A former German banker is in court (Oct 2011) charged with taking a $44million bribe to sell F1 rights.
If it is worth a bribe of this size just how much overall brand value is attached to CVC and Bernie Ecclestone’s F1 business.

With the trial set to run for up to 6 months the brand value of the legal teams involved looks safe and sound!

My efforts to make money on Formula 1 (£5 top prize) have been frustrated for another season as the Fantasy Formula One game I have played has again highlighted my lack of skill in picking the winning drivers.

Corporate mergers and takeovers are slowly surfacing as asset values look better after the recent economic stress. More deals will help the finances of banks and financial markets to get back on their feet.

Hain Celestial the owners of the Linda McCartney brand of ready meals and vegetarian sausages have just acquired the New Covent Garden Soup Company from Singapore Airport Terminal Services. (who? ed)

The brand story for New Covent Garden Soup Co is well told on Food Forum web site. The corporate ownership saga of 5 owners since the business first started in 1988 sees the UK brand moving to the USA for the first time. Hain Celestial now owns Linda McCartney and Daniels the makers of NCGSC soup.

Issues covered in the brand story include:

• The Company
• The Product
• About the design and development process
• The manufacture
• The marketing
• About issues and values
• Using NCGSC as a case study for branded food

Facilities management is not only alive and well it is a growth industry for some wide awake brands such as the RFM Group.

It can be hard to put over an FM message when the service you offer is tailor made to each client. This may be one reason why RFM have updated their image, colour scheme and web site content.
See our view 3 years ago.

For a change this post focuses on your tangible assets. FM is one way of ensuring your ‘Property’ is clean, safe and well maintained. The right external and internal image is an extension of your own brand.

Mattel the owners of the Barbie brand have just agreed to buy HIT. HIT owned The Guinness Book of Records until recently sold. The new deal transfer brands such as Uno, Barney, Matchbox, Pingu, Thomas the Tank Engine and Bob the Builder to Mattel who are the owners of Fisher-Price amongst many other brands.

After the wedding the honeymoon for Barbie and Bob the Builder will start on board a matchbox car driven by Pingu to a wedding special Thomas the Tank engine.
Mattel will increase there domination as ‘Fat Controller’ of the toy market but leaving the current owners of HIT with a large loss to write off.

Thomas The Tank Engine is a number one brand in China so Mattel have something to be Chuff Chuff about.

Upload your CV and let recruiters find you and inundate you with Jobs-by-Email alerts if you do not value your personal brand.
I have long preferred a rifle approach to a shotgun or worse still a blunderbus and want to target who sees my CV.

The internet is going to continue bringing up embarrassing moments from school day howlers, Facebook adventures, tweats you now think better of and self inflicted CVitis.

Tips for Personal Brand

• Be clear, open and honest on all CV’s and be aware that the detail on web published information may catch you out.
• Make your own brand so strong that you stand out without having to post your brand CV on every jobseeker site going.
• Your CV is your brand marketing literature but remember there is much more to the make up of your Personal Brand.

Jobsite (old logo or new logo) is useful for first time job seekers and their ‘CV Producer is a fast easy way to create and expert CV that delivers the results you want. it guides you through a quick and easy online process to generate a professional and effective CV. And you’re supported every step of the way by expert CV help and insider tips.’

Not quite the 57 varieties that Heinze are renown for but this old larder has some brand messages worthy of note.

Heinz Messages

• Oven baked beans are still produced with the dirty green lable with which the customers are familiar.
• Salad cream is packaged in a wide necked bottle although we may now expect a squeezy plastic delivery mechanism
• Idea sauce and HP sauce were close competitors at one time. Now Heinz make HP sauce and are causing controversy with changes to the recipe but the demand for brown sauce is still there.
• Uncooked spaghetti would be unappetising but the term ‘cooked’ has been dropped in favour of what I guess are 57 varieties of spaghetti.
• Lurking behind the other packages is a Heinz variety I can’t name. I hope it is one of your favourites

Other Branding Messages

• Packaging has become far more important to brands but you must admire the cheap and simple grocery packaging of dry goods by weight.
• Chivers preserves still exists as part of Premier Foods but how successful is it now. No longer pick of the fruit I would think.
• Fortunately it is a long time since I had to eat blancmange but it is a reminder that tastes in brands and products do change, often over short periods.
• Loose tea was always kept in a tea caddy but then we wouldn’t have spotted old brands like Avondale and Collinson’s Orient Tipps.

Tip of the Week

Packaging is crucial to consumer products and especially grocery and food stuffs.
Invest in the best, most appropriate packaging you can afford!
Stick to the theme of your packaging and avoid unresearched changes.
Consider ‘Green eco-packaging’ if it supports your brand image

Who are the shining lights of the UK’s digital industry? Which agencies have achieved the most this year and who stands out as the one outstanding individual in the digital business? Well ‘The Drum’, owned by The Carnyx Group, aims to resolve these questions with a series of awards to be announced on 11th November 2011 in Leeds.

The 2012 awards cover 30 odd categories and you can register now.
Even entering for an award can boost staff morale and increase brand awareness in the industry and there is a chance of winning.

Other marketing awards going the rounds at the moment include:
Social Buzz Awards

and Digital Impact Awards

Comment

• I remember a successful business owner who won ‘Executive of the year 1997 xy niche industry’. Ever since he has styled himself National Executive winner. No one bothers with the fine print.
• Most industries have an awards season and it can be fun to compete
• At worst you will get to have a meal at an awards ceremony and meet other interesting and like minded people.
• You can also manufacture your own local awards system if times are too tight mto enter national competitions.

Awards can Add Brand Value

For young businesses part of the brand are the awards and prizes you have won along the way.

CMI have 11 National Management and Leadership Awards where you can nominate yourself or a colleague.

Even your local awards, training and trade memberships may add value to your personal or business brand.

If you don’t enter you don’t win!

You don’t have to give awards back so you can keep using them in PR.

Shell Awards

£40,000 awards are potentially available for small businesses with big ideas on climate change under the Shell Springboard scheme. Ideas with the potential to break new ground, but which also have sound financial planning and market understanding behind them are likely to be amongst the winners.

Shell Live Wire sponsorship of business start-up support for under 30 year olds seems to be a cheap and effective B2B activity for a major brand.

Innovation Awards

Young businesses can get increased exposure and brand awareness by entering for industry awards. There is the potential to win not only cash but prizes in kind such as professional advice and contact with other entrepreneurs.
www.maiden-voyage.com a young business aimed at the female traveller has been short listed for the innovation awards at the business travel show.

Shirty Award

Being top of a ‘Which’ consumer report for made-to-measure shirts can’t hurt Christmas sales for M&S. Unlike runners up at Savile Row tailors they won’t cost the shirt off your back either.

Winning competitions or getting awards can fuel your PR machine.

An iconic brand and its unmistakable plain black printing on yellow packaging was relaunched in 2009 but dates back to North America in 1978.
A Canadian company Loblaw launched “No Name” with 16 generic or unbranded items in grocery and household goods. The range progressively increased to over 500 lines.

The original packaging was in black and yellow and just provided a basic and factual comment on the product. Progressively a registered trademark was added and the brand went international as ‘Sans nom’.

The idea was good enough first time around but don’t flog a dead horse particularly one with no name, it is unlikely to be a Champion the Wonder Horse or Shergar.

Puns and plays on words are sometimes suitable for SME’s but I would leave it to hairdressers and Chinese restaurants to push out these boundaries.

See No Logo by Naomi Klien

Thanks for the Photo by Michael Francis McCarthy creative commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Green Brands

Green brands that consumers associate with environmental conservation and sustainable business practices are growing in number but not necessarily in green credentials.

So it is customer perception that rates highly and not just reality according to Interbrands Green Brand Survey 2011. ‘For example, L’Oréal, .. scored significantly higher in performance than perception, suggesting that while they are doing great things internally in terms of environmental sustainability, but are still not yet communicating their efforts to consumers…’

Green brands appeal to consumers and employees who are becoming more aware of the need to protect the environment. A green brand can add a unique selling point to a product and can boost corporate image. Green grandstanding will annoy serious potential customers.

Do not just ‘tick green boxes’ or you will be found out!
Embracing the green concepts covers all aspects of your business from the owners and employees through suppliers, processes, packaging, distribution and knowhow through to your end market.

Brand bidding is something that costs brands heavily and rarely delivers. In the case between Interflora and Marks and Spencer the later used the term ‘Interflora’ via adwords.  Blogstorm, the popular search engine optimisation & online marketing blog, help keep me up to date on these issues and you can read more here

Interflora has blogged about the ruling and their statement is below.

Interflora is delighted by the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union which today ruled in their favour. This ruling will enable brand holders across Europe to deliver quality service and ensure that trade marks guarantee the origin of the goods bought by consumers online. Keyword advertising is a very powerful tool and so it is vital for consumer protection that internet search results take consumers immediately to the brands they were looking for.

This judgment goes much further than previous rulings by saying that the use by a competitor of a keyword identical to the trade mark in relation to identical goods or services has an adverse effect on the investment in the trade mark where that use substantially interferes with the brand’s reputation and its ability to attract and retain consumers. Further, a competitor may be construed as free-riding on a brand when that competitor uses the brand owner’s trade mark as a paid for keyword to deliver sponsored advertising along side natural search results. This is exactly what Interflora and other global brands have been arguing for many years.

However, Interflora acknowledges that the judgment of the Court of Justice needs to be applied by the High Court in the UK to determine the question of Marks & Spencer’s liability. This is expected in the course of 2012.

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