For the first time in its history, the BBC is being run by a marketer. Tim Davie, the acting director general, is not an old-school journalist who has worked his whole career at White City. He is a career marketer from the school of Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo, who has now been asked to step up to the kind of crisis management situation that most brands dread.
“In any business, you get to a point where you do things because that’s the way you’ve done them for the past five years. Somebody new coming in questions that thinking and you get a new drive for innovation.” So says Frank van der Post, managing director of brands and customer experience at British Airways.
Retailer HMV has decided to ask staff to cover up any “prominent” tattoos and body piercings in a bid to improve shoppers’ experience. In what must count as the final nail in the coffin of HMV’s rock and roll reputation, the company says it feels a more “consistent approach” to staff appearance will meet the expectations of customers who have to be at the “heart of everything” the brand does.
Red Bull sells fizzy energy drinks. That’s just a reminder for you, because it is more often lauded for its marketing than its product.
A few weeks ago, the late TV presenter Jimmy Savile was seen largely by the British public as a national treasure. Now his personal brand that supports the work of two charities – The Jimmy Savile Charitable Trust and Jimmy Savile Stoke Mandeville Hospital Charitable Trust – is being questioned after a series of allegations of abuse of young girls.
There are some subjects that divide opinion among human beings, from medical research to political strategy, but brand valuation shouldn’t be one of them.
What’s the price of a rumour? In the case of Facebook, it’s a whopping 9 per cent fall in shares. The social network was hit by a false story this week, claiming that users’ old private messages were appearing publicly on their Facebook Timelines. As the rumour swept the world via Facebook itself and Twitter, it took a financial toll on the social network.
“We don’t do product marketing really,” states James Fairbank, head of brand and central marketing at upmarket cyclingwear brand Rapha. Instead of promoting products it promotes the cycling lifestyle, relying on stories of the sport and its “heroes” to convey the desirability of Rapha items. Marketing a lifestyle rather than a product is an interesting […]
“In the FTSE 100, there was not a single woman appointed as an executive to the board in the last year,” complained Cherie Booth QC at a debate held last week by the Evening Standard. “We are under-represented in law, politics and in business.”
Marketing has a new minister. Following Prime Minister David Cameron’s reshuffle this week, Maria Miller now takes the hotseat as Culture Secretary, which oversees the advertising and media industries,which could be said to broadly incorporate marketing too.
Avis is no longer declaring “We Try Harder”. After 50 years, it’s dropped one of advertising’s most famous straplines.
This has been the week of two men named Armstrong. They hit the news for quite different reasons. Neil Armstrong, NASA astronaut and first man on the moon, sadly passed away after heart surgery. And Lance Armstrong, the world’s most famous cyclist, was banned for life by the US Anti-Doping Agency after announcing he would no longer contest the organisation’s charges of doping.
The NHS is one of the UK’s most beloved brands. It was highlighted to the world in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics this summer with an all-singing, all-dancing tribute. Patients and staff from one of the country’s flagship hospitals – Great Ormond Street – performed in the event, which was seen by billions around the world.
The Olympics hangover is here. The sense of optimism that the London 2012 Games spread across not only the UK but the world has dissipated and we have come thumping back to reality. Rather than headlines about gold medal winners, we are back to dismal predictions about the Greek economy and future of the euro. Sigh.
A belief in your ability to make a difference is crucial to leave an indelible mark on your businesses.