A Fish Called Colin

Marketing Week, April 15, 2009

Last week’s news that Sainsbury’s is renaming Pollack, 'Colin' (Sainsbury's 'renaming' of Pollack as 'Colin' divides branding experts. Marketing Week, 9 March 2009), certainly caused bemusement in the Prophet UK office.

Successful brand building is about clarity and consistency. Sainsbury’s has
built its own reputation as the place to go and 'try something new today' through education on ingredients and recipes.

So, when you’ve got Jamie Oliver, why do you need a Colin? Why, when your brand is built on treating customers as thinking adults who can understand the benefits of 'five a day’ and who know how to feed their families properly, do you resort to a cheap stunt?

If the campaign was aimed at children and Colin became a new Nemo character, educating children on the importance of sustainable fishing, then we just might understand it better.

This does not seem to be the case, however, and in trivialising the challenges facing the fishing industry, Sainsbury’s is not helping our cod or haddock stocks, and indeed their own brand positioning.

We would suggest they take the bolder more transparent approach, call a Pollack a Pollack and simultaneously reinforce their "food expert" brand.

Vanessa Cohen
Partner
Prophet