I went to a talk recently about Behavioural Economics, it’s a topic that fascinates me and since the session was being hosted by a legal firm I was hoping for a different slant on the subject. What I got was a classic example of how easy it is for marketing activity to negatively impact on … Continue reading when poor presentation skills impact brand perceptions
I've seen a quite enormous number of bad ads over the festive break, mostly from furniture retailers. But one ad stood out, possibly because it was practically the only one that wasn't urging me to head down to my nearest retail park and spend, spend, spend. Sky's ad is beautifully shot and uses Harrison Ford … Continue reading Sky provides relief from bad post-Christmas ads
My new passport arrived the other day. The cover hasn't changed much since the last one, but inside it’s gorgeous. image from the Home Office's new UK passport design set on flickr, CC applies I hadn’t realised just how comprehensively the design had been changed two years ago and I spent ages oohing and ahhing … Continue reading a passport that’s also a branding tool
So last weekend we fired the first shots in 2012’s Jubilympic branding exercise for Great Britain. Yes, the Diamond Jubilee weekend was supposed to be all about celebrating HMQ’s 60 year reign, but there was inevitably a big-up for Team GB, Brand Britain and UK PLC in there too. I think the Visit Britain campaign … Continue reading firing the first shots for Jubilympic Brand Britain
In the first half of my Planning career I worked on a number of drinks brands and became a bit of an authority on stuff like maximising back bar selling hotspots. As a result, I ended up writing lots of features for drinks trade mag The Publican and still provide expert comment for the odd … Continue reading why brewers have yet to learn what women want
I had an, erm, lively conversation with a client recently when they suggested connecting with their target audience by “doing something with our facebook page”. Since I’d just spent the preceding ninety minutes telling them that the majority of their customers really wern't that bothered about or engaged with their brand and mostly bought it mainly … Continue reading if owned online spaces are a house party, most brands should be out on the town
The main topic of conversation yesterday morning at the agency I was working in was, perhaps inevitably, X Factor. As we merrily critiqued last weekend's performances I remembered that at the end of every act a message appeared on screen directing you to the X Factor website (and then iTunes) to download the track you … Continue reading X Factor finds a whole new use for iTunes
I’ve started wading through the transcripts of last week’s focus groups*. The groups were for a food brand and when I asked respondents about promotions and in store sampling one lady piped up: My friend does it. Yeah she promotes things like that, she did cheese last time. I got quite a few cheese vouchers. … Continue reading PM or SP, it’s all about quality
The last couple of weeks for me have been about contrasts in customer service. And they’ve all been frontline contact, whether face to face or on the phone. Take Holiday Inn Express. Their website promises an improved experience with “Real Service. Really.” But trying to book a meeting room and couple of bedrooms was more … Continue reading what happens when the brand’s frontline doesn’t deliver – and why we should be bothered
There are an awful lot of businesses and brands out there doing the whole Social Media thing rather badly. Getting Marketing Wrong isn’t a new phenomenon, I only have to look at the dross which drops though my letterbox from Indian takeaways, landscape gardeners and cleaning services to see that there are a lot of … Continue reading with social media lowering the bar, are some businesses doing themselves more harm than good?
