MaryLou Costa

MaryLou Costa

Can Asda be a mum’s best friend?

MaryLou Costa

Insights from Asda’s first ‘Mumdex’ may provide the retailer with a powerful edge, as results show that UK mums are looking not just for a financial break but support to deal with overall impacts of the economic crisis. Asda’s Mumdex is a clever tool. For a supermarket that does not offer a loyalty card scheme […]

MaryLou Costa

Is the growth of the coffee sector just a quick fix?

MaryLou Costa

Today you can get a decent cup of coffee just about anywhere, from M&S to McDonalds – brand names that five years ago you would never have put alongside vocabulary like latte, grande or macchiato. But according to research consultancy Allegra, whose insights on the coffee sector were the focus of our trends feature last […]

Vicki Reed

Q&A: Vicki Reed, Edun

MaryLou Costa

Marketing director Vicki Reed describes Edun as a fashion brand with an ethical conscience. Here, she tells MaryLou Costa how part-owner LVMH is helping the company achieve its ambitions.

MaryLou Costa

Brands contributing to obesity solutions need to get local

MaryLou Costa

About 32% of UK adults are estimated to be obese in 2012, according to the NHS. Brands are already signed up to the government’s Responsibility Deal, but what more can they do? I heard the alarming statement at a recent Westminster Food and Nutrition Forum on obesity that in some parts of the UK, being […]

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Mainstream brands make a play for the super rich list

MaryLou Costa

For a Q&A with Quintessentially’s co-founder Ben Elliot, click here Explore a case study with private jet magazine The Private Journey, click here To see Ledbury Research’s analysis of wealth archetypes in Asia, Russia and the Middle East, click here There is a group of people for whom the recession has barely registered. They could […]

Wealth archetypes

MaryLou Costa

Speaking at the Luxury Briefing Wealth Summit event in London last year, Ledbury Research director James Lawson quipped that luxury brand strategies used to involve a “bun fight over the Sunday Times Rich List”, but today it is more complex than that.

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Case study: The Private Journey

MaryLou Costa

Find out how mainstream brands can attract the world’s super rich, click here For a Q&A with Quintessentially’s co-founder Ben Elliot, click here If the opening of a private jet dealership in London’s Knightsbridge last month isn’t enough of an indicator of demand at the very top of the consumer market, Jim Kerwin, founder and […]

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Are you reaching the world’s elite customers?

MaryLou Costa

Find out how mainstream brands can attract the world’s super rich, click here Explore a case study with private jet dealership The Private Journey, click here Marketing Week (MW): How have the demands of high net worth individuals changed since you founded the business? Ben Elliot (BE): When we founded Quintessentially in 2000, the focus […]

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P&G looks towards helping the mum of the future

MaryLou Costa

FMCG giant P&G has focused the majority of its brand strategies around praising, rewarding and catering to mums, and last week it revealed what it believes to be the mum of the future. At a media event in London last week, it pinpointed four archetypes for “tomorrow’s women”: happy bohemes, green explorers, premium professionals and […]

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We need to talk about dying

MaryLou Costa

Asking people to face the consequences of their death is a big challenge for brands that deal with post-life services, but attitudes are changing thanks to a radical ad by Aviva and web services that highlight the benefits of facing the inevitable. A year after Aviva’s life insurance campaign featuring comedian Paul Whitehouse as a […]