Flip-flop again: GM deems Chevrolet Europe strategy a failure

GM has changed its mind again: Chevrolet will not be its global brand.    The strategy, where Daewoo was rebadged Chevrolet in western Europe at the beginning of the century, has been deemed a failure, and GM will withdraw its core Korean-made models such as the Spark, Aveo, Cruze and Malibu, by 2015. It will […]

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Facebook pages are broken

While my personal Facebook page and profile continue to have good reach and engagement, the Lucire Facebook is down, especially compared with this time last year.    We’ve increased fans and, on our site, readership, but it’s becoming more and more evident that traffic isn’t coming via the Facebook fan page.    It makes you […]

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Campaign update: videos three to five

I have been posting these on the videos’ page as they became public, but maybe I should have added them to this blog, too, for those of you following on RSS. The multilingual one seems to have had a lot of hits. They have been directed by Isaac Cleland, with Khadeeja Dean on sound. Lawrance […]

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Bridging the Rimutaka divide: Wellington needs Wairarapa

In an interview today, the subject of regional reform and amalgamation came up. There’s quite a good site already seeking feedback on the process, and I’ve taken part in a 2012 forum on the subject as well.    In 2010, the mood in Wellington, based on those I met in the campaign, seemed to be […]

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How brands fool us

The Google experience over the last week—and I can say ‘week’ because there were still a few browsers showing blocks yesterday—reminds me of how brands can be resilient.    First, I know it’s hard for most people to believe that Google is so incompetent—or even downright corrupt, when it came to its bypassing Safari users’ […]

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What’s on the door can count more than who runs the shop

I walked into the National Bank yesterday to sort out something for Dad—years ago, we gave each other signing authority on our accounts. They had misplaced that authority—a bit worrying if a bank doesn’t hold on to things over 10 years old—but, with the transition of the National Bank branding to ANZ, it reminded me […]

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The fall of Facebook advertising and the rise of something else

I remember when Michael Wolff was very bullish about the internet in the 1990s, so when he starts sounding warning bells, we had better take heed.    The way Michael paints Facebook—and a belief that its advertising model will eventually collapse for being so limited—is not unfamiliar to anyone who ever wondered, during the dot-com […]

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In the MG world, the Chinese understand Britishness better

Take a car range that’s not selling too well, and try to pull the patriotic heart-strings to see if you can move a few.    Trouble is, this ad for the MG 6 Magnette, which is running on some of our sites, is pretty awful.    It’s not convincing, for starters. Brand Germany has its […]

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Stefan Engeseth’s next book, Sharkonomics: in business, what can we learn from sharks and their survival?

When I talked about Nicholas Ind’s book, Meaning at Work, a few weeks ago, I said there were two titles that I wanted to mention.    The second is by my friend Stefan Engeseth, who has followed up some very innovative titles—Detective Marketing, One and The Fall of PR and the Rise of Advertising—with Sharkonomics. […]

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