Halo Top has been taking the ice cream market by storm with its “decadent but healthy” offer. Discuss how Halo Top is disrupting the market—what is its strategy, and what does it need to do in order to succeed?
“Decadent but healthy” or “healthy indulgence” has traditionally been a tricky proposition, because health and indulgence seem to be diametrically opposed to each other. While there are many foods and drinks that could claim the label, it is much more difficult to fashion an identity that would appeal to the right audience (i.e., capture decadent food-lovers with something that looks healthy, or catch health-concious consumers with something that looks like Gü).
Halo Top, along with a few other new brands, are trying to disrupt the ice cream market by positioning their offer as delicious and guilt-free. A good place to start looking at how their brand is facilitating this is by considering the Goliaths in their competitor landscape. Think about their range, their visual and verbal identities, perhaps even what trends (in other industries or spaces) they are taking inspiration from. As a bonus, can you identify threats that Halo Top might encounter in the near future?
What are the opportunities and challenges currently facing top-end tequila brands such as Herradura and Patrón?
Tequila has an interesting marketing history: from being an artisanal and local liquor distilled in Mexico, it became the shooting spirit of choice in the U.S. with the popularisation of the lemon and salt ritual. (Alternatively, it was consumed in cocktails such as the Margarita.) Recently, big brands have started marketing tequila as a sipping spirit just like whiskey, which is how it is traditionally drunk in Mexico. Today, a number of challenges and opportunities are facing these big tequila brands. The following articles give you some clues:
- Mex factor: The tequila trends pushing the category forward
- The Future of Ultra-Premium Tequila
- Messing with the mystique of mezcal
Focusing on either Herradura or Patrón, discuss how these brands might want to respond to the opportunities and challenges that you have identified. This exercise is about understanding the category, assessing the direction in which it is going, and then formulating a viable strategy for your chosen brand. Use theory to help you assess how to investigate the category, and how a brand can credibly respond.
The 13th Doctor is here! Changing the face of a beloved personality is tricky. Taking a branding perspective, discuss the iconic Doctor’s latest incarnation, as interpreted by Jodie Whittaker.
Doctor Who has been running since 1963. To get around the issue of casting new actors as the Doctor, the writers came up with the “regeneration” device: as a Time Lord, the Doctor regenerates every couple of years into a new body. While each Doctor has their own take on the character, they need to be careful to maintain a sense of cohesion between the old and the new, because the device should push the series forward, not alientate its audience.
Doctor Who is a brand, and brands change with the times. Analyse the changes that were made with the introduction of the 13th Doctor, and the parameters that the writers and Jodie Whittaker have worked with. Have they achieved consistency and coherence, and if so, how? Are the changes that they made pertinent? Use theory to examine how brand thinking can illuminate (or even help!) the decisions that were made in fashioning the 13th Doctor.
Case study: devolutionary design
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/devolutionary-design/
case study: Ritz-Carlton
https://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2015/09/24/your-customer-service-style-is-your-brand-the-ritz-carlton-case-study/#243ec9db55ef
https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/0075B470?bcast=27772740
case study: How not to re-create another Vegemite iSnack 2.0 branding disaster
https://www.thebrandingjournal.com/2016/05/vegemite-isnack-2-0-branding-disaster/
case study: DEWmocracy
http://mountaindew.wikia.com/wiki/DEWmocracy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clXnQ3eIMCY