With its latest press ad, M&S is upping the battle for Middle England. However  in the light of all the recent positive press for the John Lewis campaign, it could be said that while John Lewis are playing to their heartland and heritage, M&S seems to be playing it for cheap laughs.

• “I am irresistible, I say, as I put on my designer fragrance. I am a merchant banker, I say, as I climb out of my BMW. I am a juvenile lout, I say, as I pour an extra strong lager, I am handsome, I say, as I put on my Levi jeans” (John Kay)
• “We view the experience of a Krispy Kreme store (where customers watch their donuts being baked behind glass) as the defining element of the brand” – (Scott Livengood, CEO, Krispy Kreme)
• “Experiences are as distinct from services as services are from goods” (Joseph Piune and James Gilmore, The Experience Economy)
• “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning” (Bill Gates)
• “A little experience often upsets a lot of theory” (S Parkes Cadman)

Borrowed with pride from all over the place.

American retailer Whole Foods has teamed up with quirky chocolate manufacturer Bloomsberry & Co and TerraPass to introduce a new eco-friendly chocolate bar, in what has to be the best excuse yet to eat more chocolate.

Each ‘Climate Change Chocolate’ bar comes with a TerraPass offset of 133 pounds of carbon dioxide reductions, the average American’s daily carbon impact. The bar’s packaging includes helpful hints on ways to lighten your environmental impact, while its production and distribution are carbon neutral.

TerraPass itself was set up in 2004 as a for-profit social enterprise to allow individuals and businesses to take responsibility for their carbon emissions. As its core business, the company sells annual ‘passes’ calculated to offset emissions for companies, households and even student residences. Individuals can also buy carbon offsetting certificates as gifts, or purchase a TerraPass to offset the environmental impact of weddings and other events.

The collaboration between Whole Foods,  Bloomsberry and TerraPass is a great example of a clever and mutually beneficial brand partnership . Whole Foods gets to support its positioning as an environmental leader in retail, Bloomsberry gains a new distribution channel for its premium chocolate, and TerraPass has an opportunity to introduce carbon offsetting to new consumers, who will hopefully then upgrade to its annual products.

As a new product concept, it’s a lovely idea. It’s easy to imagine consumers choosing Climate Change Chocolate as a gift, and what chocolate lover could resist the idea of doing some good with their daily munch? There’s only one better product that I can imagine – a chocolate bar that gives you a way to offset the calories. Now that’s one I’ll be looking out for…

How do you target mainstream men in markets where they are not traditionally the consumers? Typical marketers’ responses play to the stereotype: build a proposition around macho fitness (eg. Pepsi Max in low sugar drinks),  turn it into a tool/gadget (eg. Wilkinson Sword secateurs in gardening),  make it a challenge (eg.  Lindt chilli variant in chocolate) and of course make it about sex (eg. Lynx in deodorants).

So, with great respect for tried and tested marketing tricks, I’m pleased to see Philips have launched an iron: the GC4490, presumably named to cue associations with car parts and obscure trade codes for masonry drill-bits. It’s “tool marketing” at its best with a design, as AdFreak  says,  that would be fitting for Darth Vader’s jet ski and it comes with a brilliantly engineered proposition around “more power, more steam, more performance” – an iron as power tool.

It’s a stereotype. But just as real insight often comes from humour (“there’s many a true word spoken in jest”), mass-appeal marketing’s not a bad place to look for frank realities about mainstream society.

“Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine” (David Ogilvy)

“Habit, if not resisted, soon becomes necessity” (St. Augustine)

“If a small group of consumers have built a ritual around your brand, then it may have merit to become a movement” (Anon)

“Quality is not an act, it is a habit” (Aristotle)

“If you need to shake up your creativity, you first need to shake up your routine” (Anon)