The Apple Card fiasco is a brand risk – but not a very big one
Mark RitsonApple has messed up by adopting a biased algorithm that disadvantages women applying for its credit card, but the chances of it harming the core technology business are slim.
Mark Ritson
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Ignoring TV is a strange choice for a big brand
Mark RitsonIf you have a big budget and are making long-form video ads, it makes little sense to leave the most effective medium out of the mix, as Gap has done by rejecting TV for its Christmas campaign.
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Interbrand’s ‘iconic moves’ invite ridicule for the discipline of branding
Mark RitsonInterbrand is a respected name in brand valuation, but its proposal to replace brand positioning with ‘iconic moves’ demonstrates a lack of strategic sense.
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After 30,000 connections, I’m all LinkedOut
Mark RitsonOur columnist finds to his horror that he’s reached his limit of LinkedIn connections, with requests building up faster than he can cull.
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Marketers praise Burger King but McDonald’s is more deserving
Mark RitsonMcDonald’s unflashy but effective marketing has been overshadowed by rival Burger King’s attention-grabbing stunts, but it’s the former we should celebrate.
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WeWork’s IPO debacle highlights the failures of modern brand building
Mark RitsonMasquerading as a tech firm has done no favours for WeWork, neither have its premature brand extensions and over-inflated view of its own self-importance.
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The streaming wars will be the bloodiest battle in marketing history
Mark RitsonSit back, grab the popcorn and enjoy what will surely prove to be the most competitive commercial contest in marketing history.
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Standing out is the key brand challenge – that’s why great brands play with their codes
Mark RitsonSalience is a much bigger challenge than differentiation, and codes are the way to achieve it – but using them creatively first requires decades of consistency.
Watch: Ritson’s nine marketing effectiveness lessons
Marketing Week ReportersRitson reveals his insights into what makes “perfectly effective” campaigns and why marketers must go big if they want to see the best results.
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Watch: Ritson on how Dare used channel diversity to become the leading iced coffee brand
Marketing Week ReportersMarketing Week columnist Mark Ritson digs into the marketing strategy that helped Australian iced coffee brand Dare more than double sales.
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Watch: Ritson on the effectiveness factor that helped Lidl double its market share
Marketing Week ReportersMarketing Week columnist Mark Ritson explains how generating excess share of voice enabled Lidl to accelerate sales and market share, and tackle brand perceptions.
Watch: Ritson on how Snickers perfectly balanced differentiation and distinctiveness
Marketing Week ReportersMarketing Week columnist Mark Ritson explains how the Mars-owned brand turned around falling sales by introducing clearer positioning and making better use of its brand codes.
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Tide’s award-winning Super Bowl ad is the best of marketing and creativity
Mark RitsonProcter & Gamble’s US Tide brand delivered a perfect brief and chose a brilliant piece of creative by Saatchi & Saatchi, making it a deserved Grand Effie winner.
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Accept it, people hate ads – yes, all of them
Mark RitsonMarketers delude themselves into believing consumers like ads, but by accepting they don’t you’ll better understand how to make an effective one.
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Even at $5m each, Super Bowl ads make sense – here’s why
Mark RitsonThose who highlight what digital media you could buy for the same price as a Super Bowl ad miss the point – they offer unrivalled effectiveness among the largest of audiences.
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The story of digital media disruption has run its course
Mark RitsonInternet ad spend may still be growing at the expense of newspapers and magazines, according to GroupM forecasts, but market maturity is approaching, news brands have diversified and most ‘traditional’ media will also grow next year.
Cinema’s comeback is a tale worthy of the big screen
Mark RitsonFor the first time in many marketers’ working memories, the fastest-growing ad channel next year will be non-digital, and it’s a testament to cinema’s enduring audience appeal and emotional impact.
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5G is the latest hot topic on the bullsh*t roadshow
Mark RitsonThe Cannes Lions festival featured endless ill-informed speculation about 5G mobile networks, all rendered pointless by Mark Ritson’s wondrous new invention – 9G.
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Binet and Field’s research may not be perfect but that doesn’t make it wrong
Mark RitsonLes Binet and Peter Field’s research has gained fame by showing the need to balance long- and short-term marketing, and while criticisms of their methods are fair, their conclusions still appear to be valid.
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Think TV is dying? You’re forgetting about the ‘Knopfler Effect’
Mark RitsonNew Ebiquity data questions whether TV’s superiority for marketing effectiveness will last beyond five years, but it ignores people’s propensity to change behaviour as they get older.
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Turning Carlsberg Liverpool-red is a branding masterstroke
Mark RitsonBy adopting Liverpool FC’s red colour to celebrate its long association with the club, Carlsberg continues to play with its distinctive assets in a way that revitalises the brand.
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Mastercard’s wordless logo shows the power of distinctive brand codes
Mark RitsonMastercard dropping its name from its logo demonstrates branding strength most companies lack – and it’s all down to the sustained and consistent use of highly distinctive assets.
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Byron Sharp is wrong – of course brand perceptions influence sales
Mark RitsonByron Sharp’s recent claim that it is ‘impossible’ to place a value on brand perceptions is not just mistaken, it is a rejection of true scientific method.
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Leeds United’s badge u-turn reveals a brand with abundant value
Mark RitsonLeeds United last week conspired to create the worst rebrand in history, but the club’s response to fans shows how much passion and character still surrounds a brand languishing far below its competitive peak.
Marketers’ only shot at influence is to embrace the CMO title
Mark RitsonCompanies like McDonald’s are abandoning the CMO role in part because marketers insist on constant, pointless reinvention of the position and its responsibilities.
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Superdry’s returning founder can restore the brand’s DNA
Mark RitsonFounders live and breathe their brands, and Superdry’s Julian Dunkerton should be able to correct the strategic mistakes of the past, as long as he’s not stuck in the past himself.
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For the first time big tech faces a credible threat of breakup
Mark RitsonIf Elizabeth Warren or another Democrat wins the White House, Facebook, Google and Amazon may finally realise they can’t hang on to their dominant positions forever.
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Tesla’s online-only move doesn’t herald the retail apocalypse
Mark RitsonMany marketers will see Tesla’s decision to shut its dealerships in favour of online sales as another example of physical retail’s decline, but the real reason is more mundane – cash.
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Seven reasons why TV’s doubters are wrong
Mark RitsonOfcom’s latest data yet again shows why TV should be at the top of most big brands’ media plans, yet some marketers insist on ignoring the facts. Here are the answers to their most common quibbles.
Ethnography beats focus groups hands-down, but they still serve a purpose
Mark RitsonFocus groups are a bone of contention, as a Twitter debate featuring Professor Byron Sharp this week showed, but while they are flawed, they are still a quick and cheap route to useful insights.
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The first rule of marketing is you are not the customer
Mark RitsonA new report confirms media agency staff are nothing like the consumers they serve, but the bigger question is whether they and marketers are market-orientated enough to know this and let customer insight guide them.
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10 reasons why Superbrands 2018 is a worthless list
Mark RitsonSuperbrands’ bogus methodology regularly turns up inexplicable and nonsensical ‘findings’. Here are my top 10 aberrations from this year’s Superbrands Consumer Top 20 ranking.
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James Bond’s latest repositioning is a lesson to brands looking to adapt to a new era
Mark RitsonBy unveiling that 007 will be a black woman in the next James Bond movie, the producers of the franchise have learned a lesson all brands should take heed of – brands that want to stay relevant and true to their identity must continue to evolve.
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Will Carlsberg’s brave new strategy succeed? Probably
Mark RitsonCarlsberg has turned its famous strapline on its head to admit it is ‘Probably not the best beer in the world’, a move that recalls its heritage while achieving a much needed repositioning.
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Distinctiveness doesn’t need to come at the cost of differentiation
Mark RitsonDistinctiveness and differentiation are both integral to brand success so there doesn’t need to be a trade-off between the two.
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A true brand purpose doesn’t boost profit, it sacrifices it
Mark RitsonTime and again companies have proved unwilling to stick to their lofty purpose statements when it costs them money. For purpose to have any meaning, corporations need to put it before profit.
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The Guardian may be profitable but its model damages journalism
Mark RitsonThe Guardian is a fine newspaper and should be proud to reverse its losses, but by giving its product away for free it is preventing the news industry profiting from quality journalism.
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Mark Ritson investigates: Recreational marijuana
Mark RitsonAfter probing America’s newest industry four key questions spring to mind: Which will be the big marijuana brands of the future? Why does scale drive ad effectiveness? What day is it? And, why have my legs stopped working?
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Gillette’s new ad will trash its sales and be the year’s worst marketing move
Mark RitsonGillette’s purpose-driven attempt to revitalise its slogan, ‘The best a man can get’, isn’t just a waste of ad budget but an expensive exercise in destroying its dominant market share.
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10 lessons all marketers should take from Direct Line’s brand strategy
Mark RitsonDirect Line Group’s brand strategy is best-in-class, as evidenced by its IPA Effectiveness Award win last week. Here’s 10 reasons why marketers should sit up and take note.
Why Marketing Week’s Mini MBA is branching into brand management
Mark RitsonAs the Marketing Week Mini MBA enters its fourth year, its professor, Mark Ritson, explains the origins of the course and why it is expanding into a new subject area.
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We need a new ‘third way’ to set marketing budgets
Mark RitsonZero-based budgeting hurts long-term brand-building, while advertising-to-sales ratios are entirely arbitrary. There’s a much better, ‘two-speed’ way to set marketing budgets.
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Apple’s confusing product portfolio makes Microsoft look sleek
Mark RitsonSteve Jobs built Apple’s brand on simple design and a sparing product line-up, but now its portfolio is a mess of wires and product variants that make Microsoft look like the cooler brand.
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Kraft Heinz is in 57 varieties of trouble
Mark RitsonKraft Heinz is suffering from a number of self-inflicted wounds, from underinvestment in its brands to a failure to adapt its portfolio to modern tastes, leading to a parlous financial situation.
Kraft Heinz’s new CEO needs to deliver a much-needed dose of tough love
Mark RitsonCan veteran marketer Miguel Patricio use his expert eye to turn a dusty and confused portfolio around or has he got himself into a giant box of shit?
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Moving closer to Facebook is dangerous for Instagram’s brand
Mark RitsonNo company before Facebook has had so many users while being so disliked, but the risk of moving Instagram to the same platform is one Mark Zuckerberg seems willing to take to keep control and integrate the brands’ data.
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Today’s agencies are like yachts – underused, expensive and all the same
Mark RitsonThe merger of Wunderman and JWT into Wunderman Thompson shows the key challenge of consolidating agencies: while necessary, it’s complicated by their commoditisation and lack of differentiation.
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Google, Coke and John Lewis mark a big week for brand architecture
Mark RitsonThe way companies structure their brands gets little attention but is of huge importance, as three high-profile stories have reminded us this week.
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Cadbury’s brand purpose is just ‘woke-washing’
Mark RitsonCadbury’s efforts to promote diversity have been ridiculed on social media, but the bigger issue is the hypocrisy of doing so while paying no UK tax.
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Talk of crisis could be a death spiral for Thomas Cook
Mark RitsonWhether or not Thomas Cook responds to financial rumours, once trust in its stability is undermined its brand equity will erode, obliterating future sales.
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Lloyds beware, Noel Edmonds is doing more brand damage than you think
Mark RitsonNoel Edmonds’ clever campaign for compensation from Lloyds Banking Group is harming perceptions of the Lloyds brand, which will ultimately cost it customers – and he’s unlikely to give up.
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Colonel Ritson: KFC’s marketers turned a chicken crisis into a brand triumph
Mark RitsonThe KFC chicken crisis caused by DHL’s delivery failures could have been disastrous, but a rapid strategic response has ensured the brand will benefit long-term from increased awareness and a boost in consumer demand.