Last month, Brand Republic and Harris Interactive published their Kids Brands Index 2011, showing the top household brands among 7-15 year old British children. Based on research with 4,000 kids, the index ranks the top brands in 12 categories, based on their levels of awareness, cool factor, recommendations and overall desirability, among others.

The index makes for essential reading for any marketer dealing with kids’ brands, but also for any business targeting a family audience. So read on to discover five points that struck us, here at The Value Engineers’ Kids practice:

• Of the Top 20 brands, only four actively position themselves as ‘kids’ or youth brands. Of those four, only one has made it into the Top 10 – Haribo, which comes in at #7. While the result might seem surprising to those unused to kids’ marketing, it reflects the diversity among different age groups. The one thing that unites kids aged 7-15 is that all aspire to being older. Looked at in this light, it’s no shock that the #1 brand is Walkers, followed closely by The Simpsons and McDonald’s. All are mainstream brands that pride themselves on an almost universal appeal.
• Six technology brands hit the Top 20, including websites, gaming consoles, mobile phones and A/V. This will come as no surprise to parents of tween- or teenagers, who are used to fending off requests for the latest new technology, but does go to prove the ubiquity of tech among this demographic. Having said that, Apple’s iPhone was the only mobile brand, reflecting kids’ technological aspirations rather than their everyday reality.
• Nintendo came out far ahead of its competitor console brands, with the Wii at #5 and the DS at #9. Compare this to its closest competitor – the Xbox Kinect at #45 – and it’s clear that Nintendo’s strategy of extending beyond the core gaming audience is still paying off.
• Just one retail brand and one ‘fashion’ brand (GAME and Nike respectively) managed to slip into the Top 20, despite the much-cited appeal of brands such as Jack Wills. It’s likely that this reflects the different maturity rates of boys and girls, with boys becoming interested in clothes and other forms of self-expression at a later age, but also the segmentation of the sexes – boys won’t identify with a so-called ‘girls’ brand.
• Finally, it’s interesting to note that the first ‘toy’ brand only enters the list at #18 with LEGO, showing how justified is the toys & games industries’ concern about children growing out of the market ever more quickly.

Full results are available courtesy of PR Week via the link above, and are well worth a look. In the meantime, I’m off to McDonald’s for some first-hand observation…

A nice reminder in this article by Gideon Spanier of the Evening Standard that what is one group’s change is just another group’s everyday reality.

He quotes Tricia Wilber, Disney’s Chief Marketing Officer for Europe, the Middle East and Africa who said “Adults are changing their behaviour but kids are born into this”. The expanation is of course that while facebook, smartphones and video on demand are new behaviours for adults, kids have never known everything different.

The interesting question is what will really represent change for the iPad generation?

It’s easy to talk about the associations of a well-known brand – be they positive or negative, really well known brands with a long heritage behind them elicit strong opinions and emotions. So, what happens when the product(s) which the brand is selling changes? We’re often asked to talk about our opinions on product reformulations and it’s a tricky area: should well known brands stick to playing up to a certain predictable expectation of a product experience and never change it for fear of rejection or should it always seek to improve, making  tweaks and sometimes leaps along the way to ensure a continued relevance?

There are so many examples of hailed and hated product reformulations that there is no hard and fast rule to stick to – take Guinness, which has successfully made tiny tweaks over the years to great success and continued relevance vs. Coke, which reformulated its product to great success in blind taste tests but caused huge disappointment once on shelf for loyalists who had a specific (if statistically inferior) expectation in mind.

This is the problem: a well known and leading brand gives a guarantee of a specific product experience in its category, particularly in consumables - if it’s not that brand, it’s ‘just not right’. But products, like the brands which sell them, have to move on – ingredients, manufacturing methods, global taste palates and nutritional guidelines mean that no can of Coke today would or could taste the same as its ancestors but we’re still buying it anyway, believing it has ‘that Coke taste.’

So, we were delighted to recently speak on the radio with BBC about the re-formulation of HP Sauce and urge audiences to consider not just their own product expectations but the brand’s reasons for reformulating its products in the first place.  It just can’t stay the same. HP Sauce has been reformulated, from a health perspective, for the better – it has less salt than before and is simply catching up with its already reduced-sodium family members in the Heinz portfolio.

Currently the consumer verdict is still out – but is this a reaction to change rather than the product itself? Only time will tell…

With The Grocer having recently published its annual Focus on Spirits, it seems like a good time to follow up my recent post on premium spirits . Last time, I looked at some of the factors driving sales of premium spirits – such as the search for Total Basket VfM, the rise of a new type of status brand, and consumers’ desire for statement drinks.

This time, I thought I’d take a look at what some of those brands are doing to encourage consumers to trade up from their more everyday counterparts. So for those of you thinking about joining the modern-day gold rush that’s become the premium spirits market, here are four simple steps to success. Just don’t get trampled in the crowd!

Step one: Think outside the box (with some distinctive packaging)

Brands like Belvedere, U’Luvka and Iceberg vodka have made a talking point of their packaging, giving them standout on shelf but also in-home. These brands begin to justify their premium pricing from the moment consumers set eyes on them.

Step two: Make like the Brothers Grimm, and find yourself a story

Brands like Sipsmith or Zubrowka Bison Grass have focused their communications on a clear narrative, which engages and involves consumers on an emotional as well as rational level. In doing so, they encourage a greater loyalty to the brand, creating advocates and educators.

Step three: Give ‘em a moment of magic

A number of the premium spirits brands have adopted the same tactic as their more mainstream cousins, looking to create a unique ritual around the drinking experience. The classic example of this is of course the ‘Gordon’s serve’, as showcased until recently by a certain fiery, foul-mouthed chef. Brands such as Russian Standard have done so by tapping into the popularity of cocktails, as consumers escape the bleak climate with a touch of glamour. Its Golden Summertime Iced Tea cocktail was created especially to showcase the distinctive flavours of Russian Standard, and the ritual of its creation allows consumers to feel closer to the brand.

Step four: Start a rumble in the jungle

One of the biggest trends for spirits in general, and particularly for the premium end of the category, has been the use of experiential marketing to promote and build engagement with their products. Last year we saw the Smirnoff Nightclub Exchange make headlines around the world, and this year the brand’s coming back for more – more events in more countries, with Madonna as ambassador.

At the premium end of the market, there are some great case studies such as the Jameson Film Club or Hendricks Curiositorium, but the grand prize has to go to Courvoisier, which  has partnered with a range of eclectic, exciting partners from Secret Garden Party to Bombas & Parr to speakeasy White Mink, currently popping up at the Edinburgh Festival. Courvoisier has created a series of high-class, exclusive events that attract its target demographic of ‘forward thinking 28+’, and in doing so, has ensured that the positive memories customers carry away from those events will be indelibly associated with the brand. Through the creation of these experiences, spirits brands are making themselves more than just drinks: they’re a key part of the buzz.

So there we are: four steps to success. As with most of life’s formulas, when you break it down, it suddenly looks simple. I’m off to find my home distilling kit – Elderflower & Cadbury’s Creme Egg vodka, anyone?

PS – if you’re interested in long-lasting innovations in drinks why not check out our 40 Drinks Innovations that Shook the World?

In Matthew Parris’ Diary column in The Times is an article entitled: ‘The horrors of trying to use shower gel. Can anyone actually name the advantage of shower gel over soap?’

While we don’t entirely agree with how dreadful he suggests shower gel is, it has generated a lot of discussion here at The Value Engineers, what actually are the advantages of shower gel over soap? Quite a few it seems, after a quick office tally, the clear advantages appear to be as follows:

• It is more moisturising
• It is less messy (it leaves less residue etc.)
• It is better for travelling (although there are some against this opinion due to leaks)
• It is more hygienic (no one likes hair on the soap)
• It looks better in the bathroom (a sleek bottle vs. a soggy bar of soap)
• It is easier to put it in the shower (with the ability to hang not requiring a soap dish)
• It is easy to distinguish between different variants with distinctive benefits; exfoliating gel, polishing gel, moisturising, refreshing, partly because it is always packaged
• It has more of an emotional connection, consumers are familiar with the brands and having Molten Brown clearly on display does ‘make them feel good’… soap is just soap, very few brands stand out here

However, not all would agree with this, it feels that everyone has an opinion and does have a strong preference for one format over the other; soap does provide a feeling of nostalgia / pampering for many and therefore taps into the emotional connection. It is also seen as versatile, used for both hand and body occasions throughout the home (kitchen, bathroom, toilet…). For many it is also perceived to give a deeper clean, is more natural/ organic/ kinder to skin, better at killing germ and its cheaper.

What is apparent is that whether people prefer soap or shower gel is hugely influenced by the environment and culture they live in…

In much of South America, people prefer soap over shower gel simply because it’s a really hot environment, people have to shower 2 or 3 times a day and soap is more cost effective, provides the functional deep clean, is perceived to last longer and is cheaper…

In the former Eastern Bloc soap is much more prevalent because shower gel has only recently been introduced (and up until the 90s even kitchen soap was a commodity that was difficult to get hold of); soap is a familiar format with easily communicable benefits…

India and many of the Middle East countries use soap because the less affluent will use a single bar of soap for several different occasions/ purposes and in India in particular, deodorant is a rarity, so soap is used instead to provide that perceived lasting prevention against odour…

In contrast in Western Europe and the US shower gel is the norm, soap is felt to be out-dated and shower gel is relative cheap anyway. Westerners do believe that shower gel provides a deep clean, has a lasting fragrance and helps prevent odour just as much as soap does, if not better…

The big difference in global markets reiterates the notion of ‘not one size fits all,’ there is no one innovation, however successful or game-changing in a category, which everyone adopts.  Different formats will suit different people and will have perceived benefits unique to that person. I use shower gel because it’s less messy, Matthew Parris uses soap because it’s less messy…