Consumers have labelled the naming of Kraft’s new vegemite product as a “carefully crafted media stunt”, according to the results of an online survey by ad agency BCM.
Launched on October 1 and run until Sunday night, the poll, which included over 1,250 respondents, revealed a majority of respondents (77%) thought Kraft’s choice of name for its Vegemite spin-off, iSnack 2.0, and subsequent axing of it, was nothing more than a ploy to maximise exposure for the new product. The remaining participants (23%) said it was a “poorly planned, unintentional marketing fiasco.”
The survey results were released as Kraft closed its online public vote for a new name. The latest naming competition, which was launched on Friday evening and closed yesterday, included the names Cheesybite, Creamymate, Smooth, Snackmate, Vegemate and Vegemild, with the new name being announced on Wednesday.
BCM’s survey was launched despite a statement from the FMCG giant last week that that it was not seeking media attention by scrapping the consumer-generated name but rather succumbing to consumer backlash about the brand.
Kevin Moreland, agency partner of BCM, said the study clearly demonstrated to marketers the lack of trust consumers have for many brands and how cynically they view the marketing community.
“We now know overwhelmingly that people considered it a stunt,” he said.
“It would seem that people simply couldn’t accept that iSnack 2.0 was ever a serious contender as a name. Blogs and forums all over the internet were abuzz with people saying the name must be a joke, it was un-Australian, and that it failed to connect with Gen Y, the very audience it was intended to attract. People assumed therefore that Kraft must have carefully planned the marketing to maximise publicity.”
