Vegemite’s Cheesybite neck-and-neck with none of the above
About the same number of people who took part in the public vote on the new name for Vegemite’s disastrously launched iSnack 2.0 did not like any of the names on offer as voted for the winning Cheesybite, Mumbrella can reveal.
When Kraft announced the winner earlier today, it said that 30,357 people had voted for a name, with 36% choosing Cheesybite. This would amount to about 10,900 people.
But in the online vote, as well as six names, a seventh option had been to say that none of the choices appealed. But this option was not included in today’s announcement.
However, after questions from Mumbrella, the company has said that a total of around 40,000 people took part in the weekend’s online vote, with approximately 25% not choosing any of the six names on offer. This would also amount to roughly 10,000 people.
Although he declined to share the exact numbers, Kraft’s corporate affairs head Simon Talbot insisted that Cheesybite had still come out just ahead of those who did not like any of the names.
He said: “It came out in front, just. Otherwise I’d have thought that we would have had to go back again.”
It’s not surprising. Whenever you put names in front of focus groups there are always one or two ‘don’t like any’ attitudes in the group. It’s human nature to be afraid of something new.
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I bet you that had iSnack2.0 been in that list, it would have won. Aussies love a battler.
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I suspect they will be changing it again, Cheesybite is way too close to Cheesymite, which means that Bakers Delight will be after them – if McDonalds can go after MacJoy and win (amongst others), then what hope a single letter change?
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Needed preference voting perhaps? Could’ve had a run off…
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I’m still gutted “#vegefail” wasn’t an option.
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Hey Kraft, Stop asking everyone else to do the work – make your own decisions, come up with your own ideas and grow a f*cking spine!
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Good point Clinton.
I believe the gutsy Aussie name ‘Tim Tam’ was not popular when introduced.
It’s lame name doesn’t seem to have been a sales problem at all.
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Kraft..Still a crap name
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I’m going to start up a bakery chain. I’ve got the perfect name: Maker’s Delight. 36 per cent of my friends really liked it!
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That’s very very close to Bakers Delight’s product ‘Cheesymite’……. Bakers Delight will be all over that and rightly so. I predict a third re-brand from the Kraft masterminds.
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Just another example of companies paying peanuts by not investing in a professional branding process and getting monkeys in return. Where is the originality ? is Kraft just another follower? They took the recipe of cheese and vegemite that the customer invented, chose a first name that was an adaptation of the Apple i pod and now are ripping off Bakers Delight ! What do the shareholders of Kraft think about the amateurs in the Marketing Department ? The only professionals in this pathetic branding saga is the PR company that’s being paid to minimise the reputation damage.
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I think Kraft wanted “Australia” to contribute to the naming of the new spread..but it seems a number of “us” are pretty thick like Vegemite and come up with lame names like iSnack 2.0
With Cheesybite…I can picture the cheese but what about the bite?
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I’m astonished about how truly ignorant many of you are.
in case you hadnt noticed, the iconic product ‘vegemite’ predated Baker’s Delight’s vegemite-containing product ‘Cheesymite’ by a good half century or so
it is Kraft that could have taken action against BD but obviously chose not to because its brand benefitted from the association/reinforcement
to suggest that BD would now have a cause of action against Kraft when it was the original intellectual property thief is ridiculous. If BD was stupid enough to make a peep, Kraft’s lawyers would tell them to cease and desist with the name Cheesymite in a heart beat.
“those b*stards at kraft have counter-claimed against Cheesymite
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Sven – that really depends on how much you can defend the ‘mite’ of Vegemite, which they cant, because it was a response to Marmite, originally a British product, the Aus/NZ rights of which were then bought by the Sanitarium outfit – 15 years before the ‘invention’ of Vegemite
Honestly, its the ones that throw the ignorant label around that really are the ignorant one. Next up, the ignorance of those that call other ignorance accusers ignorant….
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back to school, Dickens
irrespective of the truth of your historial assertion, and without going into the legal detail, Kraft dont need to defend the originality of ‘mite’ – only that Baker’s Delight with its Cheesymite product sought to benefit from the association with Vegemite – which shouldn’t be too hard considering that the baked good contains…er…VEGEMITE
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Well Sven, I would say that Kraft might have the right to stop BD using Vegemite in their product, but they have no say on the use of the phrase Cheesymite
The answer is that the lawyers will sort it out, but there is little doubt that the trademark ‘Cheesymite’ and the ‘Cheesybite’ alternative are too close and no responsible business would put it out there.
Do you work for them Sven, or the PR company? Personally I am now awaiting the long overdue Marmite action against Kraft
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Sven – you’re a tool. That’s about as strong an argument as a chocolate tea-pot.
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Helen – you’ve turned up a sandwich short to this bush lawyer’s picnic.
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Vegemite isn’t that original a name either – Marmite preceded that. So who knows which company mite have rights over the mite bit! 🙂
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i am off to trademake it now before anyone else does
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erm, trademark
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Do you not think that before Kraft announced the new name there would have been some serious consideration of a) if Bakers Delight are likely to take action and b) where Kraft would stand if that were the case?
I may be foolish for saying so after this iSnack 2.0 business but I would like to assume that Kraft would give it a little more thought than that, particularly seeing as this is round 2 of the naming game.
I’d put money on the fact that they will get away with this.
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oh come on Nitro. How can you defend those dumb-arse middle aged marketing fools when it’s far easy to be a 20 year old undergrad non-achiever who can snipe anonymously?
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To quote the Simpsons; “I’d have called it a Chuzwazza”
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Yeah well.. maybe they were considering milking it again more for what its worth. My comments here http://greatstrategy.blogspot......-said.html
I kept wondering… did Bakers Delight seize the moment and start putting up a sign saying something like “Try the now-famous Cheesymite”. Maybe they need some help from the PR team behind Vegemite.
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Who cares what it’s called, most tourists will still call it ‘shit’ or ‘eeeeeergh’ or ‘ewwwwwwwww’ or ‘grosssssss’ or ‘aaaaaaaaaaghhhhhh i can’t feel my legs, i can’t feel my legs!!!!!’ anyway.
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this is why monkeys shouldn’t be in marketing. and why kids shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
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