According to this article, Tango will seek to become the 'official sponsor' of Halloween with a raft of Halloween focused marketing activity. I'm sure they won't be the one brand seeking to cash in.

Every year, Halloween gets bigger and more popular. What I can't understand is why and how Halloween has become such a big deal. When I was a kid it was all about Bonfire Night which seems to have declined in relevance. My kids can take or leave fireworks but love the idea of dressing up and walking up and down our road in search of sweets.

Would love to know.

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I’ve written about e-books a couple of times in the past, speculating as to whether they would really take off. Well, according to Amazon it is now selling more electronic books than hardbacks. So, it appears that the Kindle is here to stay and that electronic book readers will continue to grow in popularity. This is largely due to:

-     Reduced pricing: the Kindle now only costs £109. It was almost twice the price when  it first launched

-     Increased competition: the iPad has now entered the fray which has forced Kindle to raise its game

-     Improved product quality. The latest Kindle is a much better product - see headline picture

So will e-books outsell paperbacks on Amazon in the near future? Absolutely. Will the paperback become obsolete? Probably. I’ll have to add the Kindle to my Christmas list.

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Whilst on holiday one of the biggest decisions we had to make was whether to buy Moretti or Peroni at the supermarket. In the end Moretti always won. Both brands cost about the same,  taste quite similar and are both ‘authentic’ Italian brands.....so why did we always choose Moretti? Well, it only goes to prove that ultimately brand choices are emotional rather than rational.

I prefer Moretti because I like the picture of the old man on the front. He looks like he’s enjoying his beer and looks like a real Italian. Also it’s to do with rarity. It’s much more difficult to buy Moretti in the UK, whereas Peroni is everywhere. I always associate Peroni with Pizza Express and my local supermarket, so it feels more ordinary. I associate Moretti with being on holiday in Italy and I’ve got good memories of sharing it with friends when the sun is beating down.

These intangible associations are often out of the control of brand managers and are difficult to shift. I guess this makes our jobs as marketers all the more exciting and challenging.

It doesn’t mean that the product quality isn’t important. However, when push comes to shove, our hearts rule our head when choosing brands.

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Nice piece from Mark Ritson where he questions the role of Twitter in building brands. Click here to read. Essentially he argues that it’s a great tool for human interaction, but has limited use for brand interactions. I have to agree that it’s role in brand communications is hyped and at best marginal. I can see the point in following the activities of your favourite celebrity for example via Twitter, but can’t see why you should follow what big brands such as Tesco are up to. If anyone’s got any great examples of how brands (not people) use Twitter effectively I’d love to hear. I'm unconvinced.

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My old friend Beverly has just started a new business - Boogogo, which sells fabulous stickers for cars, scooters and all kinds of stuff. Click here to view the site. It just shows how with a great idea and a beautifully designed website its easy to set up a new business.
It also demonstrates that people from Derby are natural entrepreneurs!

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One of the developments that I’ve noticed in the food industry is the success of relatively small, premium food brands that feature ‘real people’. Examples include

Debbie & Andrew's, Ella’s Kitchen, Cully & Sully, Charlie Bigham’s

And there are many more. Interestingly, none of these are ‘celebrity’ chefs. Most are entrepreneurial food lovers who have a passion for producing great quality food.

Of course many of today’s global food brands started off as family businesses (Heinz, Kellogg’s, Barilla, Cadbury’s etc) so it’s nothing new. However, it’s become increasingly important nowadays to see real ‘ordinary’ people behind food brands. I think this is because of
- Concerns over origin and traceability: being able to see where  these products come from and how they’re made is very reassuring

- Demand for quality: people who put their own name on the front are unlikely to sell bad products

- Support for the entrepreneur: we feel good about supporting small brands who put their heart and soul into brands in the face of retail giants and mega-brands

So if you’re thinking of launching a new food brand, there’s clearly an appetite for it so, .... don’t be shy and put your name on the label!

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As I've posted previously, sustainability is the hot marketing topic and dominates many conversations around future brand strategy.

An important development is Stella's move into lightweight glass, which reduces the weight of the bottle by 7%. It's important because Stella is a significant player in the beer market and could encourage other beer and indeed the whole alcohol industry to follow suit. How long will it be before lightweight glass becomes commonplace in the wine industry? Watch this space. It seems that Stella are undertaking a whole range of environmentally friendly initiatives. Click here for more details.

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A few months ago Dove decided to launch a range of male products under the name ‘Dove Men+Care’. Essentially this is a range of deodorants and shower gels. I’m not close enough to the category to make a judgement as to whether it will be successful or not, but experienced commentators reckon it’ll do pretty well.

However, I still think it’s shame they’ve done this. The ‘old’ Dove when it focused soley on women was a beautifully integrated brand story : a clear vision, based on a fresh consumer insight, with original, differentiated advertising, built on powerful product supports. Lovely. Really lovely.

Now it just feels like another beauty brand. I’m unconvinced there is a true consumer insight: did men ever find their skin to be uncomfortable? The packaging follows classic male cues (greys and blues) and it’s supported by ‘science’.  Very different to the Dove I knew and admired and instead a brand that’s becoming more and more like Nivea.

I’m going to have remove Dove from my list of great case studies. It just doesn’t make sense to me anymore.

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