They shouldn’t, but too many brand managers and strategists do it all the time: trapping themselves in the ivory tower of head office and a limited view (read understanding) of the market and their brand’s interaction with consumers. Management cartoonist Tom Fishburne brings it home nicely in the cartoon above. Below is [...]
Many see the 2010 Academy Awards best film field as groundbreaking because the number of nominees has been increased from five to ten. There is however another way this year’s nominee field is groundbreaking; for the first time, product placement plays an important role in a number of the best picture contenders.
Of course, product placement [...]
Ever since BMW scored a big hit with its online series of short films a few years ago, automakers have been trying to figure out how to reprise BMW’s success. Now, at the Geneva Auto Show this week, Volvo has unveiled an online-only campaign called “The Naughty Volvo” to promote its new S60 sedan coming [...]
When Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli painted his Birth of Venus between 1485 and 1486, he most likely would never have figured that Venus, with her tummy pouch and sensual, curvy, and milky soft skin, would be considered a plus size in today’s thin-obsessed world. However, if Venus was into today’s latest trends, she might not [...]
One of the Oscar-nominated animated short films this year is “Logorama.”
The film imagines a mythical Los Angeles all covered in corporate logos (roughly 2,500 appear).
The film follows a few different stories that all intertwine with one another including car chases, a hostage crisis, and wild animals rampaging through the city change a world constructed by [...]
A couple of times a year Patrick Collins presented a masterclass workshop on integrated brand strategy which looked at crafting and implementing brand strategies that embrace both the business and creative sides of branding, particularly in turbulent and ever-changing socio-economic environments. This approach is called fluid branding.
Patrick Collins next workshop is scheduled [...]
Madecasse has a lot going for it. It’s delicious chocolate. It’s made in Africa (the only imported chocolate made on the continent with local beans). The guys who make it are doing good work and are nice as well.
The question I asked them is, “does your packaging do its job?”
I don’t think the job of [...]
H.J. Heinz Co. (HNZ) is changing its ketchup. The company announced Thursday that its flagship brand will get new packaging and a new recipe over the next year. Heinz is the world’s most popular ketchup, so that’s a bold move — and one that also has an unfortunate resemblance to [...]
Two New Zealand schoolgirls humbled one of the world’s biggest food and drugs companies after their school science experiment found that their ready-to-drink Ribena contained almost no trace of vitamin C.
Students Anna Devathasan and Jenny Suo tested the blackcurrant cordial against rival brands to test their hypothesis that cheaper brands were less healthy.
Instead, their tests [...]
When Ken Preston, publisher of Brands & Branding: The Encyclopaedia of Brands & Branding in South Africa for the past 17 years, read that Coca-Cola and Mercedes Benz were founded in 1886, he thought it pretty amazing that that a soft drink and an automobile brand could have been a part of global society for [...]
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