BRANDS AND CORPORATE IMAGE
Network of sitesdesigned and developed by
Kevin R Beck,
Melbourne Australia
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BRANDS AND CORPORATE IMAGE
Network of sitesdesigned and developed by Kevin R Beck, Melbourne Australia |
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IMPORTANT
every portal page uses scripting to update content.
So turn your active content on.
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This site is all about brands.
Their value, how they have been built, how they are being protected or trashed.
Good brands and mediocre brands. No brands and
charlatan brands. How to
affect
brand, corporate and political attitudes and behaviours using the
Activist Toolbox.
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| Is there a difference?  Follow the debates below, choose your topic and click on it Are Australia's major retailers, Coles and Woolworths, Target and K Mart, et al, destroying brands, destroying suppliers in the milk and other industries? Do they have too much market share and power? Do they negotiate, and persuade, or threaten and scare? Would a supplier push back at them and risk everything? Should the ACCC force them to divest? What role do politicians, local government and vested interests play in where suermarkets are appfroved and built? Crunching Australian suppliers Should Coles and Woolworths Divest? ACCC, Inept, Gullible and Toothless? Too Much Power |
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The Brandologist Chanel Chanel Rouge Porsche Discovery Channel Qantas Optus Honda Carlton Draught Biggest Ad Transport Accident Commission Victoria Australia Carlton Draught Flashbeer Jeffrey Cole on the Internet Effect Bridgestone Tires Hugo Boss Anuncio Hugo Boss XX Hugo Boss Dolce and Gabbana Emporio Armani Ermenegildo Zegna Wonderbra Cadbury Datacard The trashing Australia's icons Research brand destruction Product placement and the destruction of brands in movies Social media and brands Bill Hartzer |
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So waht is the purpose of the Mosaic Portal? Well it is not about the number of web sites on the Mosaic Portal web network, the incoming visitor traffic to the KEVIN R BECK myriad of web sites, and the forums. No one can actualkly track all of them anyway. These sites are built on a strategy of what cannot see and calculate. The distribution content outwards into the widerw orld of the web, directly to people across Australia and the world, and onto the internet. It is about destination and readership. Every day content seekers, and agents, enter the Mosaic Portal web sites extracting materials for distribution, for use in their own content, for educational and research purposes and much more. This content, provided free of charge to users, is posted on web sites and into hard print media articles and press realeases, and is used in targeted mass circulation emails in Australia, in the United States and internationally. Concurrently content is pushed outwards. 
Many believe the answer is yes Monitoring market power over consumers and their choices, the psychology, news, events and articles. Commentary and stories. Intellectual property, value, local and multinational market manipulation. The politics, benefits and destructive effects, of markets, competition, ideology and ego. Is it changing times and competitive forces or is it incompetence that has made the landscape different? The stars and the b-graders, the gurus and the charlatans. The crelation, building, and the trashing, of brands. The impact on the livelihood of people, communities, consumers, associated sectors, the decisions, the hidden wars, the winners, losers and the casualties. |
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MEET THE FUTURE OF MARKETING: IT IS US Joseph Turow summarizes how marketers are using new technologies to make it "harder than ever for audiences to escape, and resist, their advances." One practice, "seeding," blends "publicity, product placement, and public relations." Seeding can involve hiring actors for "clandestine campaigns that 'may consist of seeding chat rooms, blogs and forums with paid-for messages,'" as one marketer explained. A Weber Shandwick executive described the goal as to "enlist, equip and harness the power of trusted, informed and credible messengers." Another tool, "behavioral targeting," allows marketers to customize online ads, depending on Web pages visited and searches performed. Soon, "registration data, your movements on their site, and even information about you that they've purchased from a third party" will also be available to marketers. Offline examples of behavioral targeting include customizable cable TV commercials and convenience store coupons. SOURCE: Boston Globe, August 27, 2006 For more information or to comment on this story, visit PR Watch: Go to PR Watch |
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Big business, big bucks and changing dynamics. Do you see or know all the players?  
Opinions, experiences, policies, companies, events, articles and news within Australia and internationally Observing the destruction of iconic brands under the management of highly paid board members and management executives |
 Trashing Brand Australia In oh so many ways |
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Telstra, and other telecommunication companies, advertise broadband. It is not broadband in the real sense, it is a speed of 64 - 250 kilobytes perhaps nudging a higher rate in metropolitan centres. It is a con advertisement and should be withdrawn. Optus, owned by Singtel, uses the term also for its not so real broadband internet services advertisements. They are as ignorant of customer service as their counterparts. Write to Optus and there is a likelihood that you will receive no answer. Tell their call centres not to ring, ask them to mark the file not to ring, and they quite simply ignore you. "Capacity: Real Broadband networks are designed to deliver cost-effective, multi-megabit capacity for uploading and downloading information at equal rates. Other technologies, such as ADSL or cable, generally do not offer equal upload-download capacity." Source: Axia.com Yet the Commission allows the misleading "broadband" advertisements to go on. The Commission selects cases and incidences that are high profile, operating on the theory that a published big hit is a deterrent. The government is engaged in a balancing act between the power of industry and the perception of electors. The consumers come off second best. The Australian Consumer Association is also selective in its representation. It does not represent the consumers of Australia but it is often said by people who deal with it that it is partisan. Some public sector employees it too misrepresents and misleads. Many of Australia's marketers, advertisers, and services and goods sellers, do not seem to be all that bright. Thick as two planks maybe. They are joined in this regard by the owners, operators of, and performers, on commercial television and radio and the advertising agencies that advise companies on what demographic to target in what media and medium. There are 21,000,000 people in Australia and about 40% of them are in the fifty to sixty year old bracket. They have a large discretionary spending. Yet hardly any commercial entities, in Australia, focus on them. They are often categorised as "retirees", "pensioners" and such. One company advertises pensioner's insurance for the over 55 years of age. Many travel companies target the "retired" as if they are a clearly definable market. Australian advertisers, and media, corporations and their executives, have an infatuation with the younger generation. One only has to listen to the radio, and television, advertisements, and the content of drivel that fountains from the celebrity announcers on commercial media to get a sense why companies do not run advertisements on these stations, targeting this demographic. Some radio stations remix their idiotic weekday morning breakfast announcers shows, and replay the inane drivel, on the weekend. Someone has a very poor mental faculty if they think the stuff is funny, entertaining or informative. The fools of many of Australian media are unlikely to influence this demographic, given the paucity of their intellectual capacity and literacy. It is no wonder that most Australian commercial radio, particularly FM, and the low grade commercial free to air channels, largely stick to targeting children, young people, and others, as illiterate, and lack lustre in deeper thinking, as they are. Do the brands, and the sellers, know they are missing out on a major demographic? Perhaps someone should tell them. Perhaps more likely the concept of brand has multiple dimensions. One does not observe quality brands being offered in these forums. It seems it is just the "trash" and "cheap" and "discount" brands that are featured on commercial FM radio and television. Surely no respectable company, aspiring to a quality image, would want to be associated with the presnetsr and the with the content that passes for entertainment on free to air television and most radio stations across the nation. The discerning brands advertise on SBS television and in quality publications. They probably would give their eye eteth to get on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, for they know that is where they will hit this elusive demographic. What will happen when digital two way interaction comes into Australian media? When advertisers can seek their own data direct. The advertisers will find out that the ratings agencies have either been misguided, using por statistical sampling techiques that are flawed, or have been lying to them, about audience statistics. That will be fun to watch. The war behind the shelves. There is a war behind the scenes in Australia's retail industry, currently within the food and supermarket sectors.. It is a war about market power and large corporations versus farmers, manufacturers and small business. It is a war for market power, for control of consumer dollars, of government policy influence, and of thought and behaviour. It is a war, which has the potential to damage the economic, social fabric, health and well being of the on many spectrums. It is a war about intellectual property and value investment. It is a war about to get much wider and more bitter, fuelled from many sources and by many desires, and not all the players are identifiable. It is so sophisticated and complex that Australia's governments and the politicians, particularly in the major parties, are not equipped to, or do not want to, come to grips with. It is a war where billions are at stake and at play on any given day. Generics have no intellectual property. Generic products are bought without allegiance. The supermarkets know this and therefore they are now creating an in house "brand" trying to create an allegiance and loyalty. This is a difficult sell for them because the brands exist within a larger entity that is the supermarket. One can have a brand and it is not necessarily synonymous with prestige, reputation or quality. It can be quite the opposite, take Wal Mart as one example. In Australia the two largest retailers are, Coles Myer and Woolworths. Their market power now confronts the public interest on a broad scale and must be challenged. They are not quality brand. They are just large cash rich enterprises. They are not Australian, or world, icons of best practice management, and product, quality. I wrote to the elected members of Australia's parliaments, federal, state and territory in 2004 predicting the coming war that would cause farmers and producers a lot of angst. A war that would devalue the intellectual property of Australian producers and manufacturers. My communication received no response. This is no surprise since government in Australia knows best and they know the future better than anyone. They are about marginalising critics and those who would challenge the status quo. They ignore soothsayers like me. However in 2005 the war hit the federal Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Peter McGauran. He was galvanised into action. Farmers came to the parliaments of the nation on tractors. The representatives of the Australian and New Zealand bureaucracies met and were chattering animatedly across the Tasman. The bureaucrats of the different Australian government agencies met and were chattering also. They were raging that the new Minister seemed to have litle grasp of anything and was off wandering around the countryside and must be collared. Mr. McGauran was talking of labelling everything with content even loose produce and deli stuff! Heracy and humbug, madness and chicanery. He wanted Australians to buy Australian. Colin Fulton, a Melbourne based issues specialist (Corporate Words), helping the rampaging tractor activists, was causing havoc in the quiet corridors of the ideological empire of federal Minister Tony Abbott and his junior, Christopher Pyne. Mr. Pyne, a federal liberal Parliamentary Secretary, was keeping late night sessions planning on how one might neuter this mad National Party Minister McGauran who was daring to demand Australian content statements and regular label changes, truth in labels and at what cost? Chris' troops were agog at McGauran's media releases. They burnt them whilst dancing around the forest on a full moon. The enemies of people who try and make a difference (like Mr. McGauran,) are everywhere. They live and breath in the Food and Grocery Council, in the Australian Consumers Association, in the very parliament itself and within the conservative ranks of his Ministry colleagues, in the World Trade Agreement, in the US - Australia Free Trade Agreement, in the fabric of Australian society and enterprise. Whoomfff, they hit him in the guts and the efforts of lobbyists and the representatives of the farmers learnt a lesson. Or did they? They may still cavort naked across the land smelling their tomatoes and rubbing the dirt from new potatoes all over themselves in delirium. Whoomff, then it all was quiet and no one actually rushed to buy Australian. Where are the labels? Well... till next time, this me KEVINRBECK signing off. 
When consumers shop for groceries, such as soup, they determine how much to buy based on how many they normally buy. For example, a customer might normally buy 2 or 3 cans of soup without giving it any thought. In effect, they "anchor" on the number 2 or 3 when they decide how many to buy. If you could increase that anchor number through marketing, purchase amounts would rise as well. But, how do you go about increasing that anchoring number? What methods work better than others for raising the anchor? This is but one theory and practice in operation in the world of consumer psychology. |
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News, articls, features and directory |
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A leading Australian supermarket chain is advertising that items in its supermarket shelves (on average) have not gone up over the past two years. This may be true under a very specific rationale. The manfacturers have sought to avoid price rises by altering the ingredients, and the quantity. This occurs in major brands and has been noted in generic products also. What has also occurred is the rise in misrepresentation in labelling. Major brand manufacturers advertise a product with a significant front label claim. For example fruit juice and fruit drink. Exotic descriptions of the flavour and the benefits. However when you examine the small ingredients label on the back of the pack the most prominently claimed ingredient used to attract attention may be 1% or less. Australia's federal government Health Department has achieved major advances in labelling and ingredients over the past years however politics is not free of persuasion and diminution of public interest. The government allows a product definition free reign on description on the smallest of percentages. Similarly so as regards the place of manufacture. In some cases a product labelled Australian does not relate to the ingredients but to the packaging. The Australian Food and Grocery Council is a strong advocate for its members, but not necessarily for Australian consumers. This is probably the case in most nations. Big and powerful interests manipulate and control public policy and in some cases elected representatives. The influence of a number of associations, over the Prime Minister, bear investigating in the public interest. Among them are the Food and Grocery Council, the Australian Hotels Association and the Chambers of Indusrty and Commerce. In July 2006, Prime Minister John Howard, intervened in the Australian Health Ministers Council meeting, to declare that the topic of regulating advertising to children (as a counter to growing obesity) was not relevant to their jurisdictions. He effectively was saying that they should cease to act against the interests of the food brands and their influencing of children to the detriment of their health. The Prime Minister's justification was that media regulation is a Commonwealth matter. This is quite simply a spurious justiofication and the Prime Minister neds to consider how his descision impacts the lives of children in the nation. Mr. Howard adds yet another barrier, to the many hurdles put in place by self interested parties, to dealing with obesity in the young of Australia. There is a mechanism to examine such influence but it is the Australian Senate. The Senate is not permitted to function in the interests of the nation since it is under the control of the Australian governmenta nd thus the Prime Minister and Cabinet members. The Senators of the government coalition might reflect as to how this reflects upon them in terms of ethics, integrity and what the Australian Constitution states is the role of the Senate and that of its members. The Constitution is studiously ignored by those in politics who have too much power. In the case of the nation's federal government absolute power is a corruption. Corporations do not vote but among other activities they do donate to political parties, individual politicians and they do spend their shareholders funds on blatant political influencing, spin media and anti-social interest campaigns that degrade the democratic process and public policy. The public (now government/political service) service can only go so far in acting in the public interest before the commercial imperative kicks in and the real politics of governments, and Ministers, takes over. Big corporations do not vote and do not elect governments. Yet they seem able to over ride the public interest and the place of individual voters in the system. Corporations law makes a company a legal person. The power of big business, and its associations, is evident everywhere. Australia's governments do not dance for the benefit of citizes but the corporations that call the tune and influence (decide) public policy. So it is with smoking. Most Australian state and territory governments want to ban smoking in all public places. Most particularly in clubs, hotels casinos, restaurants and other hospitality and public entertainment venues. The brand name manufacturers, and the venues as well as the Australian Hotels and Clubs Associations, Restaurant and Caterers and any other organisation with an interest sees the end of the world as we know it. In the Australian Capital Territory the clubs want approval for ticket in - ticket out machines that will allow a poker machine player to retain their gambling whilst taking a cigarette break. Clubs and venues have tried every conceivable argument from large volume air recycling to smoking rooms. ON ABC television news on Sunday 21st, November, 2005, a representative of one of the associations claimed a "commercial right" as against the public interest of good health and taxpayers' costs arising from direct, or third party, smoking. Such is the regard for ethics on the part of this particular industry advocate. Australia has only two really large retail enterprises with chains of stores across the nation. They are Woolworths and Coles Myer. Smaller groups cluster such as Independent Grocers of Australia and there is a European company, Aldi, taking niche share of the market. Woolworths and Coles Myer exercise a largely unchallengeable market power and though they are closely monitored by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and state and territory fair trading departments they can operate beyond the horizon of the regulator. Myer has ben hived off (see article above in this page) allowing the supermarket arm, Coles, to get capital, to go on a spree of acquisitions. State fair trading regulators may focus on the consumer but the ACCC focus is implied in its name "Competition". A corporation, and all of its subsidiaries, should be limited to owning only 20% of the outlets in the nation, in a defined category, promoting diversity and competition broadening the nation's economic and social benefit. Australian brand producers, of every type, and the smaller retailers, are a vital part of the heritage and the fabric of the nation and many of them manufacture their products in regional Australia where employment opportunities are scarce. On the other side of the coin Coels Myer is Australia's largest employer of disadvantaged and handicapped people. Other large and small companies do nopt bother for they beleive that it is uneconomical. The supermarkets also have manufacturers produce home brands which are the retailers contribution to social justice. The products are cheap for the less well off. One problem is that the manufacturer is not as socially minded. The products can be high in sodium and in sugar and are not the best deitary choices. Perhaps we cannot have it all. Another socially minded company is McDonald's and the Ronald McDonald houses. The fast food chain is supporting a good cause and is also trying to add healthy choices to its menu. Pity thyat Hungry Jacks, Kentucky, Red Rooster and Subway are not as strong on human values and intergrity. They simply take the money, or do they? Who can tell what value they add to society beyond mere business? Politicians have one eye firmly on their own electoral interests. If consumer protection, health and well being, are priorities then why is there no federal Ministry focused on consumer protection? Why is there no real action, other than an advertising campaign by government, on the health of children? Obesity is a major health problem and it is in many ways brought about, and maintained, by unscrupulous advertising and psychological manipulation. Why are consumers blamed by the federal government for their own behaviour and industry allowed to continue their destructive pursuit of profit at the expense of the public good? It is because Australians do not hold their governments, and representatives, accountable. It is beyond our horizon, we are too busy, it is all too hard and it is irrelevant to most of us. Business puts their interests, and the shareholders interests', before public welfare and good. Legislators are myopic, stupid or corrupt. Some are a mix of all three. Corporate boards, and managers, have no moral compass to guide their ethics and we see that some have no conscience. They give little consideration of the wider economic, and social, consequences and issues. They hide behind the corporation as a legal entity. Our legislators have been derelict. Members of Australia's parliaments should have had an abiding interest in the market power of these enterprises but they do not. They fear reprisals from ruthless and immoral executives who use their corporate power to get what they want regardless of the effect on society, people and individuals. These people are lauded for their ruthlessness by a media obsessed with shallow themes and besotted by money and naked greed. Such executives are not to be lauded. They are the corroders of the nation not the builders. The builders (Snowy, Telecom, State Electricity Commission of Victoria, Qantas, Ansett, the Australian Wheat Board, irrigation systems are long gone. Replaced by mediocrity and short term ideologs without a nation building vision and capacity. Coles Myer and Woolworths dominate production of goods even to the point of making small suppliers and producers, follow policies and processes that are more onerous than government specified regulation. The executives of Coles Myer and Woolworths are described by insiders as thugs. We do not see their behind the scenes threats and market manipulation. Subtle and insidious they operate below the radar of the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission in what is predatory behaviour and a form of legal blackmail. These companies pay tens of millions of dollars in fines to the regulator but this is cheaper than giving up their illegal practices of price fixing, market manipulation and distortion. In my opinion Coles Myer and Woolworths are not high value brands. The large enterprises are about exercising control at every level of society. They dominate industry associations such as the Australian Food and Grocery Council, the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Australian Industry Group. These associations in turn wield enormous influence over politicians even to the point of gagging, and shackling, those who might speak out. The former federal Minister for Children, Larry Anthony, may have felt just how powerful these interests are when he crusaded on obesity and advertising unhealthy products to children, a practice migrated from the Unite States to Australia by the manufacturers, and the retailers, and defended by them and their industry associations. Larry Anthony spoke out. "The topic of advertising's role in making children fat is back in the spotlight with Federal Children and Youth Affairs Minister Larry Anthony today calling on the advertising industry to take responsibility for promoting healthy lifestyles for children. Attending the Kid Power 2003 forum in Sydney which focused on marketing to children Anthony said advertisers had a social responsibility to bear given their influence over children, particularly in regard to promoting healthy lifestyles." (29 July, 2003) "As the first-ever Minister at the national level responsible for children's issues, I have to say I'm another passionate believer in promoting health and wellbeing, particular when it comes to the early years of a child's life....While a child's health and wellbeing depends to a large degree on healthy eating and regular exercise".(National Health and Wellbeing Seminar, 18/08/2004.) Then he was silenced and his portfolio of children was abolished. It simply disappeared. Such is the integrity of the Australian government under John Howard. The Minister for Health Tony Abbott has, consistent with his Ministerial history, faield to deliver service to the national interest and the children. He refuses to ban product advertising to children. He prefers education and putting the onus on parents. The argument that Abbott runs sounds reasonable. However There it does not take account fo some fundamentals. The first is that there are parents who are incapable of parenting in such ways as he demands. Therefore he and the government consigns those children to the thrall and manipulation of the corporations. The television and radio and pres are not going to upset their advertisers. Finally the corporations spend millions employing experts who use psychology, guilt, envy and human nature to subvert free choice and to put pressure on parents and carers. Schools are forced to take in unhealthy products to fund their shrinking budgets and pay for the extras. Tony Abbott is a pawn of the powerful corporations. He has abrogated his responsibility lacking the will, and fortitude, to do what Doug Anthony tried to do. Anthony is by far the better public servant. "Is it parents who cave in to "pester power" by allowing their kids too much junk food and not making them run and jump? Is it the makers and the marketers of top selling foods loaded with sugar and fat? Or is the Government failing by refusing to crack down on junk food advertising to vulnerable children? No one is owning up. Four Corners follows the "food chain" to see who should take responsibility for what is consumed by those at the very bottom the children and asks what can be done to make them healthier." Source: ABC Television, 4 Corners The federal Minister for Health and Aging knows how far he is allowed to go before he is reined in by the industry interests. This is an extract from an interview with him, published 13 October, 2005. It shows the caveat emptor mentality of the Howard government, and its senior Ministers, who it could be said do only as much as is necessary without offending those who can affect their political future. "Q. How much do you think parents should take responsibility for the issue of overweight and obesity in children? A. I think in the end it is up to parents more than anyone to take this matter in hand. Q. But are you making these choices easy for them? A. Well the Federal Government doesn't say to someone in the supermarket please take that bottle of Coca Cola. It is a shopper's choice to take a bottle of Coca Cola rather than a carton of low sugar fruit juice or milk. Q. But you go to the supermarket presumably, you know that the confectionary is stashed there in almost every aisle at child height? A. Mm, mm. But but again there is nothing that makes the parent who is doing the shopping go for the Coke as opposed to the milk. Q. What about 'pester power'?
Privacy Statement, Uses and Motivation
I designed this interactive web site network and have loaded it on to multiple servers, blogs and forums around the Internet. I add another layer of interlinked sites from time to time so that the "experts" who charge companies, and other customers, a fortune to tell them fictitious web traffic figures, cannot track my sites because they have no idea where they are. It would take every resource they have at their disposal to figure out the human algorithm I have created and how I change the configuration. Even as you have them track sites like this I simply add another layer and cross link them. Google knows every page, and every article, and where it is located. You want to engage with me on political, and consumer fronts? Perhaps your game is business, I can be accommodating there too. Maybe it is community or any other issues? I love the world of collective power. Have an interest in women's issues? What about parents? Perhaps your brand diffentiation and products are aimed at kids, teenagers and youth? You did not know I existed. You have no idea what I do, where I am every day, in the world, on the net. You have no idea. Nor do your advisers, executives and experts, where I reach and why. You do not care. However there may come a time when I choose to engage with you. Perhaps that time is now? This is the "KEVINRBECK" brand. 
 Need help to get your message out? Ask KEVINRBECK to assist, or send your ideas, articles and web site suggestions
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