Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

Underfoot branding. This shoe from a well known brand in Germany has been carefully designed to show the name of the brand on the sole. When you look at the shoe directly. But what if, like most people, you never see the sole? Then how can you display the brand…? Answer, with the imprint the [...]

Hope in a bottle I stumbled across this product in Italy. Not a familiar sight on shelves in the UK or Germany, but apparently marketing execs in the States hope it will pull in the mums. It has a totally clear benefit: the baby will sleep. As it says on the US website, “There’s nothing [...]

Photo of German catalogue – similar to UK promotions. As you’ll know if you’re a regular reader, I do like spotting benefits – or mocking products that fail to state their benefit. I see Tchibo have been thinking up nifty kitchen gadgets to help me cook my autumnal mushroom harvest. May I introduce you to [...]

New parents often get showered in presents. And, having less time than ever to respond, then have to work out how to say thank you. Now a Japanese company has come up with an answer. Rice. Rice? Ok, not just any rice, but rice in an adorable piece of packaging: a picture of your dear [...]

Continuing my series from the MBA course on brand names that say what they do, I recently came across this New Zealand brand made by Beauty Engineering Forever (http://www.bee.net.nz/). Quoted by other marketing website (such as this one) as an example of an Eco-Iconic brand, I was more impressed with it’s slap-bang-this-is-what-I-do approach to branding. [...]

The Action part of AIDA is important when it comes to finally getting someone to do something (ie, buy). One approach is to let people try the product for themselves. Like test driving a car (by which time advertising for awareness and gaining interest should be under the bridge). Try me. Break me… This product [...]

Need some sexual relief? Try this. Source: company website screenshot Well, some product manager was obviously slightly challenged in thinking up a name for this product. Perhaps, so involved in the product world, benefits, consumer needs, USPs and competitive positioning, everyone involved – from R&D to the packaging designers and marketing department – forgot to [...]

Wear me, feel better. Naming your wares is central to the P for Product aspect of the 4Ps. So I’m always on the lookout for interesting ideas. But this one surprised me. What in heaven’s name is a “wellness pullover”? I may never find out. By the time I got to tinker around Tchibo (a [...]

I see Procter & Gamble (P&G) are up to their usual tricks. In recent times they’ve moved away from purely functional branding (and problem-solution advertising) towards more image based marketing. Left: the sinister one. Right: P&G. So their big toilet paper brand in Germany, Charmin, used fluffy bears to talk about a personal issue in [...]

I recently discovered a product on an expat forum that worries me. Product managers’ creativity obviously knows no bounds. Anything to get people to buy their product, and not somebody else’s. Now we have the Musical Sponge Bob Rectal Thermometer. Source: above website So not only can you convince your child that sticking a thermometer [...]