Will Internet Claim Another Famous Victim?

The internet’s a wonderful thing – but it doesn’t come without costs.Britain’s last major music chain, HMV, is in big, big trouble – and many people are pointing to competition from digital downloads and online retailers as a major cause. 

The 89 year old company, which sells cds, dvds, and computer games, recently announced £40m losses, prompting fears that its entire future could be in doubt.  It’s got more than 400 stores across the country – so lots of jobs are at risk. 

If you’re interested in the background story of the internet’s torrid impact on the global commercial scene, two of our films, ICT In Business and  Marketing Series 1: The Internet Revolution, provide lots of relevant  background info. 

Full story here.

More Reasons To Be Unsure Of Shell?

Revelations made by controversial website Wikileaks are still coming thick and fast. And one company less than happy about a particular cable it’s recently unearthed is oil giant, Shell.

Viewers of our film “Can You Be Sure Of Shell” will already have seen the dark history of Shell’s involvement in Nigeria. Here the execution of famous protestor Ken Saro-Wiwa was called “blood on Shell’s hands”. 

Now a secret diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks confirms many people’s suspicions of the extent of the company’s influence over the Nigerian government.  The cable quotes the executive vice president of Shell as saying that it has people in “all the relevant ministries” of the Nigerian government and “access to everything being done in those ministries.” 

Shell, of course, denies any charge that it has infiltrated the Nigerian government. Watch Can You Be Sure Of Shell? and see what you think. 

Full story here.

Sneaky Online Marketing Outlawed

So companies can use blogs and tweets to market their products – but only if they make it clear that they're actually trying to flog you something. 

Apparently many naughty marketing companies have been buying blogposts and tweets for sponsored promotions – without actually saying they're sponsored (surprise, surprise!). Now the Office of Fair Trade has ruled against the practice. 

First company to be hammered by the OFT is Handpicked Media, an 18-month-old startup based in Carnaby Street, London. But, of course, there are loads of companies up to these tricks and the big question is: will the OFT now go after all the others? 

Our new film Marketing Series 1: The Internet Revolution (no obligation to buy!) shows just how huge social networking has become as a marketing tool – so the OFT is likely to have some huge fights on its hands. 

Watch this space for more legal punch-ups to come. 

Full story here.

Cadbury Going Swiss?

Further our post below, it seems as if Cadbury (or Kraft, their new owners) wants to move more of its operations to Zurich, not to make chocolate gnomes, but to avoid tax. Whatever happened to cuddly Cadbury's? As if that weren't bad enough, it may be your chocolate bar is going to get more expensive -- the farmers don't get paid enough to make it worth planting cocoa. Never mind, as chocolate's addictive, it'll always have a market.

Innocent: Food For Thought, Or Just A Drink?

Since we launched our film Innocent Drinks, there have been a number of developments to stir up debate.

The first was the acquisition of part of Innocent by Coca Cola – an event we cover in our new release The Power Of The Brand. The benefits to each party are considerable: Coca Cola gets to share in the warm glow of Innocent’s carefully crafted ethical image, and Innocent gets to share in Coke’s brutal but effective distribution muscle – a marriage made in marketing heaven or ethical hell?

Now Innocent has had a run-in with the taxman -- and came second. They believed they should not charge VAT on their smoothies by claiming, essentially, their product is not actually a drink at all, but a liquefied fruit salad, which therefore should not attract VAT.

They also pointed out what they saw as the absurdity of exempting foods like burgers and doughnuts from VAT whilst maintaining it on healthy drinks such as smoothies.

All to no avail – the taxman needs his pound of flesh, or fruit – and if you liquefy it, well, it becomes a beverage, and therefore taxable.

Full story here

The Brompton: The Amazing British Disappearing Bike

You ride it to the station, then it disappears into a shape roughly the size of a briefcase -- and quickly.

As Brompton Bikes MD Will Butler Adams says: "No good having a folding bike if it takes ten minutes to fold -- you've already missed the train!"

The Brompton is famous for its design, that some have copied (quite illegally) but none, so the company claims, have bettered.

It's that rare thing, a UK manufacturing success story. The company has continued to grow throughout the recession (although the bike has continued to shrink, and then grow again).

The new TV Choice release: Inside A Factory 7: Brompton Bicycle looks at all aspects of the product: the design, the manufacture, the marketing.

Cadbury's And Divine: A Tale Of Two Sweeties

Our new release Fair Trade And Chocolate: The Divine Story also puts the spotlight on ethics.

Divine claims to be unique among fair trade companies in that it’s partly owned by the farmers who harvest the cocoa beans. This means, not only do they get the fair trade price and premium, they share in the profits. Divine calls itself a social enterprise, created to improve the lives of Ghanaian cocoa farmers and to protect them from exploitation endemic among workers in the developing world.

It also gives them a marketing usp, they claim. Divine MD Sophi Tranchell says: "Other companies spend millions trying to invent that sort of story, whereas we don't have to, because it's true."

Meanwhile its massive competitor, Cadbury’s, is not doing so well in the ethical stakes. Once famous for looking after its workers, the takeover by Kraft and the closing of the Somerdale plant and moving production there to Poland is just the latest in a series of bad press days over recent years.

We compare and contrast Divine’s rise with Cadbury’s fall from grace in the section “A Tale Of Two Chocolates” in our new release The Power Of The Brand.