RETROWURST: Switzerland February 2008

 

Hot on the hiking boot heels of Austria last month, it’s Switzerland’s turn in Retrowurst. Eighteen years ago, I took a William Tell-style pot shot at Switzerland in all its cohesiveness and diversity. Alphorns, flag-throwing, Swiss Army knives and all. 

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Having had a go, as it were, at Austria in my last Extrawurst, I thought I would take a shot at Switzerland, in a William Tell sort of way, this time and see if I can hit the centre of the apple! If we were to play that “countries as brands” game, one thing that strikes me about Switzerland is that the country presents perhaps one of the most intriguing combinations of cohesiveness on the one hand and diversity on the other of all European countries, at least.

 

I have a special affection for Switzerland while thinking about brands and marketing as Switzerland was the destination of my first ever trip “abroad” on business. I was involved in a fairly mundane market research project involving the development of an Own Label dog food for Migros but I remember the amazement I felt at sitting around a table at lunchtime where eight people were speaking no fewer than four languages between them! A few years later, on a holiday in Lucerne, we ascended Mount Pilatus via the funicular railway to find two highly contrasting but equally fascinating events vying for attention at the top of the mountain. These were something called “Les Chefs des Chefs” – or similar – a gathering of the head Chefs of the World’s political leaders and an Alphornfest along with a bit of flag-throwing. Here was the paradox of Switzerland, if not in a microcosm, at least on a mountain peak: simultaneously sweepingly International and passionately local. This sums up the country that is the host of International organizations such as the Red Cross or the United Nations Human Rights Council but hangs stubbornly onto their Francs, not wanting to get too submerged into the E.U.

 

To go back to that flag-throwing, I would hazard a guess that the Swiss flag, along with the Stars and Stripes, the Union Jack and that flag the Germans had from 1933 - 1945, is one of the most recognised in the world. The flag has a certain iconic quality that isn’t really present in all those stripy flags: having lived in Germany for twelve years now, I still get Germany and Belgium confused! And the Swiss are pretty good at marketing themselves via the flag, too. It is very easy to spend rather more francs than you want to at one of those amazing “Swiss Shops” at Zurich airport, or wherever, that tempt you with all manner of merchandise with that very pleasing-to-the-eye red and white flag.

 

Of course, numerous internet sites have sprung up peddling Swiss-flag-merchandise from T-shirts in all shapes and sizes, sunglasses, baby bibs, umbrellas and some rather dodgy underwear. (I must admit to being a little bemused by this – I am not sure of the potential effect of Swiss flag boxers or G-strings given that the Swiss always seem to get the role of the lovers in those European-version-of-Hell jokes!) In addition, you can order your favourite Swiss Army products such as knives and blankets as well as everything from watches to cowbells, cheese to chocolate (one thing is certain, Switzerland must be Hell for migraine sufferers!) Some of the sites I’ve found include www.myswitzerland.com , www.swiss.shop.missbach.com , www.swissmade.com and www.atoswiss.co.uk .

 

But so much for the coherence and consistency of Switzerland, as symbolised by the Swiss flag. The diversity of such a small country is the other side of the Swiss Franc. There are no less than four official languages (65% German, 18% French, 10% Italian and 1% Romansh), 26 cantons and over 20% of the population is made up of foreigners. In fact, of European countries, only Liechtenstein and Luxembourg have a greater % of foreigners in the population. These are mainly from the former Yugoslavia, but Germans, Italians and Portuguese also figure highly.

 

The Swiss-German language is almost incomprehensible to many High German speakers and really is a language in its own right – not simply a dialect with a few different words, as Austrian-German is. Because of this, perhaps, Swiss-German is a constant source of amusement to Germans. The Swiss are proud of their language so this amusement can be deemed as insulting but, to be very honest, they don’t exactly help themselves. I saw something in a bar called Kafi Schümlipflümli which I don’t think you’d want to ask for twice, presuming you weren’t rendered totally incapable by the first one (I got as far as working out that this involved alcohol).

 

But although they laugh at the language, Switzerland represents a sort of “idealised Germany” for many Germans. The people are richer, there is less unemployment, the mountains are higher and there is no or hardly any past that one would rather draw a veil over. This is perhaps symbolised very neatly in the story of Heidi. When Heidi is dragged away from her beloved mountains and Grandfather to live in Frankfurt with the sickly Clara, she soon becomes as ill, mentally and physically, as Clara herself. And of course, conversely, the Swiss mountains work wonders for Clara’s health. Heidi is still one of the most popular TV programs amongst primary school children here in Germany and is broadcast at the prime early-evening slot. The cartoon series was originally made in 1974 and has hardly been off air since. Maybe this is not surprising. But what is – and this is typical of the paradox of Switzerland – is that this immensely popular Swiss story’s most successful film version is a Japanese anime.

 

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It wasn’t a bad shot - think I got the apple that time. 

I’d like to mention a couple of Swiss brands while I’m here - first, those wonderful boots are from Ammann . And then, watches, chocolate, banking and insurance aside, I’ve noticed that Switzerland has been quite active in the development of non-alcoholic drinks recently - such as Nino and Bel Nada. 

This’ll be the last regular Retrowurst in this format. I have exhausted my ready-made supply of article from the past.

But today is tomorrow’s retro, so watch this space.

Extrawurst: The Film

Well, there's a thing! Extrawurst goes Hollywood. Or Babelsberg.

Nothing to do with this rather ageing and dilapidated blog, of course. But I did have to go and see it.

Extrawurst, the film, is about what can happen when we shove people into "identity boxes". The scene is a tennis club AGM, and what starts as a well-meaning suggestion (maybe) soon gets out of hand. The tennis club members are literally at each other's throats.

The film is a non-stop volley of insults based on what "women", "old white men" or "Turks" are "meant" to think or do. Rather than relating as the club members with a shared interest in tennis -  Melanie, Heribert and Erol.

Extrawurst is pretty damned funny, and a good reminder to look for universal truths when developing advertising. Putting people in target audience boxes, from "LGBTQetc." to "GenZ" is lazy and superficial. 

And it's just not tennis.   

Driving me round the trend ...

 

My trend-weariness was setting in already over three years ago, I see. This year, I’ve even looked at some of the AI summaries of trend reports and, maybe predictably, haven’t seen much to inspire me. It really does seem to be a load of (crystal) balls.

A new-ish genre in the trend oeuvre - in addition to category trends, consumer trends, media trends, tech trends et al - is marketing trends aka The Future of Marketing. One such is the Cap Gemini report I commented on a few weeks back.

Another is McKinsey’s State of Marketing Europe 2026.  In case you’re wondering how McKinsey work out the future of marketing in Europe, they do it by looking in the rearview mirror. Via a survey of 500 senior marketing decision-makers across 5 countries, backed up with a few depth interveiws with CMOs and academics. 

The stunning conclusion is that “marketing leaders are returning to mastering the basics but simultaneously advancing with utilizing modern tools.” Gosh. 

To get on in 2026, marketers must: Be Trusted, Be Effective, Be Bold. As opposed to ...

Golly gosh indeed. Who’d have thought it? 

There’s a rather hectoring tone about the report - in reference to AI: “Unless European marketing leaders rapidly change their attitudes ...”

Yes, tut, tut. Watch out before the cruel VUCA world gobbles you up, or the Burning Platform turns into an inferno.

The 50-page report has no less than 10 named authors (which doesn’t include Claude or ChatGPT), plus a list of industry experts as long as your arm, plus numerous McKinsey experts and colleagues. Not to mention all the others named who offered “editorial support."

There’s something “too many cooks” about this. It’s a report on an opinion poll, where the questionnaire has been designed by McKinsey. The 500 senior marketing decision-makers, I’m sure, work on a fascinating and diverse range of brands. And are, most likely, a varied bunch with some marked differences in character, in experience - and I’m sure in the way they approach marketing. 

Yet they’ve all been reduced to data points to make generalisations of the LCD sort, rather than HCF. Standardised to fit McKinsey’s frameworks, questions, flywheels, playbooks, agenda and whatever else.

The result is a rather bland, self-fulfilling prophecy. Seek and ye will find.

This stuff is all bad enough, as far as I'm concerned, when McKinsey does it.

But where McKinsey sucks, so do many lesser mortals, out to make a quick buck.

The author/s of this “Industry Pulse Report" report will remain nameless. The industry in question is digital media and advertising. 220 UK digital media experts were questioned in the survey that forms the basis of this - ahem - sales pitch.

But just look at this one chart:

The “experts” were asked what was suitable content to be adjacent to their brand. 

Around a quarter of these experts think it’s not just OK but positively “suitable” for your brand to be next to content that contains inaccurate information, mis/disinformation, or hallucinations. Or content that provides an ad-spammy or cluttered user experience. 

With the rise of synthetic respondents, I am beginning to wonder about the “experts” who find time to take part in these surveys. 

RETROWURST: Austria January 2008

Back in January 2008, I had a little slalom through Austria and its brands such as Red Bull, Almdudler, Meinl, Handl, Giesswein and Pez.

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Maybe because I have just come back from my skiing holiday and maybe because it’s one of the host countries for the European Cup this year, I thought I would take a quick look at Austria and a few Austrian brands this month.

 

When most people in the UK think of Austria, they think of Vienna or Salzburg, of skiing or the Sound of Music, of the blue Danube or Apfelstrudel or of Sachertorte or Lederhosen. But when we think further, we see that Austria is a land of contradiction. On the one hand, there are the years of civilization and great culture and philosophy and on the other hand there is the dark period of history last century. This is the land that produced Mozart, Strauss, Schubert and Freud as well as Arnie, DJ Ötzi and Hitler. The population is a multi-ethnic mix, but almost all speak German. 

 

Austria has a total population of 8.2m, just a tenth of that of Germany. A quarter of these live in Vienna or its suburbs. The ethnic mix includes Hungarians, Croatians, Serbians, Bosnians, Czechs, Slovenians, Turkish, Italians and Albanians as well as the “Roma” who are an officially recognized ethnic minority. This reflects Austria’s key position in the centre of Europe and its imperial history.

 

Austria is one of the top 10 richest countries in the world with a very high standard of living. Employment is relatively low at under 5% (c/f Germany at 9%) and the economy shows a positive development above the EU average.

 

Austrian values include love of the beautiful countryside (much of Austria is mountainous), pride in traditions including food and music, love of closeness of family and friends, Gemütlichkeit (unique feeling of “cosiness”) and pride in roots and longevity. Many families in Austria have lived in the same town for generations and family firms are abundant. Although they like to think of themselves as a progressive company, Austria is woefully behind other EU countries regarding the status of women. There are precious few women in senior management or in politics (for all Germany’s backwardness in this area, at least we have “Angie”!) and there is a huge salary gap between men and women in equivalent positions. In a largely catholic country, women are not particularly encouraged to go back to work after having children and childcare facilities are inadequate.

 

Some Austrian Brands

Red Bull: covered in a previous Extrawurst

Some of the Austrian values are reflected in some classic Austrian brands that I have chosen to give just a little snapshot of. 

 

 

ALMDUDLER

www.almdudler.com

If you thought that coffee, or some nasty Schnapps was the national drink of Austria, you would be wrong: it’s Almdudler! Almdudler, for those who have not tried it is a “herbal lemonade” – actually, it tastes a bit like ginger ale. Almdudler the company has been going for over 50 years, and the website has a competition at the moment for the “best traditional costume couple”. In case you’re missing a jaunty feather hat or Edelweiss choker to go with your Dirndl, you can also buy these from the Almdudler site.

 

MEINL

Julius Meinl started roasting coffee on the family stove in Vienna in 1862 and popularized freshly roasted coffee. Since this time, the company has not looked back, despite excursions beyond the core competence into retail, for example. The logo of the “little coffee boy” is very well-known and reflects the history of coffee in Austria: coffee was brought to Vienna by the Turks in 1683.

 

HANDL

www.handltyrol.at

Handl sell dried bacon, ham and sausages in many varieties and make use of Tyrolean imagery on their packaging, reflecting the authentic nature of the products. They had a very interesting media idea to advertise their sausage snack products with posters at ski-lift stations in the winter season: after all, a spicy hard sausage is just the thing for those long rides in the chairlift!

 

GIESSWEIN

www.giesswein.com

Giesswein are based not a million miles from Kitzbühel and are known world-wide for their boiled-wool jackets and slippers which are available in both traditional and fashionable styles for adults and children.

 

PEZ

The name PEZ comes from the German for Peppermint, Pfefferminz. It may surprise you to know that what became part of pop culture in the US was invented in Vienna in 1927. The sweets were introduced to the US in 1952 and, in 1955; the first character dispensers were introduced. These have become cult collectors’ items which are collected with the fevour that some collect Kinder Surprise figures here in Germany. I am sure that Arnie would agree that sometimes you have to get out of Austria and over to the USA to get people to take you seriously!

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While the political situation in Austria has got a little messy in recent years, Austria’s brands all seem to be on Red Bull. This brand is now worth €8.7 billion and is growing by 11%. Generally, Austrian brands are doing better when it comes to growth than those of their German-speaking neighbours. Following Red Bull in 2nd and 3rd position are two banks - Erste bank and Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI). Also notable is the grocery discounter Billa, part of the REWE empire, growing at a whopping 70% in terms of value. 

And maybe the sweetest get-together on the branded front is Almdudler with Haribo - not Gümmibärchen, but Gümmipärchen!

 

Shapes of things before my eyes?

 

The picture above is from Page 48 of the Capgemini Research Institute report “From Complexity to Clarity: How CMOs can reclaim marketing to build competitive edge.”

This is a glimpse into the not-too distant future, an illustration of what Web 4.0 aka symbiotic web or intelligent web might mean for the retail experience (if we have to call it that.) In case you’re wondering, the definition of Web 4.0 in the reference section of the report is:

an emerging concept that envisions seamless collaboration between humans and AI agents, as well as between AI agents and AI agents. The interactions become real time, context aware, connects the digital and physical worlds, becomes context-aware and ubiquitous. (sic)

Now, far be it from me to be all unseamless and frictional and suggest this definition is just a touch complex and repetitive to boot, but there we go.

I’ve got a number of questions.

How can an “interaction” become aware of context or anything else? Are these AI agents sentient beings?

Where is the brand in all this? I’m a runner, too and have been known to jog in my jaunty way into a sports shop. At the moment, I’m off Nike for what some would argue are childish reasons. But let me have my fun. I’m quite keen on Asics as they’ve been good shoes in the past. But I’m also open to Adidas as - rightly or wrongly - I feel that they’re local and I kind of feel emotionally attached to them. Especially as I had an Adidas sports bag to carry my school books which I now think was the epitome of cool.

Does this only work when you have let every single scrap of your data be harvested - health, sport, purchases? Does it only work when the human customer is assessed like a performance machine?

And what happens when the customer is having a crap day and the AI agent’s voice sounds just like his ex-wife’s and he’s in a subversive mood?

I’ll put together a more grown-up discussion of where I think these “Future of Marketing” reports are missing a trick at a later stage. 

But for now, I'm looking forward to this:

 A jolly piece of brand content from days of yore

Back to life, back to reality

 

I’ve always thought that positioning and brand communications is a tricky balancing act for the big telecoms brands. All too often, the customer ends up with left-hand-doesn’t-know-what-right-hand’s-doing mixed and muddled messages.

Banging on about sustainability on the one hand.

Salespeople pushing you to have yet more GBs on the super-duper-saver tariff on the other.

Heart-wrenching films decrying cyber-bullying from one direction.

Mega-super addictive games and competitions from the other.

Brands like Deutsche Telekom must continually balance responsibility with their mindset of “digital optimism.” In that it can never be blind, non-critical optimism.

The thing is, you can’t set the clock back - or catch the particular bolted horse. But maybe you can stop other horses from bolting in the future.

In Australia, you now have to be proven over 16 to have a social media account. Under 16s can still look at content, but companies are forbidden to enter into a business relationship with children. 

Will less doom-scrolling mean more time to enjoy life unprocessed through algorithms and screens? Vodafone are hoping so. The brand’s Chistmas ad is part of the “Go Real Life” initiative which  encourages more considered SmartPhone usage and everyday mindfulness in general. It’s produced together with Borussia Dortmund and extols the joy of 70,000 fans getting together for a Christmas sing-song. The slogan “Leb im Jetzt statt im Netz. Zeit für echte Verbingdungen” can be roughly translated as “Live in the Now, not in the Net. Time for real connections.”

It’s a apt message especially for now, when every Christmas card, napkin design or poster for Christmas shopping has that distinctive but not very original AI-look to it. 

But, I wonder - to show real responsibility to tackle the problems that social media has unleashed - how would it be if the big telecoms brands got together to work on solutions?  

 

The nutty way to healthy growth

 

Being a little long in the tooth, and an Internot person, I’ve come quite late to the KoRo party. I only spotted the brand this year, on the shelves of REWE, as I embarked on my heathy eating kick in Spring. 

The branding and design interested me as much as the selection of products. It’s reminiscent of Cranks (a UK vegeatarian chain of restaurants back in the last century) - a little ironic, almost taking the piss out of itself as a “knit your own joghurt” sort of brand. As for the products, I think the common factor is non-perishable health food. Oh, and large pack sizes.

I’ve since noticed KoRo on the train, Deutsche Bahn, no less. Respect, as they say around here.

For the current KoRo range, have a look here . Dried fruit, nuts, seeds and grains, peanut and other nut butters and spreads, tinned pulses, crips, snacks, biscuits, even chocolate bars. And they’ve gone into storage jars and kitchen utensils, too.

KoRo was founded in Berlin back in 2012. And what’s interesting is that health food wasn’t part of the original concept. The idea at the beginning was more about the bulk packs, sustainability and more transparence in the supply chain. The initial website sold detergents and cleaning products “rescued” from damaged packaging.

The more KoRo’s founders worked in the area of packaging and e-commerce, the more they learned. For example, that many vegan and vegetarian non-perishable food were sold in tiny packs, and contained loads of additives. Idea!

And the marketing strategy has contributed to the brand’s growth - not just in sales terms but in people’s attachment to the brand. KoRo has been using influencer marketing via YouTube before it was called influencer marketing. Around 90% of the budget goes here and on Instagram 

Partnering with creators, influencers, call them what you like feels right for KoRo - it’s a natural fit, like date and walnut. 

KoRo is one of Germany’s fastest growing brands, with plans to scale-up further, into cafes and ice-cream parlours. 

Not bad for a fruit and nut case.