Return of the Green giant

Marketing Week

Depending on who you believe, the Green movement is either regrouping for another blistering attack on Britain’s less-than-ethically minded manufacturers or it is suffering the worst decline in popularity since Mussolini was strung up by his former supporters. In poll after poll, consumers express the view that yes, they do still care about fair trading […]

No Title

Marketing Week

The Conservative Party claims to have settled its 600,000 bill with Saatchi & Saatchi, leaving it free to hire M&C Saatchi. The money, the remainder of the bill from the 1992 General Election campaign, was a major barrier to the Party leaving Saatchi & Saatchi and appointing the breakaway agency. The Labour Party has moved […]

BA seeks to slash cost of distribution

Marketing Week

British Airways is working with travel trade bodies ABTA and the Guild of Business Travel to cut distribution costs. The airline is reviewing commission structures for travel agents and expenditure on UK marketing, including computer reservations and advertising. It is also looking at technological developments, including airport ticket machines for business travellers who book direct […]

Kwik Fit hires agency man for key post

Marketing Week

Kwik Fit is appointing the account director behind its “You can’t get better than a Kwik Fit fitter” strategy to run its marketing department. Paul Yole, who developed the strategy while working at Hall Advertising (until 1986), is taking the role of marketing director for Great Britain. He replaces group director of marketing Peter Holmes, […]

Danes force pace of change at Carlsberg

Marketing Week

When the UK marriage of Carlsberg and Tetley was completed in December 1992 there were three key players at the new company who gave the impression that the then Allied-Lyons held the upper hand. Last week, Liz Morgan, marketing director and the only surviving member of the triumvirate, left the beer company. She has been […]

Sketchlyey drops Fagan as its md

Marketing Week

Dry-cleaning chain Sketchley is reshuffling senior management responsibilities after dropping its managing director Elizabeth Fagan. Fagan was asked to leave the company last month. Sketchley says it chose not to announce the decision because she was not a board member. Fagan’s role will be taken over by John Jackson, former Body Shop managing director, who […]

Rizla hires chief to reignite brand

Marketing Week

Rizla, the cigarette paper supplier is recruiting a former Roth- mans executive as sales and marketing director. He will spearhead a high-profile marketing campaign. Graham Bolt, formerly an account controller at Rothmans, replaces Chris Gaunt who left in June to “pursue other business interests”. Bolt will also oversee the appointment of an above-the-line advertising agency, […]

SPCA comes under fire for attack on ISP

Marketing Week

A war of words has broken out between sales promotion trade bodies this week, after The Sales Promotion Consultants Association published an attack on the Institute of Sales Promotion. In a newsletter called Beyond Redemption, Malcolm Davies, managing director of sales promotion consultancy Coaxis, attacked the ISP for being “conservative and insular” and “among the […]

Alan Sugar enters beauty sector

Marketing Week

Alan Sugar is setting up a new Amstrad division to sell DIY beauty appliances. Sugar, founder of Amstrad, chairman of Tottenham Hotspur FC and PC-to-phone entrepreneur, is understood to have invested millions of pounds in the new operation.

Error of Indpendent’s ways

Marketing Week

If you’re going to carry a misprint on your front page, you might as well make it a prominent one. Saturday’s Independent didn’t misspell its splash headline, but it produced the next best thing – a “literal” (as such mistakes are known in the trade) in the top right hand corner of the front page, […]

SUNSET TIMES FOR PAPERS?

Marketing Week

Newspaper publishing is a business in decline. Price wars, diversification and an over-reliance on promotions and product innovation at a time of rising newsprint costs is testament to the fact. And as if we needed further proof: across the world, from the Electronic Telegraph to the San Jose Mercury News, newspapers are leaping into cyberspace. […]

POP CULTURE

Marketing Week

Technology at the point-of-purchase is creating a stir among marketers. Interactive touch-screens and multimedia displays may sound impressive, but what do they mean to the consumer and, more importantly, the company footing the bill for the equipment? “The situation with touchscreen systems is that many companies are just putting their toe in the water.” says […]

Accurist to give Simons Palmer 2m?

Marketing Week

Leading UK watch company Accurist is believed to have appointed Simons Palmer Denton Clemmow & Johnson to raise the profile the brand name. The agency saw off competition from Banks Hoggins O’Shea and incumbent Lansdown Conquest – which has handled the account for the past 14 years. The budget is expected to increase from 1m […]

Big Blue hedges its bets

Marketing Week

Big Blue last week showed its talent for being ever-green. IBM produced a golden-egg-laying hen in the shape of a Digital Library deal with EMI Music Publishing. What I gather this means is that any commercial organisation, from an ad agency to the in-house corporate affairs department of a multinational, that should wish to use […]

trouble indemnity

Marketing Week

Of all the marketing disciplines, sales promotion has to be the one where the chance of something going wrong is most likely. Like direct marketing, it is an industry teeming with sub-contractors who all operate according to their own rules – which in many cases mean no rules whatsoever. And when you add an incentive […]