You sometimes have to sit back and wonder what a company actually does. This is quite often the case when looking at websites – homepages can get cluttered so deep in marketing waffle and promises of partnership that the point is missed. What are you selling?

Be first to comment this article | Quote this article on your site

A few weeks back I wrote an article about Budweiser Budvar v Anheuser Busch and how protecting your brand is vital. In that case, the two companies agreed that the other could use the name Budweiser in a geographical agreement. It didn’t work because both parties decided they wanted to broaden the reach of their products. The result has been lengthy litigation all over the world. So has everyone learned their lessons? Erm…no! 

Be first to comment this article | Quote this article on your site

Small businesses probably imagine that marketing agencies are expensive luxuries that offer little value for money. They probably wonder why they should bother using an integrated marketing agency when they could do the job in-house. After all, don’t all marketing types just rip you off and deliver nothing more than you could do yourself? 

Be first to comment this article | Quote this article on your site

The content of TV programmes in the 21st century is sometimes incomprehensibly liberal. Graphic depictions of violence and sex are interspersed with virtually any word you could care to imagine – after all it is not long since the screening of Jerry Springer The Opera gained such notoriety. However, in a bizarre display of double standards, TV viewers must be shielded from the phrase “bloody hell.” 

Be first to comment this article | Quote this article on your site

…that they just can’t be bothered to make us our own advert. It’s something of a pet hate for me and one that I referred to briefly in an earlier post (A Time And A Place). The basis of it is that companies make an advert abroad that is utterly inappropriate for the UK market, but just can’t be bothered to modify it. The cost of putting it right is often minimal – certainly less than a prime time slot – but they just fob the UK off with it anyway. 

Be first to comment this article | Quote this article on your site