Branding UK

End of a Newspaper Brand

2011-07-18T16:33:00.001Z

Goodbye from the News of The World

The News of World has said Thank You and Goodbye to its readers. The newspaper was the biggest selling English language newspaper. It has closed in response to the continuing pressure from politicians and other media who have been highly critical of the News' alleged industrial practise of phone hacking and the biribing of police officers.

The News was Rupert Murdoch's first UK news title and was affectionately known as the "News of the Screws" on account of its coverage and exposure of sexual misdemeanours by all sections of society. The Newspaper was a great brand with a reputation for sports news as well as sexual activity.

Interestingly Rupert Murdoch knows the value of newspaper titles more than anyone else. He has aggressively expanded his media empire first across Australia, then the UK and then the US by buying up the leading English speaking titles. The title gives circulation, that gives both cover price revenue and advertising revenue. Now this is gone there is a huge whole in the Sunday tabloid market. We will have to wait and see whether The Sun on Sunday takes its place.

Top 50 UK Brands 2011

2011-03-11T10:13:00.003Z

The list of the top 50 UK web brands, which has been compiled by Nielsen and UKOM and shows that dotcom brands which were the most popular in 2004 have all dropped out of the top 50 list and been replaced by more traditional brands such as Tesco and Marks&Spencer.

Google - Top spot 2011

Google has held the top spot since 2006, attracting more than 35 million unique UK users every month. In Jan 2004, the number one position was held by MSN with less than half Google’s current number of monthly visitors (17 million). Today, a site with this level of users would barely make the Top 10, such has been the growth in online traffic.

A Nielsen spokesman said: “The online world is increasingly reflecting the offline world, with the web’s 50 most-popular brands consisting more than ever of businesses established in the ‘real world’ and sites serving the interaction between ‘real people’…35 of the web’s top 50 brands are accounted for by social media and traditional businesses, up from 19 in 2004.”

UKOM general manager James Smythe added: “Over the last seven years, we see two broad developments: first, huge growth in the use of sites built on social content, where we mostly find contributions from people we trust; and second, websites with a high-street or ‘real-world’ presence translating the strength of their offline brands into online audiences.”

“In January 2004, only one web brand among the Top 50 - Friends Reunited – was powered by social media. Now there are 10, including sites like YouTube, Wikipedia and Tripadvisor [and Facebook].

The number of media companies has risen from 9 to 16 and includes the likes of Sky, ITV and The Telegraph. The top 10 brands have remained largely stable in the last few years, with seven of them having remained in the top 10. They are the likes of MSN, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, BBC, eBay and Amazon. The three new entrants are Facebook, YouTube and Wikipedia.

Interestingly financial institutions have become a real looser with 3 out of 4 banks dropping off the list. Also, there are no specialist travel brands on the current list. Still, looking at the list, there is no doubt of the power of strong traditional corporate branding and popular online presence.

The Stig Names Toyota Aygo as Favourite Car

2010-09-23T11:06:00.001Z

The Stig with Toyota Aygo

The Stig, the mystery racing driver from TV's Top Gear, has revealed that his favourite car is a Toyota Aygo.

The Stig, who driven almost every performance car going has chosen the Toyota city car, costing around £10,000, above a raft of exotic motors.

According to The Stig, the Toyota Aygo is the car that has given him the most fun. This occured when the Aygo was used in a game of motor football.

This endorsement for Toyota is good news for Toyota given their earlier problems with product recalls. From my perspective this even better news for me. I bought an Aygo for my 19 year-old son to use. At first he was luke warm but has since grown to like the car. I also use it for short journeys around town and love its nippiness. Earlier in the year the Toyota Aygo was also awarded the What Car city car of the year. It also came top in its class for the JD Power satisfaction survey.

With What Car, JD Power and The Stig on its side, the Toyota brand can only go from strength to strength.

Ashford Beer Festival Soon Underway

2010-09-02T15:40:00.002Z

The Ashford beer Festival is back for its eighth year. This time with 70 real ales and five real ciders. Live music every day. And a veterans rugby tournament with over 8 teams.

Brand control - Consumer electricals

2006-11-14T11:58:00.000Z

The growth of the Internet presents a particular problem for brand owners trying to control downstream distribution. Many brand owners, particularly of higher margin products, have attempted to restrict the retail of their products. In the electrical products field this has applied to both Sony and Bang and Olufsen. A search of the Internet for Sony TVs will reveal a whole host of competing retailers. Some online specialists, some established high street retailers and a number of price comparison websites. It is only a matter of time before the whole process breaks down.

Design Studio

2006-09-18T09:02:00.000Z

The Focal Design website has enjoyed a successful first 5 weeks in its new guise. A limited pay per click advertising campaign aided by low key search engine optimisation has seen the site generate increased levels of targeted traffic.

To visit the Focal Design website, click on the post title.

Brand design site - redesign

2006-08-09T22:39:00.000Z

Client website Focal Design has just undergone a redesign. The redesign includes a new logo, a new strapline and a new look and feel. According to Managing Director Gary McIllvenny the website will evolve over the coming weeks and months. To take a look at the new site go to Design for Brands.

37% of Advertising is Wasted

2006-08-08T13:39:00.000Z

In report carried by marketing website Advertising Age, a new book argues that on average 37% of advertising budgets are wasted.

How far can the Google brand stretch?

2006-06-28T09:35:00.000Z

Today's Financial Times carries a story about the launch of Gbuy. Gbuy is Google's version of e-bay's online payment system PayPal.

Both e-bay and PayPal are very successful. They are the generics in their respective market categories. E-bay as an online auction system is unparalleled. PayPal is the dominant and most widely trusted payment system.

Google, with a market capitalisation in excess of $150 billion, is the world's largest media corporation. But recent product launches are taking the brand further and further from its heartland, which is search. Google still makes 99% of its revenue from exploiting its successful pay per click advertising model. In challenging e-bay, is Google taking on more than they can chew?

I think so.

To read the FT article click on the post title.

Halifax Card - Always charging you extra

2006-03-20T15:15:00.000Z

I've written this negative post due to the poor service I've just received from Halifax card services.

By some small error I underpaid my credit card bill be 10p. When I spotted the error I immediately contacted the Halifax. My 10p underpayment landed me with a £74.70 interest charge. Seems a bit steep doesn't it. Halifax offered to refund £30 of the £74.70. That still leaves me with a bill of £44.70. That 447 times the amount underpaid.

Well, I here you say, you should read the small print. But my response is, would I get away with treating my customers this way. Underpay me by 10p and I will penalise you 447 fold. Of course not.

Companies like the Halifax get away with this because they are big and powerful. The people running the company are no longer in touch with their customers.

Sadly for the sake of their insensitivity over10p, Halifax have lost me, my business and my family for life. Let me see, that's their current accounts, their savings accounts, their estate agency chain. And of course the credit card. Maybe the Halifax mega brand approach is not such a good strategy after all. I've even got a new strapline for them: "Halifax - Always charging you extra".

Rugby Wins in Brand Scrum

2005-12-22T15:38:00.000Z

An article published in Marketing Week 18th December 2003

It was disappointing to see Marketing Week so anti-rugby (MW December 11, 2003). Both Nick Higham and George Pitcher took a negative stance towards the game in the long term. Both made the point that England's World Cup victory shouldn't be made too much of. What's interesting is that people within the game also recognise that this current interest shouldn't be over-hyped. Yes, there are more kids turning up to play - by extrapolating my own local club's experience, about 50,000 extra players across the country - and spectator interest in the Zurich Premiership and Heineken Cup is soaring. But most of us involved in the game know that much of this current surge in interest will abate. What we want is steady progress and matching financial support from brand owners.The game needs a measured approach to managing this new-found popularity. Rugby is not soccer - remember Sven Goran Eriksson is paid 23 times what Clive Woodward earns, and no rugby club could replicate the financial mess of Leeds United. Soccer's Euro 2004 will dwarf the Rugby World Cup when it comes to media interest. But the entry price for brand owners to soccer at this level is more than proportionately higher. Rugby is a game with intrinsic athletic appeal, a phenomenal approach to discipline and a strong and growing core of supporters. It's also a game that is financially solvent, from the headquarters at Twickenham right down to local club level.

If you were a major brand owner looking at your sports marketing options, in a strategic sense, you could do worse than divert some of your marketing spend away from soccer, tennis and Formula One and towards rugby. Brand owners need to think of a longer-term partnership with the game - successfully demonstrated by O2 and Tetley's at the top of the game - from the England Scotland, Wales and Ireland team all the way down to the grass roots. At the simple level, as a brand owner, would you rather be associated with the juvenile theatrics and failure of England's soccer team, or the dedication and success of rugby?

Branding UK update

2005-12-22T15:20:00.000Z

Apologies but I've not looked after this blog particularly well. I've just not made the time.

I meant to use this blog to publish material covering a whole range of issues to do with marketing in general and branding in particular. In a previous blog posting I mentioned the idea that I would publish a complete white paper on the subject. I've half written one. A problem i have is that so much written about marketing - and branding in particular - is pretentious tosh. I want to avoid that.

Anyway, instead of the grand whitepaper, I've decided to write a postin a week about a specific area of branding. Listed below is the headings of each subject area.

Ambience
Audience
Branding Strategy
Burning Point
Category
Celebrity
Competition
Competency
Complacency
Credibility
Culture
Devices
Differentiation
Distribution
Equity
Finance
Focus
Generic Strategy
Identity
Intelligence
Internet
Organic
Porter
Product Life Cycle
Profitability
Provenance
Relevance
Salience
Search Marketing
Segmentation

I'll start my posting in the next week.

No.1 UK Blog

2005-10-28T08:44:00.000Z

With all the hype surrounding blogs and their application for marketing, its perhaps interesting to note that a little known, low tech blog, run by yours truly, is currently rated No.1 on one of the major search engines for the term "UK Blog". UK Search is currently sitting top of the pile on MSN. Click MSN Search to see the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

If you want to know how blogs can help you get in touch with search engine specialist Simply Clicks.

Branding Whitepaper

2005-10-19T09:06:00.000Z

The UK branding blog has been neglected of late. I will shorlty include a branding whitepaper.

Branding UK Climbs

2005-05-19T16:13:00.000Z

The UK Brand blog has dramatically climbed the Google and Yahoo search engine rankings. As at 19th May its ranked at number 4 in both search engines for the term "Branding UK". Although search marketing could hardly be described as a core discipline of branding, its an interesting achievement. Its not something that's happened entirely by design. Although part of my business portfolio does include Simply Clicks a UK search marketing specialist. I'll update the blog on progress.

Branding Update

2005-04-26T11:49:00.000Z

Apolgies for not updating this blog for some time. I've spent most of the winter and spring developing my search marketing business - Simply Clicks. I'll update the site with new marketing and branding material very shortly.

Branding - The State of Play

2004-10-19T15:26:00.000Z

A comment on the state of play in the world of branding.
I have set up this blog to discuss the state of branding within the world of marketing. In my opinion, branding is a much over-hyped term. In simple terms, people are now using "branding" as a way of glamourising pooorly executed marketing activity.

Below is a piece that was published in last week's (13th October 2004) edition of leading UK magazine MARKETING.

“Coolness” is no way to judge brand strength

I applaud Mark Ritson’s attempts to take the bullshit out of marketing. However, I believe he was aiming at the wrong target in his article on cool brands (Marketing 6th October).

The problem isn’t the comparison between brands in different categories, even if it’s by a bunch of luvvies who think the brand universe resides exclusively in London. As serious marketers, I’m sure Marketing’s readers would be interested in the differences in market shares, revenues, discounted potential future cash flows and price premiums achieved by different brands in different categories.

The problem is that the Superbrand comparison con-cerned coolness. “Cool” as a brand appendage has been mortally damaged by its crass attachment to “Britannia” by the former Labour MP for Hartlepool. As any parent of teenagers will tell you, cool has been superseded by “phat” or “wicked”.

David Burdon
Managing Director
vSente Europe
01233 663199

For other thoughts on branding go to http://www.vsente.co.uk/35289/index.html.

Another blog of mine concentrates solely on the UK travel industry. I have recently published an article covering the declining fortunes of several sectors within the industry, notably tour operating. See http://travelthinking.blogspot.com

You can see other elements of my work on http://www.simplyclicks.com