Dare Iced Coffees back in Adelaide

[Eurostar]

I went to Coles at Westfield Marion on Friday and noticed Dare Iced Coffee is back on the shelf available in 500ml and 750ml bottles so I bought the espresso flavoured one. Is Coles the only supermarket in Adelaide selling it again?

[rev]

I need to buy toilet paper today.

[Hooligan]

I need to buy toilet paper today.

what sort of toilet paper?

[peas_and_corn]

I'm pretty sure the price of Quilton is Down and staying Down

[stumpjumper]

Adelaide has an ideal demographic for test marketing grocery lines, including for change of formula etc.

What's more, we are the toughest market for iced coffee, due to the absolute dominance of the mighty Farmers Union Iced Coffee (despite the graphics on the pack doing everything wrong from a graphic design point of view).

Dare may just be having another go at the icon's market share.

[Nathan]

despite the graphics on the pack doing everything wrong from a graphic design point of view

How so?

[Eurostar]

I've only seen it in Coles so far, haven't seen Woolworths and Foodland selling it again.
$3.20 for 500ml ($6.40 per litre).

[rev]

Adelaide has an ideal demographic for test marketing grocery lines, including for change of formula etc.

I've heard similar before, but never heard why we are apparently the ideal test market.

[peas_and_corn]

despite the graphics on the pack doing everything wrong from a graphic design point of view

How so?

It doesn't look very nice. The oval shape pattern isn't aesthetically pleasing for me, and the odd colour combination of blue and brown looks a bit weird.

[Vee]

Don't care much about the design. It's very recognizable.

FUIC is an iconic SA brand, tastes "heaps good", as they say, and the only iced coffee for me!

[stumpjumper]

Crap graphics: Thanks for the images, peas_and_corn.

I think that anyone in a design profession would fail someone who submitted the FUIC design for a product. In the days of physical paste-up for offset printing, there were big American books called 'Metro Books' which had hundreds of images and patterns meant to be cut out and pasted onto the layout sheet. Design by Metro Book was at the bottom of the design food chain - the cheapest, worst way of adding images and patterns to your ads.

Not only does the FUIC package design look as if the curly things hasve come straight from metro books, but it breaks a of cardinal rules of product design: 'Don't use more than a couple of fonts'. And the colours, brown and turquoise against a white background onto which everytyhing has been stuck.

They've tweaked the design slightly, but they dare not do anything to upset whatever it is that's working for them. The strange success of FUIC (in South Australia) is a well-known oddity in the grocery industry. It's an enigma, like the popularity of FUIC with tradies. What's that's about?

As to SA beiug a good testbed: Although the ratios are changing slightly, we sit on about the national average in most important demographic nu8mbers - percent working, percent over/under some age etc. So we are a good representative cross section to market to.

In addition, people in SA are somewhat isolated, and like most isolated communities, we are suspicious of change, represented by new products. It's said that if your product can succeed in an initial test in representative but conservative South Australia, it will succeed nationally. So we are an ideal test bed.

As mentioned though, FUIC is a special case. To knock that product from its spot in SA would be a real feat of marketing. And it's not as if FUIC beat some other product to gain its position as king of the flavoured milks - there was nothing before it. Now we drink 36 million litres per year of iced coffee and are the only place in the world where Coke is beaten in sales by a milk product.

BTW, I worked for three years selling and drawing up grocery ads, then for three years as a marketing manager in a lsarge grocery company.

[Nathan]

As someone who is in the design profession, I wouldn't fail the carton. It it fantastic? No. But it has a certain naivety to it that actually works in it's favour (most other products in the category are over designed), and has built up an enormous amount of brand equity here in SA. Your complaint about 'don't use more than a couple of fonts' is odd, given that I count a total of 2 typefaces in use (disregarding the Farmers Union logo. They probably use a different typeface for the mandatories on the back as well, but that's not an issue).

[metro]

this thread is making me want to buy some iced coffee

[ac83]

Just bought one. Love it!

[[Shuz]]

I prefer Classic Chocolate Milk...

Apparently not sold in Victoria!