Why would women want the Lynx Effect?
Marketing WeekRosie Baker is Marketing Week’s specialist on sustainability and retail.
Brand development will save you from the storm
Marketing WeekPlaying it safe is perhaps the most popular way to navigate choppy waters and there is certainly comfort and reassurance in turning to tried and trusted solutions. Just ask football managers Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson, who last week turned to semi-retired legends of the past to boost their playing squads for the challenges […]
Mobile is effective route to integration
Marketing WeekThe recent article discussing mobile marketing coming of age (‘Brands search for higher level of reception’, MW 5 January) states that mobile also needs to find its USP over other channels. Rather than a differentiator, I believe mobile’s future is as a connector with different platforms. The recent Orange Exposure 2012 research showed how mobiles […]
Price cutting will lead to failure
Marketing WeekPrice discounting will not be enough to succeed in another challenging year for retailers. John Lewis’s record Christmas sales show that offering value, rather than discounting, will be retailers’ saviour in 2012 (‘Marketers stress importance of offering value in 2012’). If high street retailers rely on discount-only strategies, they will leave themselves open to attacks […]
Putting value first includes the consumer experience
Marketing WeekThe article ‘Marketers stress importance of offering value in 2012’, does a great job in highlighting a number of the challenges that marketers will face over the coming year. Being the oldest or the cheapest is no longer enough to differentiate you from the competition. Marketers need to be continually adding value and creating engaging […]
Creativity may be a false idol
Marketing WeekYour cover story, ‘Swimming against the tide of received wisdom’ (MW 5 January), explored the need to unleash the power of creativity to drive growth in stagnant markets and to employ more people at board level who truly understand human behaviour. While intuitively I applaud this, I’m critically aware that we run the risk of […]
BetNow readies TV campaign with Quiet Storm
Marketing WeekBetNow, the instant text betting service, is to launch a television campaign next year.
Social-media inept?
Marketing WeekAnother week, another column by Mark Ritson on his rather one-sided opinions on the failings of social media (MW 24 November). What Mark and the TNS study fail to address is the type of messages that many brands put across on social media platforms. What will fail are those campaigns that don’t adopt the ’social’ […]
Helping the young enriches our industry
Marketing WeekAs a director with responsibility for HR at a marketing services agency, it’s fantastic news that the industry is striving to reduce unemployment through boosting opportunities for this younger age group (MW 24 November). Now is a vital time to invest in the future of our young people, who otherwise risk being forgotten. The marketing […]
Marketing holding greater sway needs culture change
Marketing WeekWe were delighted to see Sir Martin Sorrell highlighting the growing influence of marketers in companies in the years ahead (MWlinks.co.uk/SorrellPower). Marketers are uniquely positioned to help their businesses rise to the challenge of the tough economic climate but need the capabilities to do this and engage other functions in a more customer-focused agenda. While […]
Drive belief in, not buy-in
Marketing WeekBeing able to bridge the public service gap is great news for brands (MW 24 November), adding a potential new string to their bow. But it is how they communicate this to consumers that will be the true test for brand marketing. Today’s brands struggle to compete with rivals based on product or service alone, […]
Internal comms that engage
Marketing WeekWhen it comes to internal communications (’The vital connection between staff and the bottom line’, MW 10 November), social media and the intranet need to be balanced alongside other communication channels. In the same way, it is important to look at the balance of control. As Aviva’s Christy Stewart-Smith says, an internal communications strategy needs […]
Incentives aid social media engagement
Marketing WeekA recent study carried out by TNS suggests that six out of 10 Britons don’t want to engage with brands through social media (NMAlinks.co.uk/smengage) – a situation that is creating “mountains of digital waste”. However, research from KN Dimestore and SocialVibe found that 90% of consumers are actually happy to interact with an incentivised ad […]
Learn from your customers
Marketing WeekLinking customer experience with profitability (MW 3 November) demands “bigger picture” thinking because when you talk to customers about what really matters to them you tend to get responses surrounding price and offers. However, this research can highlight true opportunities. One of the nuggets uncovered by our customer insight programme was that we should extend […]
Great insight can come from anywhere
Marketing WeekIn these testing times, it is a joy to hear from somebody who is upbeat about business prospects. A relatively junior member of our independent sector sales team had taken it upon himself to make sure that the marketing department was properly briefed on what he believes will be a key change to consumer behaviour […]