Bidding Legal Battles...

Interflora to sue M&S in Google AdWords dispute
Interflora is taking legal action against Marks & Spencer for allegedly buying its brand name as a keyword search on Google AdWords. The flower delivery company is accusing M&S of bidding on the word “Interflora” and sponsoring mis-spellings of the word on Google AdWords, including “Inter-flora” and “Intaflora”. Interflora objects to the fact that its customers could be directed to Marks & Spencer’s web site via a sponsored link within Google’s official search results, according to reports. The online florist claims that this practice is an infringement of its trademark and it is also suing Flowers Direct for the same alleged offence.


A spokesperson for Marks & Spencer said: "We are extremely surprised that Interflora has taken this course of action. This is industry-wide practice and is not unlawful."

Interflora marketing director Michael Barringer comments: “Interflora takes the protection of its trademark extremely seriously. The Interflora brand is extremely valuable and we will not tolerate competitors taking advantage of it and infringing our rights. Interflora has been careful to protect its most valuable asset - its brand. This action represents only the beginning of a broader strategy to defend the Interflora mark against any infringers.”

SOURCE: IMRG

Downturn for Woolworths

Can it get better for Woolworths? Probably not! Earlier this week it was reported that Hilco (restructuring specialists) were set to pay just £1 for loss-making Woolworth’s retail business. The retailer has debts of £385 million and is at risk of going into administration. The retailer has stopped selling toys online in the run up to Christmas - a key time for selling online! Even John Lewis reported a 20% uplift in toy sales on the back of a general downturn by 8% YOY. The decision is apparenting part of its plans to stop multichannel retailing, seems like a step back not a step forward?

Only time will tell on this one...

Remember, Remember the 8th of December!

IMRG and Capgemini today announced their predictions for UK online sales for Christmas and the final quarter of 2008. Based on the trends from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, which has tracked online spending for the past seven years, a total of £13.16 billion will be spent by British shoppers in the run up to Christmas – an equivalent of £215 for every person in the UK. This represents a 15 per cent increase in year on year sales but also shows a slowdown in growth when compared to the 54 per cent year on year increase seen in 2007.

Monday 8th December looks set to be the biggest UK online shopping day of 2008, with sales worth £320 million. Forty two per cent of those sales will take place outside of traditional shopping hours, either before 9am or after 6pm. The peak shopping hour is expected to take place between 1-2pm on Monday 8th December when £28 million will be spent online during this single hour. This is double the amount spent online during the peak hour of 2006, at midday on Monday 11th December.

IAB to issue industry guides to stop the misuse of online voucher codes

Well the IAB have stepped up and through their Affiliate Marketing Council (AMC) they plan to issue industry guidelines for the use of online voucher codes in the run-up to Christmas to ensure they're not misused by affiliates.

To any affiliate manager or marketeer who manages affiliate programs like myself this is nothing new. I spend days every month checking sites and sending warnings to affiliates. For all my clients I have tight T&C's in place to ensure that any misuse is delbt with in the reversal of sales.

The AMC has identified practices by some voucher code sites that could damage brands' affiliate campaigns. These include registering the cookie that pays the affiliate with the retailer after the consumer has already made a decision to buy. Whilst registering a cookie does not damage a brand it does mean merchants are paying commission on sales needlessly. Where I see damage to the brand is more in the promotion of incorrect and out of date codes which can present to a consumer a very mixed view of the brand and therefore impacting on their brand value in the marketplace.

It's a good move for the IAB to work with networks to agree on guidelines but there is still a great deal of policing to be done which falls on consultants like myself to do for clients.

I think there does need to be a clamp down in voucher code abuse both dropping cookies and promoting codes not issued by affiliate managers. A simple solution is if there are a number of 'black marks' against an affiliate then the network can step in and get involved.

At the end of the day, affiliate managers if you have an affiliate abusing voucher codes and are in breech of your T&Cs then reverse sales against that affiliate. I would like to note there are an abundance of vouchersites and there are some affiliates who DO play by the rules, but i'm afraid there are also some who don't.

Online Spending Slowing...

Year-on-year growth in online spending for September slows to 14.8% but the colder weather is giving retailers a much needed boost as online shoppers spend on new winter fashions. Although online shopping continues to grow with consumers spending £4.8 billion online in September, this was the third consecutive month where year-on-year growth was below 20%.