This newsletter is the second installment published in 2023—just after DMLR*News no.52—as extraordinary issue. It has come from a blend of personal feelings and public actuality, both economical and societal, as dictated by this November agenda.
First, the annual Black Friday—but it should be said Black Week—that sounds to me like a marketing alert just before my imminent birthday. I like to think, even though that doesn't mean to believe it, the occasional gifts from some friends and relatives came up as a bargain bought during the Black Friday period!
Second, the week is going to end with a 8-hour national strike as declared by the two major national unions in Italy. Strike for what? The raise of salary, more rights for workers and retired people, the needed and urgent renewal of economic and social policies.
Of course such a week deserves a special instant edition, namely DMLR*News no.53 of the Gold series.

Wir sagen nein zum Black Friday. Wir haben uns dafür entschieden(...) mit einem Nein zum Massen-Konsum für eine zukunftsfahige Wirtschaft einzustehen. Deshalb schliessen wir am Black Friday den Online-Store und verkaufen erstmal auch in unseren F-Stores während 24 Stunden keine Taschen. (Freitag Crew newsletter on 22 November 2023).
The message, released via email to their subscribers, continues to explain the action occurring in the Freitag stores: from 24th November afternoon they have been turning to temporary Ausleihenstations so that one couldn't buy Freitag bags but gratis borrow one for twoo weeks maximum.
In May I had visited the Freitag flagship store in Zürich that is built like a tower made of disused containers piled up one on another. The Freitag tower is located in West-Zürich, a former industrial district, responding exactly to the company mission to recover any material useful to produce resistant and unique bags, in an effort to achieve an environmentally sustainable circular economy. Becoming an affectionate observer of their marketing strategy, I have reported here their not conventional initiative for this Black Friday.
Please visit www.freitag.ch to know more.

According to an IPSOS survey (www.ipsos.com) one Italian has fixed a 216 euro budget to spend during the Black Friday week, 71 percent buy on eCommerce platforms, 74 percent use the Black Friday discounted offers to buy some future Christmas gifts!
Said that, Black Friday doesn't exist just in the eCommerce since 200,000 bricks-and-mortar shops in Italy have been adhering to this cut-price practice for several days.
Meanwhile some gifts for my birthday arrived. They are unexpected and almost superflous to me but "it's the thought that counts" on this matters. They have in common to be products designed in Italy and manufactured in Asia by the rules of the international trade and division of the work. For example, the Sector branded watches are manufactured in the People Republic of China to Italian design and specifications, as well as sold exclusively by Morellato SpA. NO LIMITS (www.sectornolimits.com): the Sector on-line catalog displays the watch at a 149-euro list price with a special 15% discount rate allowed by entering the 'BLACK15' virtual coupon.
Thank you all!

Living in a small town I read the local chronicle on paper. It's made of little things but sometimes they are connected with the global world. This is the case...
Our most known food, named 'Tortellini', is originated from an old legend, I won't resume it here. Every year the Tortellino Fair take place in October—come this year to the 42nd edition—that has been reviewed by LonelyPlanet, the world-famous touristic guide. The tortellini are prepared with selected ingredients respectful of the original receipe (but light different versions are accepted because of the rivalry between two beside cities like Modena and Bologna) by a group of local women also nickmamed 'Le Sfogline' because they roll out the thin sheet of pasta dough with a rolling pin. They sold their hand-made production only at fixed events or open days to the new show-room opened to give evidence of their ability to flatten the pasta dough and refill it with the special pesto. Next date to buy the original tortellini will be in December, info at www.lasannicola.it.

The DIRECT MARKETING glossary is available on DMLR in a 3-document edition (PDF) you can browse here or easily download onto your desktop. It consists of 19 pages as a whole, 311 paragraphs/terms, 236 Kb, 7450 words, 44772 types!
Select and print the three parts of the glossary in English from PDF::Menu.
Sure the Internet has been changing the traditional snail-mail based direct marketing. And yet the Internet marketing is a consequence of the old direct marketing somehow. Many terms you'll find inside the DM glossary are suiting for the e-mail marketing too... but they come from a business development initiative of Canada Post Corporation [hommage à Connexions --centre de resources en marketing direct].

Let's support the true journalism. The Guardian is proud to be funded by its readers rather than a billionaire owner or shareholders.
Yes! I want to support The Guardian. This Black Friday you can give from a little as 1€, or better yet, set up a monthly amount from 2€.
support.theguardian.com

What's a 'COOKIE' (and why are cookies so important to the ecommerce sites)?
A piece of information sent to a browser by a web server. The browser then returns that information to the web server. This is how some web pages 'remember' your previous visit... an ecomerce site might use a cookie to remember which items you've placed in your online shopping cart. (After 'Penguin Dictionary of Marketing' by Phil Harris, penguin.com).

P.S. What do you know about the black album?
www.dmlr.org/top/BLACK.htm

:) How was your experience on dmlr.org today? :)