Holy Logo!

Reader's Digest have recently published the third annual Trusted Brands Survey. The main survey is carried out in the US, where 5,500 people were asked which brands in 40 product categories they trust the most, and would recommend to family and friends. The study backs up, with numbers, a lot of stuff that marketers know intuitively - for example, that people are prepared to pay more for brands they trust.

From the results, Reader's Digest have created the Trusted League, giving the brands superhero names and personas. So McDonald's becomes 'The Satisfryer', or Dove 'The Beholder', and then there's 'Swoosh', representing Southwest, above.

It's a lot of fun and probably a nice pat on the back for the people working on these brands, but without being a total dreary killjoy, I'll add a note of caution: don't take this too seriously when you're creating your advertising. It could land you into a spot of hot water or holy hubris.

There's also a German version, with fewer product categories and no superheroes, although there are plenty of the usual suspects: Nivea, Milka, Haribo, Allianz, Persil.

I was a little surprised, however to see C&A on the list, as well as Deutsche Telekom and - wait for it - VW.

Maybe it goes to show that goodwill built up can go a long way when you do tell one or two porky pies.

A brand is not just for Christmas

Anyone who ever says that TV advertising is dead should just take a look at what happens in the UK - and other markets - at this time of year. The John Lewis Christmas ad, with its resulting discussions, polls and parodies, has become as much a part of the British advent tradition as Love, Actually on the TV.

And it's not just John Lewis. There's a shop-load of retailers out there all fighting it out over laughter and tears, and who can bag the most. Waitrose's homesick robin probably wins the Kleenex prize this year, while M&S have gone all-out on middle-aged girl power with Mrs Santa Claus. I have a sneaky suspicion that they probably wanted Emma Thompson for this role.

Now to the bad, sad, bizarre and ugly. Argos have speed-skating day-glo yetis, while Sainsbury's have got a cringemaking song and a tired-looking animation that ticks all the diversity boxes but failed to charm me. And finally, Aldi features an intrepid carrot called Kevin who is variously seen awaiting the John Lewis ad and clambering over a Christmas dinner that will be stone cold and congealing come Christmas Day. I think I prefer the seriously weird German Aldi advertising.

The other thing that occurs to me about this yearly Christmas laughter-and-tears contest is that in some cases it smacks of fiddling while Rome burns. M&S along with a few other retailers are in serious financial trouble this year. Wouldn't their time and money be better spent improving their offer, experience and service?

But my favourite TV ad so far isn't for a retailer, it's a French ad for Milka directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The story of an advent calendar with more than a nod to H.G.Wells.

Fantastique!

Wafer Wars

The German-speaking peoples do love their wafers. While wafers are relegated to the biscuits eaten last in the UK Family Assortment, wafers have whole brands dedicated to their existence in other countries.

The Germans have Hanuta, via the Italian Connection Ferrero, while the Austrians delight in the mega-brand that is Manner, which I blogged about here.

In the South Tyrol, that delightful part of Italy where you're not really sure which country you're in and everything has at least two names, Loacker is the local hero as far as wafers go.

While Manner may well be smarter in terms of their branding and marketing, my preference is for the Loacker products in terms of yumminess. There's more chocolate involved and generally a few spoonfuls more indulgence.

Although I'm sure they're not exactly good for the waistline, it was cheering to see the company sponsors some of the ski-schools, echoing the Milka and Manner involvement with the sport.

OK, mine's a Tortina or perhaps a Rose of the Dolomites.

The colour purple

Most brands have a signature colour, or colours. There are the single statement colours of red for Coca-Cola, or magenta for T-Mobile, or turquoise for Twitter and the two-colour approach of IKEA, McDonald's or BP. And even some multi-colour brands, of which Google springs to mind.

Some colours are used less than others, especially as single branding shades - brown is a case in point, with UPS the notable exception in the use of this colour. And a colour that's a rare tone in nature is also relatively scarce on the branding front: purple.

Purple, as a non-primary colour, has a complex set of associations. The connotations of luxury, wealth and nobility may have influenced its use for indulgent brands such as Cadbury's or Milka, or Silk Cut. The links with creativity could have been grounds for Yahoo! changing their logo colour. But purple also has more difficult connections - with spirituality, magic and even emotional immaturity according to some - which makes it a tricky choice for a brand's uniform.

However, if one colour was in evidence in the UK in the last couple of weeks on top of all the red, white and blue, it was purple. But maybe this was a lucky choice in this case as purple goes so well with gold. 

Mimicry

Mimicry is all around us. As well as in the world of nature, mimicry abounds in bookshops, with more Harry Potter, Da Vinci Code or Twilight wanna-bees (at least from the cover picture and blurb) than you can fit in your BILLY. And, of course, if you have the good fortune to resemble any List-designation of celebrity, you can usually give up the day job.

In the world of brands, mimicry has long been with us, manifesting itself everything from those almost-but-not-quite perfumes you find on market stalls, to the belts and bags sold by persuasive young guys in far-off places.

And then there are the supermarket's own brands. Aldi seem to be good at this, with their Kinder lookalike very cleverly imitating the colour-coding of the real McCoy.

Finally, there are those brands that are number 3 or 4 in the market who seem to think mimicking the market leader, perhaps at a slightly lower price, will ensure success. One example of such could be Alpia and Milka.

But that which makes a brand - its emotional added value - cannot be copied. You may be able to copy price. But you cannot copy value.

Teddy Takeover

The Cadbury's takeover and announcement of the rollout of Milka in the UK have had some people up in arms along the lines of "they're taking over our chocolate".

Interestingly enough, the "damage", if you see it that way, has already been done in the realm of sweet confectionary. Although I suppose it's been obvious for some while if you take a look at a grocery sweetie fixture, I was quite interested to hear that Haribo is the number 1 brand of sweets in the UK.

This is definitely something that has happened since I've been out of the UK (Germany got me and the UK got Haribo) and Haribo have managed it, I think, by simply being nice - and, dare I say it, a little bit bland?

With bright colours and fun shapes, pack sizes and formats to please everyone, Haribo have managed a kind of sweet ubiquity that's nevertheless clever in its fit to the way people buy and consume sweets these days. It's lowest common denominator stuff, albeit tremendously successful. Haribo makes our home-grown old favourites like Rowntrees and Trebor look slightly niche-y and ungenerous.

But while a whole generation of Brits have now grown up with Haribo as their childhood companion, I still have nostalgia and occasional yearning for those sweetshop specials, be it Sherbert Fountains, Black Jacks, Spangles or even oddities such as Pontefract Cakes.

Only Pontefract Cakes are now produced by Haribo.

Gorilla vs Cow

I haven't really been following the Cadbury's takeover story but was nevertheless interested to read that Kraft will be rolling the Milka brand out nationally in the UK as from April.

Um...what exactly do they think they're doing here? Two chocolate brands, both with purple packaging (one a bit darker, one a bit lighter), both of which have a milk-based USP ("glass-and-a-half" or "Alpine"). It's a bit like the Boat Race...

Shouldn't Kraft have sat down and done a portfolio analysis of their existing and newly-acquired brands before sending their lilac cow's left hand into the ring to battle with the CDM gorilla's right?

Doughnuts out, chocolates in!

Easter is early this year, as the bad weather warnings keep reminding us. In fact, I heard on the radio this morning that it's going to be the coldest Easter here since records began. But while you're freezing your toes off looking for Easter eggs behind the snowman in the garden, please spare a thought for the poor old retailers here. An early Easter has meant a logistical challenge on an epic scale.

Christmas with its accompaniment of chocolate Santas, baubles and Lebkuchen had to give way very quickly to the silliness of Fasching - and those giant football costumes seen above can take up rather a lot of space. And hardly was that over when the chocolate Easter bunnies started turning up in force. The manufacturers are not exactly making it easy, either. Not content with simple bunnies in milk chocolate, they are available in dark, white, diabetic and even cow pattern versions. And there are plenty of new products, too. My son demanded that I buy something that could politely be described as a "crossover innovation" and cynically described as "cashing-in" - an "Easter Egg Hunt" with chocolate eggs behind numbered doors in the style of an Advent calendar. I resisted.

The stores have had to be very nifty indeed to keep up with all this and most of them have risen to the challenge in true German efficient style. After all, who would really want to have the Easter bunnies rubbing noses with the leftover cow pattern Santas behind a clown's hat?

Having started this blog, I'm going to go all quiet next week. But I promise I'll be back with the answer to what the glamorous skier is advertising. At least she'll be happy this Easter!