That Works Weekly provides an alternative take on the week’s marketing and branding news. In Episode 7, it’s all go at the UK supermarkets, Google sell then steal their own domain, eBay are on the scent of dodgy trainers and football plans a social media boycott.
Supermarket sweep
Dominating branding news this week are Britain’s numerous supermarkets. Firstly, Waitrose have announced a two-year partnership with Deliveroo which will see 150 of their stores utilise the delivery service, in which 1,000 products will be available to be pedalled to your doorstep. Deliveroo’s insurance policy has reportedly rocketed as a result, due to their riders now handling extremely high value goods such as a £50 gourmet cucumber and £100 luxury raisins. Elsewhere, Asda have launched a second-hand vintage clothing range in 50 of their stores as part of their ‘George For Good’ scheme. Customers are said to be shocked, as they thought regular George clothing items were second-hand anyway. Finally, Sainsbury’s have hailed their ‘Aldi price match’ scheme, with their new value-for-money approach showing early signs of success. Do supermarkets not realise that the only thing comparing all their prices to Aldi’s does is emphasise that Aldi in fact has the lowest prices and people should therefore just shop at Aldi instead?
You are where you sit
The easing of lockdown means more and more of us are beginning to return to an office working environment, which has led to a study being carried out by University College London into the best desk positioning. Blaming low productivity levels on where your desk is located in a room really is an admirable excuse for being useless at your job. The study found that staff with window desks felt more productive and focused than those sitting beside walls, while the worst ratings came courtesy of staff whose desks faced away from the main area of the room with many colleagues sitting behind them. The study, unfortunately, didn’t look into productivity levels whilst working from home, sat on your sofa in your underwear, binging on Netflix, eating ice cream from the tub, occasionally moving your mouse to show that you’re active and replying to emails once every four hours. Ah, those were the days.
Okay Google, sell me your website
A bizarre story this week tells of how Google Argentina’s domain name – www.google.com.ar – was bought for a little over £2 whilst the site was temporarily out of action. Nicolas Kurona, a web designer from Buenos Aires, discovered the site was mysteriously available to purchase on Argentina’s Network Information Center. Like any normal person with high levels of curiosity and low levels of self-restraint, he went ahead and bought it. I wish the story continued with Nicolas holding Google to ransom and selling the domain back to them for millions of pounds. You could make a (terrible) film out of it. But no. The NIC took the domain name away from him shortly after he purchased it, but didn’t reimburse him for his purchase nor pay him to buy it back. Actually, that terrible film just turned into a gripping documentary. The Great Google Robbery. @Netflix are you listening?
eBay to sniff out fake footwear
E-commerce giants eBay have set up a new trainer authentication scheme to crack down on the amount of fake footwear being sold through its site. A warehouse has been opened in the UK, solely dedicated to inspecting the most valuable trainers being traded on the platform. Part of the examination involves sniffing the shoe to detect any suspect scents, which I’d imagine immediately cut the job applications down by around half. Imagine that being the 9-5; putting your nose inside potentially questionable trainers all day to see if they give off an aroma of counterfeit-ness. What smells are they even looking for? I dread to stink. I mean think.
Football shuns social media
It’s another football-related ‘good news’ section this week as clubs and organisations have announced that they will boycott social media this weekend in protest of the abuse and discrimination directed towards their players on the platforms. The boycott comes in an attempt to put pressure on the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to do more in their efforts to tackle online abuse, which is seemingly, so far, no efforts at all. It’s actually rather sad that the clubs have to resort to not using social media in order to avoid suffering abuse on it. I’m no expert, but surely an easier way for us to avoid racism and abuse is for people to not be racist or abusive. Just a thought.
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