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innovative media not only allowadvertisers to measure effectiveness.but also enable them to hit the lucra-tive 18-34 age bracket.

As advertisers continue to havesecond thoughts ahout TV, the timehas come to look at the full range ofalternatives, rather than blindly leap-ing onto the internet bandwagon.Justin TownsendChief executive officerIGA WorldwideLondon EC1

Time as important asexposure for outdoorIt is refreshing to see that the outdoorand ambient media industry contin-ues to grow, driven largely by researchand data providing accountability forthe sector (MW May 18). However,while footfall and frequency figureshave given outdoor media a morecredible image, they do not create acommon currency for all out-of-homemedia. This is virtually impossibledue to the varied platforms that fallwithin the bracket.

In today's cluttered media envi-ronment, the time spent with anadvertisement is just as important asexposure levels. This is reflected by

Outdoor: Time spent counts

an increasing number of brands util-ising out-of-home media to createtouch-points for consumers to con-nect with the brand.

Independent research commis-sioned by Alvern Media revealed thetime spent with our platformsaccounted for up to 40% of a con-sumer's journey time on the fore-court. Unprompted recall rates stoodat 60%, with three out of five fore-court customers recalling the nameof the product advertised. These find-ings establish that the time spent withadvertisements is an important meas-urement tool that should not beignored by marketers, and goes a longway to providing an extra avenue ofaccountability for the outdoor media

industry, which is something everyout-of-home media should be strivingfor.Dharmesh ChhedaSales and marketing managerAlvern Mediawww.alvernmedia.co.uk

Defining brand Britainto discover our valuesPlans by the Government to make"core British values" a compulsorypart of the curriculum will he under-mined unless there is recognitionthat there exists a "British" brand,which needs to be clearly defined andarticulated.

Unless we define our British brandin all its elements we will fail to makeit effective, and sustainable. Valuesare an important element of a brand.Our values drive our behaviours anda clearly articulated set of values pro-vides a common script for all of us tolive our lives by

Our identified values perhapscould he along the lines of how welive together as a British communityto enjoy physical protection, equal-ity of opportunity freedom of beliefs,tolerance based on mutual adjust-ment and respect - not just diversityfor the sake of it - democracy, plu-ralism and social justice,

A brand is, however, also made upof icons: the things we instantlyrecognise or recall. Successful brandshave powerful icons, which by verymention of their name conjure up acommon set of images among keyaudiences.

For example the British Empire isnow seen as politically incorrect inits abuse of human rights etc. By bas-ing any future celebration on our val-ues it will be possible to identifyaspects of the British Empire - or anyother historic event - which we canactually celebrate if they are relevantto confirming our current day values.

Studying and celebrating our corevalues could be a brilliant tool foruniting subscribers to the Britishbrand, to help build better social cohe-sion, and a new common purpose tocreate a better future for us all.

I hope for the Government the ideaof teaching core values is as suc-cessful as Agincourt, El Alamein, theFalklands, Shakespeare, the KaiserChiefs and chicken tikka masala.Andy GreenGreen CommunicationsWakefield Media & Creativity Centrewww.greencomms.com

In brand migrationread brand erosion

What's the connection between Freeserverebranding as Wanadoo, Coco Pops becomingChoco Krispies. Dixons turning intoCurrys.digital, Nestle launching Chunky andKube Kit Kats, and Heinz branching out into"Teady-made" baked beans on toast?

The flippant answer might be that they have allbeen a colossal waste of money; though in somecases this remains a suspicion yet to be proved.

The more measured observation is tbat too much brand activity -whether at the level of brand migration or brand extension - isdriven by anything but consumer need, and therefore faces anenormous possibility of failure.

Let's look at the Wanadoo story in a little more detail, as anexample. France Telecom has spent about £30m advertisingWanadoo in the UK, mainly in an effort to rebrand Freeserve afterits acquisition from Dixons. Some attribute the motive to Gallicbrand chauvinism rather tban an obvious need to rationalisebrands. It's a suspicion made plausible by France Telecom'sdecision, only two years later, to drop tbe Wanadoo brand in favourof Orange, a brand it had acquired one year earlier than Freeserve.in 2000. It may be that the convergence agenda bas moved on a lot intwo years.., or, alternatively, that France Telecom is guilty ofmuddled corporate thinking.

Not all brand migrations proceed in this unsatisfactory fashion.Masterfoods has proved astute in balancing global brandmanagement with local market requirements. As can be judgedfrom its largely successful transformation of Marathon intoSnickers and Opal Fruits into Starburst. We have yet to see thefruits of Virgin Mobile's marriage with the bureaucraticnightmare that is NTL. But Virgin Mobile brand director JamesKydd (expected to become marketing supremo at the newly mergedtelco) is right to stress the need for reform, especially in the areaof customer service, before Virgin lends its brand name.

Kellogg, on the other hand, was forced into an embarrassingU-turn over Choco Krispies in 1998, because it had underestimatedpublic reaction. As for Dixons (stores) "migration" intoCurrys.digital, it has all the signs of disorderly retreat after asurprise rout by the online brigade, Tbe real question underlyingthis particular piece of brand migration is: how could DSG haveallowed what was once such a great brand name to become sodiminished before taking action?

Tbe same psychology all too often applies to brand extensions.The fact that they are usually a cheaper alternative to genuineproduct innovation may be considered bad enough. But worse, in away, is how tbey are used as a knee-jerk reaction to deterioratingmarket conditions. Thus Kit Kat's expansion into Chunky andKubes. And thus, we might suspect, Heinz's foray into "ready-made" baked heans on toast, in a desperate attempt to keep one stepahead of supermarket own-label competition. Naturally enough thepopularity of these incremental "innovations" can he ramped, ifthe media spend put behind them is large enough, but that in itselfis unlikely to lead to significant repeat purchases. As a famousAmerican adman once said: "The consumer is not a moron,"Stuart Smith, Editor

Cover story, page 24; Analysis, page 7

25.05.06 Marketing Week : 23