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By Posted on Posted in Brands, Europe, Private Label No Comments

Hypermarkets, supermarkets and other format retailers that produce private label products that resemble established brands and their respective products, will face closer scrutiny and potential financial penalties after a European Commission report accuses them of “parasitic copying”.

Investigations in 27 member states and 6 nations had deeper look, found that treatment and laws against lookalike brands are inconsistent across the EU and could amount to a barrier to trade between member states.

By Posted on Posted in Brand Identity, Brands, Logos, Marketing No Comments

I don’t smoke and I never did in my whole life. And I hate when people smoke in private or in public (something very common in Lebanon, especially the moment they enter Beirut Airport building after landing).

During a passage at Prague airport, I saw the below billboard for Marlboro, which on top had a new logo, so I was wondering if Philip Morris is changing its famous brand name with a more modern font.

While digging into this, I have found another amazing thing about the Marlboro logo, the graphics on the below Formula 1 car are either deceptively genius or quite a coincidence. Apparently when the car is racing around the track at 200 mph the barcode creates a blur which suggests the Marlboro logo, even though advertising tobacco is banned in the sport.

By Posted on Posted in Brands, Culture, Cyprus, Food, Greece, Packaging, Private Label No Comments

Private labels are gaining huge market shares mainly in Europe and soon worldwide, but the most enjoyable part of launching a private label product is the adaptation to the local culture and taste.

Food products are the most sensitive to local tastes and habits.

An international company has several options when choosing a brand strategy. Brands may be local, regional and global. And this is the Carrefour & its Feta private label case.

Carrefour is worldwide No.2 retailer behind Walmart and Feta is a traditional Greek cheese appreciated around the world and have now very different names because since 2002, Feta has been a protected designation of origin product in the European Union, which means Feta only produced in Greece can be called Feta, any type of Feta produced outside Greece, cannot be named Feta.

Carrefour who is very active on its private label range and changing its global strategy by putting more pressure on its supplier and shifting in almost all categories of its shelves and pushing PL products forward and this is becoming somehow very obvious in their leaflets (no matter the market), has adapted a local strategy in Greece and Cyprus by launching their Feta.

The Carrefour Feta has no dedicated private brand, but simply using the Carrefour logo.

The main factors affecting the decisions to adapt products to local markets can be divided into 3 categories (Source: Sasu 2005, p. 148):

Market characteristics:

  • Government regulations
  • Non-tariff barriers
  • Consumer models
  • Competition
  • Level of economic development
  • Legal

Product characteristics

  • Functions, attributes
  • Durability, quality
  • Methods of operation and use
  • Brand and packaging
  • Life cycle
  • Country of origin

Company characteristics

  • Profitability
  • The cost of adaptation
  • Organization
  • Resources
  • Policies adopted
  • Experience

The below Carrefour Feta can be found in Greece and Cyprus stores, but the company can easily export this product to its worldwide stores.

To find out more about Feta, visit FetaMania

By Posted on Posted in Brands, Innovation, Japan, Korea, Market Share, Technology No Comments

It all started during 1988 or 1989 (cannot remember exactly), when i read a book called Made in Japan by Akio Morita who became an idol for a young boy who wanted to make it big in this world. Morita was a Japanese businessman and co-founder of Sony Corporation along with Masaru Ibuka.

Sony was a big name in the electronics world and was proudly making all their products in Japan and announcing it also very proudly on all their products, and i still remember one of the TVs we got at our parents home with that big sticker on the front, that you had to remove and which remained in your head that you are buying pure Japanese quality.

That also brings me down the memory lane, with my 1st Sony Walkman, which gave me exactly the same excitement people are having for the last decade every time Apple was and is still launching a new product.

So what happened to Sony? Why happened to the world leader who never managed to catch up with the rest of competition, on TVs, music players, tablets, digital cameras, game consoles and the full other line of products which most of the production moved outside Japan in order to cut cost and be competitive?

Why the new Walkman is an iPod, the TV a smart Samsung TV, the tablet a Kindle, the camera a Fuji? And why they never learned from the Betamax experience since 1975?

Sony announced net losses of 159 billion yen ($2.04 billion) for the third quarter on Thursday, while Sir Howard Stringer defended his record as CEO as he handed over the reins to Kazuo Hirai, the company blamed the floods in Thailand, unfavorable foreign exchange rates and a failed venture with Samsung for its woes.

Sony became the old heavy sick company, while Samsung is prevailing as the new global leader of electronics. An example about it, Procter & Gamble was the No.1 FMCG supplier of Carrefour stores in the UAE for many consecutive years, in 2011 Samsung got on top of the list pushing P&G to No.2

By Posted on Posted in Brands, Consumer No Comments

Europeans like to use liquid laundry detergent and since many years, almost all producers are in the direction of concentrating their products, while in the Middle East and Gulf region, consumers are mostly using powder detergent.

Benefits of concentrated laundry liquid:

  • Concentrated products have lighter impact on the environment
  • Smaller bottles use less plastic which means less packaging to recycle
  • Smaller containers mean less fuel is needed to ship these products
  • Manufacturers use less water in detergent production
  • smaller detergent containers are easier to carry and store at home

By Posted on Posted in Brands, Campaigns No Comments

Starting 1st of January 2011, Findus France is committing itself to the 3S in all its products (in French: sans colorant, sans conservateur, sans huile de palme), no coloring, no preservatives, no palm oil.