By now, you’ll probably have heard about the Cuthbert/Colin culinary clash if you were going to organically. Maybe it’s a couple of gentlemen partners in the middle of a kitchen showdown (you’ve got to wonder which studio has snapped up the rights to that particular slice of contemporary drama). Or some very middle class children in the middle of a bake sale battle for supremacy, proving who cares the most by shifting as many doughy cupcakes as possible.
No, it turns out that it’s two supermarket titans slugging it out for supremacy. As legal commentator David Allen Green has pointed out, M&S does actually have the right of it. They were the first crazy dreamers to bring a caterpillar chocolate cake into being and they’ve got the paperwork to prove it. However, just because they’ve got the law on their side doesn’t mean squat, especially as they seem to be really losing the social media wars.
But where do they go next? Does M&S climb down, drop the court case and try and put all this embarrassment behind them? Will they be able to put up with the inevitable crowing from Aldi? Or do they dig their heels in further, continuing the impossible defence of Colin (chocolate smothered Swiss rolls with faces are a little bit everywhere now. Even though M&S were the originators, there’s no way to reseal that can of worms)?
One of the main questions is how much impact does this really have on their business? We’ve seen that M&S is struggling, they’re having to move away from a clothing retail and depend ever more on their comestible offerings. As such, I suppose it makes sense that they’re clinging to Colin as a brand. But how many customers are there out there who’d make the special trip to purchase a Colin (as opposed to a Wiggles, Clyde or Clitenestra)? Or has this whole mess served as such an excellent PR stunt that sales of all of the above have gone through the roof anyway?
Song choices courtesy of: PJ Harvey and Meiko
The Ros Martin Archive 