Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

While the world’s eyes were on South Africa for the World Cup, Bavaria beer from Holland (who’ve already featured on this blog for “spoofing” the classic Heineken ad) pulled off one of the highest profile examples of ambush marketing I’ve ever seen.

Source: Guardian News/Andrew Boyers/Action Images
The official sponsor, Budweiser, were clearly not amused. FIFA [...]

Patching up the gap in the market
The WO50 venture teams were asked to come up with a competitor for Red Bull. As I didn’t say “DRINK”, the teams took this as an indication that anything that takes away the “energy consumption” sale from Red Bull, would be allowed.
A lot of the proposals were green (packaging, [...]

Modern marketing is keen to embrace customisation, especially online. With an increasing number of tools to track the surfing habits of users, work out where they are, and work out what interests them, marketeers are exploring whole new avenues of “match the message to the audience”.
This is all part of one-to-one marketing: tailoring the [...]

The last time I saw an outlet opening that looked like it was in the wrong place, I was convinced by a fellow Brit that it served a growing need and would survive. Ok, I’m not into manicure and nail painting. But apparently it was all the rage at the time in London. So I [...]

Now the New Product Development case study includes other markets, we get to see a winner in the tissue market. Going under the huge German Tempo brand (if you’re a regular reader here, you’ll know they had a foray into toilet paper), the study group’s idea was to target a very specific, but very frequent [...]

As in previous years, and as recommended by marketing experts when you use current events to reach out to customers, companies are jumping on the World Cup bandwagon as an advertising vehicle. Inevitably, some are even playing to classic cultural clichés.
So having seen what the Croatians make of the English recently, I’d thought I’d examine [...]

It’s common in business to business for companies to play up their heritage. As any German engineering company will tell you, the label “made in Germany” is an instant door opener to many export markets.

A slice of English heritage?
It can also work in non-BtB markets, as long as you understand the audience. On a recent [...]

Pick up better habits
This example of conative marketing - ie, A for Action, caught my eye a couple of years ago. You see a cigarette on the pavement, pick it up, but then find it contains a message on how to quit smoking.
It’s simple and effective.
What really hits home though is the way it [...]

Two recent examples of how listening to the much revered customer does not always go right - especially if they take over your marketing for you! And using Web 2.0 and inviting online junkies to define tactics …?

Online geeks hijack P for Product.Source: flickr
We’ll start in Australia. The Land of Plenty. This includes Vegemite, a [...]

Nibbling away at the competition
The last case study of this kind for a long time to come was won by a group that, in my opinion, cheated just a little bit by extending the confectionery or chocolate ideas we should have been working on, and moving into snacking. This of course allowed them to hijack [...]