Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

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 [...]

Uplifting concept
The latest idea to beat off the other venture teams in the new product development case study went in the direction of functional food, just like many groups in the past, only this idea really hit home.
The concept worked for a number of reasons.
One: it wasn’t reinventing the wheel. UP is like a [...]

Lilac logistics?
How do you market a service that nobody can see, measure or experience until it happens? Tangible products can be shown, in physical terms. Intangible things (like services) can’t.
One solution some companies use is to turn the abstract “process” into something more visual. This company on the right, Müller, has decided to make its [...]

What do the following have in common: onions, apricots, Brussels sprouts, watermelons and cauliflowers? Since 1 July 2009 they’re on the list of 26 items that can be marketed in Europe with knobs, bumps and curves.
The money-wasting regulations that classed cucumbers with a bend of 10mm per 10cm of length differently from cucumbers with [...]

Online, and pushing the new service
Pons, which English dictionary users will know more as Collins, has finally taken the plunge and not only gone online, they’re openly advertising the fact.
This will have been a tough decision for a company that sees itself as a seller of books. In strategic terms it represents a small [...]

Stand closer, and read.
There are strange laws and legal obligations in every country. In England banks promoting mortgages have to warn you that your house may be at risk if you fail to keep up payments. In many countries medical companies have to warn you about the possible side effects, in Germany with “Ask your [...]

On everyone’s lips.
Well, as often happens with the MBAs, one of the confectionery ideas suggested in the latest round was based on energy, this time in combination with another big brand in what was clearly a co-branding strategy.
When I saw this concept, it felt very much like it was targeted at the MBAs themselves. [...]

Don’t blink - it’s adiads
Question: Why do the Chinese copy big brands and produce fakes of their own?
Answer: Because they can.
Can in the sense of “are not stopped” - by the authorities, who have obviously not got the situation under control.
Can in the sense of “know how to” - having been trained by western companies.
When [...]

MBAs - on day 2 of Marketing Management be prepared for a question about this brand…
Germany’s No1 shampoo brand used to have a complete dog’s breakfast of a portfolio. Too many variants, too many individual lines. I know because I got the list from their old website, before they spent nearly 18 months relaunching [...]