Brand Republik

Able was I ere I saw a copy of Marketing on the train. Among the treats in store:

1. New women's magazine Happy launches in April. The title features shopping content linked to the Express Shopping TV channel.


2. Jack Link's is planning a UK launch of its bestselling US meat snack brand, beef jerky, in six flavours. The ads will carry the strapline "What's your beef?" and target the brand as an alternative to crisps for men.


3. RFID tags, half the size of a grain of sand, can be embedded in products such as clothes so the next time you enter the shop the staff can greet you gaily by name. The retailer links the product with the card used to buy it.


4. Vauxhall cars link with lad's mag FHM to launch their VXR sports car with a rally and "trackside totty". FHM has 4.5M consumers per month. Vauxhall were "impressed with their creative approach".


5. Skinny Cow, the low-fat frozen dessert range, is to expand with new half-litre tubs.


6. A record 223M Christmas cards were sent by businesses this season.


7. DFS is featuring a Katie Melua song in its new ads to appeal to a younger more fashion-conscious female market. (What - human females?) Strapline: "Are we crazy? No, we're DFS".


8. Genevieve Wright, a director of planning and insight, states in her article that she was impressed by Waterstone's bookshop. "The shelves were clearly labelled, allowing easy distinction between pop-up books and those with a Christmas theme. It might seem obvious, but this is where most bookshops fall down, using instead some bizarre segmentation that only the assistants understand."


9. Andy Fry writes that Personalized Video Recorders (PVR machines such as TiVo or EyeTech) carry two key threats. Firstly, that watching recorded content diminishes the impact of time-sensitive adverts; secondly, PVR users are skipping ads. (In the USA, if the user fast-forwards during the break an ad pops up on TiVo and if the user clicks on it their personal information is sent to the advertiser who can then make a direct approach.) One option to minimize the impact of PVRs is to schedule event-based TV that more people feel compelled to watch live, says ITV Director of Broadcasting Mike Desmond. For genres such as drama, one line of defence is to make it harder for the viewers to dodge commercial messages by using sponsorship 'bumpers' as markers to rejoin a show or having flexible breaks with fewer ads. There could also be more product placement and channel sponsorship. This is called "sustaining a dialogue with consumers". But the PVR threat is only part of the problem. On-demand, sunscription-based services with no adverts such as HomeChoice are rolling out.


10. The role of Madame Tussauds marketing manager is to make the experience fun, not to make waxworks of important politicians. This involves brainstorming and wacky ideas. The latest is a nativity scene featuring the Beckhams.