In the wise words of Al Murray's pub landlord, "white wine for the lady, beer for the gentleman... them's the rules. And where would we be if we didn't have rules?" (Answer: France!). Here in the UK, Molson Coors have pulled their Animée ‘lady beer’ after just one year. Good. In last week’s Marketing, WCRS Planning Director Matt Willifer argued that Animée was a “brave launch by an admirably innovative company” (?) but suggested [...]
So yesterday, ‘Everything Everywhere’ started their about-turn on the promise that it was never going to be a customer-facing brand, by announcing the launch of “4EE”. Apparently, “it’s designed to ‘sit alongside’ Orange and T-Mobile in the cities offering 4G coverage”. To sit alongside while they work out how to phase them out, no doubt. My fellow ex-Orange colleagues and I are appalled that this is happening. But I’m not surprised. The Orange brand has [...]
If brands were honest... Marketing magazine recently carried an interesting piece entitled ‘Face it, your consumers hate you’ which talked about rising consumer distrust of advertising and marketing. It quoted a survey by the brand agency Promise, which found “consumers are ready to assume the worst about brands, and have fallen out of love with them.” I’m not surprised. Back in February, I posted a blog arguing the case for a return to [...]
Much has been written about the incredible success of Groupon; named by Forbes magazine as “the fastest growing company, ever”, and valued at $13bn with 83m subscribers in 43 countries. Eye-watering numbers achieved in just 3 years, for sure – although not without acres of accompanying column inches bemoaning the shoddy way Groupon treats some of its suppliers, and the shoddy way some suppliers treat their customers (without any recourse from Groupon). But putting all [...]