Re: General Discussions
Reply #1234 –
The thing is Shane, Coon/Cheers cheese is a minuscule component of a very large range of products manufactured, imported and sold by the various arms of Calendar Cheese/Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Company/Saputo. I listed some of their brand names in a previous post and they cover everything from caviar to chocolate. As I said before, it is ludicrous to suggest that rebranding one of their products caused such a drop off in sales across the board that they had to close plants in Victoria.
The only "evidence" that the change from Coon to Cheers had an impact on Saputo's profitability are some throw away references to the name change in the Murdoch media's reporting of the closure of Saputo's Maffra plant.
Completely agree, David. When I saw their rebranding efforts my first gut response (sorry Wingman MAV ) was that it was half-@rsed and the reasons were perhaps a lack of interest, or lack of funds or a company overall problem. Or maybe a combination of these and more. Personally, once they realized the offensiveness of the Coon Cheese name, I saw it as an opportunity to rebrand in a strong manner that may have actually boosted their sales... ambitious, perhaps, but when you're in the news and getting lots of free publicity that does present the opportunity to turn a problem into a gem of an opportunity. I had a similar situation when rebranding a radio station that had a very ordinary reputation, and the rebranding was a success because we went the whole hog.