With the company facing £385 million of debts, just after 4.30pm on 10th December Woolworths’ head office sent an email to the managers of all its 815 stores announcing that no buyer had recognised the wonder of the Woolies brand. Today stores open with signs printed at the last minute reading:“closing down sale”.
Woolies has an exceptional place in consumers’ hearts. It was just one year away from its centenary. Such an endearing name offers the official administrators Deloitte, the chance to market the concern to a shrewd buyer who appreciates the potential that such an evocative brand could still hold – especially in difficult times.
How stupid do brands think people are? Discussing Heinz’s decision last week to drop the word ‘baked’ which has graced its tins of iconic beans since 1886, John Alderman, marketing manager for the company said: “Heinz Beanz have been powering the nation for over a hundred years and to say thank you to our loyal fans, we have given this iconic product a 21st century makeover”.
Heinz, the perennial family brand favourite, has withdrawn its television commercial for mayonnaise because it believes it offends family values.
The thirty-second commercial, which was due to run over five weeks, features a man in a typical middle-class family kitchen setting preparing sandwiches for a schoolboy and girl. The man, dressed as a chef, sounds and [...]
Barely a year has passed since ‘Olymlogogate’: the blot on the branding landscape forever known as the ‘UK 2012’ logo. Now the government has done it again. Allegedly the Office of Government Commerce spent twelve months with their design team at FHD agency going over the fine details of their new logo. [...]
BrandZ, an annual study measuring the brand equity of 50,000 global consumer-facing brands as based on interviews with over one million consumers worldwide, has named Google as the world’s most powerful brand (Brand Value $86,057). Followed by GE (Brand Value $71.379m). Microsoft ($70,887m) and Coca Cola ($58,208m)
Perhaps surprising to some, fifth place goes [...]