With the growth of Tesco’s venture brands Yoo and Chokablok taking up a fair amount of page space of late, my roommates and I got to thinking about which will be the next category to feel the pressures of own label in not only the traditional sense, but also from an equally well branded incumbent.

One of the brands we identified that may find itself under threat is Gü who currently sit in the specialised category of premium puddings. Familiar with the threats and pressures that playing in an own-label dominated category bring with it, most of their recent advertising suggests that they have been looking to increase their frequency of consumption by positioning Gü as a permissible temptation. In their journey from ‘just for dinner parties with important friends’ to the ‘everyday indulgence’, we have seen the rich and premium brand go from strength to strength in both hearts and minds.

Whilst seeming like a fairly straightforward strategy the dilution of premium into every day is not something that will necessarily affect a brand positively. Not only this but with supermarket venture brands seemingly in the assurgency how long will it be before the likes of Tesco attack with an equally quirky and personable me Tü?

So what to do for Gü?

Having sampled many of their products in numerous client workshops and dinner parties over the years we made the following two observations:

• Frü is not as good as Gü or indeed many OL products
• Gü is great at chocolate

So for us the way forward for a brand like Gü and others who may soon come under threat from venture brands is simple; identify what it is that makes your brand or product great and leverage it in as many new ways as your brand allows, thus insuring yourself against any major category plays from retailers. For Gü this would mean proliferation into hot chocolate through a potential JV with Starbucks, ice creams, yoghurts, biscuits, cookie dough, confectionary, RTD milkshakes and many more.

We want to see Gü taking chocolate and running with it; deep diving into the seasonality of flavours that can be combined with chocolate and tapping into new occasions. Personally I’m really looking forward to trying a rich and smooth Gü hot chocolate and if it’s anything like the puds it will be pure liquid perfection in a mug…that is of course if they do ever get round to making one.

As an American only recently living in Britain, one of the first things I noticed when I moved over here was the strength of the Cadbury brand. It is all over supermarkets, top of mind for an afternoon snack, and a pillar of British industry. Above all else one product stood out for me: the Creme Egg.

With the commercial depth of Cadbury, its eggs are available all year round in Britain. Not only that, but they come in a mind-boggling array of boxes, sizes, and configurations that are simply unheard of in America. Imagine my surprise upon a first visit to the shop – Creme Eggs available year round!?  I bought as many as I could.

Back on the other side of the pond, however, these treats are not always on shelves. Only at Easter do these eggs pop up in the US. With such seasonality, they became part of my childhood ritual: opening my Easter basket with family, a treat during spring time, something to grab at local shops after school.  I looked forward to Cadbury Eggs because of their temporary status – they were a reminder of good things to come.

In Britain, Cadbury is the industry standard. To me, and perhaps many Americans, Cadbury means nostalgia. Nostalgia derives from two Greek words meaning ‘a return to home’ and ‘ache’.  As winter approaches, I do indeed feel an ache to years past as I queue in my local shop. Luckily, with Cadbury’s Creme Eggs available so readily, I am never far away from a chocolatey reminder of home.

It’s 75 today and was born in York. It has gone dark, orange and chunky here in the UK but is available in 40 flavours in Japan including Green Tea. It has successfully changed its ‘parents’ name from Rowntree to Nestle, while its brand name and product have been copied by many, including ‘Kin Kan’.  

So go on: have a break, have a Kit Kat, and celebrate a great brand’s birthday!

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…

Being a chocoholic I can never stop myself from strolling along the chocolate shelves. Most recently, when yet again in the mood for chocolate, I came across these two new products by Malteaser and Kit Kat:

Kit Kat just simply sticking a bunny on their chocolate bar – sweet – yet low cost, low impact!?

Whereas MaltEaster did something a tiny bit more clever by changing name and product format, which put a smile on my face.  A lovely example of how to tweak a product.