Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

It’s common for companies to use the news to capture people’s attention, as we’ve seen in the past with the World Cup, and even the advent of Obama. So when Paul the octopus started predicting World Cup results it came as little surprise to see the international media flocking to cover the story. And this [...]

Giving me a warm feeling.
I sometimes wonder if designing packaging in the old days was easier than it is today. No long complex legal declarations, simple layouts, less competition.
I recently came across an old product from an even older German company in the “health and well-being” market, Beuerer. When I was lent this old [...]

Well it looks like my post from last week was an accurate reflection of the mood in Stuttgart. The new logo is going down like, er, a melting ice cream attached to a lead balloon.

[image source: Stuttgarter Zeitung. Originator: Stadt Stuttgart]
Here’s another reaction from the local newspaper:
A failed concoction of Halley’s comet and Walls ice [...]

In many B2B markets, promotional spends are low. On average, most money goes below the line (BTL: more, wikipedia), and in many industries the biggest spend of all is in trade fairs. In consumer markets the big spends are ATL.
In the classic marketing mix, this means sales and marketing in B2B are channelling already tight [...]

Nestlé does it again. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve tried to (constructively) criticise Nestlé’s inability to stick to design rules. So maybe I need to spell it out more carefully.

All right? Not quite
1) Update your packaging regularly. Make logos look contemporary. In some industries this could entail a redesign every 18 [...]

Multiple Mars manifestations.Source: http://twitpic.com/s3qwf
Mars are venturing forth again, “raping” the brand in Germany, along similar lines to the 2006 football campaign in Switzerland and Austria.
I’d seen this pack in the trade, but have Andreas to thank for pointing out that a visitor to Germany could easily get confused by all this on-pack clutter. Not [...]

Microsoft seem to be making a big thing of the Window 7’s touch screen technology. Now you can zoom in, select, scroll, skip, whatever with your PC monitor as you would on your iPhone.
But let me ask: how close do you have to sit to the screen to use this technology sensibly on a PC? [...]

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 [...]

Expensive to make, not dear to customers
Toothpaste manufacturers have a tough job trying to interest you in their product. The problem is, you’re not. It’s not a high-involvement product. Well, depending on the consumer. Maybe some people do put a lot of thought into their toothpaste, but for most it’s a habitual purchase.
So to make [...]