Brands, mums and future generations!

You’ll often hear parents saying “kids never listen”, and with the total cost of raising a child at more than £222,000 I can see why that might be frustrating, however, kids may not be listening but they are watching!

According to research conducted by Shopitize, 75% of all consumers buy the same brands as their mothers. So with a significant 61% switch from branded to cheaper, own-label goods, it makes sense that supermarket chains are honing in on kids from a very young age. For example, Tesco launched its Tesco Loves Baby club and in 2013 Morrison’s Kiddicare also rolled out its first big marketing push by sponsoring ITV2 show Up All Night - all in aid of fostering favouritism in parents.

There is hope for brands yet but they need to be savvy about the way they attract mums, especially considering that the average age of a mum is 29, so new mums tend to be digital savvy, frequently using price comparison sites and seek out product reviews.

However, dropping price to compete with own label, something that we often do in the UK, isn’t always the right way to do things. Brian Walmsley, chief marketing officer at Bounty’s parent company, the Treehouse Group argues that retailers need to tread carefully when it comes to offering products on promotion, as opposed to maintaining price. Walmsley recently said “what mums are saying clearly is that they are interested in brands helping them in other ways”. What mums actually want is more useful information and tips, loyalty schemes and evidence that brands care about the whole family.

So it seems that if brands want future generations to purchase their products, own label or not, they’re going to need to think of ways to attract mums by adding value to the brand, after all value is a significant determinant of customer satisfaction. Mums want to feel that the brand cares about them not necessarily about their purse strings. Then, hopefully, 75% of consumers who buy the same products as their mums will grow!

A Jaguar you can drink and a football team that you can’t beat!

I know my last post was also about football so I must apologise to those who really don't care about football or football promotions, but as you’ve probably gathered from the title of this post, it focuses on football. With this post however, I look at a drinks brand trying to make a name for itself in the UK!

Jaguar or JED (Jaguar Energy Dink) is a non-alcoholic energy drink produced in Austria, owned by Barcode GT LLC, distributed throughout Europe and is (already in the UK) currently trying to stamp some authority on the UK drinks market.

Jaguar, the fairly unknown brand have now announced a new partnership agreement to become the official partner of a Barclay's Premier League football club. Not a small club like Norwich, Crystal Palace or Hull, but Manchester City! Last year’s champions and quite possibly this years as well. JED will be the first ‘Official UK and Ireland Energy Drink Partner’ of Manchester City Football Club.

Jaguar say that they "aim to bring the element of luxury, sophistication and finesse of Jaguar Energy Drink to the UK market. We are confident that once you experience the premium taste of this elite brand, you too will follow our passion of ‘Once Jaguar, Always Jaguar’"

As time goes by, it will be interesting to see if the drink becomes popular here in the UK. The partnership began on 3^rd of February and I still haven’t see it on shelves.

Glacéau vitaminwater's World Cup 'Shoot to Win'

As we are all well aware the 2014 World Cup is fast approaching, tickets to Rio are being booked, bets are being placed and brands around the globe are surfing on the ‘World Cup Wave’.

Glacéau vitaminwater, from Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE), are well aware of the buzz created by the world cup. For example, during the World Cup period in 2010 retail sales rose by 2.2%. This month Glacéau vitaminwater are capitalising on the buzz in Britain by launching a World Cup on-pack promotion. The promotion, ‘Shoot to Win’, challenges consumers to capture an ‘everyday colourful moment’ for a chance to win a camera and a trip for two to watch a 2014 FIFA World Cup quarter-final match. Not a bad prize unless you're an England supporter, hate loosing and disagree with pundits who know that we're likely to be knocked out by the hosts, just like we were in the 2002 World Cup. Although it's not all bad I guess, you've still got a camera.

Being supported in-store and via social media platforms the competition will reach, and appeal to, football fanatics, as well as consumers who enjoy taking photographs. According to Caroline Cater, CCE’s Operational Marketing Director, Glacéau vitaminwater is running this promotion to encourage “trial of the brand”, drive “repeat purchase” and ultimately help to drive CCE’s sales in the upcoming months.

I imagine that Glacéau vitaminwater are looking to capitalise on this sporting event in the same way they capitalised on the Olympics, where they had a huge success growing their business by 34%! As we get closer to the Olympics I’m sure a lot of brands will be doing the same thing ;);).

Robinsons competitor Jucee have a new 'No Added Sugar' offering

On 3^rd March 2014, Princess, the holding company for brands such as Flora, Branston and more poignant for us, Jucee, launched another Jucee flavour, Cherries & Berries. Cherries & Berries is the 10^th variant in the convenience sector range, which recently moved to a 1.5 litre price-marked pack format, meeting retailer and consumer needs. This is the first time that the Cherries & Berries flavour has been available in squash format for the convenience and independent grocery sector.

Looking to appeal to kids Jucee has introduced three child-friendly characters onto their pack design ‘Ozzie Orange’, ‘Archie Apple’, 'Suzy Strawberry' and ‘Charlie Cherry’. These characters are an attempt to communicate the brand values of great taste, value, and fun. They're also featured heavily in Jucee’s on-going sponsorship with Nickelodeon, which, in 2013, reached 54% of all children in the UK.

In accordance with Netmums advice for parents, the new packaging design sees the label ‘No Added Sugar’ front and centre. After researching it appears as if the issues surrounding sugar in kid’s drinks are hitting drinks brands hard. The table below shows us which Jucee products are stocked in which supermarkets. Providing a clearly visible example of what I’ve spoken about in some of my previous posts ‘A spoonful of sugar could make the sales go down’ and ‘Netmums on sugar’, sugar isn’t welcome anymore, demonstrated clearly by the lack of Jucee’s ‘Standard Squash’ (i.e. with added sugar) in any of the major supermarkets. Coinciding with this, their ‘No Added Sugar’ offerings are stoked in ASDA, TESCO and Morrisons.

At only £1.29 for a 1.5L bottle, cheaper than some competing products, could Jucee be a real threat to other brands in the squash territory? From what I’ve seen, no, no it won’t. Robinsons Apple & Blackcurrant Drink with No Added Sugar (1L) costs 7.4p per 100ml whereas Jucee’s Cherries & Berries (1.5L) comes in at 8.6p per 100ml. So there!

Incredibly creepy or incredible and creepy?

Everyone who’s seen the Minority Report remembers the scene where Tom Cruise walks into the shopping centre and the adverts become personalised and speak directly to him. If you don’t remember, or you haven’t seen the film, take a look at the video below.

As you may already know, in 2013 Tesco signed with Lord Sugar’s company Amscreen to install TV screens in 450 of its petrol stations. Each screen has a camera in it, which scans the face of every consumer, automatically deciding their age and gender. Consumers are then shown targeted adverts based on those details. As you can imagine, once all of the flaws have been ironed out, this is going to be incredibly beneficial for marketers.

This year, Emotient, the leading authority on facial expression recognition and analysis, have taken the above a step further. Rather than focusing on relaying a message across to the consumer like Amscreen, they’re actually helping us gain more accurate and real-time data about consumers’ interactions with products, offers and the store itself. The technology works by tracking the seven primary facial emotions (joy, surprise, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, and contempt) and then collating all of this information so that we can understand consumers’ reactions at POS. Click here to watch a video that will provide a more comprehensive explanation. 

As this technology is utilised in multiple locations and by all brands, shops and agencies will have a database of accurate consumer information that we've never been able to collect before. Not only will this information allow us to target consumers as seen in the clip from Minority Report, but we will also know how they're feeling, allowing us to tailor adverts to suit every age, gender and even mood. Incredible stuff don’t you think?

Netmums on sugar

As touched on in my previous post ‘A spoonful of sugar could make the sales go down’, sugar is being highlighted by the government as a major concern when it comes to children. The NHS states that most adults and children in the UK consume too much sugar. The government are calling sugar the new tobacco and mums are taking it a step further, with Netmums referring to Glucose Fructose Syrup as "Devil's candy".

So with the social media, the government and the NHS giving sugars a bad name, artificial sweeteners must be the way forward right? Wrong! Health fears about Aspartame (E951) have been around for some time. Some research suggests that aspartame causes cancer in lab rats, but this has been refuted, believe it or not, by the manufacturers of Aspartame. Either way this doesn’t hide the fact that sugar is just as dangerous for humans as it is for rats.

So what are mums happy for their children to drink? The advice from Netmums when thinking about kids drinks (‘Lunchbox Ideas’) is as follows:

-Water
-Milk (whole, semi-skimmed, goats or soya)
-Milkshake
-Pure fruit juice or smoothie – preferably diluted.
-Occasional well diluted high-juice squash (a note about sugar free options)

Lucky for us, Netmums have condoned squash to a certain extent. We should, however, still be thinking about what will happen if regulatory bodies continue to chip away at mums, stating that sugar will chip away kids teeth.

The future is nigh

We all knew the time would come when gadgets we saw on sci-fi films and TV shows like Star Trek would become a reality. Not only have Samsung produced something that’s proved us right with their Gear 2 Smartwatches, but, this year PayPal have jumped at the opportunity to change the way we pay using the Gear 2 Smartwatch technology.  

Changing the way we pay has come up in one of my previous posts ‘Paying for things by tweeting or... with your face?’ but if Smartwatches do catch on, PayPal may have hit the nail on the head and revolutionised shopping. Ultimately, Paypal are working on a concept for the new Samsung smartwatch, which will allow customers to pay for products in store using touchpay technology. Check out the video below to understand a bit more about it.

Retail: How to appeal to mums

As we know mums are the most important consumers that retailers can reach. They usually manage the shopping budget for a household and take care of the needs of the entire family. Furthermore mums are savvy!  Savvy shopping was borne directly out of the unstable economy; now special deals and sales have become a reason for visiting a store, or a deal-breaker for mums who are averse to buying anything full-price.

Additionally, with mums moving to shopping online retailers need to know how to entice, excite and relax mums. “Anxious”, “dread” and “angst” are all words that mums have associated with shopping according to the article I found on Retail Week. The article lists 12 ways for retailers to appeal to mums:

·        Help Reduce Stress

·        Keep children entertained

·        Alleviate guilt

·        Improve facilities

·        Don’t alienate them

·        Find new ways of generating loyalty

·        Be aware of body image

·        Remember these are savvy shoppers

·        Cater for teens

·        Remember value for money is important to mums

·        Technology is important, but it’s not everything

I don’t want to regurgitate the article and I will probably use it for future posts but if you fancy having a read you can access the article by clicking here. Very interesting and insightful! 

The traditional family remains dominant but things are changing!

Although the traditional family structure is still dominant in the UK, with 70% (5.4 million) of families falling into the ‘Traditional Family’ category, lots of things are changing. Families are becoming more diverse, meaning that the traditional model of marketing to the nuclear family may need to be revisited. For example, single parents are the second largest family typology in Britain, with women accounting for 64% of all Single Parent Families (SPF’s). Furthermore, with civil partnerships being introduced in the UK in December 2005, the number of civil partner couple families has increased from 13,000 in 2006 to 59,000 in 2011.

The changing family structure, the increase of same sex couples and the need to rethink how we approach marketing comms is evident throughout the marketing world. For example, McDonald’s France released a TV spot that was targeting gay men with the core message being “Come as You Are”. Brands in the USA have also embraced same sex families. The nearly-century old brand, Honey Maid, gave its latest marketing push a healthy dose of diversity with its Dad & Papa ad. Although the advert below was banned after receiving only 200 complaints, in 2008 Heinz showed the UK’s ignorant a taste of reality, depicting a same sex couple kissing. They knew then that the ‘traditional’ family is no longer as black and white as it used to be and that marketing comms will need to take note of this!

But not only is the family structure changing, affecting the way that brands need to market their ‘family products’, families are also changing their spending habits and  media consumption. In 2013 research showed that regardless of the family typology, parents prioritise children’s needs before their own. 13% of parents are spending more on treats for their children than they had previously. Research also shows that 11% of parents are more likely to spend money on food/drink at home for a “special” occasion and 10% of parents also said that they’re now more likely to spend money on family days out. This is just a very brief look at how things are changing. Ultimately this post highlights that changes are happening and that there’s a lot of scope for the communications industries to capitalise on said changes.

Innocently Defend, Energise and Detox!

Innocent, owned by The Coca-Cola Company, have been making some of the best smoothies in the world (in my non-prejudicial and personal opinion) since 1999. We’re all aware of their product extensions and fantastic campaigns. Consumers agree and feel as if they have a strong connection with the brand evident after Innocent jumped 5 places on the top 100 Social Brands list, from 6^th in 2013 to 1^st in 2014.

Now innocent are going a step further launching a new range of super smoothies, a range of functional health drinks that are also the healthiest drinks they've ever made. Each of the drinks in the range has a unique and specific health claim meaning the brand can offer people a smoothie with added health benefits.

The super smoothies come in three different recipes:

· Defence: With mango, pumpkin, Echinacea, flax seeds and vitamins C, D3 & zinc, the defence smoothie keeps white blood cells healthy, so they’re able to keep your immune system functioning properly, helping keep germs and bugs at bay.

· Energise: Strawberries, cherries and guarana have been combined with flax seeds and vitamins C, B1, B2 & B6 to make an energising smoothie.

 

· Antioxidant: The antioxidant super smoothie is a blend of kiwi, lime and wheatgrass with flax seeds and three powerful antioxidants: vitamins C, E and selenium. These help keep your cells fresh, healthy, and working as they should, when they need it most.

A spoonful of sugar could make the sales go down

This year, the soft drinks industry, and more specifically, fruit juice companies, could soon have a bittersweet taste in their mouths. Government advisers are now referring to Fruit Juice as the “new tobacco”, with juices being said to contain as much sugar as Coca-Cola.

With fruit juice no longer being considered the ‘healthy’ option, numerous soft drinks companies are looking to capitalise on this, seeping into the gaps that will soon permeate the sugary beverage industry.

Coco-Cola has kicked off what it is promising to be a massive year for their sugar free offering, Coke Zero. Caroline Carter, Coco-Cola’s Operational Marketing Director, commented on the launch of their new “Just Add Zero” campaign, stating that they hope to “establish Coke Zero as an icon to a new generation”. Carter goes on to explain that the campaign reflects their “on-going commitment to highlight the choices available for consumers who don’t want to compromise on taste for zero sugar and zero calories”.

In a considerate and beneficial move for the mother of all soft drinks brands, Britvic, JD Weatherspoon will now be giving away Britvic’s 7 Up Free on draught. This will hopefully see a rise in their profits for 2014. As the issue of sugar in drinks becomes more ferocious, this could be a great opportunity for Britvic to consider a sugar free Fruit Shoot or other 0% sugar offerings.

Although they already have the established distribution and manufacturing lines, it's not just the beverage giants that have an opportunity to innovate in this climate. If a smaller brand can  identify how consumers really feel, as opposed to how they think they should feel because of societal pressures, they will have a fighting chance in an otherwise saturated marketplace. 

Coconut crazy!

I went out on Tuesday (11^th March 2014) to see if there’s anything interesting, innovative or exciting happening in the drinks isles of various connivance stores and off-licenses in London. In all honesty there wasn't a lot. However, something that did stand out to me was the shear amount of decals for VitaCoCo. Below are just a few of the different Vita CoCo promotional offers and POS elements.

Just as I did, you may find yourself asking “what is Vita CoCo..?" Vita CoCo is an all-natural, fat-free, cholesterol-free, "nutrient-packed", coconut water.

Since the summer of 2004 Vita CoCo has not only carved a new market in the non-carbonated drinks business, they've become one of the fastest growing lifestyle drinks brands in North America and Europe. Now in 2014 Vita CoCo looks to tread on the toes of companies among the children’s drink category with the launch of their latest offering, Vita Coco Kids (imaginative, I know).

In line with a previous post “A spoonful of sugar could make the sales go down”, Vita Coco are introducing this product to meet the consumer demand for healthy drinks, as parents look for a low sugar alternatives to other UK leading children's beverages. Vita CoCo Kids's national launch is on Monday (17^th March 2014) with Waitrose being the first to feature the product on their shelves.

The food and beverage industry will need to keep a close eye on this space as Vita CoCo isn't the only company going Coco-nuts (bah-doom-boom-tssshhh). Levi Roots Soft Drinks is set to further their offerings in the beverage category with the launch of Levi Roots Coconut Water ‘n’ Lime soft drink, the first still drink in the Levi Roots portfolio. 

With recent research showing that coconut water sales have doubled in the past two years due to its association with healthy living, the category is now worth £5m. With health in mind, sugar being perceived as the devil and the growing consumer demand for Coconut drinks, could this be the next big thing or is it just another health fad?

Play is a vital human activity and Britvic know it!

As JWT’s trend report (2012) highlighted, play is a vital human activity. However, in today’s fast-paced, profit starved world, we’re pushed to age out of play. Society and the people that march to its beat, position productivity as the be-all and end-all, sparing less time for pursuits that don’t have measurable goals. However, the pleasing contradiction is that to compete successfully, we need to embrace nonsensical activity, and Lipton, Britvic’s Ice Tea offering, have capitalised on this insight for their latest campaign.

On February 26^th 2014, Lipton announced the launch of its "Be More Tea” campaign, a new global brand positioning, with a little help from Disney’s Muppets. adam&eveDDB the agency behind the “Be More Tea” campaign, look to promote the notion of people breaking out of their routines and embracing a more free and playful outlook on life, as you will see from the TVC below.

Ultimately they've hit the nail on the head. The trend report conducted by JWTIntelligence concluded that 9 in 10 adults believe that “play should not only be a part of children’s lives but adults’ lives, too”. I agree and I believe that as more and more brands capitalise on this insight, recognising ‘play’ as a vital human activity, the communications industry will become a happier place!

Paying for things by tweeting or... with your face?

As technology is advancing and consumers are expecting more instantaneous and personalised brand interactions, retailers and marketers alike have to think of innovative and engaging ways to cater for consumers’ expectations. Could paying with your face be the answer?

Although there's a lot of buzz in the industry surrounding privacy, safety and general consumer security, in 2013 PayPal introduced something into the retail environment that allows you to pay for things with your face! Just to be clear, consumers aren't paying with their face in the same way Brad Pitt or Kate Moss would, they’re ultimately sending a picture of themselves to the retailer so that they can be identified upon arrival. When combined with 'touch and pay' mobile technology we're not likely to need chip and pin for much longer.

However, is this kind of personalised transaction technology only going to benefit small retailers where a personalised and intimate experience is expected, or could this technology be used in hypermarkets without making consumers feel as if they were entering a George Orwell novel? For now it looks like an interesting concept but will consumers be comfortable sharing photos of themselves with complete strangers. Only time will tell.

Paying for things with your face may allow for a more personalised shopping experience however, you still have to exchange money for any product you buy and give strangers a picture of your face! This isn't the case with the Special K Tweet Shop. Although this pop-up ‘Special K Tweet Shop’ was set up for a brief period of time in 2012, the concept is amazing! Not only were consumers immersed in a brand experience, they’re providing the brand, Kellogg’s Special K, with amazing publicity, whilst being rewarded with tasty treats and it all happened simultaneously!

The Tweet Shop was lined with Special K's latest offering - crisps, a "try before you buy" snack area and a community noticeboard that showcased the social media reaction. Sarah Case, Special K's brand manager, said the decision to swap real money for "social currency" during the campaign was made because "the value of positive endorsements on social media sites is beyond compare". I couldn't agree more! 

Bottles come in all shapes and sizes

As we primarily work with drinks I thought it would be nice to briefly look at how brands can actually use the material, shape and even the texture of their packaging to complement their brand and/or perpetuate their campaign message.

In the last year or so, The Coca-Cola Company have produced some very innovative packaging for their Coca-Cola offerings. The first thing that caught my eye was the ‘Coke Sharing Can’. This is an actual product that was released in France as part of Ogilvy & Mather’s 2013 TV campaign. This campaign is continuing with the ‘Share Happiness’ campaign message that began back in 2009. The Coke Sharing Can is ultimately a Coca-Cola can that splits in two, for easy sharing. 

The other innovative (not quite as practical) packaging that coke have developed is the Coke Ice Bottles. This was purely for their 2013 Colombian TVC.

Moving away from soft drinks, Heineken have decided to look at product marketing in a new (pardon the pun) light! During Milan’s Fashion Week (2013) Heineken launched their ‘Ignite’ campaign. What they created was a bottle fitted with an LED as well as wireless sensors. The LED uses the wireless sensors in order to flash in time with music, in addition to lighting up each time you take a sip or clink the bottles together.

The Heineken Ignite interactive bottle is born from Heineken’s ambition to develop an idea that would create a memorable Heineken experience, unlocking the power and possibilities of mobile innovation and technology.

One for the future - EZ-Flo water bottle! This could be a product that would work for Fruit Shoot, Robinsons Juices, and even Robinsons Squashed. The EZ-Flo system is an environment-friendly dispensing alternative to traditional squeeze, pump and spray bottles. Although this product is still patent pending, it will reduce waste, time and labour, something that we know mums would welcome with open arms!

10 Trends that will shape our world in 2014

It's widely known that staying up to date with global trends is key for everyone in the marketing communications industry. As this is my first post I have found a topic that may not be 100% focused on retail behaviour but it does give us an insight into what consumers are thinking. For example if consumers are "starting to both fear and resent technology" will this effect our ROI on future digital offerings?

It's an interesting report and there are a few things we should be keeping our eyes on: 10 Trends that will shape our world in 2014