The market for cocaine globally is worth more per annum than the turnover of Google, Coca Cola and MacDonalds added together. Personally I was appalled, as the havoc wreaked by drugs is horrendous both with the users and in countries such as Mexico, where it is grown. However, as a marketer, I couldn’t help but say ‘Wow!’. Such a phenomonal global succes with no marketing support!

QHotels researched 3,000 of its guests and found that the 3 most important factors for business travellers when choosing a hotel were unlimited free wi-fi access, a king size bed and luxury bedding. I hope they didn’t spend too much money on this research, as firstly these shouldn’t be a surprise, but secondly I would [...]

It has come to light that Range Rover gave a free vehicle to 40 celebrity ‘trendsetters’ to tweet about the vehicle. Now this blurs the boundaries between marketing and non-marketing and has the potential to mislead consumers, who assume that tweets reflect genuine individual views. Is this paid-for space? If so, it is covered by [...]

It is only 2 days until the winners of this year’s HMA Hotel Marketing Awards are announced. There is always at least one independent hotel winner each year, but it is a shame that more of the small privately-owned hotels don’t enter. I am on the mailing list for a family-owned hotel called the Bedruthan [...]

Am I alone in totally disagreeing with Google’s policy of allowing companies to bid on competitors brand names? As a professional marketer I have a problem with this. To me it’s almost marketing piracy. And as a consumer I am now getting increasingly annoyed that when I google something very specific , most of the [...]

There are some strange job titles around, but I think I’ve just seen the craziest and it comes from an ad agency. Lorna Hawtin of TBWA Manchester is Disruption Director.