A reserved "hats off" to the good folks at Woolworths for some fab (ish - our reservations are below) coverage over the weekend: their new value range got across-the-board coverage as they announced a £5 bottle of champagne.
The retailer is to sell a "limited number" of the bottles in the out-of-town superstores where they have secured a licence to sell alcohol. The whole thing felt like a stunt - but a fab one at that.
Cue a mass of media debate about whether it is the cheapest, whether Woolworths can do it profitably - and whether it goes better with a strawberry fizz or a banana twist from their Pick n Mix range (the brand launched the bottles to journos with a bag of "paired" sweets they would recommend enjoying alongside it).
The reason for the reseravtions are the reactions of some of the wine writers who sampled the products as part of the news coverage. The pieces included The Times, Daily Telegraph, The Sun, Daily Mail and a whole range of others. The biggest piece of coverage was in The Guardian - a full page across page three of the paper.
However, The Guardian described it as "flat with a morning-after taste," which did rather undermine the messaging. So our question is whether the flat (ho, ho) coverage of the product undermines the brand message - reinforcing the perception that Woolies is a bit cheap bu shoddy.
Interested in views ...
Comments