Last Wednesday, The Value Engineers were delighted to be asked to contribute to ITV1′s Daybreak show.

Lou Ellerton appeared on the show at the ungodly hour of 6:40am to talk about Tesco’s trials and tribulations with its Fresh ‘N’ Easy brand in the US, Philip Green’s decision to sell a 25% stake in Top Shop to a US investor, and the opportunities that a Royal baby might create for British brands. It’s an eclectic selection of topics, we agree!

If you’d like to see for yourself how Lou got on, the show is available here on ITV Player until Wednesday morning (12th December). Her comments start at 00:37, just after the ad break.

We’re delighted to introduce two new faces to the Value Engineers team – Nicola Davies and Martha McPherson, who both join us as Marketing Analysts.

Martha McPherson joins us having graduated from St Catherine’s College, Oxford with a degree in English Language and Literature. Whilst at Oxford she got stuck into theatre marketing and reviewing, as well as a brief stint of acting as a beetle in an obscure Lorca play. In the holidays she escaped the world of English to take part in a cultural immersion course in China, which led to a severe case of the travel bug, and to an intense two-month internship in social media marketing in Bangalore. In her spare time Martha enjoys exploring cities, improving her front crawl and reading lots of books.

Nicola Davies graduated from Robinson College, Cambridge this year with a degree in Theology and Religious Studies. During her time at Cambridge, she was on the committee for the college May Ball and took great pleasure in attending a wide variety of amateur dramatics and guest-speaker debates. Nicola has previous experience in the pharmaceutical industry during a 2-month marketing internship at GlaxoSmithKline, where she worked on two brands, which involved using several forms of direct marketing and frequent communication with the sales team. From this, she recognised her interest in creative approaches to branding, which she found The Value Engineers offers in abundance. In her spare time, Nicola enjoys travelling, attending comedy shows and sampling the latest eateries in London.

A big welcome to both Nicola and Martha from all the team at The Value Engineers. We’re sure you’ll see them around our offices or posting on our blog very soon!

As our Engineers headed off for the holidays, we asked them what they wanted to find in their stockings this Christmas.

From the deadly serious to the jokey, here are a few of their responses. I’ll leave you to decide which is which.

“25 hours  in a day. Oh, and the time to write that book on branding and multiplicity in marketing!” – Giles Lury, executive chairman

“Fifa 12 by EA, and a pair of Nike Tiempo IV Elite Football Boots” – Will Butterworth, consultant 

” A TVE cloning machine, to make those awkward diary clashes a thing of the past.” – Richard Oldham, joint managing director

“A week in the Maldives, please” – Liana Gregorians, marketing analyst  (Hear hear, Liana, can we come too? – Ed)

“A Starbucks room in the office – decorated in Starbucks’ warm colours, with comfy chairs and a professional barista to make us delicious coffees to suit our individual tastes – somewhere we can retreat, meet, chat, think, read,  relax and laugh.” – Katy Mousinho, joint managing director

“A Mulberry handbag and a desk that stays clear for the first week of January” – Rebecca Gaul, consultant

And a final request to the man in red, on behalf of all those Engineers who live east of Beaconsfield:

“A law against drivers who stay in the outside lane doing 40 mph on the A40.” – David Holland, consultant

So there you have it: a few thoughts on the stocking fillers we’ve been hoping for this Christmas. To all our readers, best wishes for the holidays, and here’s hoping that Santa brought you all you were dreaming of as we head into 2012.

We are delighted to announce the arrival of Mandolin Lextrait, who joins as as Senior Consultant in our New York office.

Mandolin began her career at GMI as manager of partnership research before moving to Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates as a senior analyst. While at PSB, Mandolin conducted multi-phase exploratory research (domestic and international focus groups, quantitative bespoke design and in-depth interviews), tracking research, message evaluation, and segmentation development and analysis.

 In pursuit of more innovative methodologies, Mandolin joined BrainJuicer as an Account Executive in 2008. Focusing primarily on front-end innovation, she conducted early-stage concept screening/development, insight exploration/validation and communications testing, both domestically and internationally, utilizing innovative methods, such as, mass prediction/ethnography and innovation communities along with traditional research tools. 

Mandolin lives in Williamsburg Brooklyn where she practices ballet, observes obscure hipster behaviour and aspires to follow in the footsteps of her father, French chef Roger Lextrait, perfecting her French cuisine.

As a consultant at The Value Engineers it is always great working on the industry leading brands we regularly service, however at times the opportunities available when working on smaller brands can be equally rewarding.

Back in 2010 I was lucky enough to be involved with the brand development for a little known male grooming brand called Wingman, taking the unofficial title of Marketing Director for a short time. The founder was set on developing a new male grooming brand by starting out with the Wingman Wipe; a ‘shower in a sachet’ that helps remove dirt, bacteria, excess oils and odour from the skins surface. Targeting men at the gym, during festivals, on urban travel, in the office and on nights out the individually wrapped wipes promise Active Cooling from Aloe Vera, Peppermint Oil and Ginseng extracts. The product and the brand seem to have gone from strength to strength and earlier this year won a place on the shelves in Boots via a BBC2 television programme called Britain’s Next Big Thing.

Being a part of product and brand development from the outset and seeing the fruit of my labours on the shelves of the largest pharmaceutical retailers in the UK was hugely exciting so imagine my interest when I saw the development of Wingman’s first direct competitor product!

Cue Fellas; a biodegradable and UK manufactured intimate wipe offering us guys’ clean, fresh confidence for our ‘manatomy’. With a brand positioning not dissimilar from Wingman and brand values and tone to match this seems like a direct competitor in the making. The only marked difference between the two being Fellas focus on the ‘manatomy’ versus Wingman’s targeting of the face and body. Interestingly when developing the Wingman concept the start point was an intimate wipe however Stuart Jolley, the company founder and I felt this was far too limiting and that men like us needed something to clean and deodorise the whole body, not just our ‘manatomy’.

With both brands offering a fresh and modern approach to male grooming it will be interesting to see if either can grab a foothold in a crowded male grooming market. Being first to that market and already having secured shelf space with a major retailer gives Wingman a distinct advantage; however the promise of British manufacture, specific targeting and biodegradability could perceivably work in Fellas favour.

Whilst everybody at The Value Engineers wish continued luck to both I certainly know who I’ll be cheering for…let battle commence!