Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

During a short stint in Sales, I was told that Mars never price promoted products that could be stocked or “hamstered”. Not sure whether that’s true or not, especially as promotions are a good way to round off the AIDA process – they stimulate customers to act – but that can also do you damage. [...]

Screenshot source: “Dove” chocolate website Amicelli, once called Dove, once called Dove Amicelli (and a couple of other things in between) has gone back to Plan A. It’s now called Amicelli. Mars hopes that this latest move will allow all associations with body creams and cosmetics to fly off like a silent white bird into [...]

I’m used to seeing manufacturers play to current events to capture people’s interest – as they did in Germany during the 2006 World cup (click here to see what the Germans did in the supermarkets). But you don’t often see them completely redesigning the logo to capture the public’s imagination. Not unless they have such [...]

Pepsico obviously takes a different tack to international brands than its arch enemy Coca-Cola. Coke is drinks, through and through. Pepsico, owner of the Frito-Lay brand, is also into snacks. But to achieve fast growth internationally it has gone for non-organic growth in many markets – ie, it buys up locals. So then you come [...]

Some years ago Mars decided its international brands were now streamlined enough for the same names to be used in different countries. They had the big brand Mars, but also Snickers & Marathon (one and the same product, the chocolate bar with peanuts) and Twix & Raider (also the same product, two thin bars with [...]

I’ve been watching a German brand of chocolate for years and either the owners, Mars, keep changing their product managers, or they’re getting a bit lost. It’s called “Amicelli” (I think). They launched the brand in 1999. At the time the slogan was “Alles nur nicht männlich” (everything, except “male”). Sadly I have no copy [...]