"Would you like a free bag"

I wrote some time ago about "Green Tape: Results and Resentments". While I don't want to weigh in on the environmental discussion I will talk about marketing. So, when a person looks at a bag they paid money for, hanging full of last night's fish bones, they see a brand.

For sure you don't want the thoughts there to be "those "******" charged me 15c to have their name here, and in little old SA we're the only suckers who do that.

I bought some things today. At Myer I just got a bag. At Target I was asked "would you like a free bag for that".

It's unfortunate for the supermarkets that they're caught in this. I don't have the answer - thin supermarket bags were a problem.

Now thick 15c supermarket bags present some other sort of problem, just to supermarkets and less so the environment.

Combine and transcend: Nippy's Fruchocs drink

Not my preferred combination of flavours but at least they're trying something.

Remember "Woodrooofe's" Lemonade?

As a South Australian I remember "Woodies Lemonade" and I can remember enough about it. Can you?

I was at a pizza shop in Murray Bridge with some buddies last night and it all came back to mem

This is why a Superbowl ad is worth $4.5m

Industry CPM (cost per thousand impressions) is about $37. So a $4.5m ad, getting 120m viewers makes it about right. But as the graphic shows, viewership has tripled over the last 30 years, while the price per spot has gone up x100.

http://www.vox.com/2015/1/29/7930859/super-bowl-ad-economics

So, have we found the ceiling?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrissmith/2014/01/29/have-we-found-the-ceiling-for-super-bowl-ad-costs/

Changing needs: Aging is big business

I just walked past this (clearly old) sign for the over 50s club at the Payneham Senior Citizens Centre.

As I get closer to that age I can tell you - that offer doesn't speak to me. Still just as 30 years ago - I didn't invent adolescence and at 47 I haven't invented aging.

But there are a bunch of baby boomers doing it now and as ever - they won't be denied. By pure weight of the volume of the customer group the baby boomers are redefining aging.

As an early gen Xer I have always been carried along in the draft of the baby boomers - schools and other facilities that were built for them end up benefiting me.

So I'm glad that the baby boomers are redefining aging.

Low reach poorly targeted

Someone has some leftover construction steel in their shed and decided to do some advertising. I wonder how it's working?

In a back street of St Morris, relying on passing traffic. It could work - but it might not.

Riedel: The Wine Glass Company

I love a brand tagline that needs no further explanation.

But Riedel have spent decades cultivating the brand associations that allow them to be so succinct.

"Mother's Love" rose

A lovely gesture from our nice next door neighbour that I never really thanked them for. They gave it to me after Mum died in July.

It has battled off thrips this spring and now has nice flowers.

Nice.

Cool climate wine: More than I expected from a Pinot Gris

As I spoke to my bottle shop guy I admitted to being underwhelmed by Australian whites at the moment, so he accepted the challenge.

And this from the Mornington Peninsula has impressed me. I wasn't expecting much; the last Pinot Gris I had was oily and a little "meh".

It must be the cooler climate - the longer days allowing the fruit to ripen and sweeten but not boil quite so much. This is fresh, even on the nose, and I can taste some real fruit at the front end. A minute after swallowing, I still have flavour sensations - good ones. I don't know a heap about wine but I call that a good sign. This is nice

And a shout out to my other cool climate winemaker buddy, Paul Smart of Pressing Matters. Another cool climate product that impressed the hell out of me.

No wonder they persist in Central Otago.

I resent buying pre - made stock

We have this system. When we run out of something or want it for cooking, we put it on the shopping list.

Revolutionary I know, but as a family we've recently been able to make it work.

The flip side, however, is that if something's on the lust then I'm honour bound to buy it. Even when I hate the idea.

And I hate prepared stock. The same thing as a stock cube or powder, just that it still has the water in it. So we're shipping around tonnes of liquid so that a consumer can feel like they're using "real stock".

Still, a lesson in marketing, I suppose. Value to the consumer comes from things other than the core product.

Congratulations to Grant Burge

Grant Burge has won the entreprenuer's award. Build a business and sell it at a time of your choosing, and perhaps stay on as an employee.

Grant Burge is the first winery I came to know. The first you come to as you drive into the Barossa Valley, situated right on Jacob's Creek (yes it's a real creek) the winery is beautiful. It has a great personality, great cellar Doo and of course stunning wines. Grant was a member of a football club I managed the bar for, and in 1988 I went on a bus trip with the Norwood Football Club members to a great dinner at Grant Burge Wines. I've sat at a table with Grant on the odd AMCHAM lunch. He might just remember me.

So, Accolade has bought Grant Burge Wines. It's a common process in the maturing of a product category. Congratulations to Grant.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/mergers-acquisitions/accolade-seals-deal-to-buy-grant-burge/story-fn91vdzj-1227141063684

Hilarious takeoffs of brands..

Some reflect the brand promise - as does this one - but others are just pure parody:

Remember the iSnack debacle?

Fact of life. Stay around long enough and the things you lived through become case studies in a textbook.

Today it's the iSnack 2.0 / Cheesybite saga of 2009.

Kent Town Barber: Clever service design

I know this person. She took a tiny office in Kent Town, got a barber sign made and a few renovations on her room and started trading.

Not all marketers wanna own the world. Some just want enough money to pay a mortgage, a little self respect and some freedom. That's all I want.

And this person is doing it well. She knows who her customer is - she calls herself a barber, not a salon, and does pensioner rates. She knows what she's selling - a simple haircut. She knows the benefit a customer gets - hassle free, no appointment, good price, nice person for the ten minutes there. And she's literally a stone's throw from Bunnings.

Some marketers are born, not made. And all credit to this person - she's a born marketer.