Companies seeking information on how target markets experience their brands, products or services are increasingly likely to call in focus groups. Individually unremarkable, the members of these groups come together to form a critical mass apparently invested with folk wisdom and highly prized insights. However, marketers are realising that focus groups suffer the usual problems […]
C&A is the latest chain to reveal the grim picture of high street clothes retailing with the announcement that it is closing nine of its 110 stores with the loss of more than 500 jobs. The latest cuts come on top of news last autumn that the chain was closing six stores and axing 160 […]
Allied Domecq Retailing has recruited its first marketing and development director. She comes from Togos, its sandwich bar company in the US. Syl Saller, formerly vice-president of marketing for Togos, is to take over the new job created after a restructure last year. She will work across the two parts of Allied Domecq Retailing in […]
The Gillette Company has relocated several senior members of its European management at its Boston head quarters and has appointed six presidents to cover the eastern hemisphere as part of a worldwide restructure. Robert Leger, general manager northern Europe, has left for Boston, as has UK president Allan Boath. It is also believed Veronica Lewis, […]
Forget producers, directors, agents or even mega-grossing actors. These days, no self-respecting Hollywood studio will make a film without the say-so of its resident marketing guru. Maybe that’s not so surprising, given the average mainstream film costs 25m to make; then add a similar sum on top for marketing. There’s too much at risk not […]
News that China has ordered its airline bosses to book flights for New Year’s Day 2000 as an incentive to ensure their companies solve mill-ennium bug glitches in time, may seem a little harsh. It appears that British Airways boss Bob Ayling has no intention of taking a tip from the Chinese. He will have […]
Jerry Hill’s aversion to “outdated systems” does him credit (Media Comment, MW January 7). Perhaps he will start by encouraging his fellow TV sellers to remove the most outdated system of all: trading TV airtime on ITV station average price. Pat Barsby Managing director Barsby Rowe Solihull Warks
The best potato peeler we’ve ever had in our household was acquired last autumn. All the others made your hands hurt by the fourth spud. This one doesn’t, thanks to a great thick handle of soft, matt black rubber, with special ribs at the business end to improve the grip and stop thumb and forefinger […]
UK Internet ad spend has risen by more than 200 per cent year on year to the end of June 1998, reaching 4.5m, according to the first industry-wide survey. The release of the figures, collected by accountancy group PricewaterhouseCoopers, for the Internet Advertising Bureau UK and Ireland, will be followed by regular quarterly reports, according […]
MediaVest has won the 4.5m media buying account for Bupa after pitching against Optimedia. Bupa parted company with full-service incumbent Ogilvy & Mather in November last year after a six-year relationship. The group had provided an integrated service, with MindShare buying media and Ogilvy One handling direct marketing. An announcement on the creative account is […]
Earlier this month, British American Racing, the newest arrival on the Formula One grid, revealed the livery of its team for the 1999 championship, hurling BAR straight into the headlines – the two cars looked nothing like each other. In the red and white corner stood Jacques Villeneuve and a car adorned with the name […]
Bartle Bogle Hegarty has won the 3m account for EMAP Active, the publishing giant’s new consumer magazine division. The account will be handled by the agency’s integrated arm, BBH Unlimited, which was brought in-house following the closure of the agency’s direct marketing operation, Limbo. EMAP Active was formed in October 1998 from a merger of […]
Carlsberg-Tetley is expected to relaunch Castlemaine XXXX this summer with a 6m campaign to take on rival Aussie lager Foster’s. Industry sources suggest the new campaign for the once high profile Castlemaine may return to the brand’s original and still famous tagline: “Australians wouldn’t give a XXXX for anything else.” The tagline was replaced in […]
Speculation is mounting that one of CIA Medianetwork’s key executives, Marco Benatti, has given notice to quit at the end of his three-year contract which runs out in December. Benatti, founder and chairman of CIA Medianetwork in Italy and a former CIA vice-chairman, clashed with Tempus Group chairman Chris Ingram 18 months ago when he […]
I disagree with George Pitcher’s analysis of the latest Churches Advertising Network (CAN) campaign – a poster depicting Christ in a similar way to the Che Guevara student posters (MW January 14). It is not that CAN “does not know whether it is in the business of advertising or PR”, rather that for the campaigns […]