There are two things that I really admire in the brand landscape right now.
The first is brands that have a proper, big idea at the heart of everything they do. A big, generous, sexy, take-it-home-to-meet-your-mum brand idea.
The kind of thing that gives everyone that comes in contact with the brand a clear understanding of the role it seeks to play in their lives. Preferably it's an idea that gives the brand a clear point of view on the things that its customers really care about - what I like to call a position, not a positioning.
The second is brands that, unlike some, haven't dumped their big idea at the first sign of the recession and a tough trading environment. These brands have also avoided relegating their idea to a meaningless platitude that appears at the end of their commercials.
So, my admiration for Sainsbury's knows no bounds. I loved the ‘Try something new today' activity from the very first time that I saw it in a Sainsbury's Local in London's Kentish Town and I still love it now.
It is clear that Sainsbury's loves it, too. Even the bloodiest advertising from the pen of Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO delivers the brand idea straight into the lap of the viewer, offering compelling reasons for shoppers to get to their nearest Sainsbury's store, pronto.
In this little gem, Sainsbury's encourages us to try chicken breasts with sun-dried tomatoes and black olives, joined by a medley of garden vegetables. The meal is then rounded off with raspberry cheesecake. It's not much to write home about from a creative point of view, and the food we are asked to try is not exactly at the outer limits of experimental cuisine.
However, it is a proper meal-for-two that is likely to delight the jaded palates of recession-weary couples, and anyone eating it would feel that someone had made a bit of an effort. What's more, it can all be done for only a fiver.
This offer is absolutely spot-on in appealing to the new value mindset that consumers seem to have adopted with an alacrity they usually reserve for new talent-show formats.
Isn't this the test of a proper brand idea anyway - that being clear about the role you seek to play in the lives of your customers sharpens your promotional activity? This is not only because your brand is seen to deliver conventional value to your customers, but also because your brand is believed to be of real value to them.