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by The Newspup

on Sep 28

Punters suggest Vegefail

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The unveiling of the new Vegemite’s name almost eclipsed the AFL Grand Final over the weekend and polarised Australians.

Kraft launched a campaign calling for Australians to name their new product, which received more than 40,000 entries. The winner, ‘iSnack 2.0’, was chosen, it has been claimed, to align the new product with a younger market and tap into the credentials of Apple’s iPod. The move aligns historically with the brand, as the original spread was named through a public contest held in the 1920s.

Dean Robbins, a West Australian web designer, won the contest, saying:

''It's been difficult to contain my excitement; I actually leapt out of my chair when I heard the news. To think that I could go down in Australia's history is overwhelming."

The online backlash was overwhelming, with #Vegefail rising to one of the most discussed topics worldwide on Twitter. One popular retweet mocked the name’s incohesiveness with Australian national culture:

“I said do you speak-a my language?/She just smiled and gave me an iSnack 2.0 sandwich”.

Academics have also joined the dissent.

“The name doesn’t actually capture the new product or say anything particularly meaningful about it,” said, RMIT professor of marketing, Con Stavros. “Putting an ‘i’ in front of a word is somewhat unoriginal, while adding ‘2.0’ is possibly confusing.”

“Credit should go to Kraft for generating such a high level of interest in their new product. But considering they apparently had tens of thousands of suggestions for a name for this new type of Vegemite, I’m surprised this is the one idea that came out on top,” continued Stavros.

7 Comments

BR.ads.news
  • Wrote on 28 Sep, at 02:53PM
Calling something iSnack 2.0 in an attempt to be modern and contemporary would be like Ford naming their new car the 'iModel T 2.0'. It's such a passe term (like most media/tech jargon) which means absolutely nothing on a shelf next to Nutella or Peanut Butter.
Bob
  • Wrote on 28 Sep, at 04:46PM
I don't think you quite understand the meaning of polarise. You see, in order for it to polarise the nation, some people would have actually had to LIKE the name.
Also, at this point, it's fairly obviously a fake name (the worst they could think of) to drum up publicity before they rename it Cheesymite
shayne
  • Wrote on 30 Sep, at 06:47AM
if you look at the history of vegemite branding, when it was first named, apparently the product didnt sell well,so they tried renaming it parwil as some sort of pun on marmite (ma might but pa will) anyway after a while that bombed worse so they reverted to vegemite.

the moral of the story is that eventually this product will revert to the name "name me".
Editor | Sean
  • Wrote on 30 Sep, at 10:06AM
Believe it or not Bob, I've met a few who don't mind it. One is a personal friend, which has made me question whether it's wise to associate with the 'taste disabled'. I'll concede polarise may have been too far, but there are a few scary individuals out there who can't see the multiple layers of 'wrong' that envelope that name.

I love the prediction Shayne!
marion
  • Wrote on 1 Oct, at 09:42AM
Simple name thats all it needed...Vegemite....Same Same but different thats what i would have called it.
amy@robejohn.com.au
  • Wrote on 2 Oct, at 03:38PM
The fact that we're even having this discussion is testament to Kraft's genius. Whether the Vegemite creators stick with iSnack 2.0 or not, you can be sure of one thing - iSnack 2.0 has created a whole lot of awareness & curiosity that can only be good for sales of the new Mite.
George Hall
  • Wrote on 2 Oct, at 10:02PM
Looking at the #vegefail hashtag tonight and see the reaction to Kraft's final 6 names is about the same as the reaction to iSnack. And a few of us are wanting to see SPREDGEMITE in contention. That was first proposed months ago and even a hashtag two months ago.

Spredgemite stands better as a unique brand, while still reminding everyone it's a vegemite, there's an automatic "Spredgemite...spread the word" tag...and it EVEN fits the Men At Work song.

"I said do you speak-a my language/he just smiled and gave me a SPREDGEMITE sandwich."

Need i say more?

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