Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

SCA – who recently bought German megabrand Tempo from international consumer products mammoth Procter & Gamble – seem to think I spend my whole day thinking about toilet paper. No, on Assael’s model for understanding buying behaviour this is bottom right box: habitual purchase. We go to the supermarket, think for a fraction of a [...]

I see the always campaign from the States has now overspilled to the UK. MTV watchers are now being reminded every 5 minutes to “have a happy period”. Now I’m not one to judge how it must feel, as a woman, to be told to get on with life or, as is the case, actually [...]

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 [...]

A few years ago, the German authorities were forced by European legislation to allow loyalty programs and cut-throat price promotions (which were previously banned; they were considered “Kaufzwang”, a strange expression meaning “purchase obligation” – huh? your product’s on promotion, so that’s forcing me to buy it?!? Bizarre logic). P&G: bogof promotion on Wick Well, [...]

When a company grows internationally and launches its brands in other countries or buys up brands to complement its range, it then has to work out – retrospectively – which brands to keep, combine or kill. Unilever faced this issue with its deodorant brand Sure – or Rexona to you if you’re outside the UK. [...]

A typical approach taken by Procter and Gamble (P&G) to capture people’s interest is the classic problem-solution trick. Here you show what the world is like or would be like without the product, then show the solution – ie the product the company is advertising. It’s usual head on with functional benefits. Henkel in Germany [...]

Charities and non-profit organisations (NPOs) have enough difficulties raising funds to further their aims. Things become even more challenging when it comes to gaining awareness for their cause through advertising. First, they don’t have the corporate coffers to cut through the clutter like big companies. Second, not everyone is interested in their cause – they [...]

When products have little to talk about on a functional level, they have to jump to the other extreme in terms of product benefits, and play to the emotions. This is what Lynx deodorant – or Axe on the continent – has been doing for years. A typical Unilever product, it is marketed purely on [...]

Compared to ‘me-toos‘ I would say this a blatant example of “passing-off”. This is where rather than copy, you actually pretend to be the original. The brand owners of Pringles, global cruncher Procter and Gamble, are probably doing their level best to shoot this upstart out of the water, but lurking somewhere in a backwater [...]