: Better Man cost about $110m to make and was acquired by Paramount for US distribution for a further $25m. Much of that budget went into the expensive CGI to render Williams as a 3D chimpanzee, but there are also huge dance and concert sequences, for one of which the film-makers closed the whole of Regent Street in central London to film. The film grossed a paltry $1.1m in the US opening weekend; it’s supposed to be going on more general release this week but some cinemas are scaling back plans to screen it. I rewatched it on a Tuesday evening at a Manhattan cinema where the audience was made up of only one couple (plus my gaggle of ex-pat friends – among them serious journalists, writers, artists and film-makers who applauded after the musical numbers. One said they had goosebumps hearing the opening bars of Let Me Entertain You play over the Paramount logo at the start).A large portion of that huge production outlay won’t be as dear as some have reported, as the Australian government covered a chunk of the costs through subsidies and film funds (the film was mostly made in the Australian state of Victoria and Gracey is Australian). Even so, Better Man’s performance is anaemic in territories where Robbie is a star, grossing only $11.5m worldwide as of Wednesday. Paramount seems unlikely to recoup the money it has spent on press, advertising and distribution in the US.This is not the end of the indignities for Williams. Even a bad box office run could have led to a decent showing on streaming services if the publicity campaign had gone well in the US. But Williams’ best chance of breaking through was to be nominated for best original song at the Oscars, which, even if he didn’t win, would have allowed him to perform at the ceremony. Better Man, which contains a mix of Williams’ biggest hits and a couple of covers, cynically includes one new song, Forbidden Road, that was duly longlisted for the award, only to be disqualified by the Academy’s music branch last month for incorporating “material from an existing song that was not written” for the movie.The song it supposedly ripped off? The 1973 Jim Croce song I Got a Name with lyrics by Norman Gimbel and music by Charles Fox. One of the governors of the Academy’s music branch in 2025? That would be Charles Fox. Talk about bad luck.But the US has long been Williams’ white whale.View image in fullscreenIn 1999, British musicians had fallen out of favour in the US, with the Spice Girls (at No 99) the only British act in the Billboard 100. But, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time, there was good news on the horizon: “Among the current crop of British acts, there are high hopes for Robbie Williams, a former member of ‘boys band’ Take That who is being carefully groomed for his US launch beginning next month”. Unlike previous flops, one UK industry expert assured us: “Capitol Records (part of EMI) is spending a lot of time setting him up. They’re consciously avoiding a campaign of UK hype; we’ve been there before, and it hasn’t delivered.”But time after time, Williams’ attempts to break through in the US were scuppered. By 1999, Robbie had already left Take That, struggled to get a solo career off the ground and then gone stratospheric with a string of hits that included Angels, Millennium, No Regrets and Let Me Entertain You. At this point he went on a 25-date tour of North America, where audiences seemed bewildered by his cheeky humour and his obsession with his arse/ass.While Millennium was a minor US radio hit, and his debut US album sold a perfectly decent 600,000 copies, Robbie never became a star. His self-deprecation failed to translate in a country where popstars sang their own praises. Williams can’t even wait till he finishes a song to poke fun at himself. In live performances he talks to the crowd in the gaps between lyrics, constantly puncturing any moments of earnestness.In 2003, having signed him to one of the biggest record deals of all time, worth £80m (roughly $150m at the time), EMI tried again and failed to make much headway. A few years later the hits dried up for Williams even in the UK and EMI, the storied label of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, was eventually sold to its rival Universal in part because of its bad bet on Wiliams breaking out in the US. The New York Times, writing about the folly at the time, said: “Mr Williams’s music and personality are too imbued with over-the-top British humor – a hybrid of Monty Python and the British comedian Ali G, who poses as a white gangsta rapper – to capture the fleeting attention of American youth.”Instead of trying to make it bigger, Williams spent much of the 2010s enjoying his anonymity in the US. He married an American actor, Ayda Field (best-known as Jeannie in Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip), and moved to Los Angeles where he was able to live a life of relative normalcy.But this third failed attempt to break the US has been the most costly and arguably the biggest shame, because Better Man is a movie worth seeing. Even the TikTokkers who bothered to actually see it mostly loved it. “I’ve never heard of Robbie Williams,” screeches the creator Alex Colemann in one video, “but I watched it, I took a leap of faith and it paid off 10-fold … This shit slaps.”

‘I hate this movie, and I haven’t even seen it’ – Americans won’t let a chimp Robbie Williams entertain them

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Despite the terrible box office performance, and movie theatres cancelling screenings, Americans are at least talking about the Robbie Williams biopic, Better Man.“I hate this movie, and I haven’t even seen it … it makes me angry and I don’t know why!” complains TikTokker Jasmine Dayra, one of thousands posting similar videos. Others claim they’ve been “gaslit” into believing he’s a huge star, or that the film is the result of “the Mandela effect”, a false memory shared by a large group of people. “I just found out Robbie Williams is real,” says one angry poster.This sense of seething affront has arisen because a film on general release in the US is a biopic about a popstar most Americans haven’t heard of. Aside from the song Millennium which was a radio hit in 1999 (and doesn’t even feature in the film), Williams has always struggled to make it in the US.More confounding is that Williams is portrayed by a CGI chimpanzee, and voiced by the real Williams. As one person on X put it: “Robbie Williams had a huge hit here in 1999 … So Brits need to understand that to us this movie is like a Lou Bega biopic but for some reason he’s an iguana.”For uninitiated Americans reading, Robbie Williams rose to fame in the British boyband Take That before going solo and becoming one of the most famous men in the UK, as well as a star in Australia, Europe, much of Asia and Latin America (in Argentina, for example, he had sex with the model Amalia Granata, who became a celebrity by revealing the story on television and eventually levied her fame into becoming a congresswoman). He has sold 75m records worldwide – only the Beatles have more number one albums in the UK – and his 1997 hit Angels was for years the most requested pop song at British funerals.Williams was the perfect star for an era of shiny-floor Saturday night TV shows and tabloid newspapers, known as much for his answering-back-to-teacher cheek as his platinum-selling albums, which were all pilloried by the serious music press. But in recent years his peerless pop songwriting – particularly his work with his longterm collaborator Guy Chambers – has been reappraised, with even Vice describing him as “the Eucharist of live entertainment”.If you want to learn more, you’re in luck: Better Man is the third telling of Williams’ story in the space of a year. November 2023 saw the release of a four-part Netflix docuseries that focused on the singer’s panic attacks, extreme drug use and disastrous move into comedy-rap during the peak of his solo career in the 2000s. Two months ago, the BBC released an outstanding three-part documentary, filled with unseen footage from deep in the archives, on the history of the British boyband. Williams was a central contributor, narrating his own career in Take That as well as analyising the imitators that came later. Those seven hours of documentary can be added to the two biographies of Williams by the legendary Smash Hits writer Chris Heath, which are two of the best books about fame’s destabilizing effect on the human psyche you’ll ever read.You might fairly assume that the baggie of Williams’ life story has already been emptied and licked clean. But Better Man is the richest telling yet, an unusual and emotive biopic that centers Williams’ relationships with his father and his ex-girlfriend, the singer Nicole Appleton from All Saints (a British girlband even less famous in the US than Williams). Their relationship lasted less than a year but provides the film’s emotional core, especially the abortion Appleton was forced into having by her management and record company.Having Williams depicted by an ape is so surprisingly effective that you almost forget about it after 10 minutes; it would have been far worse had the role been played by some Rada graduate doing a dodgy accent. But it’s also a reflection of Williams’ continuing desire to be the centre of attention. The animated element allows him to provide the speaking and singing voice for his own life story, a move not seen since Eminem’s 8 Mile (and that wasn’t technically a biopic, as Eminem played Jimmy Smith Jr, a character heavily based on his own life). It works: only Robbie Williams can really capture the unique charisma of Robbie Williams.Still, it’s far from perfect: the over-reliance on CGI renders scenes about abortion and self-harm strangely Pixar-fied, and the voiceover from Williams, delivering unexceptional post-hoc reflections about his depression and addiction, suggests that while he has found the right director to tell his story, he could do with a better shrink. But overall the film is taut and entertaining with an unlikely message for such a mainstream multiplex musical: that fuck-ups remain fuck-ups, bad fathers don’t redeem themselves, and you can either accept people with their painful flaws or face oblivion.Reviewers tend to agree. New York Magazine praised its “blazing, restless inventiveness” and the Washington Post said the director Michael Gracey “has managed to reinvent the biopic”. There are plenty of sops to American viewers too, with characters going to great lengths to explain that playing Knebworth is a big deal and the value placed by Britain’s chart-focused music industry on having a No 1 single.View image in fullscreenUnfortunately, very few people will find that out for themselves: Better Man cost about $110m to make and was acquired by Paramount for US distribution for a further $25m. Much of that budget went into the expensive CGI to render Williams as a 3D chimpanzee, but there are also huge dance and concert sequences, for one of which the film-makers closed the whole of Regent Street in central London to film. The film grossed a paltry $1.1m in the US opening weekend; it’s supposed to be going on more general release this week but some cinemas are scaling back plans to screen it. I rewatched it on a Tuesday evening at a Manhattan cinema where the audience was made up of only one couple (plus my gaggle of ex-pat friends – among them serious journalists, writers, artists and film-makers who applauded after the musical numbers. One said they had goosebumps hearing the opening bars of Let Me Entertain You play over the Paramount logo at the start).A large portion of that huge production outlay won’t be as dear as some have reported, as the Australian government covered a chunk of the costs through subsidies and film funds (the film was mostly made in the Australian state of Victoria and Gracey is Australian). Even so, Better Man’s performance is anaemic in territories where Robbie is a star, grossing only $11.5m worldwide as of Wednesday. Paramount seems unlikely to recoup the money it has spent on press, advertising and distribution in the US.This is not the end of the indignities for Williams. Even a bad box office run could have led to a decent showing on streaming services if the publicity campaign had gone well in the US. But Williams’ best chance of breaking through was to be nominated for best original song at the Oscars, which, even if he didn’t win, would have allowed him to perform at the ceremony. Better Man, which contains a mix of Williams’ biggest hits and a couple of covers, cynically includes one new song, Forbidden Road, that was duly longlisted for the award, only to be disqualified by the Academy’s music branch last month for incorporating “material from an existing song that was not written” for the movie.The song it supposedly ripped off? The 1973 Jim Croce song I Got a Name with lyrics by Norman Gimbel and music by Charles Fox. One of the governors of the Academy’s music branch in 2025? That would be Charles Fox. Talk about bad luck.But the US has long been Williams’ white whale.View image in fullscreenIn 1999, British musicians had fallen out of favour in the US, with the Spice Girls (at No 99) the only British act in the Billboard 100. But, the Wall Street Journal reported at the time, there was good news on the horizon: “Among the current crop of British acts, there are high hopes for Robbie Williams, a former member of ‘boys band’ Take That who is being carefully groomed for his US launch beginning next month”. Unlike previous flops, one UK industry expert assured us: “Capitol Records (part of EMI) is spending a lot of time setting him up. They’re consciously avoiding a campaign of UK hype; we’ve been there before, and it hasn’t delivered.”But time after time, Williams’ attempts to break through in the US were scuppered. By 1999, Robbie had already left Take That, struggled to get a solo career off the ground and then gone stratospheric with a string of hits that included Angels, Millennium, No Regrets and Let Me Entertain You. At this point he went on a 25-date tour of North America, where audiences seemed bewildered by his cheeky humour and his obsession with his arse/ass.While Millennium was a minor US radio hit, and his debut US album sold a perfectly decent 600,000 copies, Robbie never became a star. His self-deprecation failed to translate in a country where popstars sang their own praises. Williams can’t even wait till he finishes a song to poke fun at himself. In live performances he talks to the crowd in the gaps between lyrics, constantly puncturing any moments of earnestness.In 2003, having signed him to one of the biggest record deals of all time, worth £80m (roughly $150m at the time), EMI tried again and failed to make much headway. A few years later the hits dried up for Williams even in the UK and EMI, the storied label of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, was eventually sold to its rival Universal in part because of its bad bet on Wiliams breaking out in the US. The New York Times, writing about the folly at the time, said: “Mr Williams’s music and personality are too imbued with over-the-top British humor – a hybrid of Monty Python and the British comedian Ali G, who poses as a white gangsta rapper – to capture the fleeting attention of American youth.”Instead of trying to make it bigger, Williams spent much of the 2010s enjoying his anonymity in the US. He married an American actor, Ayda Field (best-known as Jeannie in Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip), and moved to Los Angeles where he was able to live a life of relative normalcy.But this third failed attempt to break the US has been the most costly and arguably the biggest shame, because Better Man is a movie worth seeing. Even the TikTokkers who bothered to actually see it mostly loved it. “I’ve never heard of Robbie Williams,” screeches the creator Alex Colemann in one video, “but I watched it, I took a leap of faith and it paid off 10-fold … This shit slaps.”

Saif Ali Khan Attack: Female Fan Reaches Hospital; Claims Attacks Happen Due To Violent Movies

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Saif Ali Khan has been making it to the headlines since morning as the actor was attacked by a burglar at his house in Bandra and was stabbed. He was rushed to the Lilavati Hospital and Saif’s team as well as Kareena’s team have given a statement about the same. Many family members like Sara Ali Khan, Ibrahim Ali Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Kunal Kemmu, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, and Karisma Kapoor visited the hospital to meet Saif. Well, a female fan has reached outside the hospital with a placard in her hand which has the poster of Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukerji starrer Hum Tum. The placard reads, “Ban violent movies, make love stories. Get well soon Saif Ali Khan sir.” In the video, the fan says, “When love stories were made, Mumbai used to be happy, India used to be happy. We are very sorry. You (Saif) and the whole Bollywood have given so much contribution. Since childhood, Bollywood has been like my family, and today, what Bollywood is going through, I personally feel like someone is attacking my family. I am representing all the common man that no one wants to watch violent films.” “I feel that after watching violant films, common man will start roaming with a knife. The way Saif sir has been attacked today, tomorrow someone can attack me as well. So, I feel that these violent movies are not the demand of common man neither they are enjoying it,” she added.

Well, the female fan is getting a mixed response from netizens. While some are trolling her, some are stating that she is right.
Saif Ali Khan’s surgery is done, and the statement from his team read that he is out of danger. In fact, the doctors have also stated that the actor will be discharged in two to three days.

How To Create A Winning CMO Blueprint For Business Growth?

Business News

A well-planned Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) blueprint is essential for any business that wants steady growth. This plan lays out the marketing goals, key actions, and measurable outcomes needed to align marketing with business success. A clear and simple blueprint ensures that every marketing effort leads to results. Businesses can create a strong blueprint by focusing on clear strategies, good execution, and regular evaluation.

A step-by-step guide to designing a winning CMO blueprint for business growth:

1. Know the Business Goals

The first step in creating a winning CMO blueprint is to understand the company’s goals. Whether the aim is to boost sales, grow market share, or build customer loyalty, the blueprint must reflect these priorities.

Talk to key decision-makers like the CEO, sales leaders, and product managers to gather insights. Find out what the company wants to achieve in the short and long term. For example, if the company plans to launch a new product, focus your marketing efforts on generating awareness and interest in that product.

2. Study the Market

Image by supapornjarpimai

Market research is important for understanding customer needs and industry trends. Marketing leadership training can also help teams analyze data effectively and implement findings in strategic ways. It helps identify target audiences and learn what they want.

Use tools like surveys, focus groups, and analytics platforms to gather data. Also, study competitors to see what works for them and where they fall short. For example, if competitors rely heavily on digital ads, you could try different approaches like influencer partnerships or community-based campaigns to stand out.

3. Identify Your Target Audience

After gathering data, divide your audience into groups based on traits like age, interests, or buying habits. This step ensures your marketing speaks directly to the right people.

Create profiles of your ideal customers that include their challenges and preferences. For instance, if your audience is tech-savvy professionals, highlight innovation and convenience in your messaging. Customizing your approach improves engagement and drives results.

4. Set Clear Marketing Goals

Setting clear and specific goals is a key part of any marketing plan. These goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).

For example, you might aim to increase website traffic by 30% in six months or grow social media engagement by 20% in the next quarter. These goals should connect directly to the company’s larger objectives, ensuring that marketing efforts contribute to overall success.

5. Develop Strategies and Action Plans

With goals in place, decide on the marketing strategies and actions needed to achieve them. Focus on important areas like brand positioning, content creation, and customer outreach.

For instance, if your goal is to improve brand visibility, consider strategies like search engine optimization (SEO), social media campaigns, and event sponsorships. Actions to support these business strategies could include publishing blog posts, running online ads, or hosting webinars.

6. Plan Your Budget

Image by Photo By_ Kaboompics.com from Pexels

A detailed budget ensures resources are used wisely. When planning your budget, include costs for advertising, software tools, staff, and creative projects.

Focus on activities that deliver the best results. For example, if email marketing consistently brings in leads, allocate more funds to this channel and reduce spending on less effective ones. Regularly review your spending to stay on track with your goals.

7. Choose the Right Metrics

Tracking progress is easier when you use the right performance metrics. Pick key performance indicators (KPIs) that show how well your strategies are working. Common metrics include leads generated, sales conversions, and customer retention.

For example, if your goal is to drive more website traffic, track the number of visitors, the time they spend on your site, and the bounce rate. Monitoring these metrics helps you see what’s working and make improvements where needed.

8. Use Helpful Tools and Technology

Technology can simplify your marketing tasks and improve results. Tools like customer relationship management (CRM) systems, analytics platforms, and automation software can make your team more productive.

For instance, a CRM tool can help you manage customer data and track leads. Analytics platforms provide insights into campaign performance. Choose tools that match your goals and make it easier to execute your strategies.

9. Build a Skilled Marketing Team

A successful marketing plan needs a capable team. Hire people with expertise in areas like digital marketing, content creation, and data analysis. Offer training opportunities to keep your team up-to-date with the latest trends and tools.

For example, if your company wants to use video marketing, consider hiring a videographer or training your existing staff to handle video projects. A skilled team can adapt quickly and bring fresh ideas to the table.

10 Launch and Monitor Campaigns

Image by Cecilie_Arcurs from Getty Images Signature

Once the blueprint is ready, it’s time to put it into action. Launch your campaigns as planned and make sure every team member knows their responsibilities. Use project management tools to track progress and maintain accountability.

Pay close attention to campaign performance. For example, if a social media ad isn’t performing well, check the data to identify the issue and make changes. Regular monitoring ensures campaigns stay effective and meet their goals.

11. Review and Improve the Blueprint

A winning CMO blueprint is always evolving. Regular reviews help identify what works and what doesn’t. Schedule reviews every few months to assess progress and gather feedback.

For example, if a campaign performs better than expected, use similar tactics in future efforts. If something doesn’t work, analyze the problem and adjust your approach. Continuous improvement ensures your blueprint stays relevant and effective.

Conclusion

Creating a winning CMO blueprint takes careful planning, teamwork, and a commitment to improvement. By understanding business goals, researching the market, and setting clear objectives, businesses can create strategies that drive growth. Executing the plan well and evaluating results regularly will ensure long-term success. A winning CMO blueprint gives businesses the tools they need to overcome challenges, seize opportunities, and achieve sustainable growth.

Top Business Models Thriving in Small Town Markets

Business News

Small towns offer unique opportunities for businesses to succeed by catering to the specific needs of their communities. While small-town markets might lack the population density of urban centers, they provide distinct advantages such as lower operating costs, close-knit customer relationships, and a strong sense of loyalty. Understanding which small business models excel in these environments is essential for entrepreneurs looking to establish a thriving venture.

Here are the top business models thriving in small-town markets:

1. Essential Services

Businesses offering essential services tend to perform well in small towns because they address fundamental needs. Examples include grocery stores, pharmacies, and repair shops. These businesses often become integral parts of the community, as residents rely on them for daily necessities.

Entrepreneurs looking to invest in the best franchises for small towns often find that essential services provide a reliable path to success.

For instance, a well-stocked grocery store in a small town not only meets basic needs but also saves residents the trouble of traveling to larger cities for their shopping. Similarly, a reliable auto repair shop provides convenience and builds trust over time. Focusing on excellent customer service and maintaining consistency can help essential service providers solidify their reputation in the community.

2. Local Specialty Shops

Small towns often cherish businesses that reflect the community’s culture or heritage. Specialty shops focusing on local products, such as handmade crafts, artisanal foods, or regionally inspired clothing, thrive by offering unique items that resonate with residents and tourists alike.

For example, a small bakery selling locally sourced ingredients or a boutique featuring handcrafted items can attract loyal customers. These businesses often benefit from word-of-mouth referrals and community support. Entrepreneurs can enhance their success by participating in local events, markets, or festivals to boost their visibility.

For those looking to start a business, opening a local specialty shop offers a great opportunity to connect with the community.

3. Home-Based and Remote Services

Image by AndreyPopov from Getty Images

With advancements in technology, home-based and remote service businesses have gained traction in small-town markets. Professionals offering graphic design, bookkeeping, or tutoring services can operate efficiently without the need for a physical storefront. These businesses often thrive because they serve both local and broader audiences through online platforms.

For example, a freelance graphic designer can cater to local businesses while also taking on projects from clients in larger cities. By leveraging technology, these businesses can maintain flexibility and reduce overhead costs, making them an appealing option for entrepreneurs in small towns.

4. Hospitality and Tourism

In towns with scenic beauty or historical significance, businesses in the hospitality and tourism sectors can thrive. Bed-and-breakfast establishments, guided tour services, and souvenir shops cater to visitors while creating jobs to support local residents.

For instance, a bed-and-breakfast offering cozy accommodations and home-cooked meals can attract travelers seeking a personal touch. Entrepreneurs can further enhance their appeal by collaborating with other local businesses to create packages that showcase the town’s attractions.

5. Restaurants and Cafés

Dining establishments that cater to the tastes and preferences of small-town residents often perform well. Family-style restaurants, diners, and specialty cafés become popular gathering spots, fostering a sense of community.

An example might be a café offering freshly brewed coffee and homemade pastries, creating a welcoming atmosphere for both locals and visitors. Tailoring the menu to reflect regional flavors or incorporating locally sourced ingredients can further strengthen the connection to the community. Building relationships with regular customers and offering consistent quality are critical factors for success in this sector.

6. Fitness and Wellness Services

Image by Natee Meepian’s Images

As awareness of health and wellness grows, fitness centers, yoga studios, and wellness services are becoming increasingly popular in small towns. These businesses provide residents with opportunities to maintain an active lifestyle without having to travel far.

For example, a small-town gym offering affordable memberships and personalized training sessions can quickly become a community favorite. Additionally, wellness services such as massage therapy or nutrition counseling can attract clients seeking to improve their overall well-being. Engaging with the community through fitness events or workshops can help these businesses gain visibility and foster loyalty.

7. Educational Services

Educational services, such as tutoring centers, music schools, or childcare facilities, thrive in small-town markets by addressing unmet needs. These businesses support families by providing valuable resources for children and adults alike.

A tutoring center that helps students prepare for exams or a music school offering lessons in piano or guitar can become indispensable to the community. Building a reputation for quality instruction and creating a welcoming environment are essential for long-term success.

8. Agricultural Support Businesses

In rural areas, agriculture plays a significant role in the local economy. Businesses that support farmers, such as equipment repair services, feed suppliers, or farm-to-table markets, thrive by addressing specific needs within the agricultural sector.

For example, a farm supply store offering quality products and expert advice can build strong relationships with local farmers. Entrepreneurs in this space can also explore opportunities to promote sustainable practices or collaborate with farmers to market their local produce directly to consumers.

9. Personal Care Services

Image by sturti from Getty Images Signature

Small towns often have a high demand for personal care businesses, such as salons, barber shops, and spas. These services cater to residents looking for convenience and a personal touch.

A salon offering affordable haircuts and styling services, or a spa providing relaxing treatments, can quickly establish a loyal customer base. Ensuring consistent quality and building friendly relationships with clients can help these businesses thrive over time.

Conclusion

Small towns offer a unique environment where businesses can thrive by addressing specific community needs and building strong relationships with residents. Whether it’s providing essential services, offering unique products, or supporting local agriculture, entrepreneurs have numerous opportunities to succeed in small-town markets. By understanding the preferences and priorities of small-town communities, business owners can create lasting connections and establish ventures that benefit both the town and themselves.

Are aliens real? Here’s what the scientists think

Science and Health

We’ve all thought about it. Are we really aliens out there, or are we all alone in the universe? Unsurprisingly, scientists think about it too. Now, a new survey published in Nature Astronomy analyzed what researchers believe. Turns out, if you ask the average scientist, they think aliens are very real. Most researchers even think intelligent, advanced aliens are out there.

There are hundreds of billions of galaxies out there, each with countless planets. Image credits: ESA.

In 1964, George Gaylord Simpson famously remarked, “[astrobiology] has yet to demonstrate that its subject matter exists.” It’s a strange idea to think that what you’re studying may not even exist and yet, there isn’t any clear signs of alien life. But then again, we’ve only scraped the surface of our very own solar system, let alone the vastness of intergalactic space.

That’s why a team led by Peter Vickers from Durham University set out to ask astrobiologists (and other researchers) what they think. Between February and June 2024, they surveyed over 1,700 scientists, asking them to weigh in on the likelihood of alien life. In total, 521 astrobiologists and 534 non-astrobiologists responded.

Respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the existence of:

Basic Alien Life: Simple life forms, like microorganisms, are likely to exist somewhere in the universe.

Complex Alien Life: Larger, more intricate organisms likely exist.

Intelligent Alien Life: Advanced beings with cognitive abilities comparable to humans are likely.

When it came to basic life, the response was overwhelming. There’s essentially a consensus among researchers that basic alien life exists (both among astrobiologists and those studying different fields). Among astrobiologists, 86.6% agreed that basic extraterrestrial life is likely, with only 0.4% strongly disagreeing. Similarly, 88.4% of non-astrobiologists agreed, showing little difference between the groups.

This challenges a long-held assumption that astrobiologists, by virtue of their field, are more optimistic about extraterrestrial life than their peers. Non-astrobiologists seemed to be just as confident in the existence of life.

“According to our results, the consensus of relevant experts — broadly construed — that extraterrestrial life (of at least a basic kind) exists, stands at 86.6%, with less than 2% disagreement. The significant proportion of ‘neutral’ votes (11.5%) is, however, revealing, and probably reflective of the lack of direct evidence supporting an agreement or disagreement vote.”

What about complex life?

As you’d expect, the agreement dropped when it came to complex life. For organisms beyond the microbial level, agreement dropped to 67.4% among astrobiologists. When asked about intelligent extraterrestrial beings, only 58.2% of astrobiologists believed in their likelihood. While it’s still a majority, it suggests that researchers are more skeptical about the evolution of intelligence outside Earth.

Are aliens real? Here’s what the scientists think

Science and Health

We’ve all thought about it. Are we really aliens out there, or are we all alone in the universe? Unsurprisingly, scientists think about it too. Now, a new survey published in Nature Astronomy analyzed what researchers believe. Turns out, if you ask the average scientist, they think aliens are very real. Most researchers even think intelligent, advanced aliens are out there.

There are hundreds of billions of galaxies out there, each with countless planets. Image credits: ESA.

In 1964, George Gaylord Simpson famously remarked, “[astrobiology] has yet to demonstrate that its subject matter exists.” It’s a strange idea to think that what you’re studying may not even exist and yet, there isn’t any clear signs of alien life. But then again, we’ve only scraped the surface of our very own solar system, let alone the vastness of intergalactic space.

That’s why a team led by Peter Vickers from Durham University set out to ask astrobiologists (and other researchers) what they think. Between February and June 2024, they surveyed over 1,700 scientists, asking them to weigh in on the likelihood of alien life. In total, 521 astrobiologists and 534 non-astrobiologists responded.

Respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the existence of:

Basic Alien Life: Simple life forms, like microorganisms, are likely to exist somewhere in the universe.

Complex Alien Life: Larger, more intricate organisms likely exist.

Intelligent Alien Life: Advanced beings with cognitive abilities comparable to humans are likely.

When it came to basic life, the response was overwhelming. There’s essentially a consensus among researchers that basic alien life exists (both among astrobiologists and those studying different fields). Among astrobiologists, 86.6% agreed that basic extraterrestrial life is likely, with only 0.4% strongly disagreeing. Similarly, 88.4% of non-astrobiologists agreed, showing little difference between the groups.

This challenges a long-held assumption that astrobiologists, by virtue of their field, are more optimistic about extraterrestrial life than their peers. Non-astrobiologists seemed to be just as confident in the existence of life.

“According to our results, the consensus of relevant experts — broadly construed — that extraterrestrial life (of at least a basic kind) exists, stands at 86.6%, with less than 2% disagreement. The significant proportion of ‘neutral’ votes (11.5%) is, however, revealing, and probably reflective of the lack of direct evidence supporting an agreement or disagreement vote.”

What about complex life?

As you’d expect, the agreement dropped when it came to complex life. For organisms beyond the microbial level, agreement dropped to 67.4% among astrobiologists. When asked about intelligent extraterrestrial beings, only 58.2% of astrobiologists believed in their likelihood. While it’s still a majority, it suggests that researchers are more skeptical about the evolution of intelligence outside Earth.