Another twist in the Budweiser tale

A European court has decided that Anheuser-Busch does not have the right to use the name ‘Bud’ throughout the EU area as a whole. It must apply in each country to use the term.

The decision is seen as a victory for the Czech brewer Budejovicky Budvar, which has long fought Anheuser-Busch to use the term ‘Bud’. It claims to have registered the market already in some territories. But last year, a court ruled in favour of Anheuser-Busch on another trademark matter.

To read more on this, visit the BBC. Or if you want the whole messy legal business between the two brewers, going back pretty much a century, read on here.

Burger King says: want to smell like you have it our way?

It’s happened to everyone. You walk into a fast-food outlet and the smell of the fat bubbling and meat sizzling starts your mouth watering.

For most of us, however, once we’ve left the shop, we don’t want to continue smelling like fast food. This hasn’t held back Burger King, however, which has launched a special perfume called Flame by BK. Supported by a disturbing website featuring absurdly sexy imagery including The King character in grotesquely erotic poses, the product is described as “the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat.”

Is this likely to be a big hit this holiday season? Well, according to some reports, the $3.99 fragrance is being snapped up like hotcakes. Meaty hotcakes.

We think the Burger King marketing team have their tongues firmly in their cheeks on this one. It’s a lovely little piece of viral marketing that has achieved worldwide press coverage and positions BK as the fun fast-food joint that really doesn’t take itself too seriously. Will Flame be doomed to the same brand extension graveyard as the Harvey-Davidson perfume? We’re pretty sure the BK team couldn’t care less; they’ll be onto the next fun idea……

***Picture from firemeetsdesire.com

Brand Strategy’s editor talks Christmas ads in The Independent

Time for some blatant self-promotion. Brand Strategy editor Ruth Mortimer appears in The Independent newspaper today in the media section, commenting on how retailers are making thrifty ads.

You can read the piece here to see Ruth’s comments on why Tesco hasn’t got the Spice Girls back in the aisles again (last year’s marketing coup, reportedly costing £5m) and why Iceland has stuck with Kerry Katona.

Branded apps: the future or a flop?

Only a few months ago, we were talking up ‘apps’ as the new frontier for brands. (Turn to page 18 of our October issue to read this article.) Or something similarly cheery after Steve Jobs said that apps could become a billion dollar business.

But did we speak too soon? A report in Brandweek suggests that the hype around apps remains precisely that: hype. According to the magazine, a Facebook tool created by Nike has just 3,400 users per month. The sportswear brand might say it is still testing the app but shouldn’t brands be starting to see real results?

So why is the world of branded apps taking a while to lift off? Some critics say that companies are putting too much slick production into creating them without creating anything truly useful for their users. Social media is all about being useful to people so this doesn’t fit with the prevailing ethos.

The article suggests that the best apps are those which are simple and encourage modest expectations. For example, a Facebook app that promotes a Bud Light party cruise and helps people post photos and stay in touch afterwards…..easily managed, not overly ambitious plans.

However, it’s worth noting that the BrandWeek article comes to the same conclusion as Brand Strategy. In areas where brands aren’t regular social media participants or there is no obvious reason for them to take part in that environment, it can be better to use a partner or platform with more experience in the area. It may mean a less prominent role for the brand but it could obtain better results.

What’s your take on the role of apps?

What teenagers really want for Christmas

Teenage virtual world Habbo has very kindly found out what kids really want for Christmas. So, if anyone was thinking about buying a good book for their teenager then perhaps it’s time for a rethink.

Video games and mobile phones are by far the most desired gifts. In a survey of more than 4,500 UK teens (36% female and 64% male) aged 11 – 18, 39 % really want a games console or PC . The top brand is Xbox followed by the Wii. Mobile phones are also sought after with Sony Ericsson branded phones the favourite choice (34%) followed by Noka, then the iPhone.

Apparently clothes will also make your teenager break into a smile, with sports brands Nike and Adidas the most popular. High street chain Topman is also considered an acceptable retailer to buy clothes from.

PruHealth takes the top spot

Harding & Yorke has announced the top customer experience companies from 2008. The firm which tracks the financial impact of customer experience has put PruHealth call centre at the top of the league. Interestingly, health insurance firms take the top three spots. Although first direct telephone banking made it into the top 10, its subsidiary service didn’t fare so well, dropping 55 places to 121. The biggest leap into the top ten was Phones 4u. The mobile phone brand jumped 104 places up the table.

The top ten call centres are:

1 PruHealth

2 HSA

3 Bupa

4 first direct

5 Tesco

6 Standard Life

7 Lands’ End (mobile phones)

8 Phones 4u

9 Alliance and Leicester

10 Boden

The Worst Ads of 2008?

Over in the UK, The Guardian newspaper has anointed 10 TV ads as ‘The Worst of 2008′. The group includes an ad for sofas that includes ‘normal’ people miming Nickelback’s song Rockstar and one for an optician using dubbed footage of iconic singer Edith Piaf claiming she ’should have gone to Specsavers’.

Do you agree these are the worst ads of 2008? Or do you have your own nominees? What about non-UK ads? Let us know what you think.

You can see the Rockstar sofa spot and Specsavers ad below, along with the number one winner of The Guardian’s poll – the Gillette ad featuring sportspeople Thierry Henry, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods….

HP creates an RSS printable newspaper for techno-luddites

This is our favourite thing we’ve seen lately. It’s something for technology-loving luddites. What’s that, we hear you say? A contradiction? Well, HP doesn’t think so. The brand has created Tabbloid, which handily formats your chosen RSS feeds into a newspaper format so you can read the editorial content of your desire – literally – on the way home.

Simply go to the website, fill in your RSS details and the site emails you a print-ready PDF.

We love it as an idea but will it catch on? Let us know what you think…..

Does the brain really choose brands in the same way as Google?

Neuroscience is all the trend in branding these days. Tjaco Walvis is publishing his 18-month study in December’s Journal of Brand Management into how the brain chooses brands.

Walvis tells us that he has found that the brain works in a similar manner to search engine Google. It uses a set of rules (an algorithm) to pick the brand from memory that best fits the person’s functional and emotional needs at that moment.

Apparently, the algorithm for brand choice has three elements:

• The brain selects the brand that it feels will best fit the person’s biological and cultural goals. This is the most uniquely rewarding brand associated with the brain’s reward centres (the dopamine system).
• The brain selects the brand that has shown most frequently in the past its ability to fulfil these needs. Brands that repeat their promises are more likely to be chosen.
• The brain selects the brand it has most intensely interacted with in the past. Brand participation creates new connections within the brain, making retrieval of that information easier.

For more information, read Walvis’ article or wait for his book, Branding with Brains – out in 2009. If you want to track him down and find out more about his work, visit the website for THEY.

Lindstrom’s religious beliefs have a familiar ring

We see that Martin Lindstrom, author of neuromarketing tome Buy-Ology, has written an article for AdAge all about how brands can learn from religion. This is backed by the results of the research he carried out for his 2008 book. You can read his article here.

An interesting idea but not one that Lindstrom has only discovered recently. Back in 2006, he wrote an article for Brand Strategy magazine on the same topic.

And oddly, many of the ideas seem not to have changed too much in two and a half years….’a sense of belonging’ and ‘a clear vision’ appear in both lists. Read the Brand Strategy article from March 2006 (below, click to read more).

So….is this focus on religious branding just a really great idea that Lindstrom has found confirmed by his work over the last two years or do we need to look for some more ideas? Is the marketing industry becoming stale? Do you agree with Lindstrom or does he need to find something new to talk about? Let us know your views.