Detergents Exxtra is targeting a young audience for the Migros brand Elan - with new, fragrant ideas Swiss households spend around CHF 200 million on detergents every year. However, consumers do not pay much attention to cleaning powders, liquids and tabs. The low-involvement situation also persists in advertising agencies. How else can you explain unmotivated stories of happy housewives beaming with their clean laundry? Advertisers use washing performance, price and environmental compatibility to sell the product to consumers. However, they only decide on a particular detergent when they are standing in front of the shelf - increasingly often a cheaper one. This is according to the latest AC-Nielsen figures: While the market shrank by around two percent in terms of value between October 2002 and 2003, sales increased by around one percent. Not least thanks to numerous special offers, which accounted for well over half of all detergent sales.
Although price influences the choice of detergent, Migros wants to increase sales of the slightly more expensive all-purpose detergent Elan in 2004. While Olfaktorius is the key selling point for fabric softeners, Elan stands alone in its category with this positioning. A commercial campaign by Migros' in-house agency Exxtra aims to make it clear why it is worth paying a little more for clean and fragrant laundry. The Exxtra creatives decided not to reach for the "drawer of archetypal detergent commercials", as consulting group manager Michael Gassler emphasizes. Whereas in the last Elan film a blind woman recognized her textiles by their scent, the team now dispensed with the unspectacular washing line altogether. Using a dynamic split-screen technique, the film tells the story of a young woman who finds a strange bra in her partner's car. She holds it under the nose of her faithful four-legged friend to track him down. However, instead of leading her to her rival, the dog leads her to the nearest Migros store, in front of the Elan shelf.
Man also goes to the laundry
"We want to appeal to a younger segment with the resonating message that the Elan fragrance makes the person wearing the laundry more attractive," explains Gassler. Elan is also deliberately targeting men who wash their own clothes when they are single. Gassler counters the objection that young women might not like to identify with the deceived protagonist in the commercial by saying that they deliberately show a self-confident woman: "She may have been deceived, but she is young, attractive and people trust her to send such a guy packing."
According to Gassler, the unconventional commercial has achieved extremely high ratings in pretests. The head of the consulting group sees the reason for this in the fact that "young men and women are tired of always having to watch the same patterns".
A bra, a trail and a surprising destination: Elan-Spot from Exxtra.

Simone Keller

Food The advertising agency Versus has been commissioned by the Bell meat group to launch a new product line. The agency, which has offices in Basel and Zurich, beat three competitors in a competitive presentation. Measures will already be seen in February. It is the first communication campaign in the new brand image that Bell introduced last fall.

Publishers Seesicht Media AG launches a lifestyle magazine for the high-income population of Lake Zurich Living on Lake Zurich is very popular with the top ten thousand. In terms of area, the lakeside communities close to the city form the largest contiguous region with a purchasing power of CHF 18,000 and more. The new Seesicht magazine aims to serve up this well-heeled readership to the advertising market on a silver platter. The publisher is Seesicht Media AG in Thalwil. Sole shareholder Michael von Babo is also the founder and co-owner of the IT publishing company Compress Information Group. Only to the best addresses
"I noticed that there is no cultural magazine in the commercially interesting Lake Zurich region," says von Babo, who has lived on Lake Zurich for 20 years. While the Lake Constance region, for example, is covered by several publications, there is nothing comparable for the Lake Zurich communities. This gap is to be closed in mid-May with the first edition of Seesicht. Piero Schäfer, author and communications consultant to the Swiss Advertising Association and the Swiss Commission on Fair Trading, will be editor-in-chief of the magazine, which will be published four times a year.
"Most lifestyle magazines are aimed at a young, fast-moving and trendy audience," says Seesicht advertising manager Patric Mackenzie. In contrast, Seesicht wants to appeal to an "established and style-conscious readership". Households with an income of CHF 250,000 or more are targeted. The magazine aims to appeal to this target group on 132 to 148 pages with topics relating to living, the real estate market, gastronomy, leisure, shopping, people and culture on the lake.
The core of the concept is the editorial division of the magazine into a premium section with around ten articles and a classified section that serves the local market. The rate plan was designed accordingly. The distribution concept is also ingenious: a third of the 35,000-copy print run is distributed via newsstands, restaurants, hotels, sailing and golf clubs and stores in the lake region.
Two thirds are to be sent to selected households in controlled target mailings. These addresses will be selected according to the quality of the residential area and household income. Says von Babo: "We assume that there are a good 120,000,000 households in the region, including the best streets on the Zürichberg. The best-qualified of these will receive a copy on an alternating basis". Anyone who wants a gap-free delivery must take out a subscription. This is available for 40 francs a year. Even as the number of subscriptions increases, the publisher wants to guarantee qualified delivery to over 22,000 top households around the lake.
Those responsible are convinced that there is a need for a publication like Seesicht on the part of both readers and advertisers. This could be indicated by the reactions to the recently published zero issue: not only did it result in several dozen subscription orders within three days, but it also triggered lively interest among advertisers from the car and boat sectors as well as the furnishing, watch and banking sectors, confirms the advertising manager.
No fear of shipwreck
Even if there are currently rumors of an upswing, Seesicht is being launched at a time when the print media are struggling with a persistent advertising slump. Nevertheless, von Babo is launching his new flagship because he believes "that our advertisers tend to be resistant to economic cycles".
Mackenzie is also confident: "We have a real USP with our mix of topics and our sales concept. Michael von Babo wants to break even in two to three years. After all, Seesicht is on a secure footing thanks to the specially founded publishing company with share capital of CHF 250,000.
Set to make big waves: The new Lake Zurich magazine Seeblick.
Simone Keller

Talk show On March 3, the private broadcaster U1 TV Station launches the talk show "Stöhlker". It will be hosted by PR consultant Klaus J. Stöhlker.talk show On March 3, private broadcaster U1 TV Station will launch the talk show "Stöhlker". It will be hosted by
PR consultant Klaus J. Stöhlker. Every Wednesday evening, Stöhlker will interview his guests on "hart, aber fair" about current affairs and their personalities. The show will focus on "money, power and sex".

Migros Budget: The new Exxtra campaign for Migros Budget is—how else can you put it?—cheap. Do the AD-Rater users approve of this? Read both positive and negative opinions at www.werbewoche.ch/adrating
SBB: By a narrow majority, SBB managed to turn things around. Even the AD members
enjoy romantic local transit.
Top 54.2%Flop 45.8%

Survey Globally, Nestlé has the best image of all Swiss companies. This was the result of a survey of around 900 top managers in 20 countries conducted by the Financial Times and management consultants PricewaterhouseCoopers, which placed Nestlé in 11th place in the ranking of the most respected companies. Last year, the Vevey-based company was ranked 13th, while Novartis was the second-best domestic company in 50th place and UBS was slightly behind in 65th place. The list is headed by General Electric, ahead of Microsoft and Toyota

Publisher President Hanspeter Lebrument on the criticism of the SWA.WW: The SWA demands the same rates for job advertisements as for other categories. Why don't most publishers go along with this?
Hanspeter Lebrument: The Swiss Press Association (VSP) set up a project group in 2002 to propose simpler tariff structures. It has now developed a software module with which publishers can check and revise their rates. We reported on this in our last newsletter (Flash of December 18). The SWA has been informed and basically agrees with our approach.
However, the Flash also stated that this industry solution is hardly like
planned to be introduced in 2005. The SWA therefore wants at least the price adjustment for jobs to be brought forward.
That is not possible. The jobs are part of a complex wage structure. The publishers need more time. They are now working with the software, the project group is collating the results and then deriving the measures. But last week, the VSP once again called on all publishers to implement the project quickly and without complications.
Hanspeter Lebrument, President VSPBut why do job advertisements cost nine percent more on average?
than the car and real estate categories?
There are business reasons for this: The data entry effort is higher. While we almost always deal with business partners for cars and, above all, real estate, many private individuals also advertise in the job advertisements. That's why more advice is needed there. In addition, several titles provide additional editorial services specifically for the job sector.
The SWA says that despite equalized prices, the newspapers are only
would lose little. The money saved would be invested in more advertisements. I doubt it. 20 Minuten was already fulfilling its role in 2003 as one of the
of the few Swiss-German titles to meet the SWA demand. However, this paper was the biggest loser in terms of job advertisements last year with a drop of 46.5 percent. The other major Swiss-German dailies lost between 21.4 and 41.5 percent. It therefore appears that price has less of an influence than the SWA assumed.
Markus Knöpfli

Award Swiss agencies did well at the international competition for TV and cinema advertising in New York.With their 63 entries, they won five medals and 15 awards as finalists. Jung von Matt/Limmat, Wirz Werbung and Publicis did best with one silver medal and one award each.

Job advertisements are expensive. Much more expensive than other advertisements. Now advertisers are fighting back.
"Reasonable prices always result when prices that are too high are not paid... We therefore call on our members to place their job advertisements in 2004 wherever possible where prices have not been increased compared to 2003 - or to switch to other advertising media." The clear appeal by the Swiss Advertising Client Association (SWA), which can be found in its December bulletin SWA-INFO, is the culmination of a dispute between publishers and advertising clients that has lasted several years. The latter have long been annoyed by the fact that job advertisements are "considerably more expensive" than other advertisements.
Unfounded and antiquated To show that this is by no means "peanuts" from the customer's point of view, the SWA does the math: in 2002, according to the Advertising Statistics Foundation, job advertisements were placed in Switzerland for CHF 320 million. As job advertisements were on average 8.9 percent more expensive than advertisements, advertisers paid around CHF 26 million too much in 2002, writes the SWA. The association also criticizes the fact that job advertisements in most Swiss-German titles (in contrast to most newspapers in French-speaking Switzerland) are not eligible for a discount and are only partially discounted.
The arguments put forward by publishers in favor of the higher job advertisement rates (see interview below) are considered by the SWA to be unfounded and antiquated. Last fall, SWA Director Jürg Siegrist therefore demanded that, at least as of 2004, job advertisements "will not be increased. Nowhere. Because they are already overpriced - in the vast majority of cases they cost more than the other advertisements. And there is no plausible explanation for this difference" (WW 38/03).
Running out of patience
Only a few publishers are heeding Siegrist's call. According to a list compiled by the SWA, of the 43 most important Swiss newspapers, just nine have refrained from increasing their advertising rates, partly for performance reasons, while two others have lowered their rates. In the case of 20 Minuten, Siegrist expressed a certain understanding for the rate increase because the paper already has identical rates for jobs and advertisements and recorded a significant increase in reach in 2003.
There was another reason for the call mentioned at the beginning: publishers are currently rethinking their tariff structure. Clearer tariffs have been announced for 2005. However, this deadline is unlikely to be met. Siegrist: "The SWA and its members - who account for 70 percent of Swiss advertising revenue - are slowly losing patience."
"No plausible explanation": The SWA no longer wants to tolerate higher parking tariffs.
Markus Knöpfli

As the new strategist at Euro RSCG Switzerland, Sonja Hürlimann wants to offer clear added value. "We have the star in our logo," says Sonja Hürlimann, smiling proudly. The symbol next to the front door of the agency is a binding motivation for the 30-year-old executive: as the new Head of Strategic Planning at Euro RSCG Switzerland, she wants to "turn brands into stars". In order to achieve these goals, a move from Advico Young & Rubicam to Euro RSCG was the logical path for Hürlimann "after some thought". In a turnaround situation, you can shape and help shape a lot. What's more, at Gutstrasse in Zurich, she will meet a "charismatic management team".
At her previous position in Gockhausen, Sonja Hürlimann worked in strategy from day one, for eight years. "Learning by doing" and "stroke of luck" are the keywords for her at the time when she was Peter Felser's assistant.
Later, she realized the international Y&R brand study "Brand Asset Valuator" as project manager - in the meantime decorated with a federal diploma as Head of Marketing at the University of Bern. Following the departure of Felser's management team, the time had come for Sonja Hürlimann to take on a new challenge.
The new job is only the second in Sonja Hürlimann's young advertising career. After a commercial apprenticeship, she started out as a buyer in the fashion industry. But after three changes from winter to summer fashion, this business was already too routine for her. What fascinated her most about advertising was the great versatility of the work.
With consumer thinking within the agency and brand thinking towards the outside world, the strategist wants to offer clear added value. Strategic planning should help to steer the process from briefing to creative solution in a more targeted manner: "A more efficient way to achieve better solutions".
Hürlimann also teaches what this means as a lecturer at Polycom and regularly at various specialist conferences.
Hürlimann is convinced that her discipline requires a natural talent, a lot of common sense and a healthy curiosity. "You have to understand consumer behavior. You also need to be able to deal with creative people internally and customers externally."
She regrets that there is still a lot of bad advertising in Switzerland. In other words, advertising that has a counterproductive effect because it is not implemented attractively enough. "My motivation is to change that."
At Euro RSCG, the strategy is called "Creative Business Idea", CBI. This guiding principle is celebrated throughout the entire network. The aim is to find a creative business idea for the customer, detached from pure advertising and communication thinking. The aim is to develop marketing ideas that generate additional business - and not just promote an existing business.
The Euro RSCG network has many valuable tools and a very well-developed intranet, which enables access to a wide range of resources at the headquarters in New York and Paris. "This benefits both larger and smaller customers," Hürlimann is convinced.
With her new commitment, Sonja Hürlimann wants to "make a substantial contribution to ensuring that the new Euro RSCG is based on
is perceived differently on the market". Her goal: "The Euro should be experienced as great as it actually is." The agency is completely underfunded in the industry.
For the new strategist, however, it is "a nice starting position and challenge to be the unseeded outsider, just like in a horse race". What's more, the agency has only recently acquired such important clients as the Swiss Federal Railways SBB, M Electronic and the international budget Switzerland Cheese for 7.5 million dollars. "We also do work that is seen abroad," says Hürlimann happily.
Sonja Hürlimann wants to achieve better solutions for Euro RSCG with more efficient processes.

Andreas Panzeri

Publishers The prohibition of BZ's participation in 20 Minuten opens up new strategic leeway for Tamedia With its prohibition of Berner Zeitung's (BZ) participation in Tamedia's Express Zeitung AG, which holds 49.5 percent of 20 Minuten (Switzerland), the Competition Commission has reshuffled the cards in the Swiss-German press poker game. Tamedia spokeswoman Franziska Hügli says that the company will now remain the "happy, sole minority shareholder" in the commuter paper until the end of 2005. However, the takeover agreement does not provide for an alternative scenario for the loss of BZ. Which is why the 17.5 percent package that has become available could serve CEO Martin Kall as maneuvering mass in the battle for market share.NZZ or Publigroupe?
The NZZ Group, which was already on board with the ZürichExpress and is in charge of both the St. Galler Tagblatt and the Neue Luzerner Zeitung, could be considered. It is precisely in their territories that 20 Minuten is to expand.
Nevertheless, regional head Beat Lauber considers an investment "hardly compatible for the time being" with the NZZ's own interests as well as its journalistic aspirations. "We also operate our own free newspaper in St. Gallen," Lauber tells Werbewoche.
Another attractive partner, which would of course strengthen the Tages-Anzeiger rather than 20 Minuten, would be Publigroupe. Its integration could open a few publishing doors for the Tagi in the Zurich area. For Publigroupe, this would also be the ticket to the up-and-coming commuter newspaper market. But the chief strategist at Publicitas, Georg von Csernatony, waves it off: "Holdings of less than 20 percent cannot be consolidated and are therefore not an issue for us."
(oc)

Column The economy can no longer get rid of the ghosts it has summoned with its "cheap is cool" propaganda. But it's not just businesses and corporations that are suffering from the bargain mentality - the media are, too. German advertising, for example, has been conveying one message to the public for some time: "Stinginess is cool!" Not only the big department stores and mail-order companies, but even reputable men's outfitters and small fitness studios have taken to turning harmless customers into hysterical bargain hunters. After the fall of the Discount Act, shop windows everywhere look like the displays of carpet dealers once did: man-sized numbers signal exorbitant promotions. And the announcement of "permanent low prices" promises that there will be no end to shopping without a significant strain on the budget.
Savings have also become the categorical imperative of shrill warnings and wake-up calls in the editorials of the intelligentsia and tabloids. For months, the citizen has had to put up with being berated as a comfortable costumer of the welfare state, which is ruining the performance and functionality of the community with its entitlement mentality. In the future, they should make their own provisions for illness and old age. Instead of traveling three times a year, he should get ready to pay tuition fees. More responsibility for one's own life must be assumed, and that means less consumption and more knowledgeable asset management.
The audience has heard this double message and follows it strictly. The low-cost virus even crosses borders. When the German electronics chain that launched the successful advertising slogan opened its first department store in Lodz, Poland, the excited bargain hunters fought over the loot. There were injuries - even among the police.
Even the propagandists of the new course are now shocked by this. Suddenly the headlines read: "Job killer discount" or "Customers on buying strike". In the textile retail and clothing industry alone, 18,000 jobs are said to have been lost last year because the returns were no longer right due to the permanent discounts. "The Financial Times Deutschland laments "Unemployment due to savings mania!" and resolutely turns the tide: "Consumption is cool!" is now the new good news, and "Unblock the credit cards!
However, this will hardly find supporters so quickly. Because the cult of cheapness and appeals for savings have left deeper traces than the sorcerer's apprentices of crisis communication would like. Getting used to the cheap message not only displaces thoughts of product quality, it also leaves the advertised person in a habitually dissatisfied state: he never knows whether he has not bought too expensively.
It is only a short distance from the bargain hunter's lurking to the consumerist's unwillingness to buy. And no less grumpily, he experiences as a citizen that the droning reform rhetoric of his politicians is supposed to make him so dizzy that he no longer notices his ongoing plundering. Who would want to plunge into buying frenzy? Media that recommend this risk their credibility.
The propaganda of "stinginess is cool" and sour editorial sermons about saving money harm advertising and the press alike. Advertising should promise people the delights of the world of goods. If it only talks about the price, it devalues the product. And if the media act as strict educators for asceticism, they should not be surprised if those who are addressed in this way end up starting with the admonishers themselves and canceling their newspaper subscriptions or giving up pay TV. Because remember: Anyone who has a booth on the market should not remind his customers too often that what is offered here has its price.
Heribert Seifert on the boomerang effect of the current savings cult.

> Heribert Seifert is the media and culture correspondent of the Neue Zürcher Zeitung in Germany.