Month: May 2006

BT tipped to launch ‘jelly baby’ phones

Marketing Week

BT is understood to be developing a line of handsets called jelly phones because of their resemblance to jelly baby sweets. The telecoms giant has trademarked the words “Jelly Family” and a spokesman admits it has produced a prototype model. However, it is not clear where the phones will sit in the company’s portfolio. It […]

Axing of KitKat Kubes a mystery to retailers

Marketing Week

The fate of Nestlé Rowntree’s KitKat Kubes has caused confusion among retailers who claim they are continuing to sell the product, contradicting Nestlé’s claim that it is withdrawing the Kubes. Retailers say that they have not been told that the product has been axed, and that the product is still available on their shelves. Nestlé […]

Leadership skills win the day

Marketing Week

Entrepreneurial spirit is an inspirational attribute of the UK’s most influential marketers, according to a poll of Marketing Week’s readers, and wide-ranging debate among a panel of opinion-forming journalists and key industry figures.

What badly needs renewing is the process of innovation itself

Marketing Week

The biggest obstacle to innovation is rarely lack of creativity, but sclerotic industry structures and practices that must be bent to launch new products What is the secret of successful innovation? Well, drawing on long and painful experience of failure as well as success, here are some pretty universal lessons. First, if you can possibly […]

Pot Noodle under fire for ads ‘disparaging’ to Welsh culture

Marketing Week

Mother’s first work for Unilever’s Pot Noodle brand has run into a storm of protest from Welsh people who think it disparages their culture and heritage. The ad features Welsh miners descending underground to dig for Pot Noodles. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has confirmed that it has had 14 complaints about the campaign. The […]

Toyota gears up for a top-level European management reshuffle

Marketing Week

Toyota GB’s long-serving managing director Graham Smith, one of the men credited with the marque’s unprecedented sales growth over the past decade, is thought to be considering a new role with Toyota Europe. Insiders say that he is likely to be replaced by Andrea Formica, the former Ford of Britain marketing director, who is currently […]

Interpublic and Garry Lace close to final settlement

Marketing Week

Interpublic Group (IPG) is understood to be close to making a decision on the future of Lowe London chief executive Garry Lace nearly a month after the original decision was due. It is thought that Lace has already left the agency without any punitive sanctions against him, and that the investigation instigated against him by […]

Centaur Holdings changes name

Marketing Week

Centaur Holdings, the publicly listed owner of Marketing Week, is changing its name to Centaur Media and updating its logo. Centaur Publishing took the Holdings name when it launched on AIM in March 2004. It later moved to the main market.

OFT refers grocery sector to Competition Commission

Marketing Week

The Office of Fair Trading has referred the grocery sector to the Competition Commission following a consultation period that garnered 1,200 responses. Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of the UK’s leading retailer Tesco, says: “This gives us the opportunity to address some of the myths surrounding our industry.”