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Marketing research and ROI command the spotlight in the September 1st issue of Marketing News, which made its way to your mailboxes this week. If you haven't done so already, glean some insight from the experts featured in our "10 Minutes With..." Q&As: Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council, and Steve Tipps, SVP and director of research and development at Copernicus Marketing Consulting.

Also in this issue:

Continue reading "Marketing News issue preview: September 1" »

Posted by Elisabeth at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I saw an interesting story today about Wendy’s planning to expand its 99-cent menu at a time when competitors like McDonald’s have been contemplating trimming their similar offerings.

So does Wendy’s know something that its competitors don’t? Or is this just a matter of one competitor deciding to zig while the others zag to see if it will work? Wendy’s is about to come under new management, maybe this is the old management’s last hurrah?

Continue reading "Will Wendy’s image prosper from a 99-cent cheeseburger?" »

Posted by John at 3:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

GfK AG formally withdrew from what originally was a friendly merger discussion with market-research company Taylor Nelson Sofres plc on Aug. 27, ending a months-long negotiation. TNS has been the target of a hostile takeover by advertising group WPP since early July. After WPP made its hostile bid, GfK tried to raise the funds to make a cash offer for TNS. “The board, after careful consideration, has concluded that the terms of the financing available did not enable a sufficiently compelling alternative cash offer to be made for TNS that was also economically in the best interests of the GfK shareholders,” GfK said in a statement released on its Web site.

WPP is offering $2.02 billion for TNS, which TNS says undervalues the company. As of press time, the company indicated that it will continue to reject the hostile bid from WPP. TNS generated $1.84 billion in revenue last year. WPP is the parent company to ad agencies including Ogilvy & Mather, JWT and Young & Rubicam. It also owns Kantar Group, which ranked No. 5 in Marketing News’ Honomichl Global 25 Report of the top market research firms by revenue. London-based TNS ranked third and GfK fourth. GfK is based in Nuremberg, Germany.

Posted by Allison at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was struck by a story in the Aug. 27th Wall Street Journal headlined “WPP Closes In on Hostile Takeover of TNS.”

To give you some background (more of which will be in your Sept. 15 issue of Marketing News, so watch for it there) GfK AG had been trying to buy Taylor Nelson Sofres plc (TNS) when WPP in July launched an uninvited counteroffer of $2.02 billion. TNS is still saying publicly that it plans to fight the WPP onslaught.

The Journal story mentions that research is becoming more important for marketers and that big communications holding companies such as WPP are looking for more sources of income.

Continue reading "The big want to be bigger, just ask WPP" »

Posted by John at 4:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was struck by a story making the media rounds this past week about someone who fooled a noted magazine, Wine Spectator, into giving an award to a non-existent restaurant in Italy.

The reason wine critic Robin Goldstein says he put the entire concoction together was to show that awards programs have gotten out of hand, with magazines and others offering them simply to make money on entry fees rather than to truly find the best of anything.

Continue reading "And the winner is…non-existent?" »

Posted by John at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)