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July/August 2011 ISSUE 21 |
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Marketingmatters |
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Advertisements - 1 issue £160 (SEO Member £128), 3 issues for £120 (SEO Member £96) per issue, 6 issues only £90 (SEO Member £72) per issue. NEWS
IT'S US WOT DUN IT As our press, politicians and police get a long-overdue ethical check and clean-up it is reassuring to note that people-power can still be an agent for much-needed change. Keep up the good work, everyone.
LIFE GETS TOUGHER, FOR MOST According to finance officers at Asda and Sainsburys consumer confidence is at a low ebb and not expected to recover in the foreseeable future. Meanwhile the Spanish chairman of Scottish Power, Ignacio Galan, had his pay package doubled to £10.5 million just before his company raised gas bills for 2.4 million British households by £175 a year.
CELEBRITY IN MARKETING A GOOD REASON NOT TO BUY? Rantzen fronts ads for the Accident Advice Helpline, which benefits from unsolicited and illegal spam texts to mobile phones, according to an investigation of ambulance chasing by the Sunday Telegraph. And Whitfield, Black and Hunniford have backed insurance policies that have turned out to be very bad buys for some. Consumers need to ask themselves whether the use of a trusted name is to hide an untrustworthy company, or bad product.
STAY IN UK TREND GROWING This is one of the findings of a survey of 5,000 adults by hotel operator Travelodge, which also found that while expenditure on holidays, and travel and accommodation, would be down, expenditure on visiting attractions would be up. Financial difficulties are thought to be the main reason for the growth of the "staycation", and for the very late bookings of it. Meanwhile research by ING Direct indicates that 17 million people in the UK are opting for a "nocation" and not taking a summer holiday at all.
GOURMET GRUB AT OLYMPICS Sadly this carefully considered choice, rightly based independently on the large sum of money the firm put up for sponsorship, has not gone down well with some who claim that the association of McD's healthy cordon bleu cooking with sport is, er, unhealthy and sends the wrong message to our children. As if.
BUYING THE DREAM IN JAPAN Teenaged girl fans of the band became suspicious of the fake female, named Aimi Eguchi, when they noticed her striking similarity to other band members.
EVERYONE DOES IT? We ask because their Norwich store was recently promoting a three-pack of cans of beer (one of the original four had been taken) at "half price", actually half the price of the four pack so really a "buy two get one free" offer. When the misleading labelling was pointed out to store staff their response was that they were acting on instructions from their head office marketing department, and that "Everybody does it". Wonder if this is the same silly tosh they give trading standards officers?
CHAMPAGNE, CAVA, PROSECCO OR MERRET? Reportedly Merret gave details of a "second fermentation process" - very similar to the "methode champenoise" - in 1662, 22 years before a French monk, Dom Pierre Perignon claimed to have invented what the French call "champagne". In recent years the quality of English sparkling wines has improved so significantly that there is a view that there would be benefit in distinguishing them from the French product, like the producers of Cava and Prosecco have done. Sweet sparkling wines have also become more popular than dry versions. Italy has recently overtaken France as the world's largest wine producer.
ECOMMERCE EXHIBITION
HONOURED Our Dave told the students who had studied there that his free degree was an honour he valued most highly, because universities are "the one institution which speaks truth, independent of commercial reasons, political reasons and dogma," which should silence the cynics who feel that honorary degrees are just the cheap PR of academia. Another fairly recent recipient of the highly rated honour from St Andrews was popular top banker Sir Fred Goodwin. A recent survey of 1000 teenagers by City and Guilds suggests that nearly half of them would be avoiding going to University following the near-tripling of tuition fees. And a survey by training provider Lifeline found that more than 50% of employers rated work experience and volunteering above academic qualifications.
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The views of the editor are not necessarily those of the publishers. Editor: Published and distributed by: Newsletter distributed by SG7.biz for eZinematters.com |
