Marketing articles from August 1995

Marketing archives from August 1995

Agencies with an Attitude
August 31, 1995... Ask an agency -- any kind of agency - what distinguishes it from its competitors and you've given them a cue for philosophical outpourings and outbursts of pomposity. But there could be greater mileage in seeing how they are perceived by their...

Bureaux of Change
August 31, 1995... The days when computer bureaux were simply buildings full of wardrobe-sized computers, holding otherwise unmanageable amounts of data are numbered. The dinosaurs have evolved. New technology means they are quicker on their feet than ever before....

Packing a Bigger Punch
August 31, 1995... Execution of of a task out to a mailing house can be only as good as the brief for the job. The information needed ranges from the plainly obvious to the sort of intricate considerations that are required to prevent misunderstandings and wastages....

Temptation on the Doorstep
August 31, 1995... It is against a background of both increased competition and recession-hit resources that the door-to-door industry has recently seen an upsurge of use from the retail sector. At The Leaflet Company, our retail clients increased their volumes last...

The Names of Frames
August 31, 1995... List owners like to believe their customers are exclusive to them. The reality, though, is that buyers are promiscuous purchasing, from a variety of places that satisfy differing needs and tastes. They might also buy wine, give donations to...

Heinz Cans Principles to Protect Brand Role
August 31, 1995... "Branded manufacturers have suffered another blow at the hands of Britain's retailers" was how the Financial Times's influential Lex Column gloomily summed up Heinz's move into own-label last week. But despite this, and a series of headlines...

Unilever's TV Soap Formula
August 31, 1995... It's the year 2010, Sky TV is the most watched television channel in homes across the UK and the nation's top-rating programme is Unilever Street--a twice-weekly soap based in Manchester. Tonight's episode opens with a shot of two of the soap's...

The 1995 British Shoppers Survey
August 31, 1995... For the second year running, Marketing is taking a privileged peak into exclusive new TGI data from BMRB International. In part one of this feature we looked into the shifting shopping preferences of British consumers (August 17). This week we go...

Wilson's Kitchen Cabinet
August 31, 1995... In a kitchen deep in the bowels of Asda House in the Yorkshire heartland, chef Jonathan Rose, late of the Ritz, is putting the finishing touches to the supermarket chain's latest ready meal. Beside him, clad in an apron with a fork in her hand,...

Microsoft's Disk Drive for the Top
August 24, 1995... The launch of Windows 95 is being accompanied by the biggest software promotion ever. Microsoft aims to consolidate its brand as the PC sector's world standard. Neill Denny writes on its debut If you haven't seen the ads for Microsoft 95 yet...

The 1995 British Shoppers Survey
August 24, 1995... This week, Marketing offers a unique insight into the shifting shopping patterns of British consumers, categorised by age and family status. The information for the overview is based on the latest data from the continuous TGI survey conducted by...

Harvester of a Corporate Culture
August 24, 1995... When Helena Packshaw joined Bhs in 1985 the store had "no strategy. There was just a disparate group of buyers who bought what they wanted to buy." "Location, location, location", was still the retailer's mantra and a prime place on the high...

Terrible Twins
August 24, 1995... Much fur will fly in the copycat wars before peace is declared. Can the 'new cat' code of practice end the battles? It's hardly surprising that it has taken a year for John Beaumont, chief executive of the Institute of Grocery Distribution, to...

Chalk and Cheese
August 24, 1995... Brand managers and designers so often cannot see eye-to-eye. Ken Gofton finds out how to bridge the communication gap You're a young brand manager. You've just presented some new pack proposals to 'Them Upstairs', and now you have to go back to...

State of Inspiration
August 24, 1995... What is it that makes the best of US corporate literature so outstanding? David Stocks looks on in admiration As corporate literature designers we often look outside our local market for inspiration. And no place has been as inspirational to us...

Style with Substance
August 24, 1995... Is the design manual out of date? Robin Cobb reports on a more all-embracing concept Exit the traditional design manual, that book of strictures on a brand's typography, colour and usage. Enter new thinking which, beyond the nuts-and-bolts, tries...

Tennent's Taps into Youth through Music
August 17, 1995... It's a sultry Saturday night in Glasgow, and a beery roar greets pop group Elastica as they mount the stage and belt out the first chords of their latest hit single. But this isn't only rock and roll, this is advertising. The band is one of 60...

Will Snapple Crumble Here after US Dive?
August 17, 1995... With US sales down 17%, Snapple has seen better days. Now its UK performance looks rocky as rivals bite into the new age soft drinks sector. When Quaker acquired Snapple at the end of last year, sales of the brand were already falling in the US....

Match of the Day
August 17, 1995... Football sponsorship is all the rage, but if sponsors are to score, they must be perceived by fans as being involved With the new football season about to kick off this weekend, the results of the latest frenzied sponsorship activity will be...

A Lone Wolf Watching the Wavelengths
August 17, 1995... Next time you're one short for a pub quiz team, call Doug McArthur, chief executive of the Radio Advertising Bureau. From the quest for the quark to the fate of Queen's Park football club, he's your man. Not convinced? Well, he can also hold his...

Radio Daze
August 17, 1995... Buy-ups, launches and dizzying listening figures are testament to the success of commercial radio. But this may just be the warm-up In recent years, commercial radio has become that most frightening of all journalistic nightmares, a "good news"...

Spiders of the Web
August 17, 1995... The Internet offers 30 million upmarket, attentive users. With such perfect prey why, asks Robert Dwek, are sales promoters not pouncing? In all the Internet talk over the past year, much has been made of its great marketing potential - the...

Handle with Flair
August 17, 1995... What can a mug say about your brand? Brian Oliver analyses the growing trend to sell more than a company name every time we take a sip An increasing number of marketers can now boast that their brand names are on consumers' lips day after day and...

Time for Publishers to Say ABCs in Sync
August 10, 1995... Last week Conde Nast released an impressive set of ABC figures, with a circulation increase of 16.5% for GQ in a market which has seen a bus load of new competitors over the past year. Chief executive Nicholas Coleridge has every reason to be...

Orange to Sell Direct with Debut DRTV Ad
August 10, 1995... Orange is opening up the mobile phone market to classic sales-driven direct response TV with its debut DRTV campaign, eschewing the press route favoured by rivals. The 60-second ad, in which the response number features for 11 seconds, broke on...

Papers Bruised in Game Show Battle
August 10, 1995... For two years newspapers have fallen over each other to sponsor game shows and boost slack summer sales. Will the Today disaster dampen the market? When ITV last week confirmed it had pulled Wheel of Fortune from its summer schedule in order to...

Supermarket Superpowers
August 10, 1995... Partnership between retailers and suppliers to help develop categories sound great. But what happens when your deadly rival ties up the deal and locks you out? The battle for supremacy among the top supermarket chains has been well-publicised...

Master Builder with a Surgeon's Knife
August 10, 1995... After 12 months under the scalpel the UK's second largest health insurer, Private Patients Plan, is about to emerge with a shiny new face in the company's first ever branding campaign. And when the bandages come off, PPP will owe its new looks to...

Software, Hard Sell
August 10, 1995... Fall for the sweet words of the salesman and you'll end up with the computer software from hell. Clive Couldwell offers solutions Computer users are often led to believe they can walk before they can crawl. It's much worse for sales and marketing...

Field Days for All
August 10, 1995... Field marketing techniques are coming or age. Robert Dwek looks at the industry's transformation and how this flexible Force can be harnessed to provide cost-effective expertise Field marketers are a frustrated bunch. On the one hand, their...

PRCA Awards
August 10, 1995... Cathy Bond reports on the gong-grabbing PR strategies of this year's successful teams The best PR, claim the enthusiasts, can generate extra sales more cost-effectively than advertising alone ever could. It's cheaper, lasts longer and it's...

Lottery Could Be Biggest Loser on Money-Go-Round
August 3, 1995... The National Lottery is one of the great marketing triumphs in British corporate history and could yet turn into one of the great public relations disasters. Within months of its launch, public awareness was at the magic 100% level and the public...

Contract Titles Ooze Glamour of Glossies
August 3, 1995... The National Magazine Company last week appeared to knock some of the glamorous sheen off the glossy magazine market when it announced it was entering the contract publishing business. The publisher of magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Company,...

Should S&N Take the Local Route?
August 3, 1995... The community pub is back in favour at Scottish & Newcastle, but as Ros Snowdon and David Teather discover, its rivals seem more committed than ever to the branded concept Scottish & Newcastle flew in the face of progress last week when...

Nintendo Gets on Button
August 3, 1995... Far from losing control of its UK marketing operation by handling the task to an outside agency, Nintendo has actually tightened its grip Nintendo last week zapped its own UK marketing and sales operation, terminating around 150 staff and handing...

Tardy Sainsbury's Tries to Catch Up
August 3, 1995... Sainsbury's is to repackage its tertiary brands in an effort to take on Tesco in the own-label budget battle - from two years behind. Someone once said: "If you've got it, flaunt it." Sainsbury's has got it, some say had it, but has come nowhere...

Gratuity Not Included
August 3, 1995... The HHCL Brasserie has put fee-based payment back on the agency menu, as it serves up advertising-only fare. Has HHCL merely arrived at the party too late or is it a sign that clients have gained control over remuneration? In the summer of 1994,...

Full Steam Ahead at Sketchley
August 3, 1995... Meet John Jackson, the man behind such diverse brands as Mates condoms and Virgin Cola, who is now striving to put the steam back into dry-cleaners Sketchley. You name it, he's been there: friend of Richard Branson, architect of the Virgin-backed...

Better by Design
August 3, 1995... Is it better to sensitize research panels to packaging or ask them to judge it 'blind'? Ken Gofton weighs up the idea Consumers don't think about packaging a great deal. What they think about it is, of course, extremely important to brand...

Centres of Attraction
August 3, 1995... In-house or bureau, call centres are the new must-have of business. Robert Dwek talks to the experts and investigates the options So, you've finally decided to take the plunge. Fed up with hearing everybody else bragging about how brilliant...

Shots of Whisky
August 3, 1995... Drinks firms are homing in on direct mail to cater for customers with a little savoir-faire. If you've just received a mailshot from Glenlivet, be sure you are one of a select group. The Glenlivet campaign, which began last month, is targeted at...

Brand and Deliver
August 3, 1995... High impact, high recall and less wastage, door-to-door has truly arrived. Advertising on its own simply doesn't do the job for packaged goods." It wouldn't be surprising if John Bunyard, managing director of Fast Marketing, was on advertising...