“For us, seeding and word of mouth was about going to places where our audience was and doing a huge amount of sampling,” Palmer said. “Five and a half million bars of Green & Black have been given out as samples. That was our marketing but we did it with some panache.”
With commuters the key target, there was a heavy focus on London to begin with, and Green & Black tried to have a presence everywhere that it could touch the commuter during the day: at the train station, in the Metro newspaper, a covermount with Sainsbury’s magazine, and in Pret-a-Manger, with whom a co-branding deal was agreed.
The evidence of success is in the fact that Green & Black now has an annual turnover of £60 million, and was recently bought by Cadbury, which Palmer said had proven to be “very protective of the brand”, while targeting ambitious international expansion.
One thing that is certain in the marketing and wider business world is change, and at the Marketing Forum Andrew Marsden of the Marketing Society peered into his crystal ball to consider how things will be in five years time, with the London Olympics in the history books. The future Marsden described calls for a smarter, more engaging role for marketing departments:
- There will be a continuing shift in the balance of global trade, from the West to the East
- There will be more people living in cities and there will be more megacities, and this will present opportunities for brands
- The rich elderly will demand products and services to reflect their requirements
- The era of cheap food and energy will be gone for good, and there will be great focus on the health of the planet
- There will be a more realistic view of “new media” and its actual performance
- There will need to be new and better agency models, since the current situation carries huge overheads, and marketers will require a greater slice of fees to be spent on creativity instead of processes.
It will be a complex landscape for brands and marketers for all of these reasons, and cultural change will be fundamental for brands, their marketers and the society they seek to engage with.
Thanks to Andy Knaggs from Brand Management Magazine for providing the review this year. |
Congratulations again to our High Fliers winners on the Marketing Forum 2008
We at Richmond Events would once again like to congratulate the Marketing Forum High Flier competition winners Michelle Tierney, Ian Gregory and Matt Connolly.
Over 200 young marketers were asked to submit an in-depth strategic marketing plan for the business of their choice, with the goal to grow the business in a new market segment.
The hard work and great ideas submitted by Michelle, Ian and Matt shone through the entire selection process impressing our elite judging panel, both on paper and in person.
We would also like to extend our immense appreciation to the judges and partners for kindly offering their time to invest in the future of these young marketers: Andrew Marsden (The Marketing Society), Branwell Johnson (Mad.co.uk), Chris Russell (eDigital Research), Anton Dominique (London School of Marketing), Jacques de Cock (BQu), Rod Wilkes and Ray Jones (The Chartered Institute of Marketing), Sarah Howe (BUPA), Sabine Popp (Mintel International), and Andy Edge (Park Resorts).
The 2008 sessions mentioned in this review include:
“Sustaining Success”
Mark Price
Managing Director,Waitrose
“The Concept of Commercial Acceleration”
Scott Garrett
Head of Marketing Williams F1
“GREEN & BLACK’s –
From Niche Organic to Premium Mainstream”
Mark Palmer Global Brand Director
Green & Black’s
“Things I'll Need to Know Five Years from Now”
Andrew Marsden
President
The Marketing Society & Andrew Marsden Consulting
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