A website and marketing expert's take on fashion, culture and lifestyle brands

This week on my Drapers blog you can read my views on how Primark should communicate its ethical standards online.

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Buying glasses from a high street optician is a thing of the past for me, I always buy online. If you haven’t yet made the switch here are ten top reasons why you should buy from Glasses Direct!

1. Price
Why pay high street optician prices when you can get glasses for as little as £15? Designer glasses can cost hundreds of pounds, but start from £45 on Glasses Direct.

2. Choice
There’s a pair of glasses to suit EVERYONE on Glasses Direct. There’s never been so much choice.

3. Leisure
You can take all of the time you need to decide which pair of glasses is right for you. Browse in the comfort of your own home, rather than a crowded high street store.

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Last week I was forwarded an email with various “mashups” of Cadbury and Nestle brands.

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In a previous study I named Cheryl Cole as the most talked about Girls Aloud singer on the internet.

But how does Cheryl square up to her new work colleague Dannii Minogue?

Like her sister, pop star Dannii has been around since the 1980’s and joined the X Factor panel in 2007.

Cheryl and her Girls Aloud crew may be Britain’s biggest girl band, but with less than six years of fame can she be more talked about online than Dannii?

Most blog mentions in last 24 hours
Cheryl Cole: 32
Dannii Minogue: 28
WINNER: Cheryl Cole

Most Google Search results
Cheryl Cole (Cheryl Tweedy): 1,039,000
Dannii Minogue (Danni Minogue): 2,479,000
WIINNER: Dannii Minogue

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With everyone apparently “feeling the pinch” discount supermarkets Aldi and Lidl have seen year on year sales rise by 13% and 20% respectively.

It’s the perfect time for Aldi and Lidl to increase marketing activity. With more of their shoppers coming from the middle classes, how can they market themselves to attract more of these affluent shoppers?

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Last week OSOYOU, in association with Philips Sonicare, hosted a Sex and the City night in London.

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Isn’t it horrible when search engines crawl your website when it’s down (1)?

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Read my articles on the Drapers Maximising Revenue Through Online Fashion Retailing conference.

‘Being relevant’.

‘Search engine traffic’.

‘Trust’.

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Continuing the family theme from my previous post on celebrity relatives (Kardashian vs Lohan), I thought I would show you an example of how one celebrity sibling, Danielle Brown, is using her Spice Girl sister Mel B’s name to attract attention for her own business online.

Danielle Brown, sister of Mel, former Emmerdale actress and some time OK! magazine feature, is sponsoring the keyphrase ‘mel b’ in Google’s search results.

This means every time someone searches for ‘mel b’ they are presented with an advert for Danielle’s events management company Danielle Brown Events. If someone clicks on that ad to the website, Danielle pays a small fee to Google.

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You may know James Layfield as one of the youngest ever Managing Directors in Richard Branson’s Virgin group.

James, named in the Top 30 under 35 UK Entrepreneurs by Growing Business Magazine, caught the entrepreneurial bug from Richard Branson and went on to found youth marketing agency The Lounge Group.

The best marketing agencies understand their client’s clients. With a network of 8,000 under 35’s, The Lounge Group has the upper hand on devising campaigns that work to the youth market.

In this interview I ask James what he learned from working with Richard Branson and how The Lounge Group fills a gap in the market.

You once worked alongside Richard Branson. Did any aspect of working for Richard’s Virgin group inspire you to set up The Lounge Group?
As Branson’s youngest ever MD I definitely learnt a few things. I was inspired by his ability to trust and give responsibility to good people, he taught me to have the confidence to bring in people to the businesses that are better than me. 

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The News of the World has just published news that Heather Mills is dating a “toyboy hunk” called Jamie Walker.

It’s less than an hour after the story was published online and there are currently 47 results in Google for a search on “Heather Mills” “Jamie Walker”, and only the News of the World piece refers to a story on the couple.

I wonder how long it will be before there are millions of web pages mentioning Heather and Jamie.

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Whether you’re using your family name to gain notoriety (Paris Hilton) or riding on the coattails of a world famous sibling (Jamie Lynn Spears), today’s fame is family sized.

Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan are two celebs with fame embracing relatives. Both sets of families have appeared on reality TV shows.

With the Kardashians being talk of the town, and the Lohan’s new series Living Lohan currently airing, I thought it would be good to judge which Beverly Hills family is the most talked about online, the Kardashians or the Lohans?

Most Wikipedia entries
Lohan: 5 (Lindsay Lohan, Aliana Lohan, Dina Lohan, Living Lohan, Michael Lohan)
Kardashian: 9 (Robert Kardashian, Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Khloe Kardashian, Rob Kardashian Jnr, Kris Jener, Keeping up with the Kardashians, Bruce Jenner, Brody Jenner)
Winner: Kardashian

Most reader comments left on latest TMZ post
Lohan: 125 (see here)
Kardashian: 178 (see here)
Winner: Kardashian

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When I asked TechCrunch UK & Ireland’s Mike Butcher about start-up names, he made a very good point that most English language domain names have gone.

This has led to a flurry of dot coms with alternative – or misspelt – names.

Digg
Alternative for: Dig

Reevoo
Alternative for: Review

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This week Emma Jones from home working website Enterprise Nation asked me “When marketing an online brand, should all marketing stay online?”.

See my response on the Enterprise Nation website.

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Editor of the TechCrunch UK & Ireland website, Mike Butcher has seen many start-ups come and go.

In this interview Mike reveals the most unforgettable start-up name he has come across and reveals which dot.com he would have conceived if he could go back in time!

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