Make up sentences using the words and word combinations given below

To
gain ground against smth, to be shy about breaking one’s spending,
to enhance the impact of smth, to be consistent in look, consumer
awareness, fastest-growing area, specific criteria, to reach niche
audiences, to flatten, to pull back, a stumbling block, to narrow a
gap.

1. What
   kind of products would you enjoy selling? Think of the customers
   for that product. Can you imagine yourself going through the
   seven-step selling process with them? Which steps would be most
   difficult? Which easiest? Which step could you avoid by selling in
   a retail store?

2. You
   are planning to open a business in town selling women’s clothes.
   There is a very successful shop on the other side of town that
   seems to be managed well. You decide to apply for a job at that
   store to learn all about the business. Then you can apply what you
   learned at your own store. Would that be ethical? You feel it is
   just another form of marketing research. Is it? You hear of a
   similar store in another town and ask to do a term paper on that
   store. You don’t tell the store owner that you are planning your
   own store. Instead, you say you are a student doing a paper for a
   class. Is that ethical? What is fair and what is not in gathering
   ideas from a competitor? When does research become corporate
   spying?

   ECONOMIC
   ISSUE: BRAND RELAUNCH

FINANCIAL
TIMES OCTOBER
28 2004

Such stuff as dreams are made on

GlaxoSmithKline
has pulled out all the stops to reinvent Horlicks, but can we really
expect it to draw the hip crowds, asks Alicia Clegg

Owning
a brand that becomes a metaphor for the age is every marketer’s
ambition. In the 1990s Harvey Nichols achieved this distinction with
a little help from Patsy and Edina of Absolutely
Fabulous. Apple’s
iPod is on the way to achieving similar celebrity in the digital
noughties. But how should a brand react when its image seems locked
in the past?

When
Jack Straw, the UK foreign secretary, last year described one of the
government’s so-called “dodgy dos­siers” as “a complete
Horlicks” – by which he is supposed to have meant a right mess –
the incident surely counted as the lowest point in the 130-year
history of GlaxoSmithKline’s classic bedtime drink.

A
year later, however, things have started to look up. In a feisty
attempt to move with the times, the veteran brand has revamped its
appearance. It has also engaged Mark Borkowski, a public relations
consultant, to convince sleep-deprived party-goers and stressed-out
working mothers that Horlicks is a product that speaks to their
needs.

Horlicks’
attempt to draw in a new generation of drinkers highlights a dilemma
faced by many so-called heri­tage brands, which have seen the
average age of their customers creep up year by year. The first
option for brand owners is to proceed gradually, updating the look
and feel of the brand through fine adjustments to its imagery and
tone. Such an approach aims to attract younger people to the brand
without alienating existing customers. The other option is to
reinterpret the traditional values of the brand in contemporary
idiom to reach younger consumers.

Until
recently Horlicks seemed wedded to the path of gradual change. In
January, the company launched a new TV campaign featuring the
tag-line: “Horlicks could help anyone get a restful night’s
sleep.” Though humorous enough, none of the commercials – which
feature mean-minded traffic wardens and bus drivers settling down
with steaming mugs of the malt-based drink – seem likely, nor are
even intended, to dispel com­mon perceptions of the brand as a
cosy accompaniment to bed socks and lights out at nine.

Now,
however, the brand may be changing tack. In July the product was
given a creamier taste and repackaged in an eye-catching carton,
with a moon-shaped “do-not-disturb sign” symbolising restful
sleep. Hard on the heels of the new visual identity, the company’s
public relations agents recently announced that the beverage is back
in fashion – and being enjoyed as a relaxing after-dinner
digestive in hip London venues such as the Groucho Club and the
Zetter Hotel.

Horlicks
is by no means the only heritage brand facing the dilemma of
evolution versus revolution. Others include Kit-Kat, which has
modified its iconic packaging and slogan; Ribena, the
blackcurrant-flavoured drink; and Tetley Tea, which is running
advertisements with chic celebrities, such as Sex
and the City’s Kim
Cat-trail. Yet according to Charles Trevail, director of
London-based consultancy Promise, the number of brands that can be
said to have genuinely reinvented themselves is surprisingly low.
Among the exceptions that prove the rule are Guinness, Lucozade and,
most recently, Hovis.

An
aversion to taking risks with brands that consumers hold in
affection – even if they are no longer buying them so heavily –
may explain why companies often prefer to modernise gradually when
sales start to slip.

The
danger, however, is that in a crowded marketplace changes that are
subtly communicated risk being drowned out by the surrounding media
cacophony. The risks of marking a break with the past may not be as
great as brand owners think. Richard Murray, co-founder of Williams
Murray Hamm, the London-based agency that redesigned Horlicks,
argues the number of brands that would be devalued by sudden change
is fewer than one might suppose.

“A
few brands, such as Oxo and Marmite, have an iconic identity. But
there are many others, such as Nescafe, laying claim to a unique
equity, which consumers don’t really distinguish between.” For
household names in this situation, suggests Mr Murray, the challenge
is to re-express what they stand for in a way that distinguishes
them from their rivals.

No
amount of clever marketing will restore the fortunes of a brand for
which consumers no longer have a need, however. To avoid becoming
irrelevant, says Jez Frampton, chief executive of Interbrand in the
UK, companies must invest in their products as well as their image.

Babycham,
the cider brand, showed the consequences of not responding to
changes in taste when it embarked on a cosmetic relaunch in the
mid-1990s. The image makeover, which involved dropping the brand’s
trademark deer and pear-green bottle, failed comprehensively and was
subsequently reversed. “Babycham harked back to a time when
consumers had unsophisticated palettes,” says Mr Frampton.

Whether
Horlicks can connect with a younger market remains to be seen. In
the brand’s favour is the fact that its central idea – offering
people something that will help them to unwind at the end of a
hectic day, and promote restful sleep – seems more relevant today
than at any time in the past. Judging by the welter of publicity
which the reported sightings of style-leaders sipping Horlicks in
ultra-cool bars has generated, it appears that the relaunch has at
least tickled the taste buds of the media. Mr Trevail, while
applauding GSK’s audacity, sounds a cautionary note. “Getting
Horlicks into the Groucho Club makes a bold statement.” But, he
adds: “It’s all too easy to imagine some joker of a barman
tossing powder into a mug and, with a well-aimed wisecrack, turning
the whole thing into a bit of a…” Horlicks?

RISING
TO THE CHALLENGE OF HEALTHY COMPETITION

To
pull off a big relaunch, a brand must succeed on several fronts.

First,
it must answer a real need among consumers and appeal to
contemporary tastes. “Marketing a deficient product is pointless,”
says Jez Frampton, chief executive of Interbrand in the UK.

Second,
the brand must be one consumers will relate to, given the right
presentation. If the core values are obsolete the relaunch is
destined to fail unless – and this has rarely been achieved –
some way can be found of changing what the brand stands for.

Third,
the repositioning must be communicated with conviction. “Attracting
new customers is like dating,” says Mr Trevail. “If you send out
mixed messages you won’t be taken seriously.”

Lucozade
and Hovis are well-known UK brands that have negotiated these
challenges. By the mid-1980s Lucozade’s positioning, as a drink to
aid recovery after illness, seemed at odds with society’s emphasis
on high achievement.

To
reconnect with consumers, the brand took the unusual step of
changing not just its imagery, but what Lucozade stood for, shifting
the focus from convalescence to athletic power.

Hovis’s
problem was its inability to make headway in the white bread sector.
In June 2001 the brand was relaunched to dispel its sepia-toned
image, created by the nostalgic “boy-on-the-bike” commercials of
15 years earlier. The relaunch — which centred on the idea of
“getting something good inside” – included TV advertising
featuring a Simpsons-style cartoon family; a dramatic new pack
design depicting wholesome toppings, plus high-profile public
relations activity to grab the attention of the media.

The
critical factor for both Lucozade and Hovis was having a bold idea,
confidently communicated through multiple media. Any brand that
seeks to emulate their success will need to be equally
single-minded.

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