Marketing articles from December 1990

Marketing archives from December 1990

ITC Unveils First Code for TV Ads
December 20, 1990... ITC unveils first code for TV ads From January 1, "goodness" and "wholesomeness" would be forced to retire from television advertising's roster of hackneyed expressions. The regulatory Independent Television Commission (ITC) has ruled in its new...

Boost for BBH Leads to Review
December 20, 1990... BOOST FOR BBH LEADS TO REVIEW Cadbury plans to review advertising strategies across a raft of brands following the appointment of Bartle Bogle Hegarty (BBH) to handle 4.5m [pounds] of its business. The move to BBH comes just two months after...

Grey makes its single banner move. (Grey Communications Group to merge advertising and marketing services to form Grey Advertising)
December 20, 1990... Grey makes its single banner move The Grey Communications Group (GCG) is to merge its advertising and marketing services companies to create a single agency with claimed billings of 250m [pounds]. The new agency, called simply Grey...

Fees Force TV Guide to Go Monthly
December 20, 1990... Fees force TV Guide to go monthly Rupert Murdoch's TV Guide has been forced to switch from a weekly news-stand title to a subscription-only monthly by the imminent listings shake-up. Independent Television Publications (ITP) - parent of TV...

Colman RSCG Pins European Branding Hopes on Star Pupils
December 20, 1990... Coleman RSCG pins European branding hopes on Star pupils If you were to brand the United Kingdom alongside France and Germany, how would you do it? That was the challenge presented to 75 French students at Nottingham Polytechnic earlier this...

Direct marketers spend 100,000 pounds sterling to boost poor public image.
December 20, 1990... Direct marketers spend 100,000 [pounds] to boost poor public image Battered direct marketers are to mount their first concerted lobbying of MPs and consumers to bolster their poor public image. The initial 100,000 [pounds] campaign could...

Ideologies for Idle Minds
December 20, 1990... Ideologies for idle minds Satan makes work for idle hands. Since the Broadcasting Standards Council (BSC) was established in a fit of prime-ministerial pique, with the totally negative role of annoying the pinko broadcasting authorities, it is...

Coca-Cola keeps its promotion in the can. (sales promotion uses game pieces hidden inside bottles and cans)
December 20, 1990... Coca-Cola keeps its promotion in the can Coca-Cola is tipped to be betting yet again on a hi-tech sales promotion in the US. It hasn't yet been officially announced, but word is that Coca-Cola's new promotion "Crack the Code with Diet...

Chocs away! (advertising spending by European chocolate industry)
December 20, 1990... CHOCS AWAY! This week's list of top spending pan-European chocolate advertisers is conspicuous by the absence of a major UK chocolate manufacturer. The only Cadbury's brand advertised on TV outside the UK in the first half of 1990 was...

Martini Spends Its Way to the Top of the Christmas Spirits Tree
December 20, 1990... Martini spends its way to the top of the Christmas spirits tree Oh, yes thanks, I don't mind if I do. It is Christmas after all. And all sorts of spirits, liquers and wines are being conjured up on the magic box. Martini Extra Dry sits at the...

Labouring under the Tories
December 20, 1990... Labouring under the Tories For all the criticism he is now attracting, Neil Kinnock is certainly to be congratulated for being the first Labour leader to introduce marketing disciplines into his party's ideas and presentation. In forcing the...

Nielsen on the yellow fats market. (butter and margarine market share in Great Britain)
December 20, 1990... NIELSEN on the yellow fats market Britain's top 100 brands in grocers for the year ending August 1990 are worth 5.4[pounds]bn with sales of the top ten brands accounting for almost 30% of this spend. One of the most prominent categories...

Mintel on personal savings.
December 20, 1990... MINTEL on personal savings Would the provision of a better range of regular savings schemes provide opportunity for growth in the 23.6[pounds]m savings market, as well as helping the Government curb consumer spending? The introduction of...

Yershon on TV viewing habits. (British TV programs rated for enjoyment)
December 20, 1990... YERSHON on TV viewing habits A telephone survey of TV viewing habits in mid-November commissioned by Carat Research shows significant variations in the level of programme enjoyment. The "Foretel" study - one of a series carried out over...

Drinking to Your Health
December 20, 1990... Drinking to your health It's here again. That annual descent into seasonal drink-induced somnambulance which, in the UK at least, seems to last for around two weeks as businesses everywhere grind to a halt. Of course for some people this...

That Was the Year That Was
December 20, 1990... That was the year that was JANUARY Conran Design Group starts the year with a euphemism attack. It is "centralising its non creative resources", changing from a "production led to a marketing and client led company". Four months later its...

Coping with the Threat of Redundancy
December 20, 1990... Coping with the threat of redundancy There are a lot of euphemisms being used in advertising agencies these days. Typically an employee is taken aside by a superior and told something like "we've decided to take away your responsibilities in...

Tesco Coup Taunts Drinks Barons
December 13, 1990... Tesco coup taunts drinks barons Tesco has scored a pre-Christmas image coup this week by revealing plans to adopt alcohol unit labelling on all its own-label alcoholic drinks. Its move comes despite stiff resistance to unit labelling from a...

Ad hungry ITV to centralise schedules. (Independent Television of Great Britain)
December 13, 1990... Ad hungry ITV to centralise schedules Advocates of a united ITV network have received a boost with the agreement between TV companies to centralise scheduling. The provisional agreement to set up a single company which would buy in...

Three national brewers pull out of bullish Taunton Cider.
December 13, 1990... Three national brewers pull out of banish Taunton Cider Number two cider producer Taunton Cider is claiming its distribution will be unaffected by the decision of some of the UK's largest brewers to sell their stakes in the company. ...

Rover's Top Dog Moves On
December 13, 1990... ROVER'S TOP DOG MOVES ON Rover marketing director Roger Stangroom has quit to set up his own retail marketing consultancy. His mystery exit has baffled many in the industry. His three-year stint at Rover coincided with the company's overhaul...

Mattel makes great play of Disney toys.
December 13, 1990... Mattel makes great play of Disney toys Mattel Toys is to boost its marketing spend by half next year to 1m [pounds] for its Disney range of pre-school toys as the company bids to establish a new core brand. While craze toys such as...

BUAV spurns medical charities over animal tests. (British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection producing leaflets saying that some charities engage in animal research)
December 13, 1990... BUAV spurns medical charities over animal tests Anti-vivisectionists are urging a boycott of charities which they claim experiment on animals. The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) is producing leaflets modelled on...

Product power. (poll on launching new brands in light of the recession) (some text) (illustration)
December 13, 1990... PRODUCT POWER Marketers are defying the recessionary doom and gloom and forging ahead with new product development, according to the latest exclusive Marketing Forum survey. And they do not think it is now too expensive to launch new brands....

Nestle stirs in Rowntree brand for hot chocolate drink launch.
December 13, 1990... Nestle stirs in Rowntree brand for hot chocolate drink launch Nestle is to launch its first hot beverage under the Rowntree name in an effort to cash in on its brand strength. Rowntree's Chococino Instant Hot Chocolate will be available...

AIDS ad helps. (BMP DDB Needham's new ad campaign for Health Education Authority)
December 13, 1990... AIDS AD HELPS The recent shock findings that HIV virus is spreading most rapidly amongst heterosexuals will no doubt add extra impact to BMP's latest AIDS campaign for the Health Education Authority (HEA). Not that the new ads need any...

GrandMet reveals all on spends. (Grand Metropolitan PLC reveals annual marketing spending figures)
December 13, 1990... GrandMet reveals all on spends Grand Metropolitan has revealed details of its annual marketing spend for the first time to head off speculation that it is squeezing brands to pay for costly acquisitions. GrandMet's spending in the year...

Plax turns off TV ads to focus on press. (to abandon TV advertising for press campaign)
December 13, 1990... Play turns off TV ads to focus on press Mouthwash brand leader Plax is to abandon TV advertising in favour of a 2 [pounds] m press campaign to "educate" consumers into more regular use of its product. The switch in media strategy was...

Courage and Labatt's Hop on the Anti Drink-Drive Brand Wagon
December 13, 1990... Courage and Labatt's hop on the anti drink-drive brand wagon The Government will not be alone in running anti-drinking and driving advertising this Christmas. Brewers Labatt's and Courage have both launched their own, watered-down campaigns which...

Saving it for Xmas. (total amount of cash spent on advertising in consumer magazines in October)
December 13, 1990... SAVING IT FOR XMAS The total amount of cash spent on advertising in consumer magazines in October fell sharply on the previous month's total - advertisers are no doubt hoarding their pennies for the traditional Christmas blitzes. For...

Doubts over the strength of Volvo's commercial claims.
December 13, 1990... Doubts over the strength of Volvo's commercial claims A question mark hangs over the future of Volvo's UK advertising following a new twist in the "fixed ads" row in the US. Already Volvo's US agency Scali McCabe Sloves (SMS) has been...

Sport to kick off with fifth edition next year. (Sport newspaper)
December 13, 1990... Sport to kick off with fifth edition next year The controversial Sport newspaper is finally launching its Tuesday edition on April 23 1991 - after months of assurances that the four-day newspaper would go daily in the New Year. Sport...

Tetley Brews Up North
December 13, 1990... TETLEY BREWS UP NORTH Those of you familiar with the Tetley tea folk will know that they closely resemble working class Yorkshiremen - flat caps and all. This week's Media Buying suggests that creative work reinforces a media strategy which...

Sports organisers fear revenue loss. (revenue going to sports events from private sector sponsors)
December 13, 1990... Sports organisers fear revenue loss A headlong battle for revenue between sports organisers and TV companies will erupt if the new draft sponsorship code goes ahead, claims the Institute of Sports Sponsorship (ISS). Revenue going to...

Choking over Its Breakfast
December 13, 1990... Choking over its breakfast There has been much talk about the devastating effect of the Sky/BSB merger from the ITV companies, most of it misleading, much of it intentionally so. But there is one medium which already had a great deal to fear from...

Banks Resist Calls to Clamp Down on Credit Mailshots
December 13, 1990... Banks resist calls to clamp down on credit manshots The marketing of credit has emerged unscathed from a new self-policing draft code from the banks and building societies. The banks' proposals on marketing represent their response both to the...

EDMA opposed to EC draft code on data protection. (European Community. Commission on the European Communities; European Direct Marketing Association)
December 13, 1990... EDMA opposed to EC draft code on data protection The European Commission (EC) has received a thumbs-down for its new draft directive on data protection from the direct marketing industry, consumer groups and employers. Reaction at the...

Eurogroupe pledges to augment own-label. (supermarket buying alliance vows to build own label, pan-European brands)
December 13, 1990... Eurogroupe pledges to augment own-label The supermarket buying alliance Eurogroupe vowed to build own-label, pan-European brands last week. Such a move would protect retailers from being forced to stock popular pan-European brands of...

Petfood Boys
December 13, 1990... PETFOOD BOYS Few companies can claim to follow as deliberate a pan-European strategy as Mars in petfoods. Mars' top eight pan-European brands account for 65% of the $93.5m the entire industry spent advertising on European TV in the first half of...

A Sign of Changing Times
December 13, 1990... A sign of changing times Margaret Thatcher has gone. John Major has arrived. Does this herald a new dawn, new beginnings, new times? Possibly. But not, we would suggest, because Thatcher's departure will necessarily prompt significant policy...

Nielsen on food retailers. (some text; food retailers and their consumer base) (illustration)
December 13, 1990... N I E L S E N on food retailers With the UK economy drifting into recession, food retailers have become increasingly concerned about their consumer base. Many have responded with some spectacular promotional campaigns to build customer...

Mintel on spare time study. (some text; extracurricular studying) (illustration)
December 13, 1990... M I N T E L on spare time study Just under two-thirds of British people study in their spare time and nearly one in there devote more than seven hours to this sort of activity. Studying is largely an activity for the young but...

Yershon on time shift viewing. (some text; television viewing survey) (illustration)
December 13, 1990... Y E R S H O N on time shift viewing Although the new TV audience measurement system in place from next August can identify time shift viewing (watching video recordings of broadcast programmes), current BARB hardware cannot do this. ...

Desperate Measures: The Recession May Force Companies into Price Wars at the Expense of Brand Building
December 13, 1990... Desperate Anybody who doubts the importance of price should have been at the New Malden Tesco super-store one Saturday in October. The queues of cars waiting to fill up with cut price petrol blocked the entrance to the store, forcing would-be...

Shooting Glass to Get Green in the Frame
December 13, 1990... Shooting glass to get Using photography for advertising is not the easiest thing in the world. Getting perfect lighting, clarity, composition and colour is difficult enough for any photographer. While interpreting the client's brief creatively so...

Counting on Two Bad Habits
December 13, 1990... COUNTING ON TWO BAD HABITS Witnessing the way that tobacco advertising is being lobbied into a corner, brewers and distillers are making detailed contingency plans for redeploying their marketing budgets, in case they face similar restrictions....

Dining out on Vouchers; Competition Is Hotting Up as Retailers See the Attractions of Gift Tokens
December 13, 1990... DINING OUT ON VOUCHERS The regional sales manager beamed. "We've hit the target on the North-east 90 campaign and it's all due to you. So there'll be a little cash bonus as a thank-you, you know." How much? "Er - 25 [pounds], actually, and Happy...

Unilever Spreads out with Olive Branch: Van Den Berghs' First New Brand in Three Years Will Not Make Any Health Claims
December 6, 1990... Unilever spreads out with olive branch Unilever yellow fats subsidiary Van den Berghs is set to launch its first new brand for three years. Olivio claims to be the only spread in Europe containing olive oil and high in monounsaturated fat. It...

Maxwell boosts the European with series. (Robert Maxwell plans series of supplements for "The European" newspaper)
December 6, 1990... Maxwell boosts the European with series Robert Maxwell's the European is believed to be planning a series of circulation-boosting supplements in a sales promotion drive early next year. The pan-European English language weekly paper...

Cannon Fires Up Gateway
December 6, 1990... CANNON FIRES UP GATEWAY Gateway has drafted in the former marketing director of doomed furniture retailer Lowndes Queensway in a grassroots restructure of its marketing department. Robin Cannon will work along-side main board marketing...

Client concern. (survey of marketing personnel on advertising industry depression, Great Britain)
December 6, 1990... CLIENT CONCERN A startling 24% of the UK's top marketers have taken advantage of the ad industry's worst depression since the early 70s to renegotiate their fees downwards. But this nuggest from Network's latest exclusive survey of the UK's...

Coca-Cola/Nestle Venture Revives Iced Tea and Coffee
December 6, 1990... Coca-Cola/Nestle venture revives iced tea and coffee The ready-to-drink iced tea and coffee sectors could come alive after last week's international joint venture between Coca-Cola and Nestle. A new company will manufacture and market a fresh...

IBM's Cryptic Ad Campaign Places Computers at a Distance
December 6, 1990... IBM's cryptic ad campaign places computers at a distance The world's biggest computer manufacturer IBM began its latest ad campaign with one of the most cryptic punchlines of all time: "486 plus XGA plus LAN". It is a perfect example of the...

Observer attacks Telegraph for second Sunday slot. (Sunday Telegraph; London, England newspaper competition)
December 6, 1990... Observer attacks Telegraph for second Sunday slot The Observer is to make an all-out effort to snatch back its place as number two in the Sunday quality newspaper market. Following the demise of the Sunday Correspondent, Tiny Rowland's...

Nescafe Fails to Blend
December 6, 1990... NESCAFE FAILS TO BLEND Nestle's launch of a premium cappuccino-style brand next year (Marketing, November 29) may force McCann-Erickson's media buyers to review strategy for stablemates Nescafe and Nescafe Gold Blend. This week's media...

Let the Polls Take the Strain
December 6, 1990... Let the polls take the strain Psychologists used to study stress by putting rats in mazes and giving them electric shocks. This was expensive, cruel and unnecessary. If you want to study the effect of stress on lower animals, you only have to...

Ski milks rock 'n' roll for cerebral palsy. ("Ski" yogurt promotion to benefit cerebral palsy charity)
December 6, 1990... Ski milks Rock 'n' Roll for cerebral palsy Yoghurt brand Ski has pledged 200,000 [pounds] in its biggest programme for the cerebral palsy charity The Stars Organisation for Spastics (SOS). The new drive comes as Grand Metropolitan-owned...

Oz Toyota sales drive back Ford and GM cars. (Australia)
December 6, 1990... Oz Toyota sales drive back Ford and GM cars Toyota is the first Japanese car group to outsell former market leaders Ford and General Motors Holden's in Australia, according to the latest sales figures released last week. Toyota's success...

L'Oreal on top. (shampoo industry advertising in Europe)
December 6, 1990... L'OREAL ON TOP Although L'Oreal clearly leads in pan-European advertising of haircare products, none of the multinationals dominate pan-European sales. The markets for shampoos, conditioners and other haircare products are highly...

British Gas Explodes to the Top as Oil Surfaces to the Fore
December 6, 1990... British Gas explodes to the top as oil surfaces to the fore For the first time in three years of Adwatch we have pulled together all those campaigns which can be accurately, or even loosely, called corporate ads. While corporate advertising...

Quality Not Quantity
December 6, 1990... Quality not quantity A few months ago, we discussed how consumers' responses to the straightened circumstances in which they now find themselves had taken a new turn compared with previous recessions. We explained how their priorities were...

Nielsen on Christmas spirits. (alcoholic beverage sales statistics)
December 6, 1990... NIELSEN on Christmas spirits Christmas is vital for the take-home drinks market. Gift cartons proliferate and price promotions are the order of the day. A look at sales prior to Christmas last year reveals that 17% of annual whisky and...

Mintel on egg sales.
December 6, 1990... MINTEL on egg sales The number of eggs sold each year has still not reached 1989's pre-salmonella scare level. Sales for 1990 will total 12.8 billion, worth over 1bn [pounds]. The move to more expensive grades and to free range eggs from...

Yershon on national newspaper coverage. (Great Britain)
December 6, 1990... YERSHON on national newspaper coverage The coverage levels achieved by various press campaigns comprising purely of the "national" newspapers can vary substantially from area to area. The example shows adult cover for a combination of...

Reading Sunday's Loss
December 6, 1990... Reading Sunday's loss As the rest of the world pondered the implications of a new Conservative prime minister, the Sunday Correspondent was quietly consigned to history. Despite the increasingly desperate bluster about rising sales (helped by...

Flying an Adspeak High
December 6, 1990... Flying an adspeak high The aircraft had reached its cruising altitude, cabin staff were administering anaesthetics, and the passenger sitting next to me was perusing Marketing. He caught my eye. "Hey," he exclaimed, "aren't you?" I reddened,...

Eyes on the Global Prize: Through Careful Planning of Its Marketing Strategies, Unilever Hopes to Expand into Every Corner of the Globe
December 6, 1990... Eyes on the global prize A new contender is emerging in the great soap opera wars. Riviera is billed as a glossy, up-market soap set in the South of France. The content - intrigue, ambition and passion - is hardly mould breaking. But as Europe's...

Capital Made of Insurance Claims
December 6, 1990... CAPITAL MADE OF INSURANCE CLAIMS The summer of 1990 was not a vintage one for Capital Radio ads. At least, that was the verdict of the judges in this quarter's Capital Radio/Marketing awards. Criticisms included a lack of originality - "A...

Designing for the Times: Even Mediocre Design Could Be Successful in the 80s. but What about the 90s?
December 6, 1990... DESIGNING FOR THE TIMES It seems to me that 1990 is significant in design terms only as a year of bridging two very different decades. The drunken euphoria of the 80s, when it was macho to exploit people and the environment openly and to buy...

Down but Not Out: Market Research Is Feeling the Recession but Has Found New Business Coming from Europe
December 6, 1990... DOWN BUT NOT OUT The recession affecting the advertising industry has been much reported and discussed. While the impact of this economic downturn on the market research sector has not attracted quite the same attention, it is undoubtedly feeling...

Psychometric Tests Can Help Communication
December 6, 1990... Psychometric tests can help communication Psychometric tests - multiple choice questionnaires claimed to gauge a person's aptitudes - have become commonplace in recruitment. New graduates especially face batteries of these tests by all kinds of...