Pelican PR News

JD’s executive chairman Peter Cowgill has pledged to keep Blacks focus on outdoor.
Commenting on the group’s latest figures Mr Cowgill said: “There are no plans to turn Blacks into a more fashionable brand.

“There will be no loud music blasting at you. We will stay true to the core values of Blacks.”
Mr Cowgill said that Blacks Leisure is expected to make a loss for the first half of this year and admitted it will need more time to revive the troubled store chain. Read the rest of this entry »

With Easter over it’s interesting to see that confectionery brands are driving innovation at an impressive rate.

New research from Mintel reveals that the number of global Easter egg new product launches has risen 45% over the past year.

The report finds around a quarter (25%) of all global chocolate launches in 2011 were for chocolate products with a “seasonal” positioning such as Christmas, Easter or Halloween. Read the rest of this entry »

It would cost the UK £1.8 billion every year to hand-pollinate crops without bees – 20% more than previously thought – according to new research from Friends of the Earth as it unveils a new campaign to save the bee.

The new figure – equivalent to the annual wages of 60,000 teachers – comes from research conducted by leading bee experts at the University of Reading on behalf of the environment charity as it launches The Bee Cause to call for action on bees before it’s too late.
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Country stiles are set to be banned from one of Britain’s most famous beauty spots – in a bid to help overweight walkers according to reports in several national newspapers.

Officials are expected to introduce a strategy favouring gaps in fences or gates rather than the quaint wooden structures that have graced the countryside for centuries.
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The social media world is made up of hundreds of different platforms, from the more well-known Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to the lesser known Pintrest and Flikr alongside other digital marketing activities such as e-newsletters and blogging. For brands starting to build a presence online it can be difficult to know where to focus resources and which tools are most appropriate for their businesses.

The avenues that might suit a consumer facing brand, such as Facebook, will not necessarily work for a b2b brand where professional portals such as LinkedIn are more effective.
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Building a social media presence and engaging in other digital marketing activities are becoming increasingly popular as promotional tools like branded Facebook pages develop. Making sure these activities fit in with your wider communications strategy can be a difficult balance to achieve.
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Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, isn’t the most exciting tool available in the digital marketing world when compared to the likes of social media campaigns and blogging, but when done well, its benefits can by far outstrip those of its more creative counterparts.

Search engine websites such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing make up some of the most visited websites across the world. In June 2011, Google sites passed one billion unique users per month and increasingly consumers and businesses are using these search engines to find the products and services they want. It pays therefore for your business to get as close to the top of the results page as possible for your key search terms.
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Using social media and digital marketing to promote your products and services is a tricky business and warrants the same care and attention as any other element of your marketing strategy. A lack of consideration for your overall communications strategy or a neglect of the potential risks that an online presence may have can easily do significant damage to your business, both online and in the real world.

However, when carefully considered and carried out in line with a wider communications strategy, social media can have a highly positive impact on reputation and customer service alike, generating sales in new markets and strengthening brand loyalty.
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As a showcase for new thinking, industry technologies and a platform for innovation, conferences and exhibitions have come a long way from the days of the overhead projector and the captive audience.

Video might well have killed the radio star but live events are far from being done in by the webinar and conference call and are embracing new technologies to reach out beyond the confines of the conference theatre. This is having a huge impact on how businesses portray themselves on this very public and international platform.
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The pressure is on for brands to start making their packaging more sustainable with recent research for Marketing magazine suggesting that 56% of consumers have decided against buying products that had too much packaging.

But there is certainly a balancing process to bear in mind in ensuring that reducing packaging does not dent the appeal of brands to consumers.
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