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New Profile

Aldi
German retailer Aldi has led the rapid growth of the so-called "hard discount" sector in the European retail industry, stripping out all unnecessary costs in order to offer a selection of high-selling own-label products at rock-bottom prices. Despite its stripped-down offering, Aldi has developed an unlikely position in Germany as one of the country's best-loved institutions, frequented by wealthy bargain-hunters as well as the less well-off. The group also has an extensive global profile, with operations as far afield as the US and Australia, as well as other European markets. However it has yet to replicate its success in Germany in those markets, and has been overtaken in several countries by arch-rival Lidl. Click here to access the Adbrands profile (subscribers only); or subscribe to Adbrands.net here.

Advertising: Who handles advertising? Click here for Agency Account Assignments. 

Competitors: see Retailing Sector for other companies

Recently Revised Profiles and Snapshots

In the news this fortnight: Advertisers

British supermarket giant Tesco has announced plans to enter the US market in 2007, with the launch of several convenience store outlets, based in part on its existing Tesco Express format. UK marketing director Tim Mason has been appointed as the head of the new venture.

Procter & Gamble was reported (by Advertising Age) to be considering dropping its Crest oral care brand outside the US, in favour of newly acquired Oral-B. Crest is a huge brand in the US, and servers as the umbrella for an extensive portfolio of products from toothpaste to brushes. However it has limited penetration in other markets. Oral-B on the other hand, although mainly associated with toothbrushes, derives most of its $1bn-plus sales outside North America. The entire international Crest portfolio could be migrated into the Oral-B brand.

News Corporation dipped its toe back into the UK consumer magazine market this month with the launch of Love It!, a women's weekly featuring real-life triumph-over-tragedy stories. The group has promised to launch another four titles during the year. News, which launched titles such as Elle and New Woman into the UK during the 1980s, quit the sector in 1990, selling its stable to EMAP.

Time Warner agreed to sell its Time Warner Book Group to Hachette Livre, the publishing unit of French group Lagardere, which also owns UK-based Hodder Headline and a large collection of imprints in its domestic market. The price tag was $538m. Also this week, as expected, Disney divested its ABC radio network, merging the business with rival Citadel Broadcasting in a deal valued at $2.7bn. 

Several other deals could be in the offing. Russian energy giant Gazprom said it was considering a bid for Centrica, the UK group behind British Gas. However the UK government warned that any such bid would face "robust scrutiny" to ensure security of supply to British customers. Pfizer said it was considering the future of its $3.8bn over-the-counter consumer healthcare division. The US group's share price has been under considerable pressure in recent months. Pfizer believes that a sale or spin-off of the OTC unit could "unlock shareholder value". Unilever has confirmed it will sell its frozen meals operations in Europe, including the Birds Eye brand in the UK and Iglo across continental Europe. Only the Italian unit, which trades as Findus, will escape the axe.

There was another clutch of full year financial results for 2005. Once again, quality varied. Results from AstraZeneca, Pepsico, Reckitt Benckiser, GlaxoSmithKline, Renault and VF Corp were all strong. Coca-Cola, Unilever and Hasbro were encouraging. Despite record profits resulting from soaring oil prices, shareholders judged financials from Shell and BP to be only satisfactory at best, and marked down both companies' share price. Figures from PSA Peugeot Citroen, Amazon and Wendy's were disappointing.

In the news this week: Agencies

It's that time of the year again. The ad industry's main topic of conversation this week and last has been the line-up of ads broadcast during Sunday's Super Bowl. While the world news media focussed on the bleeping-out of lyrics during the Rolling Stones half-time performance, the advertising industry was giggling over FedEx, Sprint and Ameriquest, admiring the chutzpah (among other items) displayed by GoDaddy.com, and lamenting a weak set of car ads. The Wall Street Journal Online has a full line-up of ads for a limited period for viewing online here. Don't forget to cast your vote. Our particular favourite is BBDO's "pre-hysterical" FedEx spot.

Continuing the apparent winding-down of the old Red Cell network, Singapore-based Batey Group has been realigned by WPP into the JWT network, although it will retain independent branding.

Publicis and Havas released preliminary revenue figures for 2005 this week, in advance of full results in March. Publicis impressed with an 8% increase, breaking the E4bn barrier for the first time. By contrast, Havas reported a further decline, down by 2% against 2004 to E1.46bn. The smaller group put on a brave face, highlighting organic growth in several markets in the fourth quarter. However it continues to suffer the financial implications from the loss of two of its biggest accounts, Intel and Volkswagen, especially in North America, the UK and Asia.

Several major account changes this week. In the UK, Reckitt Benckiser transferred media duties for the former Boots Healthcare products from MindShare into OMD; Carat picked up the cinema buying business of COI Communications; Kraft called a creative review for lead coffee brand Kenco, currently handled by JWT; and Weetabix was said to be preparing a review of its own advertising, now with DDB.

In the US, DirecTV moved its creative and media accounts in the US into Deutsch; Pepsico moved its Doritos chips brand out of BBDO and into Goodby Silverstein; Dell shifted US consumer advertising out of DDB into BBDO in Atlanta (DDB retains international duties); continuing a shakeup of its corporate marketing policy, Procter & Gamble shifted not just creative but also media for Old Spice into indie Wieden & Kennedy; Wieden and BBDO joined the roster for Target; Crispin Porter Bogusky took the pole position for SABMiller's Miller Lite; 

Regards


Simon Tesler
Publisher, Adbrands

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Recommended Reading

UK & European users

This handy little pocketbook collects together numerous bite-sized nuggets of marketing wisdom from the pen of Philip Kotler, one of the world's foremost experts on strategic marketing. Kotler is best-known for his benchmark tome Marketing Management, the standard textbook for the industry, now in its 12th edition. The idea behind this convenient ready reckoner is to offer answers to the questions Professor Kotler gets asked most often by marketers and students. 

The FAQs are divided into broad subject headings, which include definitions, marketing strategy, branding, planning and so on, and tackle a wide variety of different areas. These include thoughts on all the different traditional disciplines including advertising, sales promotion, CRM, retail and internet marketing; product strategies such as pricing, positioning, service and distribution; even the marketing of countries, politicians and even economic trends. Kotler's answers are designed to provide top-line guidance rather than a full exploration of the topic (for which, presumably, see Marketing Management), but this is a thought-provoking and instructive little starter pack for lower-level marketing personnel.

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