Every so often there is a new product which comes along and makes you smile because they seem to have got it so right.
In a recent workshop conducted as part of a brand identity development project for our client, we saw a slightly different snack that offered something more relevant, targeted and original than the usual array of caffeine-infused hot beverages, sugar-filled cakes and biscuits and the requisite rarely touched fruit.
It’s a sweets brand, but doesn’t make you feel bad for indulging. It’s artificial but you can justify the e-numbers, and it’s fun but will improve your concentration and therefore performance as a serious grown up. Crucially, it is also not a boring apple.
‘Tagungs Tiger’ is the workshop or conference treat of choice for the ambitious delegate who knows he could become the all-conquering business tiger if only he had the energy. The sweets are superficially Haribo-esque gummy bears, but because there is a successful looking tiger on the front of pack dressed in a smart suit next to a flipchart, you know that these will help turn your tired and uninspired mind into that of an alpha-tiger, the king of the corporate jungle!
‘Fruitgums with taurine’ gives you the necessary scientific verification that soon you will be back to your best and prowling for your next killer idea.
Being cursed with a warp-speed metabolism, I occasionally find that I am in need of something sweet to tide me over to lunch and all too often resort to stuffing down cake, pastries and other calorific temptations. Next time I feel the onset of an energy lull, I hope to be able to reach for the tiger. Of course, such need for stimulation is thankfully rare when taking part in the always engaging workshops run by The Value Engineers!
Recently I had the opportunity to taste a green tea KitKat which a friend of mine brought me back from her Japanese holiday.
It comes in a beautiful small cardboard box with 2 x individually wrapped KitKat fingers inside.
It literally is as green as it looks on the pack and tastes, let’s say…. ‘interesting’… and definitely very healthy. Once eaten, it leaves you with a dry green tea powder taste in your mouth.
A sweet treat for those with an acquired taste and a good product example for global-local brand adaptation.
M&Ms are launching a new variant in the US: M&M Pretzels. It may have been a good piece of insight work which helped them identify the opportunity for the launch, but it took something else to communicate it this well. To me, the new ad ticks the most important boxes for communicating innovations:
Explains what it is (easy): Tick
Generates interest/curiosity for trial (moderately difficult): Tick (for me anyway)
Stays on-brand and establishes it as a natural extension of the brand (difficult): Again tick
Do all three at the same time (the most difficult of all): Absolutely. For me, that’s what makes this ad fantastic. See for yourself:
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…
Once again we’re pleased to see our brand in the news.
This week Giles Lury, Director of Branding, appears in The Grocer, in Alex Beckett’s article, ‘Chew on this: too much NPD can be a category’s undoing’.
Giles comments on some of the issues facing the chewing gum market – we’ve selected some of his quotes: ”Chewing gum got too complicated for its own good… There was an explosion of fruit flavours a few years ago, which led to a cluttered shelf space that was hard to navigate. In some ways it was a victim of its own success.”
“Society doesn’t have a good perception of gum and it lacks positive role models… [it] has a long term-societal battle to fight.”
If you’d like to read more and have access to the magazine online, click here.
