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?

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

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

‘Being relevant’.

‘Search engine traffic’.

‘Trust’.

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.

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. 

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

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.

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!

Link Building is the process SEO’s go through to increase links to websites they are marketing.

Click the link below to read my guest post on Debra Mastaler’s link building blog and learn more about link building.

Today was the Drapers online fashion conference at the Radisson Edwardian hotel in Mayfair.

As an online marketer having worked on fashion websites, one of the most surprising comments I heard was from Nick Robertson of ASOS who said “nobody searches for ‘black frilly dress’ [in Google]”.

Author of 12 books and an expert on everything to do with branding, Jonathan Gabay is one of the most respected names in the world of marketing.

This week I spoke to Jonathan about the re-launching of our favourite chocolate brands, how internet only players can compete with established names online and managing online reputation.

So what does Jonathan think about the return of Snickers and how the internet changes PR techniques? Click the link below to find out.

Read my article ‘How Asda’s George clothing will succeed online’ on Drapers.

Read my article ‘the online fashion trust factor’ on Drapers.

Read my online marketing tips for online organic stores on E-Consultancy.com.