Some of the younger generations out there might have heard of the beer ‘Barefoot Radler’. But I bet none have heard of a wine label called ‘Barefoot’. This sorry tale is a great example of the importance of registering your Intellectual Property (IP), and importantly, doing so in the right category.
Explore our historical blog articles for nuggets of wisdom (and random musings) from our crew.
Seriously…where did it go? It’s not a rhetorical question. I really don’t know where it went. One day there we were, sketching mock-ups on an art board, providing hand renderings to clients and the next thing you know, we’re presenting full colour, near complete ‘concepts’! What the bloody hell happened!
Will it ever stop? It’s a question that I’ve seen being thrown around the web-forums over the past 18 months and is directed at Google’s ability to consistently add innovative products and services to their already expansive line-up. It might sound like a cheesy line from an advertisemment, but when you needed to search the web…Google was there; when you needed to locate an address on a map…Google was there; when you needed to be alerted of a particular keyword in pages going live…Google was there; needless to say, if it has to do with the web technologies…Google is never far away. In fact, while typing this blog, I noticed my colleague reading a news article story headlined “Google reveals its challenge to iPhone”. The soon to be released G1 is Google’s new WI-FI enabled mobile phone running Google’s new Android operating system. So how does all this innovation affect us marketers?
Imagine, if you will, that historic moment in time. The place is Sweden. The moment is the brand birth of one of the world’s most famous icons. It’s the place I would ‘most like to have been in another time’. It is the creation of IKEA.
As a mere male, I marvel at the patience of a women preparing herself for a night to remember. As a marketer I know exactly what she’s attempting to do – she’s positioning herself and its not just about competing with the rest of the females. I’m sure by now most females will be heading toward my office , while reaching for their 9mm side arms to take me out. So prior to my likely assassination I want to square things up a little – men do it too! There less obvious in their preparation, but they’re engaged in the same process – positioning.
As promised in a previous blog, I was going to have a look at the Hardware industry and who’s doing what (or who?) and whether I think it’s working. So lets start at the top: with the all-conquering Bunnings. They’ve been number one for a long time and will continue to be number one for a long time into the future. They operate 167 warehouses and 60 smaller format stores across the nation with annual sales of over $5.3 billion. So what can we learn from the Hardware giant?
Go on…admit it. As much as you may respect your competitors (and don’t get me wrong, I believe this to be very important!). There’s still no better feeling than getting the upper hand in your own marketplace. So how is your swing? Are you averaging at the top of the league with a 0.360? Or are you simply sitting on the bench?