Marketing Tips For You

Number 10 has issued a statement in response to an e-Petition calling for an investigation into the controversial Phorm platform that profiles users of participating web sites in order to serve up targeted advertising based on the user profile rather than other systems such as Google’s Adsense that serves up adverts based on the page content.   

However it is clear from the ZDNET Story that this issue seems to fall between the various government departments such as the Information Commissioner’s Office that over see the Data Protection Act and other departments that deal with other legislation.

This is another step along the road towards improving returns form on-line advertising and better exploiting the commercial potential of site content.

Tags: On-line Advertising, SEO, e-Marketing

For some time we have seen the increased awareness of the importance to local economies in relation art and cultural events.  There has been a great deal work carried out by The University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University  into the impact of Liverpool’s hosting the European Capital of Culture title in 2008. Full documentation and information about dissemination events can be found at the UoL site.

Clearly there is a need for careful market of these types of event - last year Cambridge Folk Festival got publicity for all the wrong reasons as the failure of the ticketing agents led to losses for the organisers Cambridge City Council, (See report) .

Also the arts sector of the UK economy is an important and growing sector - when we are told we no longer make anything in the UK - we forget the arts industry. Just because there are not any chimneys on  ‘Arts factories’ - does not mean they do not contribute to the economy of UK Plc.

Tags: Arts Marketing

We often take it for granted that we can access data on world trade to underpin our research and reports on which strategies rely.  However this has to be based on the accurate collection and correlation of data. 

The World Trade Organisation is declaring today as "data day" to raise awareness of how important collecting data is for the world economy.  The WTO itself is a useful source of statistics itself that might help during the planning process. (See WTO Statistics)

I often seem to return to the car industry as an example of markets and how they work or how companies develop over time and ‘Jockey for Position’ (Porter) within the industry. I suppose it goes back to my roots working with staff from Peugeot and Ford or perhaps it goes further back to working with the cars themselves.

However the Car industry is a truly global business and central to many economies. So when we see in the news that Fiat is now set to become the worlds largest player with it’s acquisitions from the Chysler and GM portfolios we have to speculate how this will change the world - well at least the car market. (See Washington Post)

It is interesting that Fiat and Italian manufacturers have been derided and dismissed in recent years - but we have forgotten that it was Italian styling that underpinned much of UK production in the 1960’s and still does inform design. Also the engineering in Italy is not to be dismissed, although you could argue that the eye catching cars from Alpha Romeo and Lancia could  have been accused of putting style over substance - underneath there was some excellent engineering.  It was Fiats experience of using aluminum for cylinder heads that has been invaluable to Ford through collaborative development of small economic engines for their European small car range.

There are parallel with the UK industry - while mass production in the UK is dominated by the Japanese companies - there is a still a very strong engineering presence.  This is exploited by the motor sport divisions of many majors who use UK companies to develop and build engines and chassis  in the UK for prestigious high cost and high focus events such as Formula 1. 

So perhaps we will see more good news for the UK industry like that for LDV  yesterday - announcing that production will start again in June (BBC story).  There are still some success stories in the industry that can be built on - BMW still produces the successful Mini in Oxford, Solihull still has the Landrover plant - which still can produce both iconic recreational vehicles as well as the workhorse for farmers and the MOD and the development engineering skills base in the West Midlands can still produce prototypes and concept cars that are the models of tomorrow.

I have always been a choco-holic - ever since I can remember - which might explain why there is almost 14lbs more of me than is healthy - so it comes as no surprise that I have Cadbury shares in my portfolio ( along with Whitbread) - always invest in what you understand.

So I was pleasantly surprised when doing some last minute Christmas shopping and I came across some chocolate bars from Bloomsbury and Co. branded BOCHOX, EMERGENCY CHOCOLATE; GIRTH CONTROL and several other unlikely brand names and humorous packaging.  Ideal stocking fillers for a partner who shares your weakness for chocolate (or probably better if they do not!)

Since Christmas the now empty packaging has been here on my desk - but it was only this morning, avoiding doing something more like work, that I went to the companies site - and was delighted by the innovation and ‘Flash’ user interface.

Humour as part of the Brand.

I often use the Cadbury site as an example of using humour and fun as part of a brand and the potential of using a web site to really develop this. Cadbury have also extended this into their recent advertising campaigns - effectively using humour to develop the recent ‘eyebrows’ viral campaign. (See Post) However Bloomsbury have used humour not just as an add on but embedded as part of the brand ‘property’.

So how effective has using humour been? - Using humour in advertising is always very tricky there are several potential pit falls - while you might really hit the spot with part of your target audience - it is very easy to irritate if not offend others. I am sure that there were plenty of people out there that did not get the Cadbury ‘Eyebrows’ - but you will still here the ring tone on a crowded train or in a bar.

Web Site Design

So what about using humour in the website interface?  We all know the importance of web site design creating logical structures for the content, with simple navigation and easily accessible  content - but if you check out these  two chocolate makers sites these rules have been thrown out of the window.

Successful Strategy

I suppose the bottom line has to be - never mind the theory - has Bloomsbury’s strategy worked?  Well in the current UK market to get confectionary product on the shelves of one of the big three supermarkets during the Christmas period - clearly the branding and marketing strategy has worked. Even more so when you consider that the major players such as Cadbury and Nestle will have paid for premium shelf positioning - for what is presented as a ‘Ma & Pa’* business from New Zealand to have got a look in has got to be a success. 

Bloomsbury and Co.

Cadbury

More About Branding

* I love this term from America to describe the small family run business.

Tags: Chocolate, Retailing

Talks are going on between Fiat and Chryslers top team about bailing out the US flagship car manufacturer, it is also looking at GM’s European brands Saab Opel and Vauxhall if these deals go through it will make the Italian car maker the second largest in the world.

Chrysler was quick to follow GM’s market segmentation strategy developed by Alfred Sloan to build a range of brands that spanned from the family ‘economy’ Plymouth Brand through the macho Dodge and Jeep brands;  to the top of the range Imperial, but this was a poor substitute for the Ford and GM brands  - with Ford still the car of the people and GMs top of the range becoming the stars favourite -  the Cadillac.

To counter this in the 1950’s Chrysler built it’s reputation in the utility vehicle and Jeep brands and novel segmentation along with adopting an all in one shell and chasse or ‘moncoque’ design that keep it’s position as one of the top three US car makers.  Mean while GM established itself in Europe by acquiring  the  Routes Group, Vauxhall and German Opel brands in the 1960’s.

Since then the once dominant US car-maker’s management teams have failed to ’smell the coffee’ and kept backing their gas guzzling brands and the recent financial turmoil, rather than being the cause of their downfall was just the last straw. Despite Obhama’s generous support he is backing the deals which will hand over GM’s European brands and 20% of Chrysler. The only thing the Fiat needs is the finance - which should be in place by the end of the week.

Bailout Watch

De World

History of Chrysler

The World Trade Organization (WTO)  has arranged a public meeting on the 12 May to discuss several disputes in relation to EU tariffs on certain IT Products. The interesting thing is the parties to these disputes are the US, China and Japan.

If you browse through the WTO site you will see a pattern emerging - many past complaints have related to developing countries complaining about the US using tariff barriers or supporting their domestic producers and disadvantaging developing countries, and the US has in the past been robust in defending such actions. 

Similarly in the past the US or US corporations have had disputes with China that have been serious international spats, with the US accusing China of ignoring copyright on core elements of software, IT products and entertainment.

In the past the US has not been the most enthusiastic member of the WTO, and it has to be said that under past administrations has been at least, if not protectionist in it’s approach,  inward looking. Also China might be regarded as more a sinner than sinned against - but perhaps this is a further indication of the new world order, with China having an increasing influence on world trade, not just as a cheap workshop for the West, but a fully paid up  economic player.

See WTO site

It has been seen in previous recessions that buying habits change - some in explicable ways others seem to confound the trend.  For example the sales of branded products, such as Heinz Baked Beans are often more resilient as buyers reduce risk - so stick to known brands. Also entertainment is often buoyant as consumers seek activities that take their mind off what is happening in everyday life - UK Cinema Attendance figures would seem to bear this out. (See UK attendance figures for January and February)

However sometimes sales figures seem to go against the norms - for some reason in the UK beer sales have slumped by 8% - usually sales of alcohol are more resilient.  It is not only the wet sales in pubs that have been effected but also the sales of beer in the supermarkets. This trend is exacerbated by the tax increases in the budget. even ‘gastro pubs’ are suffering while the numbers of people eating out has not declined as much as the drinkers the average spend on a meal out has dropped.   Publicans are concerned that premises that are already struggling will go under, public houses have been closing across the country particularly in rural areas a spokesman explained that if if you want your ‘local’ to be there you must "Use it or loose it"  

Beer Sales Slump - ITV

I always seem to have several books I am reading at the same time and I noticed that at the minute I seem to be reading at the two extremes of the Marketing subject area!

Buy-Ology by  Martin Lindstrom

This is a classic of the marketing genre - ‘how to spin gold from straw - using marketing!’  But like all of these texts there are some vry interesting ideas for the marketing practitioner which might lead to some some if the enthusiasm rubbing off onto your own campaign.
Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy Is Wrong

Marketing a Critical Introduction by Chris Hackley

This is much stronger meat and looks critically at marketing as an academic subject area. If you are a marketing cynic or you have to sell in you marketing plans to marketing cynics this book might well give you an insight into how you should approach them.

This book provides a useful critique and sharp critical view of marketing and the author gives a perspective on the whole subject that might well be very prescient for the post recession economy.
Marketing: A Critical Introduction

Chancellor Darling’s budget has been lampooned as being based on far too optimistic figures from the treasury, predicting what seems like rapid recovery in the UK economy starting by the end of this year. This is at odds with IMF forecasts that are predicting a deeper recession in the world economy yet to come.

In view of the measures taken by the government it should have been no surprise that taxes would be raised to pay for the unprecedented borrowing - in fact the debate following the chancellors speech focused as much on the politics as the substance.

So for a businesses planning it’s strategy for the next period who should we take note of - The treasury or the IMF? In my opinion the only option is to be focusing on being fit for the upturn in the short term and being ready to take advantage when it happens - which I believe will be sooner than some pundits are saying.  If you look at the Economists - business this week that arrived in my in box today there are a lot of businesses investing in potential capacity - Pepsico vertically integrating with bottlers, but the story that caught my eye was the Oracle acquisition of Sun - this gives one of the major players in the very lucrative data management market control of the Spark* platform and Java. This might mean that in the future Microsoft SQL Server could look like an expensive option and further hit MS market share - and profits.

The Economist also records the continuing woes of the Banking sector world wide - which is where the worst of the economic problems started and are still being flushed out. Hopefully the measures taken by the leading economies will prevent any further contagion from banking to the wider economy.

BBC- IMF ‘Deeper Recession’

BBC - UK Budget

*Spark is a UNIX platform developed by Sun and is, in my opinion, awesomely reliable.