October 2007
Welcome to Brand Strategy's Trends and Ideas for October 2007
Welcome to Brand Strategy's trends and news for October. If you want to keep up-to-date with what's on our radar on a more regular basis, please visit our blog at http://brandstrategy.wordpress.com
Ruth Mortimer, Brand Strategy’s editor recommends:
TRENDS FOR 2008?
Everyone loves a trend. American marketing consultancy Fletcher Knight has
put its neck out and suggested what we’ll all be thinking about next year.
Do you agree?
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VODAFONE CALLS INTO SECOND LIFE
What's this? A service that connects avatars in Second Life and real human beings? But aren't avatars real people too? Oh dear, it's so complicated. But Vodafone are making a valiant attempt to connect people in Second Life and the real world with their InsideOut service. Read more about it here:
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KODAK DOESN’T PICTURE ITSELF AT POST-2008 OLYMPICS
Kodak has announced that it will end its role as the official imaging sponsor after
the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The company is moving onto other
marketing tactics. A casualty of the digital age or truly an inspired
marketing move? You tell us:
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GORE BLIMEY: HE WON A NOBEL!
So, Al Gore won the Nobel prize, eh? We’re fully behind spreading the
message on climate change although we feel that props should also go to An
Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim. But back in May this year, The
McKinsey Quarterly published an interesting interview with Mr Gore, so if
you want to know why he won, have a read.
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WARHOL’S CANS PAINTED OUT OF BRAND PORTFOLIO
Andy Warhol’s painting of Campbell’s Tomato Soup are iconic but now British
consumers will lose the famous cans as the brand name is phased out of the
UK. Is this a national tragedy or just progress?
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Morag Cuddeford Jones, Brand Strategy’s contributing editor recommends:
VIRGIN TERRITORY
From the man who wants to put the first tourists in space and recently threw himself off a skyscraper in a bid to attract custom for his Las Vegas flights, comes a bid to acquire the Northern Rock bank. Virgin’s Sir Richard Branson has pulled together a consortium of US and Asian investors and, if he is successful, intends to rebrand the bank Virgin Money. Branson’s rationale is that the company needs to undergo a complete rebranding to regain consumer trust. Whether middle-aged mortgage customers will feel secure under a brand better known for serving up credit cards to twenty somethings is up for debate.
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LAST POST
Small businesses and those with recent birthdays are most likely to have felt the pinch during the recent postal strike, but with the prospect of destabilising wildcat strikes, the business community at large is feeling unease at the prospect of no consistent mail service for months to come. The biggest damage caused by the strike is, it is speculated, going to be at the heart of the Royal Mail itself, as larger business customers divert their custom to other, more reliable providers. Workers were initially striking over pay and conditions changes, while management insists the changes are necessary to create the efficiencies needed for the institution to survive.
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TOYING WITH AN IDEA
Halloween is not yet upon us but the Toy Retailers’ Association cannot be accused of not giving parents enough time to get in a queue. It has released a list of the year’s expected top 12 toys, anticipated to be at the top of pre-teen Santa lists this year. Unlike previous years, with toys such as Tickle me Elmo, Furby and Thunderbirds’ Tracey Island, there is not expected to be a ‘run’ on any one particular toy.
The Top 12:
Are You Smarter Than A 10 Year Old - Hasbro
Baby Annabell® New V4 - Zapf
Barbie Girls - Mattel
Doctor Who Dalek Sec Hybrid Voice Changer Mask - Character
Flytech Dragonfly - Character
Golden Balls - Vivid
GR8 Art Bindeez Super Deluxe Studio Centre - Character
In The Night Garden - Blanket Time Igglepiggle-Hasbro
Puppy Grows and Knows Your Name - Mattel
Roary R/C Car - Vivid
Say What? - Radica
Transformers Movie Leader: Optimus Prime – Hasbro
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RADIOHEAD DANCE TO THEIR OWN TUNE
Radiohead launched their latest album online through a version of the old-fashioned honesty box. Consumers can pay what they feel the music is worth. Now more artists are jumping on the bandwagon - what does this mean
for the music industry? Check out a number of perspectives here:
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Maeve Hosea, Brand Strategy’s feature writer recommends:
FANTASY LAND
Brand Britney Spears and associated assets that range from her music to her popular perfume Fantasy are riding a stormy tide at the moment. Her one time carefully cultivated innocence and charm used to have the power to shift millions in the music business and beyond. How much impact will her very much publicly recorded personal struggles have on Britney Spears Inc?
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DESIGNER BURGER
The clan of the ‘golden arches’ is serving up Happy Meals in style on London’s Edgeware road. Corporate burger joint McDonald’s has launched a design store complete with Danish architect designed furniture on London’s Edgeware Road. The new format, if successful, could be packaged neatly and rolled out across Europe. This blatant corporate use, or misuse, of iconic design has the design world in hot debate!
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SELF ESTEEM SUMMIT
With its ‘Campaign For Real Beauty’ Unilever’s Dove product has set itself the ambitious goal of countering the negative impact on self image young women might experience via traditional advertising. The brand has now launched a new global variant in the form of a project to boost self esteem carrying the slogan ‘Talk to your daughter before the beauty industry does.’ With new virals and interactive resources for the brand, Unilever aims to provoke discussion on the topics of body image, beauty pressures and self-esteem.
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DRIVING TOGETHERNESS
Volvo is set to launch its new CX70 in the UK next week with Europe’s first cinema game ad. The ad has been created with new interactive technology from enabling cinema audiences to control a Volvo car game on screen by waving their hands in unison.
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