Nilewide Marketing Review articles from August 2003

Nilewide Marketing Review archives from August 2003

Demand you can catch.
August 2, 2003... The double jeopardy effect has been known for many years, and simply describes how, as brands gain more buyers, they also gain disproportionately more heavy buyers. Or in the words of agency DDB Worldwide, as the number of friends of a brand...

Adding up the time dollars.
August 2, 2003... There is no shortage of claims about products saving customers time, either in purchasing or using the brand. But, while saving time is a favoured claim, each new product can only succeed by taking over the time previously devoted to an...

The politics of US brands.
August 2, 2003... After all the criticism hurled at the USA for its various stances on the environment, the Iraq War and North Korea, it appears that US brands are still flying high. According to the latest Interbrand most valuable brands list, many of the US...

Why the order matters.
August 2, 2003... Measuring customer satisfaction is common practice, but how the survey is constructed is critical to the result. The order of questions is one way that the results of surveys can be skewed. This is because asking questions in a certain order...

Lack of time and pricing.
August 2, 2003... Lack of time is the bane of modern life and is a critical factor in the way that we consume. This lack of time particularly affects how we perceive prices, that is, whether we see them as an indicator of quality (what is gained) or an indicator...

Charging too little.
August 2, 2003... The way companies price new products has a major impact on their profitability and yet they commonly price them too low. This is because they believe they need to price low in order to penetrate the market and to compete. But more often than...

No more privacy.
August 2, 2003... One of the current paradoxes of business is that consumers are demanding greater privacy at the same time as companies are expected to be more transparent. So privacy is an issue for everyone in different ways. Some companies have embraced...

Not in the mood.
August 2, 2003... According to Roper Starch, people all over the world are feeling rather negative, even anxious, and are not in the mood for major consumption. They are worried about unemployment and recession (43%), crime and lawlessness (41%), high prices and...

We let you persuade us.
August 2, 2003... Perhaps the best known way to influence someone's choice is to use context effects, that is, to give them unattractive alternatives or to make one attractive alternative stand out. Yet, one of the curious aspects of decision-making is that...

See more, eat more.
August 2, 2003... It is common for people to blame themselves when they eat more or fail to curtail their consumption when on a diet. However, it appears that environmental factors have more influence than previously thought. It has already been shown that...

Innovate or promote?
August 10, 2003... The costs and returns from innovations have been topics of endless debate among academics and managers. While measures such as returns on assets, investments or equity are common, they (like self-reporting approaches based on meeting...

What will go right?
August 10, 2003... Despite the unassailable position customer satisfaction (CS) holds in modern management, it has often failed to deliver the expected returns in terms of sales and loyalty. One of the main reasons why is the way it is practised, which often...

CLV: The elusive metric.
August 10, 2003... Customer lifetime value (CLV) is a metric every company wants, but it remains frustratingly elusive. This is because CLV, measured as the present value of the likely future income generated by a purchaser, is hard to calculate and hard to use....

Part of the herd.
August 10, 2003... It is no great insight to say that marketing and its disciplines have been focused on the individual, be it in research, relationships or persuasive advertising. But, this has ignored that humans are social animals and that our behaviour is not...

Staying young, acting young.
August 10, 2003... The trend towards looking young has been growing apace with plastic surgery and the worship of celebrities, but now people want to act young as well. It is common for 20-year olds to engage in juvenile pursuits, for 30-year olds to still be...

Icons against culture.
August 10, 2003... Most discussion of brands is based on the idea that a brand must own a simple focused position in a person's mind, a view which may be called the "mindshare" model and is most clearly derived from Ries and Trout's classical views on...

The return to global.
August 10, 2003... When in 2002, Coca-Cola's CEO announced its new strategy was "think local, act local" it appeared that the days of the global brand were limited. But at least two trends suggest they might rise again, although not as the heavily US-aligned...

Digital buys digital.
August 10, 2003... As more people buy high-speed access to the Internet, the potential for downloading songs, videos or movies, has become bigger than ever. The fracas over copyright merely obscures the inevitable: people will eventually be able to digitally...

Brand dis-content.
August 10, 2003... One of the most recent trends in brand management is the one towards brands creating content, as suggested by Coca-Cola. Yet, all the hype has obscured two important points. One is that few companies will have the ability to create content,...

Equity is what I say it is.
August 17, 2003... The adaptation of a quote from Lewis Carroll, by US academic Don Schultz, sums up the current position on brand equity. "It's [brand equity] exactly what I say it is. Nothing more and nothing less." This is despite the claims of a very large...

Complex and adaptive.
August 17, 2003... As we look for a better understanding of consumer behaviour, it is clear that the natural sciences, as opposed to the more reductionist perspectives of the physical sciences, are providing the greatest inspiration. The natural sciences raise a...

Chasing choices.
August 17, 2003... It might be expected that higher incomes and greater choice would make people happier than when they earned less and had fewer choices. However, that does not seem to be the case, as people are no happier than in the 1950s. There are two...

Give us the points.
August 17, 2003... The popularity of frequent flyer points and other rewards is based on some very basic human characteristics. When someone has to make an effort for an outcome, there is an obvious relationship between the two. However, when they make an effort...

The declining advantage of IT.
August 17, 2003... The May 2003 Harvard Business Review article "IT doesn't matter", by Nicholas Carr, certainly raised hackles in the rather depressed IT industry, but the implications of his argument extend to the users and role of IT in business and marketing...

Ethics in the now.
August 17, 2003... Recent corporate scandals have not only caused much soul-searching, but governments and other institutions have been scrambling to set up internal governance and other procedures to prevent them from happening again. However, these are systemic...

The other side of nostalgia.
August 17, 2003... Nostalgia seems to be everywhere today, especially in the US. And marketers are naturally adding to it, primarily because with the uncertainty and anxiety people feel today the past is pleasant and unthreatening. That is why ads for Old Navy...

Protect yourself.
August 17, 2003... While tobacco companies have been under fire for some time, companies that promote seemingly unhealthy products may be next. This is highlighted by major brands moving to make their products more healthy (or less damaging). McDonald's is...

Parents online.
August 17, 2003... As nearly 50% of people aged over 50 use the Internet in the USA, email is becoming the key intergenerational communication medium. Keeping in touch with family is older persons' primary use of the Net. While email is most important, they also...

Can't get no satisfaction.
August 17, 2003... While online retailing is growing as more people come online, it appears that the retailers themselves are not happy with their own service. A US study found that online retailers rated themselves only 63% (lower than did customers), and...

The marketing of marketing.
August 24, 2003... Analysis Over recent years, we have seen marketing lose its place in the boardroom and much of its influence in many companies. While there has been no shortage of proposed solutions to the problem, nothing has really changed. It is clear...

From interruption to attraction.
August 31, 2003... The belief that people are tired of being interrupted by advertisers and would prefer to be entertained, is rapidly becoming common wisdom and has been supported by people such as Coke's Steve Heyer. Heyer claims there will be "a convergence of...

The paradox of retro brands.
August 31, 2003... The revival of old brands, the return of old ad campaigns, and the rise of new versions of much loved old products attests to the importance of nostalgia in today's consumer culture. This interest in the retro is likely to continue, because one...

The growth of e-services.
August 31, 2003... Despite the dot-com bust, delivering services via electronic media continues to grow and will be increasingly important for all marketers. In the US close to 80% of the population has Internet access, with 61% having access at home. This...

Equitable research.
August 31, 2003... As a generalisation market research is about dipping into a group of people to gather insights that the marketer will use to increase sales. Inherent in this are some key weaknesses. The first is the idea of dipping into a group of people and...

Why leaders fail.
August 31, 2003... One of the most popular topics for business books is looking at why certain companies or leaders succeed. Case studies of these successful companies are held up as shining examples for others to follow. However, concentrating on successes makes...

Failing away from home.
August 31, 2003... The call to globalise, apart from being another form of jargon, is a powerful one for companies that have maximised their profits in their home market. But, this does not necessarily mean they should globalise. The problem is that many...

Perceptions of waiting.
August 31, 2003... Our desire to measure can all too easily lead to measuring what we observe rather than perceptions about what is happening. One example is waiting, which is usually measured in minutes or hours. However, satisfaction or dissatisfaction with...

Watch your language!
August 31, 2003... If communication is the essence of good marketing then it is surprising that so many companies resort to jargon. According to Deloitte Consulting, which recently launched the jargon-busting software, Bullfighter, the worst offending words are...

Blog off.
August 31, 2003... Weblogs, (blogs), are rapidly gaining popularity, with blogging software readily available and usually free. It is the ultimate in amateur publishing, and as long as other people can find you, and share your interests, they can be a great...

Pop-ups or spam?
August 31, 2003... Increasing use of intrusive Net pop-up ads has led to suggestions that they are becoming as bad as spam. Since they block the page, the user must spend time to close or read them. However, they are cheap for marketers, because they are aimed at...