Tasty Marketing: Selling food through fashionable alliances
by Danielle Melia
Over the past few years we’ve all had to tighten our belts. People want more for less and supermarkets have reacted to this by focussing their marketing on pushing cheap, value products. In contrast to this being a ‘foodie’ has become more fashionable than ever. From our love of TV programs like Come Dine With Me to the adverts made sexy by that highly annoying M&S lady, everyone is wanting a piece of this pie.
Granted, there have always been fads but now food has a cultural significance of its own. We’d love to be known for being an amazing cook and throwing the best dinner parties around. We feel the need to buy organic products rather than bog-standard own brands and if like me when you get to the counter at the supermarket you probably find yourself checking out the neighbours trolley in a keeping up with the Jones’ style.
The brands that have picked up on this trend have done it with gusto. By making a stylish alliance with their brand they are appealing to women like me who love both fashion and food.
Who could resist?
Cadbury’s showed the rest of them how to do it when they formed the ultimate alliance between fashion and chocolate. In Autumn 09′ designer Giles Deacon took a short break from designing quirky numbers for size zero ladies to creating a silk scarf for the Cadbury’s Caramel Bunny in a very clever social media campaign which had women throughout the country competing to win a designer scarf on the world’s first digital pop-up shop. The bunny’s face book page went on to have over 500,000 hits during the period of the campaign and the queue for the pop up shop was never less than 1400. A combination of using social media in an original way and advertising a mass consumed product through the exclusive appeal of a high-end designer proved a huge success. Back in the heroin chic days of the nineties you could never have imagined a designer putting their name to a chocolate brand. Kate Moss pretty much sums up the age-old relationship between fashion and food saying “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”.
The ladies of Sex and the City also broke the mould and made eating* fatty food fashionable when they would regularly pop down to New York’s Magnolia Bakery for a cupcake. The trend for these pretty cakes has now spread far and wide. I remember being so delighted to find a glamorous looking gluten-free one in my East London village that I stumped up £2.50 for it. At the end of the day we have to remember that it’s just a cake with a bit of icing on top (and that you used to make them in school). When we are buying a cupcake what we are really buying into is a lifestyle. The allure of tradition and the façade that presenting a cupcake over brunch somehow makes us a stylish ‘yummy mummy’ type. It wasn’t a coincidence that this cupcake shop was situated in my Cathy Kidston adorned village; it was a considered marketing plan. Back in New York where the trend first started, cupcake blog ‘Cupcakes Take The Cake’ gets over 9,000 hits a day. Pretty amazing for a blog just about cake!
High in fashion, low in fat
Personally, I’d choose caffeine over confectionary any day. That’s why Chanel’s Creative Director Karl Lagerfeld is more a man after my own heart. Back in 2001 he reportedly lost 90 pounds by consuming only Diet Coke and steamed vegetables. It’s no surprise then that when asked by Coca-Cola he was more than happy to brand a Diet Coke bottle with the Lagerfeld name. The exclusive design of the sleek white, pink and black bottle means that this will be a collectable for years to come. The advertising campaign for the new bottle was shot by Lagerfeld himself and features two of his favourite super-skinny models. The models in question were Coco Rocha and Baptiste Giacobini a couple of Chanel catwalk favorites. A great example of how a mass produced drink has been given an exclusive appeal to the masses through stylish branding.
Au natural
There’s one trend which has become an important part of our culture today and that’s organic food. Because it’s perceived as being healthy and ethical it immediately has that stylish appeal. After years of bombardment with organic advertising the UK has gone hook, line and sinker for it. And like many others, I fell for it myself.
Riding high on the wave of trendy organic cafés is my favourite place to eat in London – Leon’s. Leon’s began as one small café at the end of Carnaby Street. The philosophy behind it is to serve organic fast food relatively cheap. The fresh food is made on-site and served up quickly in a recyclable, brown box. Favourites such as ‘Superfood Salad’ and ‘Blueberry Boost’ feature on the menu.
The food is lovely yes but it’s the fashionable Leon’s brand that has made it work. It’s hard not to love- the wooden tables, mismatched books and odd furniture all add to its allure. The bold Leon’s logo and illustrated fifties style menus with ‘innocent’ type language makes you want to take one home after each visit. Not to mention the smiley staff, who the directors insist on calling ‘family’ rather than colleagues. The general happy vibe adds the finishing touches to its nostalgic style.
John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby are marketing geniuses; not only did they spot a gap in the market for fast food that’s healthy but they also ensured that it was going to be a fashionable brand. They persuaded friend and top chef Allegra McEvedy (of Robert De Niro’s New York restaurant Tribeca Grill) to get on board – immediately forming a fashionable alliance with Leon’s. In 2005 Leon’s was up there on the Vogue list as one of the best places to grab a bite in London and a quote from the mag is proudly displayed in the ladies powder room. Leon’s now has eight cafe’s dotted across London, each with a unique interior of its own.
It comes down to these brands making their customers feel like they are buying into a lifestyle and not just a product. Whether it’s through the exclusivity of a designer collaboration or a stylish interior and ambience – it’s fashion that’s making them work well. In a time of recession maybe we don’t just want BOGOFF promotions and Iceland specials but want to be part of something better, something more exclusive? Even if is just clever marketing, sod it- I know that I do.
Tags: Allegra McEvedy, Baptiste Giacobini, Cadbury’s Caramel Bunny, Carnaby Street, Cathy Kidston, Coco Rocha, Come Dine With Me, Diet Coke, Direct Marketing Agency, Fashion Advertising, FMCG Advertising, Karl Lagerfeld, Manchester Advertising Agency, Marks & Spencer, New York’s Magnolia Bakery, Online Marketing Agency, Tasty Marketing, Tribeca Grill
