Marketing articles from November 1993

Marketing archives from November 1993

P&G man takes Superdrug role. (Superdrug Stores PLC)
November 25, 1993... The aggressive health and beauty chain Superdrug has finally concluded its six-month search for a new marketing chief by snapping up Procter & Gamble's healthcare and personal products marketing director, Kevin McCarten. McCarten --...

Buyers force YTTV pay-back. (Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television)
November 25, 1993... Yorkshire Tyne Tees Television has finally bowed to advertiser pressure and agreed to pay back all of the money that it owes to its advertisers. Blanket rejection of the offer made by YTTV's sales house Laser last week forced Laser back to...

P&G Renews TV Star's Contract
November 25, 1993... Procter & Gamble has signed up the glamorous Gladiators' presenter Ulrika Jonsson to endorse its head & Shoulders brand for another year -- ending speculation that her much-publicised marital problems had also caused a rift with the...

BBH Wins 18 Million Pound Sterling Whitbread Job
November 25, 1993... Whitbread Beer Company has finally decided to centralise its media planning and buying operations through Bartle Bogle Hegarty, ending months of speculation. Whitbread's marketing director Steven Philpott says that the appointment is the result...

The Dangers of Overdealing Ads
November 25, 1993... Yorkshire Tyne Tees TV must pay back its massive airtime debt to advertisers in full and unconditionally. We believe there never was an acceptable alternative. Advertisers have supported ITV through thick and thin for nearly 40 years. They have...

Safeway Makes a Bid for Snacks
November 25, 1993... The battle between retailers and manufacturers will intensify tomorrow (Friday) as Safeway makes a foray into the snacks market. The supermarket giant is launching a range under the sub-brand "Pioneer Line", which will set itself against adult...

Proton launches mid-market car.
November 25, 1993... Malaysian car maker Proton this week makes a bid for the most important sector of the UK car market with the launch of its second model range, the Persona. Priced at |pounds~9000-|pounds~11,000 and backed by a "record" marketing spend, it...

The Discounter Plays Santa for Xmas Shoppers
November 25, 1993... Opened by desperate retailers in September, the festive season is now upon us in earnest. Perfumiers, soap-makers and all kinds of consumer goods manufacturers hope Britain will defy the perpetual economic gloom and spend its way to a memorable...

Unipart Chief in Move to DHL Job
November 25, 1993... International express company DHL has poached Peter Lomax from Unipart to be its first UK commercial director, a post that adds corporate planning, key account and financial sector sales to the original marketing director role. This follows the...

Clydesdale Will Fight for Share
November 25, 1993... Scottish electrical retailer Clydesdale has appointed Richard Hurd-Wood as its commercial director in charge of buying and marketing for the 134-strong chain. In his boardroom post, Hurd-Wood will command all marketing and purchasing decisions...

Making the World Your Stage
November 25, 1993... Last week's Marketing Society conference took a global theme in its stride. Simon Marquis was there "A man should never speak for longer than he can make love," warned Tom Farmer, the ebullient founder and chairman of auto specialists Kwik-Fit....

Mazda Reaches the Crossroads
November 25, 1993... With the appointment of HHCL, its third agency in a year, where now for Mazda and its marketing director, Jan Smith? "The appointment of Addition heralds the start of a new type of advertising and marketing that has not been experienced before...

Emirates Tries Corporate Ploy
November 25, 1993... Emirates, the airline of the United Arab Emirates, this week launches its third ad strategy in as many years to support an assault on the long-haul business sector. The Arabic identity is being played down in a bid to compete alongside the major...

Agencies Must Learn to Look Up to Their Clients
November 25, 1993... One of the strangest things that ever happened to me was when a client apologised to me in a meeting -- for being a client. He was a very senior Bass client. And having made a helpful comment about a Carling Black Label script, he mistook my...

NI Pools Media into TMD Carat
November 25, 1993... News International has centralised all media planning and buying for its tabloid titles through TMD Carat, netting the media independent another |pounds~11m in billings. The account covers media for the Sun and Today, as well as News...

ITV Data Aim to Counter Clutter
November 25, 1993... ITV is hoping to improve the effectiveness of its commercial breaks by slashing the length of programme credits. New research shows that viewers are more likely to change channels during the end credits, and ITV has come up with guidelines to...

To Get This Good Take a New Look at Media Angles
November 25, 1993... I have been racking my brains to think of a campaign over the past two years that I highly admire from a media perspective. Nothing too small and perfectly formed, nor too vast and immovably blocklike. Something that uses new routes, and sets a...

Public Relations Gets Funny and Makes the Sale
November 25, 1993... I've come to the conclusion that the Brits don't like being "sold to". Quite why this should be is not clear -- and nor really does it matter -- although I suspect we haven't recovered from the success of our industrial revolution when capitalism...

NDL finds Ideal modern buyers. (Ideal Home Exhibition)
November 25, 1993... Fresh insights into how householders are likely to spend their money in the next 12 months are being unveiled to the furniture, garden product and DIY industries by the organisers of the UK's biggest consumer show, the Daily Mail Ideal Home...

Arts Suffer Fall in Sponsorship
November 25, 1993... The value of arts sponsorship over the past year has fallen from its record high of |pounds~65m in 1992-3. New figures published this week by the Association of Business Sponsorship for the Arts show a total funding of |pounds~58m flowing from...

Why Agencies Must Rethink to Suit Clients
November 25, 1993... It's the end of the road for traditional ad agencies. In the 90s they must be guardians of brands -- not just suppliers of advertising. Like so many of their clients, ad agencies are facing a future of low growth, low profits and loss of market...

This Is a Woman's World
November 25, 1993... Advertisers need discrete media to target women. Andy Fry reports on the rise of satellite channels and magazines which point the way Modern woman could be managing the family budget, making decisions about expenditure on herself or influencing...

A Marketer and a Gentleman
November 25, 1993... In a world where people are divided into lubricators and gritters, David Sheilds is proud to be a lubricator. "The gritters are the ones that move things forward, but if you don't have lubricators, the gritters just won't function. I'm...

Limitations Can Pay Off
November 25, 1993... Thinking small can be beautiful, especially for cost-effective market research projects. David Woodcock provides a client view "Let's do some market research then!" Is that the marketers' recession war cry? The healthy workload of most market...

Word Perfect on Research
November 25, 1993... Ruffled by exponential smoothing? Crossed wires over your cross-tabs? You won't be, after reading Mike Roe's bluffer's guide Advertising is sexy, design is pretty, direct marketing is thrusting, PR is too precious for words, and market research...

How to Go to Market
November 25, 1993... About to appoint your first market research consultancy and reaching for a copy of 'Yellow Pages'? Ken Gofton suggests a rather more sophisticated approach Sometimes there seem no limits to the areas which researchers are willing to measure and...

Clients Go the Specialist Way
November 25, 1993... The days of umbrella research are over. What sophisticated clients want, argues Robin Cobb, is a research firm's absolute knowledge of one specific sector Technique and technology are important in market research, but a third credential is...

Quality: It's Worth It
November 25, 1993... Effective market research does not come cheap, but 'bad news' can be worth the expense. It's no wonder that market research agencies have gleefully locked into their clients' preoccupation with customer satisfaction -- because just about...

Sharp Focus Gets Results
November 25, 1993... Focus groups are one of market research's basic building blocks, but, says Beverly Cramp, they have their limitations Discussion groups, also known as focus groups, are one of the basic building blocks of qualitative market research. Consisting...

Keeping on the Right Tracks
November 25, 1993... Tracking studies are now so sophisticated that market research data can be collected, merged and transmitted electronically, says Amanda Burnside "Supply it -- yes, but also apply it," cost-conscious clients are saying to continuous tracking...

Research That Is for Sharing
November 25, 1993... When is it a good idea for clients to come together and pool research costs? Cathy Bond looks at the options on offer and why syndicates can run aground "One day," grumbles a market researcher, "people will stop talking about us as if we've only...

Increased Shelf-Life
November 25, 1993... Is the off-the-shelf industry too crowded? Robin Cobb reports on Taylor Nelson's entrance into a competitive market That part of the research industry which publishes off-the-shelf industry and consumer studies has been made even more competitive...

No Bar to Technology
November 25, 1993... Despite the electronic world's impact on market research it is very much still a people business. Market research usually brings to mind hordes of interviewers armed with pens and clipboards converging on unsuspecting consumers to bombard them...

Global Eyes Shine for UK
November 25, 1993... An international drugs firm turned to UK market research skills to improve its forecasting, writes Ken Gofton Big money rides on the success or failure of new pharmaceutical products. Yet in the experience of Swiss drugs giant Sandoz Pharma AG,...

Pepsi Pulls Plug on Jackson Link
November 18, 1993... Pepsico has finally shrugged off the Michael Jackson albatross as the singer pulls out of his world tour and a multimillion pound, ten-year relationship. The move ends months of frantic media speculation as to how long the troublesome star could...

Superdrug Set to Ignore MMC
November 18, 1993... High street retailers are to continue selling cut-price perfumes, despite last week's decision by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission to support selective distribution practices in the perfume industry. Consumers will still be able to purchase...

Personality-Led Brands Stumble
November 18, 1993... Michael Jackson's "Dangerous" world tour was well-named. The singer himself has pulled the plug on it, admitting to an addiction to painkillers and a complete emotional breakdown. And predictably, after ten years, Pepsico too has pulled the plug...

Head marketer quits CIC Video. (Karl Oliver)
November 18, 1993... CIC Video's sales and marketing director Karl Oliver has parted company with the firm after two-and-a-half years. Oliver resigned last week, but has no immediate job to go to. "I will continue to be associated with the industry in a broader...

Britons Pay for Protection from Rise in UK Crime
November 18, 1993... The debate about crime has reached fever pitch in Britain. Government ministers grow ever more shrill in demanding punishment. The Left blames high unemployment and the grubby acquisitiveness so applauded in the Thatcher years. Clergymen blame...

Today Sets Agenda for a Brand of Tomorrow
November 18, 1993... Today has called on BST to give it an image, but advertisers want a circulation that hits one million Today has an image problem -- it doesn't have an image. The problem is a familiar one to many marketers, and last week Today enlisted...

Lambert's push backs OTC lines. (Warner-Lambert Health Care markets over-the-counter drugs)
November 18, 1993... Warner-Lambert Health Care is backing its self-medication brands with its heaviest spend ever this Christmas as the marketing department prepares for merger with Wellcome. The company is spending over |pounds~7m behind Benylin cough...

ISBA Sets out a Trust Blueprint
November 18, 1993... The Incorporated Society of British Advertisers conference on client/agency relationships, held in London last week, was marked by determination on both sides that they can make the relationship work this time. Speakers agreed that the key to...

Why the Logo Is at the Heart of First-Rate Work
November 18, 1993... The great cliche of difficult client-agency meetings is the furious debate about the size of the logo or brand name. The creative team trots out some familiar justifications for the logo being small: "Minimalism is in. Ask any designer", "It's...

Cut-Price Titles Win Reader War
November 18, 1993... The added-value versus-cheaper-product war that has been raging in the national newspaper market appears to have been won by the cut-price papers. Despite a rash of new sections launched over the last two months, much of the investment appears to...

Clients Wake Up to VAT Dangers
November 18, 1993... The UK could be left with only a skeleton publishing industry and advertisers will be deprived of niche targeting opportunities if VAT is imposed on newspapers and magazines, warns the publishing industry. A new report from the Periodical...

Fragmentation Reveals Radio's Growing Power
November 18, 1993... When there's no one around to contradict us, we British are prone to congratulating ourselves on having the world's best television, and sometimes the world's most creative advertising. The TV claim must be ever more heavily qualified by the...

Direct Response and Interactive TV's Ultimatum
November 18, 1993... There are a few genuine visionaries in marketing, but Joseph Segel -- who founded the Franklin Mint, then created the QVC Home Shopping Network, recently introduced here -- is one. At last month's US Direct Marketing Association Annual Convention...

BP account win for Interfocus. (British Petroleum Company PLC's advertising agency)
November 18, 1993... BP, the UK's third biggest petrol retailer after Esso and Shell, has appointed Interfocus to develop a "comprehensive" below-the-line strategy as part of a revamp of its entire forecourt marketing. Interfocus, which won the account against...

Customer Loyalty and Its Function in the 90s
November 18, 1993... Many of us are familiar with the key environmental pressures facing companies in the 90s: * The growth of perceived product parity. * Increasing competition. * Rising customer sophistication combined with price sensitivity. * Reduced...

Evaluating the Benefit of Customer Loyalty
November 18, 1993... Once a company has recognised the need to find a way to retain customers, whether it be in the business-to-business sector or in consumer marketing, the choice of methodologies and solutions around can be daunting. The Cranfield School of...

Four Steps That Build Loyalty Programmes
November 18, 1993... The best customer loyalty programmes are a true reflection of a company's ethos and culture and should be complimentary to the brand image of the business. It is essential that a clear and distinctive offer is made to the customer and, most...

A Matter of Discipline
November 18, 1993... Why do so many direct mail drives miss their deadlines? It usually comes down to poor planning When booking media space, everyone knows the agreed schedule must be adhered to. If the deadline is missed, the newspaper or magazine will still be...

Presenting the New-Tech Show
November 18, 1993... Grabbing attention when making visual presentations requires the right tools, designed to impress. Ron Condon looks at the state-of-the-art software packages Very few speakers are entertaining enough or riveting enough to hold their listeners...

Saint John's Gospel
November 18, 1993... If the Roman Catholic church ever gets around to doling out sainthoods to the leading lights of the consumer electronics industry, Toshiba's managing director John Bennigsen will be top of the list. A straw poll of his contemporaries draws an...

Barclays loses head marketer. (Barclays Bank PLC) (This Week)
November 11, 1993... John Cheese is parting company with Barclays Bank after five years as personal sector marketing director. The decision has come as no surprise to insiders at the bank, which brought in Cheese in 1989 on a five-year contract. "If you...

Mirror to Face Ads Backlash
November 11, 1993... Advertisers are divided over whether the Mirror continues to provide a suitable advertising environment after its publication of pictures of the Princess of Wales working out in the gym this week. Bill Jones, director of press at Mediacom,...

Saatchis Hires Sara Lee Chief
November 11, 1993... Sara Lee Hosiery group marketing director Miriam Jordan Keane is leaving her post to return to advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi after less than 18 months in the job. Jordan Keane is to take over as management supervisor at Saatchis, in...

Buitoni sets up customer club. (Nestle Foods Co.'s Buitoni line of Italian food products) (This Week)
November 11, 1993... The world's biggest food company this month begins an experiment to sidestep the power of media owners and retailers by going direct to its consumers. Nestle is launching its long-awaited "Casa Buitoni Club" in the UK in a test strategy that...

Argos Readies Xmas Ads Blitz
November 11, 1993... Argos, the world's third largest catalogue chain, is this week throwing down the gauntlet to discounters with a |pounds~4m television, press and radio campaign supporting its new Christmas gift booklet and catalogue. The mixture of...

Quality Not Cost Is First Concern for the Shopper
November 11, 1993... When the High Court ruled that US retailer Costco should be allowed to open on British soil, it wasn't just brand manufacturers who were rattled -- perhaps rattled too much (see Marketing, November 4). Though the country's grocery retail giants...

Today takes on BST in refocus. (News International appoints ad agency Bainsfair Sharkey Trott to change its image)
November 11, 1993... News International has chosen Bainsfair Sharkey Trott as the agency to reposition its mid-market title Today as part of its pincer attack on the Daily Mirror. The new work will move Today downmarket, presenting it as a "more modern version...

Sainsbury Moves the Goalposts for Brands
November 11, 1993... By slashing own-label prices, is Sainsbury undermining its own brand? Branded manufacturers must be quaking in their boots. The mightiest of the mighty -- the UK's most profitable food retailer and guardian of the most cherished own-label -- has...

Mazda account all set for HHCL. (Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury Advertising) (Advertising)
November 11, 1993... Mazda's marketing director Jan Smith is believed to have signed a contract for her |pounds~6m advertising account with Howell Henry Chaldecott Lury. Smith, who is noted for her original approach to advertising, has been on the look-out for...

Agencies Pass the Health Test
November 11, 1993... Can advertising be a key ingredient in promoting healthier diets for kids? This week's Food & Drink programme on BBC2 provided a rare insight into the advertising process by showing how four well-known agencies dealt with the same brief: make...

The Best Ads Do Much More Than Just Get Noticed
November 11, 1993... Four weeks ago, when I last stood on this soap box, I ranted about intrusiveness. I argued that the first question anybody should ask when judging a piece of advertising was, "will anybody notice it?" At least three people noticed the article and...

ITV Hits Back in Upmarket War
November 11, 1993... ITV is hoping to fend off increasing competition from rival broadcasters by positioning itself more upmarket next year. The new |pounds~186m winter schedule, unveiled to advertisers this week, includes a raft of programmes which ITV's director of...

Study Points to TV Slot Savings
November 11, 1993... Some advertisers are paying twice as much as is necessary for their TV advertising campaigns, according to new findings from Carat Research. Advertisers are wasting money on non-cost-effective campaigns, paying more for longer ads when shorter...

Making More of the Same Work for Your Clients
November 11, 1993... The only client meeting I went to sleep in was with Woolworth. I don't mean mentally switch off, I mean actually slip away into blissful slumber. Mouth open, head lolling, gone. This was years ago, of course, and all the charming, but batty,...

Giving the Team a Global View of Marketing's Mix
November 11, 1993... Have you ever wondered why it is that sales promotion agencies are led by ex-marketers and staffed predominantly by ex-agency account handlers? I wonder about it quite a lot. Why is that a principal can cross the great divide successfully but...

Lloyds aims for the widescreen. (Lloyds Bank PLC to help promote BAFTA film awards) (Below-The-Line)
November 11, 1993... Lloyds Bank boosts its links with the film industry this week through a |pounds~1.5m three-year tie-up with the BAFTA film awards. The bank takes over from Shell, which pulled out two years ago after three years with the event. The deal...

Client/agency Relations Go to Arbitration
November 11, 1993... After years of client/agency bickering, ISBA is now throwing a lifeline to the industry. But how can such deep-rooted hostilities be concluded? The UK marketing services industry could be on the verge of a transformation. After years of a...

Integrate to Accumulate
November 11, 1993... Football is more than a game for Coca-Cola. Its integrated promotions are a virtual science. Marketer extraordinaire Coca-Cola gets extra fizz from its sales promotions by tying them together with common themes and reinforcing those themes with...

Better Return for the Sender
November 11, 1993... Handling houses take the hassle out of promotions, but marketers must identify their needs and follow up to get a good deal. Postal promotional campaigns have grown increasingly sophisticated and handling houses -- the essential connection...

John Sorrell, Chairman Designate, the Design Council: Teamplayer's Independent Streak
November 11, 1993... John Sorrell is a contradiction in terms. For someone who talks a great deal about teamwork, he is fiercely independent. A North Londoner by birth, he's a lover of the countryside. And, while he's quietly spoken, he is also very vocal when asked...

N&P Plans Huge Push for Cargo
November 4, 1993... Nurdin & Peacock, the grocery wholesaler, has upped the ante in the "warehouse club" wars by limbering up to spend |pounds~1m on the launch of each of its Cargo Club outlets. This week, N&P moved a step closer to appointing an advertising...

Associated Win Boosts Cable TV
November 4, 1993... Associated Newspapers, publisher of the Evening Standard, has won the rights to London's first dedicated cable TV station to open next year. The newspaper group, together with independent production house SelecTV, will provide TV advertisers with...

BT Spends 6m Pounds Sterling on Price Pledge
November 4, 1993... BT is to spend |pounds~6m to blitz its latest price cuts to the general public -- and possibly start a new marketing war in the process. The national TV, press and poster campaign through Saatchi & Saatchi breaks on November 22. The ads push...

Costco Coup No Cause for Panic
November 4, 1993... The news that the Costco warehouse club in Essex will open in four weeks' time is great for consumers. This Christmas promises to be the best value they have seen for years. The supermarket chiefs will not be the only marketers, however, to view...

Flora Drops Old Slogan in TV Ads
November 4, 1993... Van den Bergh Foods is scrapping the "blooming generation" Flora ads in favour of a new |pounds~3.5m TV push designed to stave off encroaching own-label lookalikes. The brand, worth |pounds~190m, is donning catchlines from a 60s Eartha Kitt hit...

Sony's MiniDisc Goes Big on 'Small' Equity
November 4, 1993... Sony launches the first "mass market" advertising campaign for its MiniDisc hi-fi format this week with the new slogan "It may be small but it's going to be big". The |pounds~500,000 national press campaign through Bartle Bogle Hegarty is small...

Radio Rentals to Sell Hi-Tech
November 4, 1993... Radio Rentals is introducing new, hi-tech items such as personal computers and embracing "ownership culture" in a bid to redefine itself as a retailer for the 90s. The Thorn-owned chain, which has over 720 outlets in the UK, hopes to insulate...

Dior tests free flights scheme. (Christian Dior's marketing tie-up with Air France) (This Week)
November 4, 1993... Fragrance house Christian Dior is dipping its toe into the free flights market this month through a new promotional tie-up with strike-ridden airline Air France. Undaunted by the Hoover disaster, the company has joined up with Air France for...

A&H in 4m pounds sterling UK toothcare push. (Church and Dwight Company Inc. Arm and Hammer Div.) (This Week)
November 4, 1993... US drugs firm Arm & Hammer this week launches the UK's first baking soda toothpaste, ahead of anticipated launches from the biggest toothpaste brands in the UK. Dental Care Fresh Mint and Cool Mint go into Boots in January, supported by a...

Inward Search Improves the Outward Offer
November 4, 1993... The personnel function in most companies should be abolished and merged with marketing. That is the only conclusion that we can draw from the way in which the competitive environment is changing. In many client companies, the personnel function...