Ehrenberg-Bass News

Positioning faces an even bigger challenge. Jenni Romaniuk of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute has pointed out that the way we think about positioning is back to front. Unlike marketers, the brand is the last thing consumers think about.

Bluetooth, the technology that uses wireless connectivity to exchange data across short distances, could be a powerful solution for measuring outdoor ads, according to a paper published in the Journal of Advertising Research (JAR).

Not the most exciting headline I suppose, but I am a bit bemused by the furore about the decision of Mastercard to remove the brand name from the logo. This decision been called ‘smart’, ‘masterful’ (nice pun) ‘bold’. I call it doing your job. This is what any brand with a strong Distinctive Asset can do - use the Distinctive Asset to replace the brand name. It’s not brave, bold or brilliant, it’s just good branding - assuming you have the foundations in place.

We all know the modern market is cluttered and competitive, and there’s always someone who wants the same corner as you do. In this kind of environment, very few businesses have a product that is genuinely unique, but that doesn’t mean you can’t build a brand that is unique.

Byron Sharp trusts no one when it comes to loyalty. That's why the marketing professor from southern Australia stopped counting on customer retention and regular guests a long time ago: they're too inefficient and expensive. Instead, he's focusing on scientific data analysis, which is telling him that market share can only be gained with chance customers.