Only if you have been locked in a windowless cell for the past six months, without contact with the outside world, could you be forgiven for not noticing Magners.
Cider, once the preserve of adolescents and those of no fixed abode, seems to be all the rage and it's Magners that's leading the charge. Its Irish owner C&C - once known as Cantrell & Cochrane - is reportedly ploughing £55m into advertising and new production capacity as it plans to double Magners UK sales for the second consecutive year.
Originally launched in 1999 as C&C's overseas version of its Bulmers brand, high-profile, localised launches for Magners in Scotland and London have helped transform the image of cider.
Magners' points of difference seem to be that it's served from a pint bottle, over ice, rather than draught; it's Irish; and it is made with a "high" percentage of fresh apple juice.
Throw in some sexy labels, heavy promotional work - such as a 96-sheet spouting real apple blossom - supermarket offers, a slick TV campaign, a catchy soundtrack (Sunshine Superman by Donovan) and soaring summer temperatures and what do you get? The appley sweet smell of success it would seem.
YouGov's BrandIndex shows that since October 2005, Magners' ratings have been slowly edging up right across the board.
The latest campaign broke at the beginning of June and plays on the same themes as previous ads - long evenings, the outdoors and friends relaxing. It's not ground-breaking stuff, but it does seem to be effective. Magners' "buzz" rating moved up five points, from +3 to a high of +8 and general impressions briefly touched +8 before settling back down to +3.
Its quality rating also rose four points, peaking at +8, before falling away and C&C will be less pleased by the fact that the drink's recommend score, which briefly rose, actually ended up down two points at +2.
Perhaps it was no coincidence the fall in "recommend" happened after another England defeat on penalties. It seems Magners may indeed be the drink of the summer, but it still doesn't prevent a football hangover.
Methodology: YouGov's BrandIndex is a daily measure of public perception of more than 1,100 consumer brands across 32 sectors, measured on a seven-point profile, with data delivered next day.
YouGov interviews 2,000 people each weekday, more than half a million interviews per year.
This means you can spot trends as soon as they happen, not when it's too late. Respondents are drawn from an online panel of more than 130,000.
The score is the net rating: people are asked to identify the brands to which they have a positive response, and then those to which they have a negative response, to whatever is the prompt measure. The net score is the positive minus the negative.
Each is taken independently - in any one survey, any individual respondent is asked about only one measure for the sector, not all seven. Therefore, none of the readings influence each other within the survey.
YouGov stresses the importance of this. The seven measures that make the complete profile are below.
1. Buzz
2. General impression
3. Quality
4. Value
5. Satisfaction
6. Recommend
7. Corporate reputation
In addition, Brand Index supplies an overall index score.
www.brandindex.com
Contact: sundip.chahal@yougov.com.
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
