Judie Lannon
Opinion
29 June 2011
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On the 3rd floor of a London terraced house, I have a double bed with a very ancient mattress that I have been thinking of replacing for years. What stops me? The obvious problem, as Rory Sutherland noted in his recent British Brands Group Lecture is how do I get rid of the old one? A New York company apparently has captured virtually the entire market by promising to dispose of the purchaser's previous mattress.
Opinion
01 June 2011
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Many years ago I was doing creative research for a company called Silhouette, makers of women's corsetry and worn, as you will imagine, by overweight middle aged women. The first response of such a group to the press ads which showed fairly slim women as models was - "why do they always show thin models rather than real women?" I took this observation seriously and duly returned to the next research group with ads showing moderately chubby models. Their first response was - why are you showing fat women when we want to dream about how we will look? So conventional wisdom had triumphed and back we were to slim, glamorous models.
Opinion
30 March 2011
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The great gardener and creator of Sissinghurst in the south-eastern UK country of Kent, Vita Sackville West, was said to keep a cemetery noting the plants that died in her care: a constant reminder that living things need proper attention. Brand watchers amongst us typically have the same concern for the brands we nourish and grow. But although plants do die, disappear into the soil and come back as compost, brands, even when badly treated can be revived.
Opinion
24 February 2011
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The psychologist Oliver James recently quoted research which said that in the 1950s, two out of three women said they would marry someone they didn't love. The same question asked recently produced 95% saying they would only marry for love. This led him to conclude that many women are unhappy today because their expectations are too high and they are too fussy. (More than one friend has despaired of her daughter's tendency to rank, order, rate and make lists of good and bad points of perspective mates - dangerous territory.)
Opinion
14 January 2011
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I am by no means the first person to quote this old chestnut about advertising waste and I am sure I will not be the last. But it came to mind when I read a study by Booz &Co and Procter and Gamble on the subject of how 'whole new marketing systems must be built to accommodate the new media and the dramatic shifts in the industry'. The survey pointed out that in the US the shift from traditional television and press advertising to online and other digital platforms is 'shocking' and that both online and mobile phone advertising held up well during the recession in contrast to traditional media.
Opinion
23 November 2010
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Technorati tells us that the female blogging population in Europe is about half the size of the male blogging population. Why? They don't give specific breakdowns by country or indeed subject matter, but my observations in the UK - particularly in the marketing communications world - is that women aren't much in evidence (Mumsnet and all the personal/makeup/sex/relationship blogs don't count).
Opinion
26 October 2010
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A speaker at the recent CMO conference in Zurich performed a witty experiment on his audience. Telling us to cover our (analogue) watch faces, the task was to describe the 6: was it a Roman or Arabic numeral, a dot or a mark or something else?
Opinion
11 October 2010
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I recently tried to explain to an elderly relative what my step-daughter’s interest in ‘sustainable fashion’ meant. Turning mouldy carrots into silk and banana skins into linen (or bottle tops into handbags as Mrs. Clegg demonstrates) to make clothes that Marks and Spencer believe would be bought by their customers was the most concrete I could make it. He pressed me to explain why girls wanted clothes made out of mouldy carrots or banana skins so I tried, probably unsuccessfully, to explain that the girls probably didn’t care. They just wanted clothes to be fashionable and affordable. But M&S did care because of (no) Plan B which promised that what they sold would be as environmentally friendly as possible and that’s all that mattered.
Opinion
06 October 2010
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From time to time I am reminded of the world's best business book title. It's not surprising that Dale Carnegie's 1937 best seller ‘ How to win friends and influence people ' has sold more than 15 million copies in numerous languages. A more compelling promise has never been put so succinctly – seven words that nakedly sum up the aspiration that unites every human being on the planet. (I like to think that Dale Carnegie wasn't his real name and that the whole thing – classy nom de plume and bold compelling title – were the work of an uncharacteristically inspired publisher).
Opinion
21 January 2010
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Some years ago, idly flipping through the New Yorker on the train from Bath, I came across a seductive title: ' The talent myth: are smart people over rated? ' And a gripping read it was too. So much so that I wanted to see if I could publish it in Market Leader . A couple of phone calls and several emails later, Malcolm Gladwell, whose ' Tipping Point ' was just beginning to make him a reputation outside of the New Yorker, agreed to an edited version (which I was to make) for the princely sum of $100. ( Market Leader Autumn 2002 ).
Opinion
28 September 2009
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Not being an economist by trade but, like everyone these days, forced to absorb at least a superficial grasp of financial ideas, I've come to see that Shareholder Value theory seems to have gone badly wrong. So when Hugh Davidson asked if I'd like a piece for Market Leader ) summing up his thesis that Shareholder Value is bad for marketing, I thought, here's my chance.
