by Colwyn Elder (@colwynelder) Innovation in technology has spawned many new business models, one of the more interesting being access over ownership and the sharing economy. And it seems the sharing economy is already alive and well in South Africa.
Category archives: Marketing
Tuned: L’Oreal, in touch and in tune with African hair
by Thabang Leshilo (@Thabang_Leshilo) As a woman who’s been braiding her hair since six, I can tell you that ethnic hair care is not a territory that L’Oreal is famous for among African consumers. So where and how would it begin to go about building a credible relationship with consumers? Enter the new L’Oréal Professional African Salon Institute in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.
Brand Politics: Seeing red — what EFF teaches us about brand-building
by Alistair Mackay (@almackay) I can think of very few brands that have risen to prominence as quickly as the EFF has. Even Google and Facebook, the textbook meteoric risers, took a few years to establish themselves. The political party has done it by applying some fundamental marketing principles, and some clever guerrilla-marketing tactics.
BrandMapp steps into market research breach
by Herman Manson (@marklives) WhyFive, the market research firm launched by Stuart Lowe, the former MD of media house Ramsay Media, is stepping up its market presence as the sector is faced by uncertainty about the future of AMPS.
Bottled water is the marketing trick of the century
by John Jewell, Cardiff University Writing in the Daily Telegraph Dr Phil Hammond, the GP, comedian and columnist wonders whether we have all swallowed the “water con”. Have we, he asks, abandoned rational thought?
The Ad Contrarian: New CMO = new agency = new campaign (= sh*t)
by Bob Hoffman (@adcontrarian), San Francisco Bay I am not a fan of either the talking-animal or the talking-baby genre. They’ve been done a million times and rarely have they been anything but awful. However, every now and then someone does it well. They take a clichéd idea and make it into something good.
Shelf Life: Delectable #WDC2014 project focuses on food and design
Louise Marsland (@Louise_Marsland)’s weekly pick of recent product, packaging and design launches: a delectable World Design Capital project focuses on food and design; Ola Magnum proves that size matters; Cerebra cashes in on social commerce; and Primall entices mall rats to take a coffee break.
The Sell: Should fridges tweet and other stories
by Mimi Nicklin (@MimiNicklin) As the plethora of technology options widens, how do we choose what to buy? This is the question I pose myself when looking at which technology brands are getting right, and wrong, when it comes to driving purchase.
Africa Style: Don’t replay your brand — we’re changing too fast
by Masingita Mazibuko. Change, the unfamiliar, the unknown — these are circumstances that human beings naturally avoid. Yet, marketers are duty-bound to be brave if they are to contribute positively to their brands’ success and, on a far larger scale, their economy’s growth.
The Ad Contrarian: The lifetime value of stupidity
by Bob Hoffman (@adcontrarian), One of my all-time favourite dumb-guy marketing ideas is “lifetime value”. It is the fantasy that if you get a customer at a young age she’ll stick with you for life. This nonsense is particularly popular in the automotive industry, where I misspent a lot of my agency career.