Brand lives, newism & tattoo marketing
- How many lives does a brand have?
- 'Newism' spells heaven or hell for brands
- Canada Posts sets 2013 Admail/Business Reply mail rates
- Marketers buy Facebook more for awareness than likes or leads: Survey
- Top five daily activities on media tablets
- Tattoo marketing makes a permanent connection
How many lives does a brand have?
It's said that cats have nine lives, but how many does a brand have? The answer is definitely more than one. Writing in Fast Company, author Martin Lindstrom (Buy-ology and Brandwashed) surmises that the rules of branding are about to change given the aggresive hunt by Chinese companies to acquire major Western brands and their already successful foray in this area. Examples given were the 2001 IBM sale of their PC brand Thinkpad to Lenovo; Zhejiang Geely Holding acquiring Volvo Cars from Ford 2010; and just this year when the Wantong group bought Dalla Pieta, and Shandong Heavy Industry Group bought Ferretti. Notes Lindstrom: "It's just a matter of time before you will see many of the brands which are currently changing hands produce products and services you'd never associated with them before."
'Newism' spells heaven or hell for brands
From the July issue of trendwatching.com: "Newism" and why more than ever, consumers lust after the new – new products, services and experiences that are created on a daily, if not hourly basis, in every B2C industry. And why that spells heaven or hell for brands – including five forces that are propelling Newism into even more prominence:
- Creative Destruction
- FSTR (everything is getting faster and FSTR)
- Experience Cramming (collecting and mixing-and-matching as many, and as wide a variety, of new experiences as possible)
- Status Stream -- comes from being in-the-know, and from being part of the "new"
- Trysumers – who don't see any risk trying out something new.
Canada Posts sets 2013 Admail/Business Reply mail rates
Canada Post has announced the product and price changes for Admail and related services that will come into effect on Jan. 14, 2013. Some key elements include:
- Addressed Admail categories will see increases that mostly range from 2.5%-3.5%.
- Business Reply mail categories will also see increases ranging from 2.5%-3.5%. Regarding the changes to Business Reply Card weight (see September 16 Weekly Watching Brief), Canada Post will permit a range of acceptable paper weights. It must be noted, however, that lower paper weight may be subject to longer processing times.
- No change to Unadressed Admail rates.
More details can be found on the Canada Post website.
Marketers buy Facebook more for awareness than likes or leads: Survey
Marketers who buy ads on Facebook are more focused on building brand awareness than accumulating fans, according to a new survey by Ad Age and Citigroup. Asked to identify their primary goal in Facebook ads, 46% of respondents put building awareness and sentiment for their brands at the top. Driving traffic to brand websites was the second most-cited goal, with 17.6% of respondents saying it is their most important objective, followed by building fans or likes, staying in touch with customers, generating sales leads and social commerce.
Top five daily activities on media tablets
Gartner reports that the main activities moving from PCs to media tablets are checking email, reading the news, checking the weather forecast, social networking and gaming. The trend doesn't necessarily mark an overall move to tablets, notes Gartner, but is more indicative of a consumer looking to use devices that are at hand, including smartphones.
Tattoo marketing makes a permanent connection
Tattoo giveaways are cropping up as the latest trend in brand marketing. Unlike free T-shirts or hats with brand images, in this case the logo stays -- forever. One step away from the branding iron with consumers and there isn't a marketer alive who hasn't thought about that one day -- people willing to sort of anchor themselves by making a permanent statement.
Source: Marketplace Life