Marketing articles from August 1997

Marketing archives from August 1997

Cold War Is Not Yet over in the Ice-Cream Battle
August 28, 1997... Now here's a trivia question to sweat over as you slowly melt toward home in this late summer heatwave of 97. What famous ex-world leader wrote a scientific paper for Lyons Maid on the art of pumping air into ice-cream to change the texture - and...

Tesco Failed to Earn Its Stripes
August 28, 1997... Was Tesco right to sell Adidas goods at huge discounts? Not according to Adidas, it wasn't. Robin Money, head of corporate affairs, puts the case for the prosecution Unless you've been on holiday or in an isolation tank for the past week or so,...

Live Wire Shows ITV How It Might Avoid Relegation
August 28, 1997... Those who managed to pull themselves away from the heaving bodies in The George bar at the Edinburgh Television Festival at the weekend for long enough had the privilege of sampling masterclasses in the art of marketing TV. Forget such emblematic...

Too Much Naked Ambition?
August 28, 1997... As intense competition pushes some lads' magazines to raunchy excess, Anne-Marie Crawford argues that the line is blurring between mid-shelf men's magazines and the soft-porn titles of the top shelf Despite their circulation successes, lads'...

It Takes Time but Building a Brand Really Does Pay
August 28, 1997... To be honest, I'm still recovering from being patronised by Quentin Bell in the letters page a while ago in respect of my literary and intellectual pretensions. It felt like being advised on etiquette by a Millwall supporter. But enough of that,...

A Formula to Make Money?
August 28, 1997... British American Tobacco's move to buy a Formula 1 team could be a winner - and not just because it dodges sponsorship restrictions. Danny Rogers reports August in the year 2001: the climax of the first Malaysian Grand Prix. As the chequered flag...

The Floral Dance
August 28, 1997... Ann Iverson must be ruing the day when she "got the retail bug" working as a teenager at the local department store in her native Michigan. Had it not been for that virus, she would not have been the focus of such a feverish spate of negative news...

You Can't Get the Staff These Days
August 28, 1997... Bright young things have always been attracted to advertising, but what about the opportunities in below the line? Laura Fields reports on lopsided recruitment figures As another batch of new graduates come crashing down to earth and start...

Tickle Your Fantasy
August 28, 1997... Erotica's organisers reveal the ins and outs of staging an exhibition about sex. Ruth Nicholas writes Forget the Ideal Home Exhibition. Doing it yourself is likely to take on a whole new meaning when London's Olympia plays host to Erotica - the...

Stand by Your Plan
August 28, 1997... Adding value is the key to a more effective exhibition presence, writes Bhavna Mistry Cash-strapped marketers have long been demanding maximum returns on their spends, but in exhibitions this tactic has led to a sea change in the way they buy and...

Responding to the Digital Age
August 28, 1997... Television is on the verge of a revolution. Within two years, existing cable, satellite and terrestrial services will be supplemented by a raft of digitally transmitted channels. But how quickly will digital TV penetrate UK households? After all,...

Contrast and Compare
August 28, 1997... Benchmarking means sharing performance and operational information to achieve best practice. Michael Hope looks at how three leading-edge call centres are making it work The advantages of improving business performance are obvious: larger...

A New Line on Loyalty
August 28, 1997... Robin Cobb looks at how customer care lines are at last beginning to take off in the UK, and how they could open up a valuable new channel for dialogue with customers A soft answer turneth away wrath - and customer care lines are the soft side of...

Stephen Park
August 28, 1997... As the marketing director of Walt Disney Attractions, Stephen Park tries to ensure that everything he and his team do is driven by one philosophy: getting the right information to the right people. Stephen Park is proud of the two Marketing...

Will Tradition Get the Axe?
August 21, 1997... The British Tourist Authority is considering following British Airways and lowering the Union Jack in its marketing and design. Julian Lee finds out why Gone are the days when the very mention of the word 'Britain' conjured up images of Vera...

Avon's First Lady
August 21, 1997... Don't say 'ding dong, Avon calling' to Gillian Wilmot, the cosmetics company's UK vice-president of marketing. That old image is something she is trying to change. But with the Avon Lady image firmly established, this was always going to be a...

Agencies Stuck in the 80s Hinder True Integration
August 21, 1997... Think of an example of good integrated marketing. It's hard, isn't it, because the subject stiff inspires a lot of woolly thinking and not enough intellectual effort. The plethora of so called 'integrated agencies', even the formation but later...

A Hot Date with the Year 2000?
August 21, 1997... As the millennium preparations get under way, potential sponsors have to decide if the event is worth funding and how their business will benefit 'Charles condemns Godless Millennium', 'Millennium exhibition labelled a nonstarter', 'That...

Media with Muscle Power
August 21, 1997... The rise of the lad's mag has obscured another publishing success story: the men's health and fitness title. The growth of the men's magazine market is the publishing story of the decade. Since 1992, the market has put on more than one...

Presenting the Future
August 21, 1997... Multimedia presentations can sharpen up your business image as well as save money and effort. Business presentations are no longer a mad scramble around the desk trying to find that set of 35mm slides. They've grown up. They are now about...

The Cost of BARB's Billing
August 14, 1997... Under BARB's proposed new charges, advertisers would be forced to pay a fee for vital data, currently passed on to them by their media agencies. Anne-Marie Crawford looks at the effects and industry reactions Where money is concerned, feelings...

Is Boots Taking Advantage?
August 14, 1997... Boots is looking at storing confidential information about customers on itsAdvantage card. Julian Lee asks if consumers are ready to hand over such details, and how would they be used? You're in your local Boots paying for your toiletries. As the...

Why Marketers Missed out on 'Men in Black' Ties
August 14, 1997... Men In Black is this summer's hottest Hollywood hit. But unlike many other recent blockbusters, it has secured only a handful of lucrative marketing tie-ups. Just in case you've been living on another planet for the past few weeks and missed the...

The Word of Gates
August 14, 1997... Put yourselves in the shoes (or should that be open-toe sandals?) of the Apple Macintosh disciples at last week's MacWorld Expo in Boston. Shortly after Apple founder Steve Jobs announced that arch-rival Microsoft would be taking a $150m...

Storm Brewing in a Pint Pot
August 14, 1997... Carlsberg-Tetley's Future is uncertain now its proposed merger with Bass has been thwarted. Harriet Marsh looks at the changing competitive climate for the UK brewers In the next few weeks Carlsberg-Tetley will announce the results of an internal...

The Meaning of Lifestyle
August 14, 1997... Data gathering in lifestyle surveys has almost reached saturation point. The quest now is to make the most effective and sophisticated use of the information. Lifestyle data has been one of the fastest growing areas of direct marketing, but the...

Sampling with Added Sparkle
August 14, 1997... Britvic aims to attract independent young women to its reformulated Diet Pepsi using all-girl hit squads on roller-blades. Sassy, streetwise, independent women are an emerging target market for marketers and Britvic is out to get them with its...

Hand in Hand with Data
August 14, 1997... Portable computers are allowing field marketers to offer faster and more accurate data collection and delivery. Sara Edlington looks at the developments The mobile-technology bandwagon is gathering speed, and nowhere more so than in field...

Channel Storm May Force Cable to Alter Course
August 7, 1997... The story of cable television in the UK has been a saga of ever-reducing expectations, like a football team that never quite makes it to the Premiership whatever money is lavished upon it. The sackings at Channel One, the cable-exclusive news...

More Sex Please: We're British and We're Best at It
August 7, 1997... It's hard to concentrate on serious matters when child sociologists dressed as carrots are being nicked for being drunk and disorderly at cricket matches, but I'll try. I was once asked at a conference, in one of those weird parlour games often...

What Will We Do to Change Minds over Marketing?
August 7, 1997... Two recent surveys by Marketing/NOP and The Marketing Society make grim reading. Inside the company, marketing has clearly lost its exclusive franchise as the advocate for the consumer, while the public sees marketers as the unhidden persuaders,...

EasyRider
August 7, 1997... "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," laughs Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the 30-year-old founder and owner of EasyJet, at the news that British Airways is considering following in his slipstream and launching its own budget airline brand. Any...

Sponsors Play to Win
August 7, 1997... The escalating costs of sponsoring large sporting events are pushing sponsors to get more value for their money. When the football season kicks off this week the fruits of the summer's backroom deals will be apparent. Not only will people have to...

Internal Affairs
August 7, 1997... More corporate investment is being channelled into Intranets. If you want to be where it's at, get a modem, surf the Internet, get a life. End of story. Right? Not always. For while the Internet remains a powerful business marketing tool, it is...

Maximising the Message
August 7, 1997... Effective media training can make all the difference between PR disaster and triumph. The media training market continues to grow as more companies recognise the benefits of favourable coverage and try to avoid the damage that can be done to a...

On the Right Track
August 7, 1997... Tracking media coverage can tell you a lot about your company and brand. Clients are starting to realise that the most important aspect of their marketing function may be the one they have least control over - the opinions of the media. But new...