Noting the imminent demise of the Threshers wine stores and considering two dimensions: firstly pressures on the sector, and secondly differentiation within the sector. This could be a classic case-study question for marketing students! Since supermarkets first carved a niche for themselves in the drinks sector ( I seem to remember Sainsburys were the pioneers), the high street wine stores have been under pressure. Apart from a small window of opportunity on Sunday evenings when even 24hr Sup... Read Full Story

Sometimes there are big items or changes that affect brands, but more often than not it is an aggregation of little things that come together to make a brand special. Tom Peters used to talk of ’small moments of delight’ – when a brand presents something small, new and surprising. It’s not necessarily going the extra mile, but often just the extra yard… then doing it again and again. Tiny points: slightly more thoughtful packaging, pro-active client service, an u... Read Full Story

A lot of the discussions regarding branding is actually focused on the external elements, the brand communications. These are of course distinct from what the brand actually ‘is’. One often hears the media confusing, logos, liveries and packaging with the brand. But although the external dimensions are distinct from the internal properties and values of the brand they are, of course, interlinked and interdependent. Let’s consider the matrix below: The horizontal axis repres... Read Full Story

There has been quite a furore about certain online- retailers using differential prices in favour of new customers over loyal ones. In its simplest terms if you have the cookie to show you have bought from the site before, you get a different set of prices from a those presented to a new visitor. The financial logic is quite straightforward and akin to new customer bonuses and loss leaders. Indeed, there have been various scenarios developed questioning the comparative values of brand-loyal c... Read Full Story

The US Federal Trade Commission has ruled that advertisers, and the celebrities who endorse their brands, will be liable for any untruthful claims made in the adverts. This poses a few interesting dilemmas and one that springs to mind is can celebrities also hold advertisers liable for damage to their own brand? How can celebrities be reassured that the claims are true? I’m sure that ‘A’ list celebs and the big brands they promote will be seeking all manner of sophisticated ... Read Full Story

I noted the recent TV ad for DIY chain Wickes, where they were promoting a new range of kitchens by saying they were good enough to carry the Wickes name – in other words they are using the ‘own brand’ as an endorsement of quality. This is an interesting positioning and a phenomenon one sees more often in supermarket retailing. The hierarchy used to go something like: Premium brand, next brand, next brand, next brand, own brand, generic. But increasingly we see customers put... Read Full Story

It’s that time of year again – Interbrand’s survey of global brands; and for the  first time the total value of the world’s top 100 brands fell – down 4.6% at $1.15 trillion.  Big depressers included the major financial brands (not surprisingly), including UBS, Morgan Stanley, Amex and others. The motor industry too saw big falls in brand values. The interesting thing for me is that we are looking at brands that stood for reliability and stability. It is as much ... Read Full Story

I’m working on a brand evaluation programme, particularly concerned with emotional attachment to brands. I have used various techniques in the past, including plotting emotional dimensions along pre-determined attributes, using brand cohorts, ethnographic studies and grounded theory. By its very nature, psychological  emotional attachment is not particularly accessible to high involvement processing so techniques are much concerned with overt attachment. None of the techniques I have wo... Read Full Story

In times when financial institutions seem to be consolidating their brands and rationalising their offers, it may seem odd that RBS are rumoured to be thinking of relaunching this old brand (UKPA). Why would they do this? Well the story seems to be about rationalising, but in a rather different way. If there is a part of your business you want to move out of, you have a number of options. You can close that side of the business… or you can sell it off and leave the new buyer to deal wit... Read Full Story

US food giant Kraft has made a bid for UK chocolate maker Cadburys – it values Cadbury as £10.2m. So where is the value… in the fixed assets? No, much of the value is vested in the iconic brands – including the Cabury brand itself. There is plenty of profit growth potential as analysts have already commented… but that growth depends upon the power and market strength of the brands. It would be interesting to see an analysis of the brand valuation that informed Kraft... Read Full Story