Those who criticise inauthentic advertising with no deeper meaning miss how perfect it is for making a brand stand out to a 21st-century consumer bombarded with information.
Volvos are made in China, Stella Artois is brewed in Wales, and globalisation means we don’t bat an eyelid – though my fellow Cumbrians will test that theory to the limit as Jennings ale moves to the Midlands.
There is a perfect pricing case study in the way the new Twitter CEO, Elon Musk, communicated his proposed fee for a ‘blue tick’ on the platform – just do the exact opposite of what he did.
Our marketing columnist experiences an epiphany on his couch that leads him to revise his opinion of Heinz pasta sauce and the state of modern marketing.
Short tenures engender short-term thinking, as the UK economy currently demonstrates. To be successful, both politicians and marketing teams need time to learn what works and what doesn’t.
Marketing budgeting is flawed. Marketers are more confused about budgeting than ever before. Here’s your complete three-step guide to fixing it for 2023.
Marketers debate over salience and differentiation like they are mutually exclusive, when the evidence shows both in combination will deliver the best results.
With CEO Alan Jope set to leave, Unilever faces battles not only with investors aiming to deprioritise brand purpose, but with its own Ben & Jerry’s brand, which is suing it for abandoning purpose commitments.
There’s ample evidence that longer dwell time on ads raises brand recall and choice, so ignore Byron Sharp’s claims that you shouldn’t pay for more attention.
It’s appealing to fulfil brand and sales objectives in one execution, but they’re so different that you’ll probably fail at both.
From a new recipe for pic n’ mix comms, to making extreme choices, Mark Ritson shares his marketing twists that can help SMEs get big brand outcomes.
Right-minded marketers understand the need for long-term brand building investment, but most still question how they can convince those above them. Here’s how you do it.
Great diagnosis, smart insight, clever use of media and inventive execution, Sheba’s ‘4am Stories’ is a masterclass in simple but highly effective marketing.
Christmas 2021 is shaping up to be an exercise in hyper-emotional brand bullshit, with Coca-Cola even choosing to edit itself out of its own campaign. But don’t worry, the holidays are still coming.
Procter & Gamble doubled down on marketing when Covid hit, while Coca-Cola went dark. The former’s revenues surged, the latter’s dwindled, and Ehrenberg-Bass data now proves if you stop advertising you lose sales.
Amazon now tops the global ad spend charts, despite founder Jeff Bezos’s original scepticism towards advertising – not surprising, since it’s crucial for defending market share.
From retaining a long-term view and the importance of excess share of voice to making strategic changes to positioning and saying no to failure, our columnist spells out how brands can navigate recession.
There are two paths brands can follow – one leads to sales while the other points to profitability, and the latter is invariably the right one to choose.
Given what’s happening in the world right now marketing really doesn’t matter, but there are ways brands can respond without appearing tone deaf.
As the Better Briefs Project will reveal this week, 90% of marketers fail to brief agencies effectively, and their failures begin with a total lack of strategy.
With more brands altering their distinctive assets more frequently, often for the same reason and at the same time, code play is becoming far less effective.
The nature of reality, and how brands influence our perception of it, is the unusually metaphysical topic of our marketing columnist’s thoughts this week.
From Autoglass to Netflix to Just Eat, Mark Ritson explores the brands with the most effective sonic assets.
Courtesy of French politics, Kärcher is the latest brand to find out that becoming synonymous with your category is a double-edged sword.
Marketers are prone to impostor syndrome, but solid training and a more realistic view of your peers’ achievements will show your worries are unfounded.
Brands that continue to do business in Russia deserve no platform in our industry, our columnist argues.
Despite dire predictions of Covid-driven decline for some sectors and exponential growth for others, we’re largely where we would have been if it had never happened.
The asymmetry between millions of available songs and the five companies dominating streaming means no artist can put Spotify in a corner.
Although the concept of ‘brand love’ was overused and went out of fashion, it remains an insightful way to consider consumers’ attitudes towards brands.
The BBC’s decision to invest heavily in research should be celebrated by us all and noted by marketers. Investing 5% of your budget in market research is not superfluous, it’s key to understanding customers, serving them better and growing your business.
Google might have an 80% share of the search market, but as the investigation by the US Department of Justice will no doubt show there are now many more ways people find information online.
Ofcom’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.
Our marketing columnist examines the underwhelming response of the major social media brands to the TikTok threat and explores the perils of competitor orientation.
Forget worshipping at the altar of revenue. Marketers who take a leaf out of Tom Kerridge’s book and embrace pricing power will find the surest route to profitability.
When brands struggle, marketers’ first thought is a rebrand or repositioning, but by going back to its roots you can boost sales and retain brand equity cost-effectively.
Even if John Lewis cocks up in its bid to rent homes to the masses, the blowback on its department store business will be limited – even non-existent – thanks to the magic of brand extension.
New research shows marketers are terrible at briefing agencies. To start putting that right, ask yourself whether your marketing strategy meets these criteria.
Brand strategy is not complicated, it’s just the systematic application of the basics all marketers are taught. Here’s a simple way to be sure you’re taking the right steps – in the right order.
Share of voice is a key metric for setting budgets and predicting growth, but digital media make it impossible to calculate accurately. Understanding your share of search queries is a simple and elegant alternative.
Forget ‘U’s and ‘V’s, this recession will be F-shaped, and Tesco knows from the financial crash that all most brands and retailers can do is minimise their losses.
Far from cannibalising Omega’s luxury sales, the collaboration with Swatch on the £200 Moonswatch will breathe new life into both these sister brands.
Inflation means price increases are marketing’s number-one priority for 2022. But how many marketers are capable or even aware of the challenge ahead? Our columnist provides a handy cheat sheet for those who want to get it right.
Brand purpose campaigns underperform ‘traditional’ marketing on average, but for the right brands purpose will still be the most effective strategic choice.
The boundaries between marketing teams’ responsibilities become clearer if you simply make long-term brand strategy a global job and short-term, targeted product activations a local one.
Rebrands are usually a bad move, but despite the ridicule for Accenture Interactive becoming Accenture Song, there is just as much upside.
Our marketing columnist stayed up late in Tasmania and put his headset on for the Facebook Connect VR conference. But he came away unimpressed with the branding revelations that followed.
Reebok hasn’t reached the heights of the 1980s and 90s since Adidas bought it in 2006, and its sale means Adidas can focus on its ‘branded house’ while new owner ABG has the skills to bring Reebok into its ‘house of brands’.
Critics might scorn the fit but consumers care little about corporate ownership, and acquiring the Debenhams brand at a knockdown price helps Boohoo target more profitable customers.
The damage P&O Cruises has suffered from P&O Ferries’ mistakes cuts to the core of the business, and leaves the separately owned brand with four options.
Mr Big’s (spoiler alert) death after a Peloton ride in the latest Sex and the City spin-off had social media forecasting the brand’s doom, but it actually created greater mental availability for the brand – especially after Ryan Reynolds’ creative agency got involved.
Facebook repeatedly ranks low in consumer trust surveys, yet user growth continues, revealing the idea of trust in brands as anthropomorphic nonsense.
There’s no influence like a customer’s, as AT&T found when nonagenarian Aaron Epstein placed an ad in the Wall Street Journal criticising its service.