Alex Woodruff Biz Buzz

Many markets are made terribly complicated by government legislation and restrictions that, to marketing people, do nothing but make life difficult. But the P for political/legal in the PEST model won’t go away, so you have to decide whether to go with the flow or do something about it. Could you eat the contents? Two [...]

On everyone’s lips. Well, as often happens with the MBAs, one of the confectionery ideas suggested in the latest round was based on energy, this time in combination with another big brand in what was clearly a co-branding strategy. When I saw this concept, it felt very much like it was targeted at the MBAs [...]

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 [...]

Me too products are – like kids in a playground calling out to Mummy – nothing but companies copying the ideas of others. Let’s not get this wrong – many me-toos are highly successful. But it can be infuriating to the original inventor of the idea to see their inventiveness leapt on and exploited – [...]