Are you a complainer?

A while ago while pouring myself a bowl of Uncle Tobys cereal, I found something that I wasn't expecting sitting on top of the nicely toasted flakes. A nicely toasted earwig.

Now, I'm not usually one to make a fuss about things, mainly because I'm a fairly reasonable person (partly because I'm just lazy). Sure I've complained to friends and family before, but I've never gone as far as the company. This time however, I felt I had to do something. If I didn't tell them they had creepy crawlies in their cereal, who knows how many people would end up eating them? Plus, I could be in for a payout.

I called up Nestle (the owners of Uncle Tobys) and told them of my discovery. While they seemed to show some concern and assured me they had control systems in place to make sure these things didn't happen, their only offering of compensation was a cheque for the sum of ten whole dollars. $10!?! I could sue them! I could take it to the media! I could make it my passion to make sure they pay for making me almost eat an earwig! Oh well, the laziness kicked in again. I took the cheque, and haven't bought the cereal since.

However, shortly after I noticed a story about a man who had found a cockroach neatly concealed in a Butter Menthol.

Oddly enough, Nestle are also the makers of Butter Menthols. It was reported that the man was offered a 'modest' amount as compensation. Hmm... seems like they're used to dealing with situations like this.

Maybe I should have taken it to the media like this guy did. I know I'll never be buying Uncle Tobys again, nor will I be buying Butter Menthols.

But what would you have done if you found an earwig with your cereal?

$39,000 for a backpack... worth it?

Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen have come out with a new alligator skin backpack under their fashion label The Row. It seems like a fairly standard bag until you see the price tag... $39,000.

Now, I understand status symbols. I understand why a few people (with too much money) would buy a product like this. But what's amazing is that they're selling out. They had pre-orders before they were even on sale, all stock has sold off the shelves and now they're struggling to meet demand. Whether it's because the Olsen Twins are behind it, or whether it's because its a very exclusive fashion item, being able to price a backpack at a level close to the average yearly salary just goes to show the power of branding.

But what about you? If you had a spare $39,000 sitting in the bank, would you contemplate spending it on a backpack?

What's new... Eggs?

Really? Eggs?

Okay, I'm pretty sure eggs aren't new. What's next, sugar? Surely the egg industry could have come up with something better than this. Sure, eggs don't have a brand as such. But there are plenty of great examples of how to sell a basic food product. The 'got milk' campaign is a perfect example:

Everyone knows the banananananananananana ad...

The 'We love our Lamb' ad has proved to be pretty successful...

Even the new 'Get some pork on your fork' ads have some resonance with the viewer...

So why would the egg industry use a 'What's New' ad? It could increase sales slightly in the short run (although I somewhat doubt that), but it isn't going to take a spot in the minds of consumers in the long run.

In my opinion, even a spoof ad would work better:

Would you pay for the label?

I've only just started to really think about the brands that we buy (mainly thanks to my consumer behaviour and brand management courses). Walking through Coles last week I started paying particular attention to their own brands: Coles and Coles Smart Buy.

Taking the tins of beetroot as an example, they have the same ingredients, the same amount, and they're made by the same company. The only difference is the label. Oh, and the price. The Coles brand beetroot was $1.25, but the Coles Smart Buy was 75c. That's a 67% difference. It may seem pointless, but its a great strategy by Coles. They're satisfying two types of people. The 'I want cheap food but I still want it to look good' people, and the 'Food's food even if it does look like it's meant for a dog' people.

But surely the educated shopper would realise that the only significant different between Coles and Coles Smart Buy is the label, right? Maybe they do, but they just don't like the feeling of buying a tin without a picture of what's inside on the label. 

What about you? Would you pay the extra cash for the pictured label?

Mastechef... Still as good?

This years Masterchef has come to an end and I got sucked in once again.

I can't really figure out why I religiously watch a show about cooking where I can't even taste the food. At least with the other talent shows on television you can see the hear or see their talent, but how do we know the the food they put up actually tastes good? Who knows... I still love it.

But this years Masterchef didn't really seem to stack up as well against the last two seasons. We didn't really have any of the memorable cooking triumphs (or failures) that we saw previously. And what really annoyed me about this years season is that it has lost most of the natural joy of cooking that it used to have. It seemed that this time they were just trying to create one suspenseful ad-break lead in after another. I mean... how many times can we wait 4 minutes to see if an egg is runny? Is it really that necessary to fire up the Masterchef flames every time a silver cloche is lifted? And also, why do they have to narrate EVERY LITTLE THING THEY DO?

Ahh well, let's hope season they bring it back to basics and create some of the great television we saw in the first two seasons. Either way, I'll probably still be watching no matter what happens.

So this leads us into our first poll:

Was 2011's Masterchef as good as the last 2 seasons?

Who am I?

Hi there,

Welcome to my blog. This has been set up to help with my Management of Brands course at the University of Adelaide. Our major assignment for this semester is to create a brand for ourselves, and this got me thinking. What is my 'brand'? How would I want other people to view me? However, trying to answer these questions only posed a much harder question: who am I?


Some people may see this question as simple to answer, but when you actually try to put it into words it's a lot more difficult. What should it be based on? I don't play on a sports team. I don't belong to any clubs. I don't even have a regular hobby, but I still like to think that I have a pretty interesting life. What I do have though are my thoughts, observations and opinions. So that is exactly what this blog will be about. Any time I have an have an opinion about current affairs, ponder about life's questions or even see something slightly amusing, I'll write about it on my blog. But I'm not just going to type out my thoughts and leave them there for nobody to read. I want to hear your opinions about what I write. Most posts will have a poll to gather your opinions, and I welcome your comments - in agreement or not. So look out for more posts coming soon.


Ben.