Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

According to the news out yesterday, UK retailers suffered the worst December on record. So it looks like people aren’t shopping as much as they have during Blair’s feel-good years. A sign of the boom and bust economy in the UK fuelled and drained by living on credit. The question to marketeers is: do businesses [...]

The Germans are dying out. Ok, they’re not really dying out, but the birth rate has plummeted. In fact it’s been in decline for decades. Bad news if your core target group is babies or kids. By 2035 each working person will be funding another German’s pension. Teds for grey markets To respond to the [...]

Source, screenshot from: http://www.sparks.com/home.jsp#/home I’ve heard it said that any publicity is good publicity – as long as you can repair the damage when it’s not positive. I wonder if SABMiller agree. In the states, their brand “Sparks” has been creating a ripple or two. Critics and lobbyists keen to nip teenage drinking in the [...]

As a Brit abroad I’ve often seen sexist advertising that would upset the traditionalists in my home country, so it’s interesting to see people in other countries struggling with the issue. This article from the BBC shows an interesting angle from Scandinavia. The Norwegians have clearly come down in favour of a ban on any [...]

As the MBAs travel the world, I am seeing more and more examples of the random nature of legal restrictions in different countries. These recent examples where snipped by Ralph in China. The brand with the 3 blobs. First we have what looks like an imitation of adidas. Clearly the Chinese have no way either [...]

How differently alcohol is sold in different countries… Heineken cans in France Starting with some examples from Anja (thanks for your input!), it looks like the French are taking the issue of drinking during pregnancy very seriously. So seriously in fact that warnings now feature on cans. Whether this is a legal requirement I don’t [...]

Poor Coke, minding its own business when suddenly it finds itself in the middle of a global controversy. The first it heard about it was when a Chinese blogger came out with the following Germany has started to really show adverts for Tibetan independence. Coca-Cola! Okay, I will remember. From now on I will not [...]

Well if this isn’t official, what is: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7359927.stm The world of blogs, mashups, podcasting, RSS, social networking, widgets and wikis is set to hit global marketing, big time. So when are German companies going to wake up to this…? Or have they done so already? I decided to search for signs of Web 2.0ism at [...]

I’ve been waiting with baited breath to see how the German cigarette companies would deal with the smoking ban in bars. Trust my favourite brand (NO, I don’t smoke) to strike the right chord. Here’s how they dealt with it in Baden-Württemberg, which implemented the ban last year. Mocking the powers that be Rather than [...]

The classic PEST model is often adapted to include new aspects of the marketing environment such as Environmental or Demographic not separated out in the old theory. Here’s a nice example of a German company spotting a demographic or social trend and using it to arouse interest. It’s from a series of posters describing what [...]