#marketingthoughts

[rapidbasedesign]

You can have:

Good hook. Good content. Good engagement.

But without a CTA… nothing moves.

Content attracts. CTA converts.

Tell people what to do next. Always.

Follow Rapid Base Design for simple marketing breakdowns that make sense.

[simproglobal]

The Biggest Digital Marketing Myths Businesses Believe

 Almost every business today says they “do digital marketing.” Some run ads. Some post on social media. Some hired an agency once and then q

Digital marketing has a reputation problem—and it’s not entirely fair.

Businesses expect fast results, guaranteed sales, and effortless growth. When that doesn’t happen, digital marketing gets blamed.

But most of the disappointment comes from believing things that were never true to begin with.

We’ve written an honest piece on the biggest digital marketing myths businesses still believe, and why letting go of them changes everything.

[pelladynamics]

Attention Is Quieter Than It Used To Be

Attention rarely comes from saying more.

It grows when messages stay consistent, timing feels intentional, and ideas connect naturally over time.

In modern communication, visibility builds through trust, repetition, and relevance rather than sudden spikes.

What do you think makes a message stay memorable long after it is seen?

[jaroeducations]

Is Traditional Marketing Still Useful in 2025

Yes, traditional marketing is still useful in 2025, especially for building brand awareness and local reach. Channels like TV, radio, print ads, and billboards remain effective for certain audiences and industries. When combined with digital strategies, traditional marketing helps create a well-rounded, impactful brand presence Read More...

[esignwebservices]

Meet people where they are, and that’s exactly why you need to have a robust target marketing strategy in a place. Not only that but there are plenty of marketing strategies helping you meet your audience exactly where they are.  

[blogbypratz]

On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar - David Ogilvy

[golockhart]

KitKat lost its trade mark case: what you need to know

by Megan Rae Blakely

KitKat lost its decade-long case to protect its four finger biscuit shape. Nestlé

Picture your favourite chocolate treat. The brand, the packaging – and sometimes the shape of it – will no doubt come to mind. This is the idea behind trade marks: that consumers can easily identify products or services they want to buy from a company they recognise. If a brand can demonstrate this recognition, it is known as being “sufficiently distinctive” in the market.

Trade marks not only protect consumers with quality and consistency, they also provide a significant business advantage. Other companies can’t use these marks because that would confuse customers and possibly cause reputational or financial damage to the original brand.

Due to the potentially indefinite duration of protection, trade marks can confer significant brand value, so many popular brands have become involved in lengthy court cases when competitors challenge a mark’s validity. As the EU is a global leader in world chocolate production – and consumption – this is no trifling matter for confectionery companies.

The KitKat crisis

In July 2018 the more than decade-long legal battle to protect the “four-fingered” shape of Nestlé’s KitKat bar concluded with KitKat losing its appeal against Kvikk Lunsj (owned by Cadbury, now Mondelez) a Norwegian four-fingered chocolate biscuit. KitKat’s EU shape trade mark is annulled, meaning the Kit Kat shape is no longer a valid trade mark across the EU. It is now only valid in member states where Nestlé has made a successful application as a national trade mark.

Mondelez’ similar four-fingered Kvikk Lunsj which challenged KitKat in court over its shape. Mondelez

Some may be surprised to learn that chocolate is a highly litigious subject. A case for Lindt’s gold-foiled chocolate bunnies failed on distinctiveness, and Poundland’s “copycat” Toblerone bar, Twin Peaks, was settled out of court.

Outside of chocolate, litigation has also arisen from less digestible shapes such as London black cabs and LEGO blocks, in both cases where trade marks on shape were unsuccessfully defended.

Dispute over shapes is complex in trade mark law. It can be a more straightforward prospect to protect a word as a trade mark – and the KitKat name itself is. Marks like KitKat are inherently distinctive, meaning they’re made up, so only have meaning in relation to that brand. But in the case of shapes, distinctiveness may need to be acquired through commercial use and the average consumer associating the shape with the brand. So with the KitKat shape, the court considered whether the use was proved to acquire distinctiveness.

Generally, longevity in a mark is helpful with proving aspects of distinctiveness, but both companies have used the shape in their confections for a long time. KitKat began using the shape in 1935, and Kvikk Lunsj two years later in 1937 (although Nestlé only applied for trade mark registration of the shape in the EU in 2002).

A shape may come to mind when identifying the product, but KitKat runs into problems here because the shape is not visible when you pick it up in its wrapper. Since an average consumer must be able to recognise the brand by a clear and precise trade mark, this can present a higher hurdle for the shape.

An application may be refused or challenged for many reasons, but one creative challenge to the KitKat shape came in the UK courts in 2015, when Cadbury argued that the KitKat shape was all to do with a technical or design issue rather than an identifying brand feature – that is, it was designed to allow consumers to easily break one bar into four smaller parts. So if the four-fingered shape was actually fulfilling a function, it couldn’t be a trade mark.

The EU angle

Ultimately, the most recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision came down to sufficient distinctiveness. Companies can apply for a domestic trade mark at their national intellectual property office, but how would sufficient distinctiveness be proved when applying for an EU-wide trade mark? An applicant must show that the mark is commonly recognised throughout the European Union, under the EU Directive 2015/2435.

London black cabs were not deemed sufficiently distinctive in court for a trade mark. Shutterstock

The EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) granted the KitKat shape mark in 2002 on the basis that KitKat had achieved recognition in ten of the then 15 EU countries. But this newest ECJ decision found that, if the EU coverage is insubstantial or omits a single member state, then the mark hasn’t been proved to have acquired distinctiveness.

The future

The ECJ decision in many ways is a pragmatic solution, given the challenge of achieving consumer recognition in 28 individual countries. But current trade mark registrations granted on a similar basis as KitKat may also leave existing EU trade marks open to challenge.

This may be good news for chocolate lovers looking for variety in their “technically functional” treats, as there will be more opportunity for competitors to enter the market – although Nestlé still has national trade marks in some countries. It is also likely that, given the stakes, Nestlé will refile for their EU KitKat shape trade mark using new criteria that proves EU-wide distinctiveness in line with the framework of this latest decision.

Like KitKat, Lindt’s gold foil chocolate bunny was not considered sufficiently distinctive by the courts. Lindt

The trade mark annulment will surely impact the EUIPO’s consideration of applications for trade mark registration and of trade mark oppositions, as this decision holds that proving distinctive character in a substantial part of the territory is not enough.

Shapes, in particular, are a challenge to protect under trade mark law, and recent decisions demonstrate how difficult it can be for a shape to acquire the necessary level of recognition and brand association. New applicants for trade mark protection should perhaps seriously consider creating a mark that is inherently distinctive, rather than a mark that needs to acquire protection through use, like KitKat.

About The Author:

Megan Rae Blakely is a Lecturer in law at Lancaster University.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. 

[raensclothingrack-blog]

Talking business tactics with an old friend. #mompreneurlife #businesschat #getthathustleon #marketingthoughts (at Woodlawn, Virginia)