Bring back cream crackers!

 I had a random thought today about how you never see any marketing for cream crackers.  Why is that?  Are they just not a foodstuff that demands any sort of promotion because it's too much of a commodity? But there's plenty of marketing for loo roll and washing up liquid.  Where do crackers sit?

Is it because there aren't any eating occasions for them?  Cereal is traditionally for breakfast, but Weetabix, Special K, Coco Pops and most vehemently Crunchy Nut are plugging every eating occasion possible outside of the breakfast window.  Crackers need not be typecast as a post-dinner cheese partner - cereal certainly isn't just about breakfast anymore.

Is it because a packet of Jacobs finest is not as healthy as Rivita? Well, Mcvities Digestives aren't and they're definitely in our mind's shelfspace - they're a treat, and I guess crackers could be too.

 Is it just because they're a bit boring?  Weetabix is boring, but thanks to The Weetabix Week, our perceptions are altogether different.

 I think with crackers there's a hugely underserved market.  After school snacks, lighter versions to appease health issues, a great partner with a raft of food. They're hugely popular in this country and have a fantastic heritage behind them that these lighter new-fangled Rivita-rip-off crackers can't benefit from. 

I remember as a kid my Dad saying 'I'm knackered, cream crackered' - that sentiment really rings true these days.  Let's resurrect these savoury beauties!

New demographics?

Today I got thinking about how we're living in an ageing population, coupled with people living longer, we've got a whopping senior demographic.  One day I might be sitting there with my mother and we're both pensioners, both technically in the same demographic group!  Madness!  Surely the folk down at Mosaic really need to think this through, I mean that's a pretty long lifestage, shouldn't it be segmented? 

Attitudinally, I am sure me and my mother will be very different, as we now are because we're from different generations.  Targeting brands to such a wide audience that is made up of the technologically mobile / silver surfers, to older, more laid-back retirees clearly is tricky because there's such a margin of error.  We may doubt how much the older generation may be receptive to messaging, but as they are becoming increasingly mobile and adopting technologies, they're infact just as ripe for targeting as younger audiences.  So, it really is an increasingly viable market, one which is growing and lacking in segmentation.  Just a random thought.   

Sonic Branding

With dwindling marketing budgets abound pushing recession-proof ideas to the fore, we're all being encouraged to think about things differently, more creatively, in order to get a real bang for our buck.  Having something that's ownable in a marketplace, whether that be a vision, an icon, a raison d'etre is something that all brands strive for.  But today we need to sit and think how brands can have the same traction on less cash. 

Sonic branding may be a good credit crunch busting solution, where brands own sounds or music rather than something visual - something that can stick in the minds of consumers just as much too.  This would be great news for radio, which has seen troubled times of late.  It would also be good for musicians, linking brands and bands.  If you start associating a brand with a sound, rather than an image, in the simplest terms, this could be so much more ownable and cheaper. 

If BA owned the sound of an aeroplane taking off and the TV spot was simply visually blank, sound on and end brand shot, the brand would be set to own the entire category through audio.

There are obviously limitations to this approach and not all audiences will benefit, but it's certainly an option. 

Staying positive in 2009

Happy New Year brand-fans!  Or, is it?  2009 is set to bring about even more uncertainties and there's a lot being written not only in the marketing press, but in the papers and on the news about weathering the recession and that bringing back some positivity to our lives is going to come from frugality and simplicity, taking stock and calming down, a post-Blitz Britain style approach to modern life.

This all uncomfortably sits alongside sales messaging that's being forced down our throats - "Sales are good" "70% Off!" "Come on everyone, get your wallets out!".  So are we meant to be spending or saving?  There's no doubt that we need to be spending to kick-start the economy, but all this sales messaging seems inconsistent with keeping our wallets zipped and watching those pennies.  How useful is it going to be for loads of us to go out and buy loads of cheap tat at the weekend? When is a saving a good saving? Is that the only time we're supposed to be spending when we can save at least some money?

The supposed dawn of frugality, where we'll be knitting our own mortgages and baking our own futures, is that meant to be a gradual affair that will creep up on us or something that we should embrace before it's too late? 

Any thoughts?