This month, BrandTrack looks at the purchase of chocolate-covered countlines. In a sector where the impulse purchase reigns supreme, old favourites Snickers and Kit Kat were forced to fight hard to beat off aspirant Time Out

The BSkyB flotation needs some objective research following the end of the City’s blackout. The Saatchi crisis, meanwhile, has created a beneficiary

Now that Lever is to launch a “competitor” to Persil Power, in New Generation Persil, it will be a matter of time before the brand is killed off altogether. The decision to announce the launch of New Generation Persil last week was made to coincide with the launch of rival Ariel Future, Procter & Gamble’s […]

In the lean Nineties, the emphasis of corporate entertainment is shifting. The traditional boundaries between corporate hospitality and sales incentives are coming down, to form hybrid entertainment packages. These changes could spell lots mor

The former marketing director of Dillons, Julian Rivers, has resigned from parent company Pentos, where he was due to take up the position of commercial development director. Rivers was replaced as Dillons’ marketing director last year by Stephen Dunn, poached from Thornton’s, the chocolate manufacturer and retailer. Rivers was offered the development role at the […]

Jewellery group Signet, formerly Ratners, is reviewing its advertising in the wake of lacklustre Christmas sales. Marketing director Dianne Thompson, who joined the company last year from Woolworths, has spoken to a number of agencies and is drawing up a shortlist. However, the company would not indicate which agencies are on the list or the […]

In today’s post-recession market, are retailers desperately struggling to keep profit margins buoyant or merely ripping off an unsuspecting public?

Reuters Radio News has won the contract to supply news to Virgin 1215 and its new London service. The move is being seen as a boost to Reuters’ hopes of offering a rival syndicated radio news service to Independent Radio News. IRN, jointly owned by major commercial radio groups, supplies 124 stations. It is offered […]

Virgin is planning to launch a lifestyle music consumer title with Haymarket Magazines. A men’s music interest magazine is understood to be one option under consideration. The discussions follow Virgin Group’s recent diversification into soft drinks and financial services. However, the initiative is understood to have come from Haymarket, which is assessing the merits of […]

Barclaycard is to become the first UK credit card to offer services on the Internet with the launch of an interactive electronic magazine. The new service, Barclaycard Netlink, allows Internet users to request a Barclaycard application form and enter prize competitions using e-mail. Card customers will also soon be able to exchange Barclaycard Profiles points […]

While thousands of spotty snorkel-parkered teenagers hook up to the global information superhighway – trading in their train-spotting manuals for modems – global computer giant IBM has proved a little slower off the mark. Hundreds of phone calls, one advertising agency and no less than six PR people were used to set up an interview […]

All eyes are turned to National Heritage Secretary Stephen Dorrell as he struggles to find a panacea for the cross-media ownership grievances, but will a government nervously facing a General Election deregulate and be damned, or fudge a compr

Customer service no longer ends at the supermarket checkout – increasingly retailers are turning to customer magazines as a way of raising brand profile, boosting sales and drawing shoppers into the customer loyalty fold. By David Reed

I was reported in last week’s publication in saying that Camelot was not achieving its target. Can I clarify this – we are not privy to Camelot’s targets for how their business will build up in the early months. It is aiming to achieve a revenue of ú32bn over the seven-year life of their contract […]

Newspaper groups are renewing their pressure on the Government in a bid to relax barriers to greater press ownership of TV interests. Members of the British Media Interests Group meet on January 17 to finalise a second report to be presented to National Heritage Secretary Stephen Dorrell later this month. The report will address the […]