Brand vs promotion

In my blog "The Future of Marketing" I talked about the need to place the brand at the forefront of planning and execution, and that in the current economic conditions, marketers should look at long term brand growth as against short term promotional campaigns.

Interestingly today, the outgoing Chief Executive of Asda Andy Bond, told 'The Times' that;

"Our brand works best when we have less promotions....We got sucked into a very aggressive promotional battle at the end of last year. That was wrong for our brand"

One of the strengths of Wal-Mart, Asda's parent company, has been its almost religious adherence to its strategic principle which is indelibly linked to its brand. Asda is now going back to its own principle of "everyday low pricing" - a simple and clear statement that says to consumers what the brand of Asda is all about. It will be interesting to see what happens in the second half of the year as the prospect of the new government's austerity measures kick in.