Brand Strategy articles from February 2008

Brand Strategy archives from February 2008

LEADER: Fans call the tune.
February 15, 2008... If you found constant conversations about Facebook boring in 2007, you might as well hope to lose your hearing in 2008. The difference is that this year, the talk will centre around niche services on social networks and what they can teach us...

MARKETING: Deal with Disney.
February 15, 2008... Wal-Mart has signed a deal with Disney Consumer Products to install 750 mini-stores based on the Hannah Montana girls' brand in US outlets. The move will be supported by cinema ads and an in-store promotion allowing consumers to download a...

MARKETING: World's first fashion island.
February 15, 2008... Dubai-based Infinity Holdings has announced the construction of Isla Moda, the world's first dedicated 'fashion island'. Located on The World archipelago, Isla Moda aims to be an all-encompassing fashion experience to boost tourism and brand...

MARKETING: PepsiCo strategy.
February 15, 2008... PepsiCo has announced it has changed its strategy for the Super Bowl ad showcase to promote five different brands - Gatorade G2, Amp Energy, SoBe Life Water, Diet Pepsi Max and Pepsi - rather than just the core Pepsi product. It aims to...

MARKETING: Publicis Google collaboration.
February 15, 2008... Ad network Publicis has announced it is working with search engine Google on a collaboration to swap the 'talent' and technical know-how behind both brands. The partnership aims to help both brands better understand the process of digital...

MARKETING: Orange ad campaign.
February 15, 2008... Orange has announced an ad campaign starring rapper Snoop Dogg as the brand calls for music companies to remove digital rights management protection from their content. The telecoms business wants to offer consumers music rental services but...

MARKETING: Hewlett-Packard ad campaign.
February 15, 2008... Hewlett-Packard has signed up Barry Humphries, aka comic character Dame Edna Everage, for its global ad campaign 'What do you have to say?'. Consumers can download and personalise artwork by Humphries from a website supporting the marketing...

MARKETING: Habbo deal.
February 15, 2008... Virtual world Habbo has signed a deal with Paramount Pictures to merchandise three film properties in the US and Canada, including recent release Beowulf. Habbo will create virtual world accessories based on all three movies for its users. ...

MARKETING: Ryanair banned by ASA.
February 15, 2008... Ryanair has been banned by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) from running an ad featuring a model dressed in a school uniform. The airline ran press ads promoting 'Hottest back to school fares' and has deemed the ruling 'absurd.' ...

MARKETING: Virgin Atlantic marketing drive.
February 15, 2008... Virgin Atlantic has unveiled a #6m advertising campaign promoting its Upper Class facilities at Heathrow. The marketing drive includes a TV ad featuring actor John Hannah. The campaign coincides with the launch of Virgin Atlantic's new...

MARKETING: First made-for-mobile drama.
February 15, 2008... Phone network O2 has launched 'Cell', its first made-for-mobile drama using TV production standards. For its UK launch, O2 will provide customers with 20 two-minute episodes of the high-action thriller. Copyright: Centaur Communications...

LAUNCHES/REBRANDS: Qtrax puts service on hold.
February 15, 2008... Peer-to-peer music sharing brand Qtrax has put its service on hold after officially launching at the MIDEM conference in Cannes last month. It claimed to have a catalogue of 25 million songs available for download but the major record labels...

LAUNCHES/REBRANDS: T-Mobile on Facebook.
February 15, 2008... T-Mobile has launched an application on Facebook to promote its new tariff. The MyFaves Mates Morpher will enable users to morph up to five of their friends to see what they would look like as one person. It will be used as part of a campaign...

FINANCE: YouTube user partnerships.
February 15, 2008... YouTube has expanded its revenue-sharing user partnerships business to UK consumers. The system means anyone uploading content can register as a partner and receive half the ad revenue generated by their pages on the video-sharing site. ...

FINANCE: PZ Cussons acquires Sanctuary Spa.
February 15, 2008... PZ Cussons, maker of Imperial Leather and Carex, said it has acquired the Sanctuary Spa in London's Covent Garden as it announced an eight per cent rise in first-half pre-tax profits of #32.5m ($64.4m) in the six months to 30 November. The...

FINANCE: JJB Sports in favour of Nike.
February 15, 2008... Nike aims to complete its purchase of Umbro, the supplier of the England football team, after shareholder JJB Sports announced it is backing the deal. The retailer said it has agreed to vote its 10.12% stake in Umbro in favour of Nike's bid for...

FINANCE: BSkyB told to reduce shares in ITV.
February 15, 2008... BSkyB has been told to reduce its shares in ITV from the current level of 17.9% to below 7.5%. Business secretary John Hutton has accepted the findings of the Competition Commission study into BSkyB's shareholding, which ruled in December...

FINANCE: Yahoo! announces drop in profits.(Financial report)
February 15, 2008... Yahoo has announced a drop in profits of more than 23% to $206m (#103m) in the fourth quarter to 31 December 2007. Profits were down from $269m (#136m) in the same period last year. The company confirmed that it is to make 1,000 job cuts,...

FINANCE: Baugur to buy Whistles.(Brief article)
February 15, 2008... An ex-Topshop management team headed by former director Jane Shepherdson has completed a deal with Baugur to buy fashion brand Whistles from Mosaic Fashions. Shepherdson becomes chief executive, Jo Farrelly becomes marketing director and Keith...

FINANCE: McDonald's increase in sales.
February 15, 2008... McDonald's has announced a three per cent increase in like-for like sales in the three months to December 2007. The fast food chain reported double-digit growth in Europe. It blamed adverse weather conditions and cautious consumer spending for...

FINANCE: McDonald's increase in sales.
February 15, 2008... The obsession with cheap fashion from shops such as Primark, Asda and Matalan has led to a growth in the UK value clothing market, with sales worth #6.3bn (#3.15bn) last year, says a report from analyst Mintel. Copyright: Centaur...

APPOINTMENTS: Ericsson.
February 15, 2008... Torbjorn Possne, head of the northern Europe marketing unit and global customer account for Deutsche Telekom, has been promoted to the role of senior vice president and head of group function sales and marketing at Ericsson. Possne has...

APPOINTMENTS: Britvic Soft Drinks.
February 15, 2008... Simon Stewart, former chief marketing officer for publisher Emap, has been appointed marketing director at soft drinks company Britvic. Stewart will be responsible for the development and marketing of the company's brand portfolio, including...

APPOINTMENTS: Aviva.(Amanda Mackenzie )(Brief article)
February 15, 2008... Amanda Mackenzie will be joining Aviva, the insurance group and life and pension provider, as group marketing director from 3 March. Mackenzie moves from British Gas, where she has been commercial and marketing director since 2005. She reports...

APPOINTMENTS: Telegraph Media Group.
February 15, 2008... The Telegraph Media Group has appointed Barry Flanigan as its new marketing director. He joins the firm from AOL, where he was director of marketing and communications. He takes up the role in March and will be in charge of all TMG's marketing...

TRENDSPOTTER: Better to barter.
February 15, 2008... Reinier Evers explains why schoolground swaps are back Remember the days of playground 'swapsies'? Break times at school were filled with frenzied wheeling and dealing with a large wodge of football stickers in a bid to get a full set and...

BRAND STUNT OF THE MONTH: Catching the Eye.(Brief article)
February 15, 2008... Ruth Mortimer reveals how Italian car brand Fiat literally raised its profile Car ads often seem to promise vehicles that can swim, climb hills like spiders and float like butterflies. But Fiat opted for a trip into the sky in the...

OPINION: Brands benefit from physical presence.
February 15, 2008... Jeff Joerres, chairman and chief executive officer of employment brand Manpower Inc, says a real-world base is vital for communicating values In a world where so much business is done virtually, the physical environment of a company needs...

OPINION: Serious issues can be tackled with a smile.(Company overview)
February 15, 2008... David Hieatt, co-founder of clothing brand Howies, says a tone of voice that both informs and entertains consumers helps them engage with brands We founded our brand to make people think about political, environmental and ethical issues...

BRAND THERAPY - HD DVD: How HD disc can cut risk.
February 15, 2008... A 'format war' between technology giants Toshiba and Sony has been raging for more than two years since the introduction of their respective HD DVD and Blu-ray high definition DVD formats. In January 2008, a leading player in home videos,...

SCENTED BRANDS: On the scent trail.
February 15, 2008... A clothing brand is scenting its products to cut through the visual clutter of modern marketing and reinforce brand loyalty. Experts believe other brands will soon follow suit, writes Jo Roberts The mass of visual marketing materials vying...

SCENTED BRANDS: Trusty trend or fickle fad?
February 15, 2008... Will fashion stores across the globe soon be awash with scented clothing? Or will Odeur's fragrant clothing range be a one-off? Ascertaining a consumer trend is about looking at what's going on in the present, according to agency...

PROFILE - DANA DUNNE: The global connection.
February 15, 2008... Communication has long been a passion for Dana Dunne, chief executive officer of AOL Europe. Now, he tells Maeve Hosea, he has a vision of extending AOL's reach to connect up the world Dana Dunne, chief executive officer of AOL Europe,...

PROFILE - DANA DUNNE: All set to widen the net.(America Online Inc.)(Interview)
February 15, 2008... Maeve Hosea asks Dana Dunne whether AOL has retained its focus on web safety with its free services - and what geographical and technological areas it aims to expand into MH: As a business, where did AOL begin and what has it become? ...

CASE STUDY - PLAYBOY: Rampant rabbit.(Case study)
February 15, 2008... Playboy has grown from the core magazine and its famous bunny girls to clothing ranges, clubs, casinos, websites and TV channels. Where is the brand heading next? Ruth Mortimer reports A man wakes up one morning, tangled up in his Playboy...

BRAND EXPORTS: How the west will be won.
February 15, 2008... British brands have found in the past that they cannot simply fly a concept to the US and expect it to sell. But a few cultural tweaks can make Britannia cool Stateside, writes Jo Roberts Britain's special relationship with the US has taken...

BRAND EXPORTS: Case study: Farah takes slacks back home.(Brief article)
February 15, 2008... British fashion designers have recently revived a brand worn by fashion- conscious mods in the seventies. Farah Slacks & Leisurewear in 2007 is inspired by the Farah slack, which adorned skinny-legged youths as Britain emerged from the...

BRAND EXPORTS: Case study: Pret a Manger: a future US success?(Case study)
February 15, 2008... The Pret a Manger sandwich retail chain is a well-established lunchtime staple across many towns and cities in the UK. But its initial expansion into the US in 2000 wasn't a success, leading the firm to close nearly all its New York stores....

NATIONAL IDENTITY: A place in the country.
February 15, 2008... All over the world, consumers' sense of national culture and identity can be a powerful tool in brand and communication positioning, writes Tim Hollins Let us travel to Peru, the home of Inca Kola, a bright yellow, sweet, almost...

FINANCIAL MARKETING: Trends at expense of trust.(Drayton Bird)(Interview)
February 15, 2008... What is missing from most financial direct marketing? Respect for the discipline's golden rules - and the results can be dire, warns Drayton Bird Many financial marketers fail to pay attention to the golden rules of direct marketing. As...

BOOK REVIEW: Of mores and men.(Book review)
February 15, 2008... Anatomy of a Trend By Henrik Vejlgaard Published by McGraw-Hill #14.99 James Murphy, editorial director at research firm The Future Foundation, finds Henrik Vejlgaard's analysis of the dynamics of trends enjoyable from cover to...

From the bookshelf of Mike Leahy.(Brief article)
February 15, 2008... Mike Leahy, director, Leahy Brand Design The Secret Language of Leadership By Stephen Denning A must-read if you are a marketer or consultant who wants to stimulate change and use narrative presentation to be a more effective...

INTERNATIONAL CAMPAIGNS: A global day in the life.
February 15, 2008... Everyone wants to be global these days. The media and advertising are full of news about global pitches, multinational clients, cross-market tools and massive campaigns that roll out across the world. This desire to be global is aided by...

CONSUMER EXPERIENCE: Retailing without frontiers.
February 15, 2008... The mentality of the consumer is changing as people become subject to innovative marketing messages, new technology and a faster pace of life. The process behind a consumer purchase is light years ahead of what it was a decade ago. ...

Brand Stats: January.
February 15, 2008... Market focus Hair-styling products for men Men in Germany are more likely than those in Britain, France or Spain to use hair-styling products such as gel, mousse and wax. A third of German men use at least one such product. In Spain, the...

MUSIC MARKETING: Shared sense of direction.
February 15, 2008... The MIDEM 2008 conference in Cannes brought together global music moguls with international brands. Ruth Mortimer sums up what was said by some of the industry's strategic leading lights Jean-Bernard Levy, chief executive of Vivendi,...

PROFILE - HARVY GOLDSMITH: The music maestro.
February 15, 2008... Harvey Goldsmith is a colossus of the music industry, but he also takes a keen interest in marketing. He tells Ruth Mortimer about his passion for getting a brand proposition right Harvey Goldsmith, veteran music promoter and chairman of...

PROFILE - HARVY GOLDSMITH: The man to match band to brand.(Interview)
February 15, 2008... Ruth Mortimer asks Harvey Goldsmith for his take on which brands are marketing music well and what trends to look out for in 2008 RM: Do you follow the same rules when you're marketing corporate brands and bands? Are there any real...

ARTISTS' BRANDS: Beyond the music.
February 15, 2008... Brand Strategy takes a look at six branded ventures from some of music's leading entrepreneurs and asks two experts - a marketing director for a corporate brand working with music and a music branding expert - whether the personal brands have...

MUSIC PASSION DRIVER: Get in tune with tribes of music.
February 15, 2008... Music is potentially a powerful medium - but not if you misjudge the fans. Matt Hales, vice president of strategy at agency Octagon, unveils an analytical model for pitch-perfect results Marketers are looking ever more to music and...

MUSIC MARKETING: Sold on sound.
February 15, 2008... Consumers want access to free content at all times The issue: Consumers are downloading music for free and sharing it with their friends. They don't see this as stealing. They listen to the songs and then pay high prices to see acts play...