Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

Designed for those with superior knowledge?
When Fiat’s multipla was launched in 1998 it was hailed as a triumph of modern design. The high headlights were an ergonomic stroke of genius. It reaped so much acclaim that it was even put on display in the New York Museum of Modern Art.
Yet it was a sales flop. [...]

There are plenty examples on the internet these days of products that don’t translate. My favourite still has to be the Nova car, which in South America basically meant “doesn’t go”.
So it’s refreshing to see examples of challenging names within the same language.

Would you apply for a job at this company? Or invite them in [...]

This post is dedicated to those of us who have published marketing materials and then, to our horror, discovered that there’s a major error. Everyone else spots it straight away - so why didn’t we?
Both of these examples are German. The first one I also didn’t spot. Erlebisse instead of Erlebnisse - click the image [...]

I have Niall to thank for this example - a company we would both advise to think carefully before going international:

As ever, look before your leap. Or in this case: ask a native speaker!

If a soup is called low fat, and it’s on-shelf next to a soup for kiddies, you’d expect it to keep its promise.
Not so with these two Knorr soups.
Soup on the left: for kiddies, limited edition Teddy Soup. Soup on the right: low fat.

Knorr confusion
I won’t bore you with the nutritional breakdown, but the [...]

During a short stint in Sales, I was told that Mars never price promoted products that could be stocked or “hamstered”. Not sure whether that’s true or not, especially as promotions are a good way to round off the AIDA process - they stimulate customers to act - but that can also do you damage.
Interestingly, [...]

Like many of its counterparts, ASDA, a major UK supermarket chain decided, that it was time to copy the leading brand in a key sector of the snacking market, and launch a me-too product under its own label.

The victim: Penguin. A United Biscuits brand and household name to most Brits, who like all seagoing nations [...]

I have an American marketing blog to thank for a concept likely to put anyone off their Christmas dinner.

Swill those germs down for nature. Image source: greenandmore.com.
Now we know everyone’s going green. Now we know that every little bit counts. But the “Sinkpositive Sink Combo” featured at greenandmore.com somehow oversteps the mark for me. [...]

Product managers are responsible for the whole of the marketing mix. But some parts of it are slightly beyond their grasp.

Not your place.
In August I saw the local lottery trying to boost sales during the summer lull with a special Mercedes SLK promotion, free to all entrants. Arranging the cooperation with the carmaker will [...]

My eye was caught recently by an item in a specialist marketing and advertising magazine about guerilla marketing. An ad agency in the relatively small German town of Eschweiler had obviously been briefed to create as much hype as possible for the opening of a new Tamaris shoe shop. The publicity stunt they came up [...]