We are delighted to announce that Dave Lawrence, Head of The Value Engineers Kids Practice, has been quoted in this week’s Marketing Week main feature article ‘Brand awareness comes as part of growing up’ by MaryLou Costa.

The article discusses that children today are reacting to brands with a sophisticated awareness and strong opinions about their ‘coolness’.

Dave comments on kids marketing:

“Kids are important as consumers in their own right, but the worry is that brand owners are going to exclude them from the marketing process out of a fear of being labelled irresponsible.”

Product integrity is key when addressing children, Lawrence says. This might involve creating new products, reformulating existing lines or simply doing more marketing around healthier brands. PepsiCo took this route in March when it announced it would put more focus on its healthier brands, such as Pepsi Raw, Pepsi Max, Tropicana and Walkers Baked.

Lawrence says the most constructive marketing initiatives for young people allow “kids to be kids” through appropriate activities for their age group or sponsorship of youth events.

For those that get it wrong, Lawrence says it will hit them where it hurts – sales. “Parents are becoming more discerning about what they buy for their children,” he warns.

Read the full article on Marketing Week online.

Following up from yesterday’s PR news in The Times we have further good news today: our director Alex Waters has been quoted in this weeks The Grocer commenting on the Young’s partnership deal with GO3 and David Beckham’s brand endorsement.

“Beckham’s presence would succeed in livening up the “bland” frozen category, agreed The Value Engineers director Alex Waters, although he questioned the superstar’s food credentials. “People are now beginning to understand omega-3 is brain food but this is undermined by the link to Beckham, who is more about athletic prowess,” he said. “He has huge pulling power, though, and is still a bankable endorsement for brands.”

Read the full article on The Grocer online.

We are delighted to announce that our director of branding, Giles Lury, has been featured in today’s The Times supplement ‘Business Ethics’.

The article by Michael Dempsey discusses brands and ethics questioning if linking an ethical stance to your brand boosts its impact and strengthens its standing with customers?

Giles points out “that the notion of what is ethical has changed over time. Look at our attitude towards smoking and tobacco companies, or our shifting approach to alcohol!” Giles thinks that businesses have to identify when an ethical stance becomes pertinent to their consumers, rather than trumpeting about ethics for their own sake. Marks & Spencer scored a palpable hit with its Plan A environmental branding, dispensing with large carrier bags and stressing the recyclable nature of packaging. But Giles asks: “Would they have done it without the wider social shift to green consumption?” Ethical activities do tend to be led by marketing. And how much of this is really relevant to sales? Is ethical airbrushing just a temporary phenomenon? Giles uses the example of Primark for its cheap clothing but subject to harsh criticism recently from the Children’s Society over the sale of padded bikinis aimed at very young girls. Did this ethical furore, which caused the bikini to be withdrawn, damage Primark’s relationship with its customers? …..

The full article can be found in today’s The Times ‘Business Ethics’ supplement.

Please feel free to contact Giles on giles.lury@thevalueengineers.com or on +44 (0) 1494 680999 for any questions you should have relating to this article’s topic or any other brand related questions.