What can the film ‘Love Actually’ tell us about branding?

I have to admit the stimulus for this article started as a ‘Friday afternoon’ conversation about funny scenes in films but when I searched out the clip of Rowan Atkinson ‘gift wrapping’ a present for Alan Rickman that we had been chatting about, it was too funny and relevant not to share within this article …

Scratch and short-cut cooking continuing to increase in the UK

Recent research from MINTEL has shown that three in five (60%) 16-34s* like experimenting with new cooking trends and ingredients, compared to 51% of UK consumers overall, leading to scratch cooking in the UK increasing. However, whilst young consumers show a passion for experimental cooking, they appear to be in hot water in the kitchen as many …

Fuzzy logic marketing to grey consumers

For decades, and pretty much from the outset of mass-marketing,  brands and marketing agencies have steered clear of targeting grey consumers, unless they were promoting products specifically to this demographic. Typically, they were seen as too cynical, set in their ways and unmoved by marketing so they were largely ignored. In more recent times this cohort …

Winning over customers in store

With the average purchase decision process taking just ten seconds, winning over customers in store relies on packaging communicating quickly and effectively. So how does the semiotics of brand packaging influence consumer purchase behaviour? Effective packaging has inherent attributes which enables 'instant dialogue' creation with a potential purchaser. If it’s a regular buy, the packaging shape, …