It’s late 2010 and my favourite global brand just sent me an online questionnaire asking only one material question – how likely I was to recommend their company to my friends. OMG! Where have they been?
Let me explain my (almost) shock and horror… Read on…
Although corrective advertising is intended to undo mistaken beliefs created by false claims rather than be punitive in nature, there is ample evidence it can have serious effects on the firms involved. Read on…
I love hardware stores, the bigger the better. I like buying tools, accessories, oils, sprays, fillers, hoses, bulk packs, multi-packs, whatever – which is the main reason I like visiting the local Mitre 10 Mega store in particular. Big is Good!
The only thing is, to be completely honest, I’m reasonably inept when it comes to building or repairing things, and so I usually revert to calling a local tradesman in to do the actual work – my shiny new toys left sitting unused amongst their predecessors out in the garage with their price tags intact. No real surprise then that when my wife discovered the price of our new and unused European chainsaw (while the local arborist was happily about trimming our trees) her jaw nearly hit the floor.
And so, with a similar sense of shock and surprise perhaps, the announcement of New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement with China (the world’s first) made some diplomatic jaws drop around the world. And the reason was obvious – Read on…
I’m quite possibly not your favourite consumer. I should confess that right now. Up front. Put my cards on the table, so to speak.
I tease market research interviewers with my answers and sometimes-mischievous questions, and I don’t do Fly Buys, carry customer cards or clip product coupons (I’ve got too much rubbish already in my wallet to carry anything more than I actually need). In fact, I don’t even really like shopping. So perhaps I’m not best qualified to comment on very recent research about the effectiveness of such promotions. But, if you can bear with me I will—because the evidence just in is worthy of review.
While earlier research has demonstrated brands play an important part in delivering enhanced impact of marketing activities, there has remained a fair bit of conventional wisdom around the traps about the effects of tactical marketing initiatives such as price promotions, feature advertising and in store displays. The general feeling has been permanent sales effects resulting from such executions are rare. But is that conventional view a fair reflection of reality? Authors Slotegraaf and Pauwels, in their recent Journal of Marketing Research article, suggest it’s not. Read on…
For those of you who don’t eat, drink and sleep brand strategy like me, let me try to explain it. A brand is not a logo. It’s what people think, feel and believe about a company or product.
Here’s a great example of a startup that got its branding right. Geoff Ross built a very successful brand with 42 Below, a company that’s almost completely brand driven. Let’s face it, most vodkas taste the same but from day one, 42 Below has had a good visual identity and packaging system, really strong brand advocacy and a clear ‘f*** you’ attitude. Love it or hate it, the company’s abrasive, cocky, in-your-face marketing has created quite a splash with what was once a small pebble.
The successful launch and subsequent multimillion-dollar sale of 42 Below seems to owe much to its slick brand strategy. And it’s not the only one. Homegrown companies Icebreaker and Orca also both seemed to have their brand strategies well nailed at launch.
There aren’t a whole lot of other New Zealand startups I can point to and say, ‘wow, that’s great branding’. Failing to invest in your company’s brand from pre-launch is a blind spot many startups suffer from. And it can prove fatal. Read on…
Have you ever wondered what would happen if local hospitals operated undertaker services and marketed their own brand of cigarettes, or the Police marketed their own brand of radar detection units and Tasers? Some brands and products or product categories simply don’t sit well together. Chalk and cheese. And while the hospital and Police examples are unlikely to eventuate given their very obvious downsides, the decision to develop new products to carry an existing brand is not always that easy for marketers looking to optimise returns from the brand portfolios for which they are responsible.
Despite those difficulties, however, brand extensions – or the use of an existing brand name on a new product in a new category – are fairly commonplace. Brand owners see extensions as an opportunity to create leverage from prior investment in an established brand and to reduce the risk of new product failures. Sitting behind the strategy is an assumption that a higher number of consumers will purchase the new product because of their pre-existing awareness and understanding of the brand and what it represents.
But the real question is whether or not these assumptions are actually true. Read on…
Prevar™ Limited announced this week that it has selected the trademark name SMITTEN™ for the outstanding new PremA17 apple cultivar, and has sought registration of this word and associated logo device in key apple markets. The new name and brand identity was designed and developed by Everything Design.
Six New Zealand pipfruit companies have signed up to commercialise the new SMITTEN™ apple and have enthusiastically endorsed its branding. “The brand development work was undertaken for Prevar™ by the NZ brand strategy company Everything Design Limited and is outstanding,” according to Prevar™ CEO, Dr Brett Ennis. Read on…
An outdoor fund-raising campaign we created recently for the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation. The outdoor treatment of the campaign uses adshel’s night time illumination to reveal a second stage to the creative treatment. The technique allows us to reinforce our key message – encouraging women to spend a night in with friends and donate the money they would normally spend on a night out to The Foundation’s cause.
We created different silhouettes on the reverse side of the poster to represent the different ages groups in our target demographic.
Marketing and Sales, they share the same big picture, but never seem to see the same view. Is this a good thing or bad? Is the tension healthy or should it be eliminated? Recent research may well provide the answer. Read on…