Mix asks because a 20-year-old pack of coffee dropped onto our desk the other day, sent in by eagle-eyed reader Linda Batt-Rawden of the Impact Agency.
Marketing's recent scoop on Nestle's decision to enter the 'real coffee' market to counter the long-term decline of Nescafe instant coffee (September 26) had rung a bell.
She ran into the kitchen, flung open a cupboard and there it was - a dog-eared old pack of Nescafe Gold Blend Ground Coffee. "It's been sitting there since the 1980s," said Batt-Rawden. "I knew Nescafe had tried it before."
After the usual forensic tests for anthrax, Mix pondered the old cliche that there's no such thing as a new idea.
Marketing's newshound apologises to Nestle for his original claim that this will be the company's "first foray" into the ground coffee market, but insists he is "too young to remember the last one".
It's got Mix thinking though. How many other gems are lurking in the dark cupboards of the marketing community?
Please feel free to send in interesting old brands. Vintage claret or single malt would be particularly fascinating.
The exercise could even make the fortunes of some ambitious young brand managers. Who knows what great brand innovations they might 'dream up'.
Flavoured cola maybe, after- dinner mint chocolates or what about a branded German wine - you could call it, er, Red Nun.
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