Associations At its 49th AGM, the Swiss Marketing Club (SMC) approved a revision of its articles of association, which simplifies the management of the association and gives the sections more autonomy and responsibility. The new statutes also include a change of name. In future, the association will operate under the name Swiss Marketing SMC.

Magazines The fact that Europe's biggest publishing house, of all things, has afforded itself an ad-free literary quarterly is due to its editor: Christian Kracht is the son of an intimate friend of Axel Springer blessed.It was not possible to determine which of the two adorns the retro cover of the first issue. The only thing that was certain at the time of going to press was that the 132-page friend will be limited to eight issues and will cost 16 francs.

Market psychologist David Bosshart analyzes the "Wal-Mart principle" and the cultural consequences of the ever-widening bargain mentality Anyone who hoped that the "horny avarice" was a German-specific and cyclical, i.e. short-lived, phenomenon is likely to be disappointed. At the latest when they have read "Cheap" by David Bosshart. For the Director of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, the discount trend is not simply a fashionable bad habit, but the continuation of democracy by consumerist means according to the motto: everyone is equal in front of the shelves and cash registers. "We live at a level of prosperity that Marx would never have dreamed of. Mentally, his ideal of a classless society has long since been realized. "In our world of abundance and interchangeable products, price has become the ultimate differentiator. All the more so because traditional values are becoming less important. "Honor has become ridiculous, an empty ritual at best. Reverence only appears in moments of existential crisis. All that remains is money," Bosshart believes.
Whether it's fashion, computers, travel or knowledge: Consumers want everything better, faster and cheaper, which is also reflected in the change in our original culture. Bosshart refers here to Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse: luxury stores have disappeared, while cheap stores such as Mango, H&M and The Body Shop dominate the streetscape. It's the same paper-cup consumerist mishmash as in any other western city.
Bosshart then turns to Wal-Mart, an exceptional phenomenon that threatens economic world peace thanks to its concentrated market power - Wal-Mart opens up to 47 stores on peak days. Wal-Mart is a bulldozer that crushes local trade structures and puts suppliers under pressure with the charm of a Dirty Harry. Because anyone who doesn't dance to Wal-Mart's tune is thrown off the shelves. In the USA, for example, Sheryl Crow's CDs were removed when the pop musician took the liberty of criticizing Wal-Mart for its arms sales.
The question remains as to what all this has to do with us, with Switzerland. Especially as here in Switzerland, people's teeth are already chattering (or even happy) when the comparatively harmless Aldi wants to open a store in the eastern Swiss province. The answer: for Bosshart, Wal-Mart is a metaphor for an increasingly ruthless, self-radicalizing rationalization.
This dynamic, which is only slowly taking hold in our part of the world and is seen as a model for success at elite universities, is leading to a change in social values. A look at the trend-setting media business with its penchant for free information (Internet, 20 Minuten ...) does not bode well for other industries.
> Cheap. How the desire for discounts is changing the economy and society by David Bosshart. Ueberreuther Verlag, Vienna 2004. 179 pages, Fr. 28.50

Francis Müller

Holtzbrinck Vice President Michael Grabner on 20 Minuten clones and Aldi as a source of publishing inspiration.WW Mr. Grabner, to Swiss eyes, 20 Cent and News look like 20 Minuten clones. Is this appearance deceptive? Grabner Not as far as 20 Cent is concerned. The Swiss edition of the commuter paper was actually the main source of inspiration for its development. News, on the other hand, is a first field test in the "daily magazine" genre. The aim here is to find the right mix of a fast, easy-to-consume news stream and magazine-style articles.
Is News the reinvention of the daily newspaper that the crisis-ridden industry has long been waiting for? we have no such lofty aspirations. Print products with a similar hybrid character have been around in southern Europe for some time. I think the Spanish papers El Païs and El Periodico are trend-setting. News is probably a new format for our latitudes, but it follows an old, pragmatic strategy: we test, constantly examine the results and continue to test on the basis of them.
How expensive is this live experiment and what circulation are you aiming for in the Frankfurt area in the medium term?
We do not provide any information on circulation figures. And the costs only marginally exceed those of a laboratory test. At the same time, the knowledge gained is many times more valuable.
Do you think Holtzbrinck's daily magazine concept is exportable? But anyone interested in importing can contact me at any time. (laughs)
At 50 cents, News - like Welt kompakt - costs less than half the usual price. The same applies to the average advertising page. Isn't this aldization of the newspaper business too high a price to pay for the acquisition of new readers in the long term?
No, top discounters like Aldi and Lidl show that. They are not starving either. They have also dynamized and expanded the entire food trade. I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to do the same.
This means we are heading towards a two-tier society of premium and low-cost readers...
...except that this is by no means a clear-cut distinction, with both classes mingling happily. In the same way that more and more people wear H&M today and Gucci tomorrow, the number of people reading for a change is increasing. People can no longer be pinned down in this area either - especially those that our innovations are intended to reach: young people and women.
In addition to new forms of journalism, News also wants to create a second price level.
Exactly. Incidentally, this practice, which has long been common in other industries, originated in Switzerland. Until the introduction of Swatch, the watch industry was dead. The textile and furniture industries were also at rock bottom before they were shaken up by H&M and Ikea respectively. In this respect, this development cannot harm the newspaper industry, which has always been somewhat more conservative.
Do you think a return of the commuter newspaper 20 Minuten to Germany is conceivable? You certainly seem to be preparing the ground for this.
Not everything that is conceivable is also worthwhile. Germany's agglomerations are not commuter newspaper areas. If this attractive distribution model could be recalculated here, we would probably have become active ourselves. But one difference remains: We do not want to and will not give our products away in the future.
Interview: Oliver Classen

Guest commentary on the free newspaper dispute: Bernhard Weissberg responds to the accusation made in Werbewoche that Ringier is defaming the commuter paper 20 Minuten.
I have nothing against free newspapers. After all, they are newspapers too. Every newspaper helps other newspapers because it gets people to read instead of watching television. But free newspapers give the illusion of something they can't offer: complete journalism: I do not underestimate the commitment and will of the journalists working there. But the "free" business model does not allow time for in-depth research, reflection and editing. That is an observation, not a judgment.
None of this matters, I hear some Advertising Week readers murmur. People don't want any more news. Strange: Blick hasn't lost any readers since 20 Minuten came onto the market. No desire for news? On the contrary. Commuters get their daily update from 20 Minuten. The daily excitement with Blick.
Let's get specific: who provided the public with an overview of the winners and losers of the Federal Council's tax package this spring? Der Blick. Because the editorial team has the capacity for such calculations. Could a free newspaper have done that? No. Where did employers' director Peter Hasler launch his appeal against the smear campaign? In Blick. Because the editorial team has been discussing and arguing with Peter Hasler for years. Because it has the expertise to do so.
Nevertheless, grumble now, readers are readers. And the free newspaper now has more than Blick. You, dear readers, are (I assume) closely connected to the advertising industry. You need facts to confirm your choice of media. And the Mach figures are incorruptible. Do you think so?
Of course, the figures reflect who has taken which hand. They tell us about cities, agglomerations and the countryside, about young and old, families and communities, income and consumer habits. But do they also tell us about warmth?
Yes, heat. Researchers don't ask about the harvest temperature, you argue. But that's exactly where the problem lies. You only talk about emotionality and loyalty when it comes to your product. When it comes to media, you decide with cold numbers.
A little experiment: In the doctor's waiting room are 20 minutes and the Blick. Which newspaper do you take? Exactly. The red one, not the blue one. Because red stands for warmth, for emotions, for lifeblood.
Red also stands for anger, rage and indignation. Even among readers. Do you think 20 Minuten readers paralyze the switchboard when they discover a mistake? That happens at Blick. Because readers have a bond with their newspaper. Because they love or hate Blick. And also because Blick costs something. When I pay, I expect something in return. If this is not fulfilled, I complain.
Warmth may not be a criterion for you. Readers see this
different. Me too. My lifeblood flows red.
> Bernhard Weissberg is Head of Newspapers at Ringier.

Program window Audiences and advertisers would love the upcoming program, RTL 2 boss Josef Andorfer promised when he announced his plans for a Swiss window.TR7 believes it has uncovered Andorfer's secret weapon: According to research by the TV magazine, RTL 2 is planning a new Swiss season of the container show "Big Brother". A spokesperson for the broadcaster would not confirm this.

Sponsorship The South Korean car manufacturer Kia Motors is supporting Swiss tennis by taking over the patronage of the interclub championships, which will now be called the Kia Challenge, for three years from 2005. Kia will also become the "Official Car" of the Swiss Tennis Association. Kia's involvement in Switzerland's biggest tennis event rounds off its international commitment as sponsor of the Davis Cup and main sponsor of the Australian Open.

Not only the Internet, but also satellite TV (recognizes) no national borders. Advertising in these media has a corresponding "multistate" effect, which raises the problem of the law applicable in the event of a dispute. Unfortunately, Schibli's answer to this increasingly important question is only comprehensible to specialist lawyers.> Multistate advertising in international fair trading law by Hans R. Schibli. Schulthess Verlag, Zurich 2004. 422 pages, 69 francs.

Fashion Even if Michael Jackson has strongly influenced the gesture, the crotch grab is still an attribute of the well-groomed Italian - whether scratching or straightening, the style-conscious southerner knows no shame when it comes to his best piece. The creatives at the Grey Worldwide agency have now made use of this trait for a poster campaign for the Casalucis fashion house. Salvatore Casaluci's fashion store on Bern's Marktgasse offers young Italian fashion - and perhaps also the explanation of the mysterious crotch grip.

The Geneva daily newspaper Le Temps is losing its publishing director Eric Hoesli. The Board of Directors intends to find his successor internally with Editor-in-Chief Jean-Jacques Roth and Commercial Director Valérie Boagno. The newspaper's management team will also include Pierre Veya as deputy editor-in-chief and Anne Bobillo as
Chief Financial Officer and Administrative Manager.
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Guido Eberhard is taking over as Head of Reader Marketing and Sales at Espace Media Groupe's specialist media division "Mobil". He replaces publishing director Roselien Huisman at the beginning of October, who had taken on the role ad interim in recent months. Eberhard was previously Head of Subscription Marketing at Neue
Luzerner Zeitung.
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Loredana Andreoli (picture) is the new Corporate Marketing Manager at Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts. She succeeds Roberto Arias. Andreoli was most recently Senior Brand & Export Manager for the Zug-based food group
Oswald is active.
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Marco Greiner and Adrian Heuss join the communications agency Burson-Marsteller. Consultant Marco Greiner supports the Zurich office in the area of
Public Affairs. Most recently, he worked at Int/ext Communications in Basel. Adrian Heuss joins the team as a research assistant.
life sciences team at Burson-Marsteller in Berne. He has written as a science journalist for the Basler Zeitung and the Tages-Anzeiger, among others.
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Marc Läuffer will be joining the Facts sales team at the beginning of January 2005. The current Key Account Manager of Mittelland Zeitung will be responsible for the Mittelland region as Area Sales Manager at Facts. He replaces Ueli Gertsch, who is moving to the advertising sales department of Tamedia's sister title Schweizer Familie.

Column After the music industry, digitalization is now turning the television industry upside down. This time, the chronicle of an announced death is dedicated to the classic TV commercial: TV audiences, previously denigrated as "couch potatoes", are becoming increasingly active and powerful. The reason for this is so-called disruptive technologies. The combination of the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) and the Personal Video Recorder (PVR) is particularly powerful, and with their help it is already possible to program your TV for certain content categories and ignore everything else. Some people only want to watch movies, others only news. The EPG does this for the viewer. And viewers no longer consciously switch from SRG to ORF or RTL, but automatically receive their "customized content" from these and other providers.
Firstly, this weakens the brands of free TV and gives the
The audience also has the option of simply pushing out commercial breaks. This means that digitalization will trigger the same crisis in television - insofar as it is financed by advertising - as the peer-to-peer software programs Napster or Grokster did in the music industry.
Television broadcasters reacted just as unintelligently as the music industry: they took legal action. The first device in Europe that could fade out commercial breaks, poetically called the "Fernsehfee" and marketed by a small German company, was legally blocked. In the meantime, it has been decided in the last instance that the advertising wizard does not contradict the guarantee of continued existence for free TV, or more precisely: that this guarantee of continued existence does not mean absolute protection for the current financial status quo.
RTL is considering taking the matter to the German Constitutional Court. However, this would also be unsuccessful. Courts cannot and should not block new technologies. They should have started doing so much earlier, for example to protect cab drivers from cabs. Citizens' freedom of opinion also includes deciding for themselves that they do not want to see traditional advertising. But this clearly means that free TV must develop new business models if it wants to survive.
Of course, this is also happening. People are experimenting with interactive services, are already earning a lot of money with so-called integrated advertising (which used to simply be called surreptitious advertising) and will have to consider whether to switch to pay-TV or pay-per-view, i.e. paid television. This will require a radical rethink and creative entrepreneurs.
In Germany, politicians will also be called upon to act. In contrast to Switzerland, private television broadcasters there provide many thousands of highly qualified jobs. However, only RTL, Pro 7 and the intelligent new business model Neun Live, which lives off the telephone calls of its viewers, earn any real money. Will German politicians stand by and watch a wave of bankruptcies in free TV or will advertising be taken away from the public broadcasters? A huge test, because these public broadcasters naturally have an excellent lobby. They will fire from all cylinders if - as recently - they are not only made to struggle with the fee increase, but also have their advertising taken away. Of course, this development represents quite a challenge not only for free TV, but also for the advertising industry. The declining efficiency of traditional TV commercials is palpable. There are already many industry managers who simply denounce advertising blocks as a cost-cutting mechanism. New ideas are therefore needed.
> Peter Glotz is Professor of Communication and Media Management at the University of St. Gallen.

Transport The Zurich advertising agency Transformer has secured the communications budget for the "GlarnerSprinter" express train, beating off competition from two other agencies. From December 2004, the new direct SBB train connection between Glarus and Zurich will make the Zurich economic region more attractive for commuters and the Glarnerland tourist region more attractive for day-trippers. The launch campaign with advertisements, posters and a website will start in the next few weeks.