Queen Elizabeth's birthday and Royal Mail's anniversary

Queen Elizabeth is celebrating her 90th birthday! And Royal Mail is joining the celebration by issuing a series of special stamps featuring the royal family and highlights from the Queen's long reign. This is also the 500th anniversary of Royal Mail. As part of the Royal Mail celebration, Queen Elizabeth's local postal depot was renamed in her honour.

The Queen's special stamp series is creating excitement all over the world. Above, one of the special series showing the queen at key moments in her nine decades. Media outlets everywhere are featuring the stamp which shows handsome Prince George with his father, grandfather and great-grandmother.

#HappyBirthdayYourMajesty appeared all over social media as hundreds of thousands of people joined in the celebration. Adding to the festive atmosphere, global coverage (online and in traditional media) showed the Queen lighting the beacons and cutting the cake, amongst many memorable scenes from a momentous day.

New tax on sugary sodas, new Coca-Cola Zero Sugar

From 2018, sugary soft drinks will carry an extra tax, part of the UK's initiatives to combat obesity.

Now Coca-Cola is renaming its Zero soft drink, after learning that half of British consumers weren't aware the soda is sugar-free. Watch for the new cans on shelves this summer, part of the marketing strategy to give packaging a 'one brand' look featuring the famous red so strongly associated with Coke.

The rebrand will also include a reformulation so the soda tastes more like regular (non-zero-sugar) Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola faces lower demand for its soft drinks among European and North American consumers. It is also examining its pricing policies in Asia, where price decreases have boosted sales.

Boaty McBoatface sails into marketing history - as a brand license?

The votes are in and "Name of Vessel" is not going to be the name of this new polar research vessel.

The Natural Environment Research Council asked members of the public to suggest names for its new vessel, which will debut in 2019. It received a flood of suggestions--7,000 names--and the one that received the most votes was, yes, Boaty McBoatface.

Boaty was suggested by James Hand, once a BBC radio presenter. Whether the NERC will actually select Boaty as the name is in doubt, despite the 124,000 votes it received.

Crowdsourcing is often cited as a great way to increase customer engagement with a brand, product or company. And it has been used successfully by Walkers, for instance, during the popular 'Do us a flavour' promotions to choose the next new snack flavour. LEGO also likes crowdsourcing.

Will the NERC agree with the public vote and name its new vessel Boaty McBoatface? Maybe yes, maybe no. Either way, the new vessel will be in the public eye when it debuts.

My idea is to license Boaty McBoatface to a toy manufacturer. If Thomas the Tank Engine can be a big success, so can Boaty McBoatface the polar vessel. Wouldn't Boaty be a brilliant brand?

Boaty McBoatface is sailing into marketing history, in the 'crowdsource' chapter.

Domino's UK: new research, new packaging and more

Domino's UK has introduced a new box--two boxes--a clever way to reinforce the brand logo (shown at left). One pizza box is red, one is blue, and both are recyclable.

The packaging redesign is based on research showing that 96 percent of all Domino's UK pizza orders involve two pies. So the new packaging doesn't just echo the branding, it subtly communicates the two-for promotion.

Domino's UK's latest results show that nearly 8 in 10 pizzas are ordered via e-commerce--and half of those orders flow through the company's popular app. The brand is highly social, with 1 million Facebook likes, 262k Twitter followers and hundreds of thousands of views for each YouTube post. Clearly, Domino's knows its target market, and keeps its brand in front of the audience in different digital ways. The company also gets customers involved in its social responsibility and environmental activities (such as Pennies become pounds).

Outside the UK, Domino's has made headlines lately for its test of a delivery robot, not an April Fool's joke.

Aldi's strategy for higher market share

Known for low prices and limited services, Aldi is also making a name for itself in own-label wine, nappies, organic baby food and other categories. Expanding private brands is part of Aldi's strategy for attracting shoppers and increasing its market share in the intensely competitive UK grocery industry.

Online retailing is another winning element in Aldi's marketing plan. In addition to wine sold by the case, Aldi's online store now features 'special buys' on non-food items such as home goods and small vacuum cleaners. For now, groceries are not part of the e-commerce initiative, due to the investment needed to manage the physical distribution and delivery of online orders. The company says its e-commerce site has 1 million weekly shoppers.

Aldi has been investing in logistics and physical distribution to support its ever-growing store network. It recently opened a large distribution centre in Over Holton, where it will manage both logistics and training. Next year, it will open a large distribution centre in Wales.

Are competitors stakeholders? Aldi definitely thinks so. Consider the following statement by Aldi's chief exec for UK and Ireland. He's discussing rival discounter Asda's goal of narrowing the price gap between Asda and other competitors to no more than 5%. The Aldi head points out that competitors will make moves that affect Asda's ability to achieve that goal: 'Whether Asda gets to 5% is not just their decision; it’s ours as well. We will not let any competitor get to 5%. That’s a concrete commitment'. In fact, Aldi has been reducing prices steadily to maintain pressure on its retail rivals.

Marketing on April Fool's Day

It's that time again--time for slightly silly April Fool marketing.

• PR Week highlights the April Fool prank marketing by Mumsnet Jobs, which is teaming with the European Space Agency and NASA to recruit a mum and baby for space pioneering. It also shows Honda's emoji registration plates (above).
• Kotaku features the best of Japan's April Fool prank marketing. My fave is the Coca-Cola battery. Kit-Kat sushi is a close second.
• The Guardian shows a diverse group of April Fool pranks, including transforming two of the London Eye capsules into penthouses in the sky.

Most popular posts of the past 7 years

In a few days, my blog celebrates its 7th anniversary. It's time to see which posts were the most popular during the first 7 years.

Above, the results via Google's stats: Yes, competitors are stakeholders is clearly the winner--by far. Nearly 10% of the visitors to this blog want to know whether competitors are stakeholders (or want to see the arguments in favour). It's an important and relevant topic, with good arguments on both sides.

Tesco is one of the largest retailers active in international retailing. It's also a case study in many college classrooms, and my book analyses its marketing activities, so two of my many posts about the retailer are among the most-viewed of all time.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) attract many views, as do product lifecycle and sustainability posts.

Thank you for reading. Welcome to my 8th year of blogging about marketing in the UK and around the world.

Unilever's social, mobile and digital future

Unilever's head of consumer and market insights said last week that brands must 'Be social or get ready to be branded "anti-social"'. Social media marketing is a strength for Unilever, which has found that buzz actually translates into sales, not just goodwill and brand awareness.

With market demographics and behaviours changing, the Unilever exec says companies should not worry about having different strategies for seniors and Millennials, two customer segments that his brands target.

Unilever's well-known brands continue to use traditional adverts but some--such as Knorr--are also experimenting with artificial intelligence to give customers the information they need, precisely when needed. As an example, Knorr's Chef Wendy invites consumers in Asia and Africa to text for recipe ideas based on the foods they have on hand.

Looking toward the future, Unilever is part of a new coalition that will share market-research data with the goal of helping all better prepare for sustainability, address income inequality and eliminate poverty.

In addition, the Unilever Foundry project is focusing on five areas where startups can make a difference in 2016: (1) retail, (2) content creation, (3) data insights and innovation, (4) sustainability and (5) new technologies.

Ryanair's 'always getting better'

Ryanair--known for low air fares--has been wooing back travellers with an initiative it calls 'Always Getting Better'. Above, CEO Michael O'Leary discusses this marketing programme, which is part of the reason for Ryanair's growth--and supports its ambitious growth goals for future markets.

The purpose is to improve customer satisfaction by addressing some of the complaints that have annoyed travellers about Ryanair, including very high fees for 'extras' and website navigation that complicated the process of buying tickets. This also extends to the interior design of its aircraft.

With demand for business travel increasing as economic conditions improve, Ryanair (already Europe's largest discount carrier) has decided to meet the specific needs of this market with Business Plus. Business flyers can change their itineraries on the day of travel without penalty, choose seats in advance and receive priority boarding.

Now Ryanair sees opportunity in corporate jets for hire. Its first 60-seat jet is available to businesses (or sports teams or affluent individuals) that want to travel on their own schedule and in comfort. Of course, Ryanair's corporate jet is competitively priced and extras cost, well, extra.

Marketing WWF's Earth Hour

Social media and traditional media are helping the World Wildlife Fund to promote Earth Hour on 19 March. The idea is to switch off the lights from 20.30 to 21.30 and go social to support sustainability.

This worldwide effort, which began in Sydney in 2007, increases awareness of our role in protecting the planet's precious natural resources, not just wildlife.

The social media campaign by WWF UK includes:

• #PassthePanda and #EarthHourUK hashtags to encourage participation on Twitter, Facebook and other sites
• YouTube videos
• Incredible nature photos on Instagram
• Pinterest posts
• A Facebook app to 'donate your social power' by posting about local environmental issues and sharing information with people in other areas

Traditional media marketing by WWF includes an unusual and engaging advert to attract attention and encourage participation. Other groups are joining the campaign. The Sustainable Restaurant Association's members will serve dinner by candlelight during Earth Hour, for instance.