Coca-Cola behind the scenes

One of the biggest brands Coca-Cola looks like it is trying to position themselves as a super brand that is doing everything right for their customers. Their CSR looks incredible, helping charities and supporting events such as Olympic games. Unfortunately, it seems that the giant brand is in trouble again.

Despite the fact that they released a ridiculous advert video about anti-obesity, now they failing to meet ethical standards, joining Mars and other companies. Evening Standard announce about an issue in February raised by Oxfam. It was said that "leading global brands are failing to ensure the well being of the workers who produce their products and are continuing to profit from a broken system they should be helping to fix".

 

The charity has compiled a Behind the Brands scorecard, which rates the "big 10" food companies in seven categories - the transparency of their supply chains and operations, how they ensure the rights of workers, how they protect women's rights, the management of water and land use, their policies to reduce the impacts of climate change and how they ensure the rights of the farmers who grow their ingredients.

 

The main issues were that companies do not have their own policies how they have to communicate with their suppliers. Also, there are no regulations and rules how eliminate discrimination against women throughout their supply chains. Besides, none of them has adequate policies to protect local communities from land and water grabs despite all of them sourcing commodities plagued by land rights violations, such as palm oil, soy and sugar.

 

After the matter was raised, Coca-Cola spokeswoman said that they are aware of Oxfam activities and trying to implement practises throughout their supply chains and support and build sustainable communities.

 

"We believe in creating economic opportunities for women and smallholder farmers as well as stewarding water and other natural resources within the more than 200 countries in which we operate".

 

At the end, they reached common ground with Oxfam, Coca-Cola spokeswoman said that "As part of The Coca-Cola Company's commitment to transparent, more sustainable and responsible business practises, we welcome a continuous dialogue with Oxfam that enables us to identify and address global challenges collaboratively."

 

So even the massive company is trying to position themselves and use good PR to attract more more customers they cannot hide the truth. Even the anti-obesity video shows that they are using persuasive message to convince their customers that the drink is good. On the other hand, as the Guardian journalist, Sally Peck, said: " The world’s most valuable brand thinks that you are naive. That isn’t at all true. 100 calories’ worth of spinach is your friend. 100 calories of Coca-Cola is little more than a guilty pleasure". So should we believe in everything what this big brand is saying?

The same thing about video and promise to Oxfam to improve and support their communities, will they do something? I guess no.

Story about Lithuanians

My lovely home country in The guardian yesterday.
The front page was written in Lithuanian.
And the story was told about Lithuanian people, culture and what they looking for in Great Britain.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/07/baltic-exchange-lithuanians-new-home-britain?INTCMP=SRCH

King of Camden awards 2012

King of  Camden awards nominates the greatest, the best shops, venues, businesses and market stalls in Camden Town. The even is runned by Wedge and Camden Town Unlimited. This year the winners list looked liked that:

1.  Best Food – Battersea Pie Station 
2. Best Night Out – KOKO 
3. Best Health & Beauty – Fred & Ginger 
4. Best Shop – Scorpion Shoes 
5. Best Staff – The Earl of Camden 
6. Best Wedge Offer – Simply Fish 
7. King of Camden – The Colonel Fawcett

Successful PR campaign: Team Give Blood

Was reading last week's PR Week and find out about the most successful PR campaign. Team Give Blood campaign achieved impressive results over the busy period this summer. Therefore, it is more impressive because it had to compete with Olympics buzz and to attract more attention than Olympic Games itself. 

The objectives were to recruit, reactivate and remind donors to donate before the Olympics. Also, to encourage people with a rare blood type to donate and to maintain media interest.

One of the reasons why campaign was successful is creativity. To get media coverage and show who they are, images of eight blood donors were published. People bodies were painted with circulatory system and shot in iconic London locations. Moreover, they used national and regional TV and radio to announce about the campaign. Celebrity endorsement and social media were very useful tools to spread the word about the campaign. For instance, the images were sent to national and online media, so the celebrities were asked to tweet to their followers. All news and updates were posted on Facebook and Twitter as well as on blood.co.uk's website.

The results were shocking:

• 958 pieces of mainstream media coverage
• 140 broadcast items including BBC Breakfast and Sky News
• National coverage included The Sun, Daily Mail, Sunday Mirror and The Guardian.
• Calls to NHSBT increased by 29%
• received more than 10,000 mentions on social media
• NHSBT hit its 30% stock build target in time for the Olympics

In my point of view, all the campaigns are successful and can stand out of the crowd, then they are creative and know how to attract as much attention as they can. Team Give Blood campaign's images were so original and unique that it definitely wake peoples' curiosity. 

M&S crises

Marks and Spencer, the UK's biggest clothing retailer, has reported an almost 10% fall in profits for the first half of this year. 

Womens' clothing is the  biggest issue to deal with. The matter is that M&S clothing is not the priority for women as there are so many competitors in a high street.

Chief executive, Marc Bolland, blamed the squeeze on shoppers incomes and unstable trading caused by the poor spring and early summer weather. Also, Queen's Jubilee and London Olympics 2012 helped to raise the country's economy but not the higher sales.

Back in 2008 Marks & Spencer was the first retailer which made more than 1 billion pounds in profit. At the moment the company is struggling to make more than 700 million pounds and miss their target. Once again, the biggest issue is the competition in the high street. In contrast, PRIMARK is showing that retail is not that hard. Producing young and fun fashion, the company is the top retailer in the high street with more than 1 billion profit. 

In addition to this, M&S thinking about their strategies how to make things work better. On of the ways is to improve the stores. To drag womens' attention they are planning to improve stores by making more attractive and more interesting displays. Also, improve on-line services and expand the business overseas. What is more, to increase womens' lingerie sales, M&S hired Victoria's Secrets model, Janie Schaffer. She will be a new director of lingerie and beauty, replacing Frances Russell. Nevertheless, new staff is hiring like former Debenhams and Jaeger boss Belinda Earl as a style director. It is expected that she will be able to make a change and raise the sales comparing with Primark and Next. Lastly, like every year new Christmas adverts will be revealed and that should attract loads of attention from women.

To save M&S name as qualify brand will not be easy. But as Bolland saying they need more time to improve their store because new team needs to do their work properly. The big changes might be seen only next July. Hopefully, all the strategies will be done and M&S will come back to his position.

Fingers crossed!

What is happening in Primrose Hill???

Evening Standard released a story about ''yummy mummies" who are the main problem why so many cafes are closing down.

It comes up the matter of posh mummies demands to have more places to sit down with a cup of coffee and have a nice chat on Sunday afternoon. But the story made a enormous switch which comes about rent money and greedy landlords. So who's fault is that so many businesses cannot afford to stay near Primrose Hill?

Apparently, Trojka, one of the oldest and greatest  Russian tea rooms, closed down a couple days ago because of 70 per cent increase in the cost of a new lease. There is nothing about " yummy mummies", it is about landlords who are trying to get the advantage of economy and get as many benefits as they can.

I live in Camden area myself and understand how the place change into a massive Starbucks empire. All over the place there are so many cafes and just couple bars or pubs. The nicest cafes are closing down because of high rent and become a very posh people meeting point. Like Amit Jain, who runs the long-established Shepherd’s cafe, estimates that one in three businesses on the street is now selling food and drink. He said: “I don’t think people realise that soon Primrose village will be cafe village.


In my opinion, the problem is the demand of people who are living near Primrose hill. If there are so many wealth people around then obviously the price of rent will go up and landlords will take as an advantage.

Big and foolish demands taking place but do people think about others? Well, I guess no.

2 Minute Silence

One of the most touching campaign I ever found. It is all about Remembrance day to commemorate those who lost their lives at war.

In 2010, The Royal British Legion wanted to amplify messaging around the work it does supporting the Iraq and Afghan generation of serving and ex-service troops and their families. The biggest aim was to reach younger audiences via modern media and receive as much support as they can.

The strategy was set by the  Burson-Marsteller (B-M) which is leading global PR and communication firm. They decided to make a completely silent track entitled “2 Minute Silence” and releasing it into the UK music charts along with a celebrity-packed “music” video for Remembrance Sunday 2010. 

  Burson-Marsteller (B-M) campaign targeted young generation via social media: creating Facebook page, Twitter account and having "2 minute silence" on the radio. It was very successful as it reach youth centers, young communities. The campaign achieved high interest of young bloggers  which were sharing the fantastic campaign all over the world.

At the end the great results were achieved:

More than 20 leading celebrities secured to appear pro bono

More than 260 pieces of media coverage

More than 35,000 Facebook likes in three weeks

More than 200,000 views of video trailer on YouTube

More than 16 million reached through celebrity social media support

The video is really touching and emotional as there is no sound accept of background noises. It catches the attention and all the people shown in the video shows how many people support the Royal British Legion. That two minutes of silence make to respect, remember and to think about those who gave up their lives in the war.