Not so much a Christmas ad,  more one of a genre of ads which often appear in the run up to Christmas – I give you  the new Drambuie ad. Is it the greatest piece of advertising surrealism to hit your cinema screen since the Iguana – Swimming pool – Sardine tin ad for Benson and Hedges gold?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW-7S6x_zTY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxb-y6u28bY

1300 inventions were patented by Thomas Edison during this entire lifetime. He held 1093 in the US alone.

Google facts

We have outlined how different consumers’ needs shape their perceptions of brand fit.

Each brand has its own unique combination of strengths and weaknesses and each product has a different role within the brand portfolio.

But perceptions of individual brands and products are also influenced by tectonics that continually twist and reshape the marketplace and which are typically beyond any single brand’s control. These include competing distribution, pricing, portfolio, innovation and communication strategies that are eroding and redefining market boundaries at any point in time. Consumer trends, the wider environment, and economic climate additionally bring a longer temporal dimension of change.

Therefore, new brands and products rarely enter a stable, predictable theatre that they can control, let alone reshape. Instead they will encounter a very mixed bag of players each of whom will be trying to act out their own agendas.

How differently can products act? We hypothesize 7 main players :

1. The George Clooney aka ‘the late bloomer’: The product was launched many years ago and has grown in size and strength over the years  – think Diet Coke.
2. The Lindsay Lohan aka ‘the child star’: A product that had a large following from its inception but then struggled to keep momentum – think Atkins Diet.
3. The George Lazenby aka ‘15 mins of fame’: A product that is heavily promoted before, during, and after launch but is not sustainable by itself – think Red Bull Cola.
4. The Christian Bale aka ‘good to great’: A well thought out product that launches to early adopters and then extends its appeal – think Amazon.
5. The Daniel Day-Lewis aka ‘niche or different’: A product that may not fit a mainstream profile, perhaps with limited consumption occasions but has a very loyal following – think Talisker Single Malt Scotch.
6. The Leonardo DiCaprio aka ‘the superstar’: A product that has universal appeal, maximum flexibility and the longest shelf life  – think Heinz Baked Beans or Tomato Ketchup.
7. The Jason Statham aka ‘the replacement’: A product that is not your first choice but has the ability to deliver your needs with lower expectations, you know what you get – think own label produce.

A one-size fits all research approach to new product testing is unlikely to have the adaptability to gauge the role that each of these players might have in meeting consumer needs.

One size doesn’t fit all, it fits none.

One of the more striking stories in the news this week was that the circulation of Tesco Magazine has overtaken that of The Sun.  Obviously there’s a slight difference between the two publications, in that The Sun is daily, whereas Tesco’s offering is still a bi-monthly; but it does perhaps say something interesting about the way people consume information these days.

The newspaper industry has been struggling in recent years, unable to compete with the internet’s supply of up-to-date news and comment on demand.  Although there are successful online offerings, particularly guardian.co.uk and the behemoth that is Mail Online, the problem is that no-one has cracked how to monetise it.  Journalism costs, yet the consumer increasingly expects the product to be free.

The hard copy magazine sector is holding up, however, particularly at the specialist end – showing that there is still a market for curated content properly presented, and it’s here that Tesco Magazine is playing.  Tesco is a trusted brand, and whether it decides to give you coverage in print can make the difference between success and failure for a supplier.

Advertising and marketing through specialist press is increasingly going to be a way to get your message out to the public in a way that maximises the chances they will see it – over a million people a month are now reading BA’s in-flight magazine – and in some ways it’s much less hit and miss.  Your segmentation might make your adverts a better fit for a Tesco or BA customer than a Sun reader, or vice versa, and the landscape is only going to get more interesting as the traditional players continue to decline.

OK, its Parliamentary reporting might not be up to much, and there’s no page 3, but could Tesco Magazine be the future of journalism?

With the Hostess brand sitting on the brink there is lots of talk about the potential loss of an American favourite – the Twinkie. So engrained in American culture it has appeared/mentioned in numerous movie such as Die Hard, Ghostbusters, The Jerk, Family Guy…

The Twinkie’s most famous role came in Zombieland where Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson) travels around post-apocalyptic America killing zombies whilst in search of the last Twinkie…

Tallahassee: “There’s a box of Twinkies in that grocery store. Not just any box of Twinkies, the last box of Twinkies that anyone will enjoy in the whole universe. Believe it or not, Twinkies have an expiration date. Some day very soon, Life’s little Twinkie gauge is gonna go… empty.”

Tallahassee ‘predicted’ it, now it could be a reality.

Help, however, may be close at hand!

Hostess brands are sold under license in Canada. If Hostess (US) ceases to be how long before Canada has another great export to the US?

This could also widen the opportunity into other markets using the same approach currently used in Canada?

Could Mr Kipling present an exceedingly good sponge cake with a creamy filling?

In the meantime Tallahassee, don’t head to Pacific Playland. Head north, to Quebec…

Pouvez-vous m’indiquer le magasin le plus proche qui vend des Twinkies s’il vous plaît?

Remember to enjoy the little things!!