Rio 2016!

I'm not talking about this years' Olympics. I'm talking about the soft drink company. They've kindly responded to my previous email. Here it is.

"Hey Kieran

Thanks for your email. I’m glad you like the product (me too although I am completely biased I know.)

So, I’ve checked you out – LinkedIn, website and your blog too. I see we make an appearance. I was a bit hurt when I first read it, but to be honest, I agree with you on many things. We have a pretty good liquid; our packaging is a bit naff and we do virtually no comms whatsoever. I’m a firm believer in a brand is what other people say you are, not what you think you are. So your perceptions are totally valid."

Copywanker here: Sorry to break the flow of the reply. But I've never heard a truer statement than "A brand is what other people say you are, not what you think you are." 

How many times have you received a creative brief with a make-believe consumer profile? In my experience it's usually car brands but I'm sure it applies across the spectrum. They normally go a little something like this: Meet Mark, a 42 year old family man, he owns and manages a bespoke organic soap company in Shoreditch. He enjoys the more luxurious things in life. When he's not out exploring the countryside with his family at the weekend, you'll find him in a fancy cocktail bar...and so on for another 3 pages. Sometimes even accompanied by a moodboard of what clothes he wears. Hey Mark, fuck off with your made up bullshit. 

That's a classic example of how a brand wants to be perceived. In reality Mark could be anyone with a vague interest in the brand. This arrogant shit needs to stop. Let your customers define what your Brand stands for.

Now back to the email... 

"So let me explain where we are with the brand. As you know, Rio is a tiny soft drink (0.05% market share) owned by the 7^th generation Hall & Woodhouse family – who are brewers (Badger beer, Tanglefoot etc.)  Before I came on board, Rio was literally a 4.30pm on a Friday conversation between a couple of Directors. Before then, Rio literally was a drink in a can. No website. No trade comms. Certainly no consumer comms. No direction. Nothing. But despite us doing nothing as a company, Rio continued to grow. 

We have just finished research on our core consumer and the fruit crush segmentation, so we can understand what’s great about Rio (and what needs to change) as we begin to plan for the future. I’m currently working on the brand strategy and brand world with a creative agency, and this new ‘brand world’ (with new packaging) should be agreed over the summer & autumn, with a proposed relaunch in March 2017.

When we have a brand world, look and feel and tone of voice, then we can move from our holding page to a full website, to coincide with the launch in 2017. And then we can move into social media marketing too. Yes, we have 105 people following us on Facebook at the moment, but I’ve not tried and I’m not going to until we know how we want to communicate. And at least our research has shown us our core and target market, and what social media platforms they use. 

Alongside this, I am also currently working on our distribution strategy too. That is going to be difficult. Playing in the same market as Coke and Pepsi is somewhat challenging, so we need to be creative and compete on or our terms. Somehow.

We still don’t have a marketing team or anything like that. It’s just me working on these strategies and putting things in place. I’ve got ambitious plans for our fabulous little Rio and I think it’s going to be super fun getting it to where we think it can go to.  

So I’ll be honest. It was a little shock reading on your blog what you really think of our brand, but as I say, fair enough. I like a bit of honesty. And I like entrepreneurs. We are obviously working with our London agency on the re-brand, but there may well be opportunities to help us with engaging with our consumers / social media / brand comms in the not too distant future.

Let’s remain in touch?

Lucy - Team Rio

p.s yes you can use this email on your blog if you would like"

To which my reply was...


"Hi Lucy,

Thanks for taking the time to respond and for linking with me on Linkedin. I really do appreciate it. 

Which makes me feel bad for causing any offence with my blog post. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to come across like that. I had to structure the article in such a way to emphasise what MASSIVE potential your fantastic product has. And after reading your reply I know you're confident in that potential too. You've got the right attitude and it sounds like it's all under control. You've got a very exciting future ahead. 

For what it's worth, I actually really like the current Rio packaging. It's fresh and sums up the flavours - also the white can sticks out a mile amongst the competition (unless I'm subconsciously always on the look out for Rio?). That said, I'm excited to see where the re-brand takes it. And how the brand will be positioned on the whole. 

I think the fact that Rio continued to grow without any comms speaks volumes for the product you have. Just imagine what it'll be like with a strong campaign behind it.

I understand why you're being patient with your current brand presence. It makes sense that you want everything in place before pushing forwards. If I can slot into that grand scheme of yours at some point I'd love to play my part. So please bear me in mind for any opportunities that arise no matter how small. And please feel free to use me for any consumer research you may want to conduct - chuck those questionnaires or whatever it may be in my direction. Let's stay in touch. 

Here's to a...fruitful future. Terrible I know, please don't hold that against me.

Thanks again for your time,

Kieran

P.S Thanks, it probably will make an appearance on the blog soon. :)"

So there we have it folks, well done if you read this far. Give yourself a pat on the back. Hopefully I'll be getting stuck into some Rio work in the not too distant future. In the meantime, do yourselves a favour and go buy a can.