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By Posted on Posted in Brands, Retail, Switzerland No Comments

Coop, the Swiss retailer, has announced that it is withdrawing 35 new products by Procter & Gamble from its shelves. Coop the second biggest retailer in Switzerland, was unable to agree a price decrease with the US multinational for the products. P&G refused to lower its prices and rising commodity prices in recent months was the reason given to the Basel group for the decision.

Coop has temporarily withdrawn Lenor, Wella, and Antikal products from its stores; other P&G brands such as Gillette and Pampers will remain on the shelves.

Last month, Coop de-listed 95 items by foreign manufacturers due to the massive price increases brought about the strong Swiss franc. The retailer has reached agreement on most of these products and returned 56 items to its shelves.

Source: European Private Label Magazine

By Posted on Posted in Australia, Brands, Viral 2 Comments

Coca-Cola went viral on more time. If you live in Australia, then you can buy Coke bottles with your name on it.

The operation launched early October, offers to buy Coke bottles of the 150 most popular names on Australian soil, replacing the name of Coca-Cola packaging during the next three months.

This event will cost $ 5 million to the Australian branch of Coca-Cola and it is reinforced with a special Facebook page that allows you to retrieve a piece of music composed especially for each name. And that also means that 150 original pieces were composed for the occasion …

It’s also possible to create virtual cans on behalf of your friends. Cans that will become reality and will be distributed from specific locations. The operation called “Share a Coke” wants to get viral and is betting on mass participation of consumers.

A viral campaign that will also be enhanced by the ability of consumers to create their own ads using their own images or their friends’ photos through their Facebook accounts, and could, if they play the game, to win 50,000 AUD.

Coca-Cola is expecting to sell 268 millions cans in 3 months.

By Posted on Posted in Brands, Hard Discount, Private Label, Promotions, Retail No Comments

Nestlé Waters will be going through very hard times during their 2012 negotiations with major supermarket and hypermarket chains in France after listing one of their products in Lidl stores.

Lidl is one of the world’s major hard discounter and in continuous price war against the private labels of supermarkets and hypermarkets, by offering not-known brands to their shoppers. But in recent years, all major hard discounters started offering international brands on their shelves such as Nutella, Coca-Cola, Head&Shoulders and Nescafe and many others.

Lidl is selling Perrier PET 1l at a very attractive price of 0,64€ (3,84€ for pack of 6), while other major retailers are selling the same at an average price of 3,95€ in Auchan, 3,91€ in Système U, 3,88€ in Leclerc, 3,86 € in Carrefour and Intermarché.

Nestlé Waters had to calm down France No.1 retailer Carrefour by having a explosive promotion of “Buy 1 Get 1”.

Leclerc did wait long to follow on a “me-too” promotion on its private label, offered at 2,82€ the pack of 6x1l.

By Posted on Posted in Brands, Retail No Comments

We all know who Costco is, and for those who don’t, Costco is the 3rd largest retailer in the US and operating in other 7 countries (Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan & Australia) and now in Lebanon!

OK, this is not true, because the store in question is a copycat, using a modified logo, even that the products are pure American and you can find them in a real Costco store.

By Posted on Posted in Brands, Positioning, Products 2 Comments

Product or Brand positioning is what comes to mind when your target market thinks about your product/brand compared to your competitor’s products/brands.

Having a competitive advantage is necessary for a firm to compete in the market. But what is more important is whether the competitive advantage is sustainable. A company must identify its position relative to the competition in the market. By knowing if it is a leader, challenger, follower or nicher, it can adopt appropriate strategies to compete.

Product positioning is a crucial ingredient in the buying process and should never be left to chance. It’s your opportunity to influence the market’s perception of your products.
Failure to proactively address product positioning is unlikely to end well. With or without your input, customers will position your product—probably based on information from your competitors, which will not flatter you.

Genre of Market Position

  • Leader: Largest share
  • Challenger: Medium share, to challenge the leader
  • Follower: No offensive posture against the leader
  • Nicher: Small market size, segmentation other firms cannot think of

Matrix of Market Position/Managerial Resources

Origin: Shimaguchi, Mitsuaki, Integrated Marketing, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc., p.99

– Quantitative managerial resources: number of sales force, input financial power, production
capacity, etc.
– Qualitative managerial resources: corporate/brand image, marketing power, technological power,
leadership of top management, etc.

Book recommendation: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

By Posted on Posted in Brands, Counterfeit, Products No Comments

Multinationals never stop fighting counterfeited products and the bad guys never stop doing it. This game has been going on since forever and it seems gonna be here forever.

I have spotted the below Duracell batteries in Cyprus, and having worked and moved the same original product for many years and in so many different formats and packages, it did not need much time to know it is a counterfeited product, from the carton to the printing bad quality and some packs with the batteries upside down.

The most shocking was the shelf price, tagged as the original product positioning.

Apologies for the photo quality, as I was spotted by the store owner and had that look saying “who the hell are you and what the f*** are you doing” which made me more sure about the product.