Earlier this year, a new Vegemite product was trialed. I think it’s a combination of cream cheese and Vegemite, which is actually a very nice way of enjoying everyone’s favourite yeast extract spread. Kraft Foods, who owns Vegemite, held a competition to name this new product, attracting 40,000 entries. The winner was just announced. It is:
iSnack2.0
I am not joking. How bad were the other 39,999 suggestions, that they chose this one? Twitter and Facebook commentary has been overwhelmingly negative. Some claim it was deliberately chosen to cause controversy.
Anyway, let’s hope they rename it. Or, heck, get rid of it. Those that want cream cheesy Vegemite can easily make it.
I too think it’s a strange name, and the internet has been alive with comments about how bad the name is. I have literally seen comments about how bad it is all over the place.
Having not read a lot of the comments, I’m just guessing here, but I’d assume that people largely aren’t saying it’s a bad name because it won’t sell Vegemite. They’re saying it’s a stupid name because it’s a stupid, outdatedly-cliched name. It’s a name so stupid I’d feel like a bit of a chump putting it in a shopping cart. It’s a product I can only assume was made to increase traffic at self-checkout lanes because nobody wants to be seen buying iSnack 2.0.
It may be perfectly functional marketing (and, really, I’d assume it’s intended as a temporary name they’ll change once the buzz dies down), but it’s the sort of borderline-insulting mass-marketing that has really started to rub a lot of folks the wrong way, myself included.
I can guarantee that if GM relaunched the Chevy Astro as the brand new 2010 Chevy Pederastro, they’d get some serious attention and viral buzz as well. That’s not necessarily as good thing.
…needless to say, count me among those who would be too deeply ashamed to be seen consuming something named iSnack2.0 to buy it, regardless of how tasty it might be.
Only marginally worse would have been to call it Can Haz Yeest Spred Plz? or All Your Sandwich Fillings Are Belong To Us.
It’s so laughably outdated, that’s the worst thing about the name! But this might be sour grapes on my behalf, as I submitted about 50 names (hey, it was late, I was bored…). Still, it sounds like it comes from the Parwill school of naming.
I understand what he is saying, and I think that is true in many cases. I won’t say that he is definitely wrong in this case, since long term public perception is way beyond my ability to accurately predict. But I think there is a chance that he is wrong.
I think the name is just too stupid and outdated to translate into actual sustainable increased sales. There is a big disconnect between the entertainment associated with talking about the really bad name and being interested in actually trying the product. Sure, I know about Bacon Mayonnaise because Jon Stewart uses it as a running gag, but that doesn’t make me any closer to wanting to try it. Likewise, people thought it was fun to go around saying “I have had it with these m**king snakes on this mking plane!”, but that never really translated into a huge desire to actually go see the movie.
It is possible for hype and internet memes to exist completely distinct from any desire to use the product. There is a good chance that will happen here too.