GTi Say Bye Bye

So this week, Peugeot have announced the demise of the GTi branding on their cars (Autocar Story).  Coming from a company who near-enough invented the hot hatch with the 205 GTi, this is a very sad story.

However, I do not think it is as big news as people are flouting.  When was the last time Peugeot made a car worthy of the GTi badge?  For the last 10 years, their cars have been nothing but spongy, flabby, fish-mouthed monstrosities.  Stick on bigger wheels, a spoiler and some (loosely) hugging seats and there you have a GTi.  Well sorry Peugeot, but no…that does not make a true GTi.

The thing is, Volkswagen went through the same problem with the Golf.  The mk1 and 2 Golf GTi’s are renowned for being excellent hot hatches, but by the time the mid-nineties came along, the GTi’s became watered down, heavy and not really newsworthy at all.  Fortunately, VW have turned it all around with the latest two offerings and wear the GTi badge proudly.

The GTi badge has become a lot more than just a name, it is a brand.  People aspire to own a GTi version of the Golf, it is a halo model in its own right.  So I feel that Peugeot’s withdrawal from using the name will benefit the GTi brand in the long run.  Until Peugeot can attach that name to a worthy vehicle, it will continue to dilute the GTi’s name.

Therefore, although sad news, I agree with Peugeot’s decision to remove themselves from the GTi battle and patiently await their triumphant return in a few years.

Business is Business, but isn't British Better?

I’ve watched with amazement the drama that is surrounding the prospect of no British Grand Prix for 2010, wondering if someone is going to come to their senses anytime soon.  By someone, of course, I mean Bernie Ecclestone.

Now it’s quite obvious for anyone to see that Donnington is not ready to host a Grand Prix in 2010, however good ol’ Bernie seems to think that Donnington’s failure means the British GP’s slot is now up for sale to the highest bidder.  Ok, ok, this is business at the end of the day, and a very profitable business it is as well…for Bernie. 

But there are some traditions, Monaco for example will never be dropped from the racing calendar…it holds too much heritage.  Well excuse me for saying, but not only are the majority of F1 teams based in Britain, providing British engineering, design and marketing jobs, but we’ve also fronted the two most recent World Champion drivers!

Button has just won the WDC, Brawn have just won the Constructors Championship, Hamilton will hopefully be back on form next year in a McLaren, the Red Bull cars will be fighting up there as well…all these teams are based in the UK in case you didn't realise.

Britain is at the forefront of F1, and Bernie is prepared to give away the British Grand Prix just because another country is offering him more money.  Silverstone is sitting there, patiently waiting to be given the go-ahead to run the 2010 Grand Prix, and the main question that has to be asked is, would people prefer to see, and would the drivers prefer to race around the historic Silverstone circuit or  go to a circuit in a random country with no F1 involvement other than a large cheque in Bernie’s back pocket?

Business is business, but with two British World Champions driving for British teams and a whole host of other British-run teams, should some things not be sacred?

MG - Running on Fumes?

This week has seen the sad, yet slightly inevitable, news that MG are halting production of the recently refreshed (even that might be an overstatement!) MG TF at Longbridge due to a lack of sales.  So could this finally  be the end of MG?  And could, or more poignantly should, this most recent embarrassment have been avoided by letting the long running brand bail out at the same time Rover went under?

I suppose the question I’m asking is, when is enough enough?  There have been a number of companies who have tried to resurrect both Rover and MG over the years, but as soon as one fails, another one ploughs in some money in a vain attempt to keep a good old British brand from drowning.  From where I’m sitting there is only a finite amount of times that a brand can be relaunched and try to re-attract customers.  If you’ve failed once, people are likely to give you a second chance.  If you’ve failed four or five times….well, what’s different this time?  Why should I buy your product?

The issue is, MG don’t produce cheap, FMCG goods that you can try to see if you like before making a regular purchase.  MG produce cars.  Cars are expensive, high-involvement purchases that people put a lot of thought into before buying.  If you’re spending the best part of £15,000 on something, you want to be assured that if it breaks down in two months time your dealer will still be there and able to honour the warranty.  If you can’t place this level of trust in a company, are you likely to buy their product?

In my mind, the trust has gone.  I would be very surprised if MG sold any more cars.  And I don’t think there is any point in trying.  People cannot come back from the dead, why should brands be any different?

I don’t want to appear to be having a go at MG but their cars ended life as reworked Rovers…not as real MG cars, which is a shame given their rich heritage of cars throughout the years.  The MGB, for example, is one of the greatest British sports cars ever made…sadly the same cannot be said of the MG TF, ZR or ZT.

Although it pains me to say it, I really do hope this is the end of the road for MG.  In a time when consumers are becoming more fickle with their money, and there is more choice than ever, MG will undoubtedly get lost amongst newer, well respected brands, relying only on a history which is slipping further and further back in time.

A Slice of Pepperoni Pizza with Extra Stupidity

As an avid Radio 1 listener, I really resent their choice to put Zane Lowe on at 7pm every weekday evening to play "brand new" music...most of it is not brand new, it's just noise.....oh dear, am I seriously only 22???

Anywho, driving home one evening this week faced with the choice of "noise" or a commercial station, Absolute Radio won. 

As is the way with commercial radio, the second I flick over, the music stops and the adverts start.  Brilliant, more "noise"...but as I prepared to zone out and concentrate on the road, one of the adverts caught my attention.

The advert was for Papa John's Pizza.  The voice over artist was saying how good their Pepperoni pizza is, nothing unusual about that, until he started talking about the market research they had done to prove their pizza was better than Pizza Hut's Pepperoni offering.  On the face of it, it sounds fine...but he then went on to explain that they sampled 236 people and 59% of people preferred Papa John's to Pizza Hut.

59%??? Why would you base a whole marketing and advertising campaign on 59%? That's not even a 10% preference rate?

It's not like the sample size makes up for it...236 people!  Who are these people, where did they come from? The only thing Papa John's says about them is that none of them are "pepperoni pizza rejectors".  It's difficult to make market research completely unbiased, but that is probably why we don't hear research being quoted in adverts where the "hero" brand wins by such a measely amount as 9%! Let's work it out... 

So out of 236 repsondents, only 21 more people preferred your pizza to your main competitors...I wouldn't call that conclusive evidence, would you?

Surely the reason you say "xx% of people researched preferred our product to our competitors" is to provide potential customers with the confidence that they will enjoy your product more than if they bought a competitor's version.  An advertising campaign based on a minor victory is still going to leave customers undecided as to which one's best, therefore rendering the whole exercise pointless!

Anyway it doesn't change my opinion...I prefer Hawaiian!!

Papa John's have detailed their research and methods here: Papa John's Website

A Musical Contradiction

The subject of illegally downloading music has been in the news for many years now, and it looks like a story that won’t go away quickly…but does the music industry help itself at all?

This issue has been brought back to life due to the recent release of the Spotify iPhone app and how you are able to listen to almost any song for free (minus the £10 a month subscription fee).  Once again, the music industry has stated that every year they are losing billions of pounds due to members of the public downloading music illegally.

Fair enough, no one likes to lose money.

What gets me is that the very same music industry allowed Radio 1 to have the “first play” of Leona Lewis’ new single “Happy” on September 6^th….when the song is not available to buy until November  9^th.

That is over two months.

So for over two months, Simon Cowell and his record label expect Leona fans (I’m sure there’s some out there) to listen to the new single only when the radio stations decide to play it.  That doesn’t sound like a good plan to me.

Let’s break this down, research shows (1) that more than 60% of all people who download music illegally are aged between 14-24.  Compare that to the fact that Leona Lewis, and more widely the X Factor, is targeted mainly at teenagers, and it doesn’t take a genius to work out what the likely result is.

I understand the need to build up demand of a song, or any product, before the date of release…but surely two months is pushing it?  People will find a way to get their hands on the song, and it will end up in the music industry losing out.

It also means that by the time the song is available to buy, it will be overplayed, people will be bored of it and won’t buy it anyway!

Surely a much better idea is to build publicity around the artist and the upcoming release of their single, with the first play coming the week before the release?

I understand that the music industry is losing a lot of money thanks to the power of the internet, but they could also make their lives a lot easier by using the internet to their advantage to launch the product, rather than alienating their listeners and forcing them into downloading illegally just to get their hands on their new favourite song.

(1) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6089126/Should-illegal-filesharers-have-their-broadband-connection-taken-away.html

Shock! Horror! I've Become A Blogger!

Hello, good day and welcome to my new blog.

I'll be using this space to write all those thoughts and random ramblings that crop up during the course of a normal working week.

So, who am I? Well, my name is Jamie, I'm a 22 year old marketing graduate from Hertfordshire, and I've just started working in the big scary real world.

I work in Client Services within a Digital Marketing agency (Brandwidth) and maintain a keen interest with all that goes on within digital, branding, social and general marketing sectors.

The plan is that this blog will cover a wide variety of subjects but should (hopefully) focus in on the marketing perspective involved.

Please feel free to ask any questions, make any comments or argue any points via the blog.

I look forward to hearing your feedback!

Thanks

Jamie