Hopenhagen: Real hope or greenwash consumer engagement?

The Advertising Association have created an awareness campaign for the Copenhagen summit. Entitled “Hopenhagen” it was launched by Ban Ki-moon at the Cannes advertising festival in June. A very worthy cause and nice creative but I was a bit disturbed by the “Partners” – Coca Cola, SAP, Siemens, Gap, BMW and DuPont? Sponsoring a Climate Change campaign?

I suspect the ‘sponsorship’ opportunity of this Hopenhagen campaign was proposed by the CSR team at these not inconsiderable mass CO2-generating organisations as a means to create some green credentials they can use to calm worried consumers of their products. I don’t remember seeing any of these brands marching at the Climate Change march in London last weekend alongside their consumers – I suspect they would not have received a favourable reception. Sure someone has to pay for these campaigns – and corporations have the funds – but this is like asking the Japanese Whaling Industry to pay for a campaign to Save The Whale.

The lesson: Brands be careful what you sponsor. Causes be careful who you allow to sponsor you in the rush for funds.
Posted by Del

Lifes little luxuries

Recession, unemployment, swine flu – it’s enough to get you down. Not so the great British spender. According to research by Abbey and Post Office Financial services UK consumers are still craving their little luxuries as an antidote to the current gloom – shaving £10 off their monthly grocery bills and spending it on non-essentials like clothes, hobbies and holidays. This ‘scrimping to spend’ attitude is also applying to larger ticket items. Kelkoo.com report that 58% of shoppers were buying between one and three non-essential items a month – but spending no more than £75 per item. 

Posted by Del

Shifting trends but good design still wins

As the Chancellor’s Budget last week confirms that we are now all in hoc for many years to come, marketing managers are struggling to get to grips with the shift in their consumer’s mindset as they react to the current economic downturn.

There is an urgent need for brands to recognise this consumer ‘cocoon’ state – where people are retreating to the reassurance of their home and transforming their consumption patterns. 

Surprisingly, 25- to 34-year-olds emerged as the age group saving most in the last quarter of 2008, according to state-owned savings bank NS&I. Its study showed that the household savings ratio (savings as a percentage of disposable income) nearly tripled to 4.8% between October and December from 1.7% in the previous quarter. Last week’s one-third increase in the tax-free limit on ISA savings, to £10,200, will only further promote saving.

People are spending more eating in rather than dining out; rapidly increasing their spend on on-demand home entertainment rather than going to the cinema (BSkyB announcing today a 7% rise in revenues with 80,000 new customers in the third quarter alone). Instead of ignoring this brands would do well to recognise how their audience have changed and reconsider their messages accordingly. We’ve shown how recognition of this trend in consumers to cocoon at home can reap marketing rewards. Our recent product launch for Samsung positioned them as the perfect partner for UK dealers to help weather the storm by providing products which help people entertain and be entertained at home.  

So what of luxury brands and how they justify their price premium? It’s easy to understand how small luxuries are holding up – such as chocolate, home-delivery pizza and lipstick, but what of a £10,000 television? On a visit yesterday to one of our luxury sector clients, Bang & Olufsen in Denmark, it was almost against the grain of the times to note that their sales in the UK have experienced something of a rebounded in recent months. The reason? I’d put it down to the fact that people still want to feel good about their purchase – they are returning to quality and the emotional benefits of the brands they interact with. Value does not always equal Primark – it can also be DKNY which will perhaps better endure the test of time.

Bang & Olufsen recently re-issued an earphones design completely unchanged from the 25-year old hand-drawn original (which is why the logo is still the old logo on the product). The sales have shown that people still want quality and that great design does indeed stand the test of time.

Posted by Del