Watch out for Smyths Baby appearing on posters, press and in stores near you.

Coloured Masterbatch Specialists, Technical Colour Supplies, needed a new corporate id and online presence which communicated their strengths and positioned them as the pan-European company they have grown into.

Their new positioning is one of absolute precision in colour reproduction, time after time, for plastic processing companies. The new identity will be present in all future advertising and design work.

]]> http://letsthinktogether.co.uk/?feed=rss2&p=267 0 http://letsthinktogether.co.uk/?p=257 http://letsthinktogether.co.uk/?p=257#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:57:12 +0000 admin http://letsthinktogether.co.uk/?p=257 Today sees the launch of the very first Smyths Toy Scrappage Scheme promotion. Customers can now bring any old, unwanted or even broken toys into their nearest Smyths Toys Superstore and they’ll get a voucher for money off a shiny brand new toy.

The campaign was created to be fully media-neutral and is working through national press, radio, in-store, flyers and online. Click here to see some work.

Underdog and Bupa have a relationship which spans the past two years and we have started work on the project with the campaign set to run through 2009 and 2010.

The creative will feature a mix of traditional and ‘shapes’ executions and challenges many preconceptions currently held by smaller companies about the affordability and flexibility of Bupa. The banners will feature heavily on many UK sites over the coming months.

We have a real two-way relationship with Bupa and share learnings and insight with each other regularly which fits with our ‘Let’s think together’ ethos. We’re delighted to develop and enjoy our relationship with Bupa as well as increase exposure of their offer to small business in these challenging times.

There’s an idea. Give us a go and you might be really impressed too.

Those hugely experienced people over at Market Chemistry have launched a sister company, Brand Chemistry with the aim of  catalysing brands through strategy and deep insight into people.

The new website states “At the heart of every great brand is strong insight that is translated into action. Our approach builds out from existing insights or establishes new ones to provide a strong foundation for the work we do from that point.” We couldn’t agree more which is why we plan to work alongside the guys at Brand Chemistry on projects in the near future.

Paul Colback, ex Global Brand Director of PZ Cussons and Bob Jones, ex Managing Director of PZ Cussons are no strangers to the team here at Underdog and we are pleased that they chose to work with us on these projects.

Luckily for us, they have enough experience to see that even though we are a relatively small agency, the team at Underdog has one of the biggest track records around.

We’re not saying that there weren’t tantrums, tears, shouting and stomping. But in Tina’s defense, she was under a lot of pressure making sure everything went to plan.

Market Chemistry help organisations re-assess their strategic intent and develop the right plans and infrastructure to optimise their business performance.

A few of us here at Underdog have a history of working with many top brands, helping create big ideas that work through the line. One such client was PZ Cussons which owns the Imperial Leather and Carex brands. At the helm back then was Paul Colback – Global Marketing Director and now co-founder of Market Chemistry. Those few, now applying our trade here at Underdog, spent many a day and night plotting the domination of the antibacterial hand-wash and shower gel markets, among other things, with Paul and his team.

So it’s a great pleasure to be working with Paul, Steve, Bob and Tony at Market Chemistry and it’s good to know that Paul rated us so highly from those days at PZ Cussons that he came to us for this project. Well, he had to get it right because this time it’s his own money.

Our favorite toy retailer Smyths Toys are continuing their impressive rate of growth this year.

What’s more pleasing is that it’s happening the current climate.

Underdog received a call from Smyths shortly after some recent marketing activity to inform us that there had been a surprising amount of demand for certain products. So we’re getting together to do it again shortly.

As a full service agency, we’re also delighted to be involved with catalogue design, outdoor and in-store communications too.

As an agency we have won literally dozens of creative awards but nothing feels as good as when a client reports great results like that.

A very interesting article by Louise Jack taken from Marketing Week.

Brands will benefit from marketers employing a little more creative thinking if the trend of consumers adopting cautious spending strategies becomes a long-term pattern of behaviour. 

The recession is not only affecting how people buy now but also their future long-term spending, according to a report from agency Shoppercentric. Buyers are adopting cautious spending strategies that may well become ingrained behaviour, leading to new challenges for marketers.

Ninety per cent of UK households are employing more prudent buying strategies, an increase of 4% from research the agency carried out in January. While the results from the start of the year were seen as a knee-jerk reaction to the economic downturn, this prudence now appears to be an ongoing trend.

“It seems that, over time, the initial reaction has developed into people realising they can save money by being less wasteful or avoiding temptation. The longer-term outcome seems simply to be people learning to be more sensible.”

“Prudent” activities include consumers making things go further, being more careful about avoiding waste and avoiding upmarket shops that are known to be more expensive. Also significant is the increasing role of the internet in helping buyers shop like this, with 38% sourcing vouchers online and 78% of those doing so claiming that this is a change in their behaviour from just 12 months ago.

Pinnington speculates: “There is a possible trend developing in vouchers and coupons. People are becoming very savvy about that, particularly via the internet. They are becoming quite aware and starting to take advantage. It seems they are willing to do more planning and storing up benefits for later.”

This move to cut costs is despite some positivity in consumers’ personal situations. Compared with figures from January, those who believe they won’t be affected by the recession has increased by 2% to 6%.

If this apparently small shift is extrapolated to the main grocery shoppers in the UK, it equates to more than 500,000 consumers feeling more confident than they did in January.

But Pinnington warns: “It’s tempting to view the increase as sign of a ‘green shoot’, but at the opposite end of the scale there has been a 2% increase in the proportion of consumers who have had to make major changes to their household spending, or are struggling to pay the bills. It seems that for each shopper who is feeling more confident, there is another who is feeling the pinch.”

Aside from prudence, the research suggests that consumers are now adopting another three distinct shopping strategies. Ninety per cent – a rise of 4% – of respondents say they are saving money by avoiding waste, planning their meals better and making more meals from scratch.

The knee-jerk, price-focused reactions to the recession seem to be decreasing. While 88% are still buying own-label products and are more aware of pricing, there has been a 4% drop in this tactic since January. Down 1% in the last six months, too, is “active shopping” – a term used to encompass consumers using stores they have never been to before, checking prices online and going to where the best deals exist.
Meanwhile, a strategy that may prove a longer term trend is that of ignoring the more expensive shops and avoiding temptation; this has risen by a single point to 88%.

Pinnington observes: “The really interesting thing is that these trends can become ingrained behaviour and may remain after the recession has ended. Even over just a few months we are already seeing a hint of that.

“Economising is dropping and actively switching stores is falling very slightly, whereas prudence and avoidance are the things that are on the increase,” she says. “It does feel like when we get out of this horrible situation we will all be more sensible shoppers as a result.”

In terms of behaviour around specific marketing promotions, 79% take note of the ever-popular buy-one-get-one-free (BOGOF) offers, while 69% are looking for money off single items, an increasingly appealing promotion reflecting the need for many to keep to a specific budget.

Also arguably related to the concept of prudence is that 47% of respondents are using vouchers and coupons, and saving them for a later benefit. Less common promotions on groups of products, such as “meal deals” or “dine in for £10” are being sought out by 21%, which may be of interest to those supermarket marketers using them. These are attractive to the retailers because they encourage greater spend across a range of items that consumers might want in any case.

It’s not just about throwing promotions at people, rather it is about considering what their situation is and arriving at the best solution for their needs

Danielle Pinnington, Shoppercentric

The research found the most popular voucher promotions to be those coming from a loyalty card mailshot or instore terminal (53%). Fifty-eight per cent of the people using these are using them more than they did last year. In second place is a voucher from a product pack with 35%, up 61% on last year.

There are also signs from the research that consumers may become less suggestible to more obvious marketing ploys. However, opportunities for clever marketing still exist, Pinnington believes.

“It feels like marketers will need to become more creative,” she says, “It’s not just about throwing promotions at people, rather it is about considering what their situation is and arriving at the best solution for their needs.”

Pinnington highlights that one of the themes that comes across in the research is the feeling that stores have become too reliant on promotions, leaving consumers feeling “crowded out” and confused by a plethora of offers.

She says: “Perhaps some retailers are missing the bigger picture.” She suggests retailers look for clever ways to engage with consumers and cites the Sainsbury’s Feed Your Family for a Fiver, as a good example. “It’s promotion,” she says, “but Sainsbury’s is coming at it from a different angle and offering a solution. That kind of creativity feels like it is lacking generally and that’s the thing that manufacturers and retailers will have to turn their minds to.”

Building brand loyalty may be difficult at the best of times, but the news that consumers are cutting down on knee-jerk brand switching because of price is surely good news for marketers. Getting creative enough with promotions to convince people to break out of their prudent mindsets in the first place will, it appears, take a little more work.

You’ve got until the 25th to vote because we know some of you have been away.

To see the shortlist just click on the blog entry below – the one with the egg picture, then reply to the email we sent you. That way we know who to send the bottle of bubbly to if you win.

The winner will be decided from those who voted for the most popular egg.

If you weren’t sent an email asking you to join in, please don’t be offended. We just didn’t think you’d be interested. But, if you are, brilliant just chose your egg and send an email to tina@underdogcreative.co.uk and get involved.