awholelotofcrunch

Curry Twiglets - vanished without trace

I got an email the other day from a journalist on The Grocer magazine. he was desperately trying to find a picture of Curry Twiglets to accompany an article he was working on,

I am a journalist writing for The Grocer magazine. I am writing a feature about the snacks industry, part of which is taking a nostalgic look back at Curry Twiglets. I need an image though and the current brand team has none. I saw your blog and wondered if you had any pictures of the Curry Twiglets packaging you could email to me?

I don't have any. I had a hunt around and I couldn't find any either. But, what is it with United Biscuits and Twiglets? They appear to be so bloody useless. Zero web presence of any use. A brand team who take eight phone calls to respond to a simple request for information from a journalist and now they can't find an important artefact from Twiglets of yore. It's fairly clear, they simply don't give a toss about Twiglets.

A whole lot of CRUNCH in a WHOLEGRAIN MUNCH!

Yep. That's the new message on the new bags of Twiglets about to be wheeled out of United Biscuits - whose online Twiglets presence remains utterly, utterly pitiful... As the regular reader will know the slogan has long bin 'A whole lot of CRUNCH in a WHOLEWHEAT MUNCH!' so, this is kinda big news, huh? Alors, the message changes, but the taste don't. Wholegrain or Wholewheat?? Lordy, you've gotta wonder how many marketing bucks went into that brainstorming session... Anyway, Talking Retail has more - much more - What the hell, I'll paste it in full. Just one question, What's an SKU? Normal people do read these things too, you know.

The new pack also sees a change in communication of the range’s principle ingredient, with the healthier snack now being positioned as a wholegrain product instead of whole-wheat. This message will be supported by the tagline: ‘A whole lot of CRUNCH in a WHOLEGRAIN MUNCH!’

The new Twiglets pack will also inform customers that each 25g bag contains 41% of their wholegrain GDA, further reinforcing the health message.

Twiglets will have a striking new pack design across all SKUs, designed to highlight to consumers the snack’s health credentials. The new livery will also increase impact on shelf, in turn delivering increased sales and profit opportunities for retailers.
The pack will highlight the following information in a red, tick box format:

• Less than 100 calories (per 25g serving)
• 79% Wholegrain
• No artificial colours
• No artificial flavours
• Baked not fried
• High in fibre

Nick Stuart, Commercial Manager, UBUK, commented: “UB remains committed to constantly improving their products and improving the nutritional communication to consumers. Twiglets is the latest brand to benefit from this.

“The Twiglets range already has a loyal following and those that are aware of the brand’s health credentials admit that this is a major reason for eating them.

“This new on-pack information has been designed to highlight that Twiglets are a healthier, tasty snack, and help increase the range’s sales, which have grown by 6% year on year.” link

I love that line "UB remains committed to constantly improving their products and improving the nutritional communication to consumers" Why? Your customers couldn't give a monkey's second hand toss about nutritional information. The recipe works, they taste great. That's it. Don't try and intellectualize this and preach to the carrot munchers. Just keep making Twiglets, be innovative (for once), talk to your customers, have fun online and encourage that conversation malarkey. And, if you don't know how to do that drop me a line. I don't come cheap, but I do know how the internet works. One other thing I know from running a Twiglets blog is that there are TONNES of folk out there who talk about your product. How about talking to them?

Twiglets packaging

The nosefurringly terrible Twiglets review at Taquitos does raise one interesting point. Well, the review doesn't raise any interetsing points, but the observation below the review does. There are a few quotes from the packaging,

"Satisfyingly 89% fat free!!" ... "Extremely crunchy!!" ... "Hazardously knobbly!!" ... "Jacob's products are baked with care, for your enjoyment." ... "Give 'em some stick"

Twiglets pacakaging has almost always boasted a distinctive lexicon. I hope to be able to catalogue the slogans, advertisements and logos as we go along. Compare and contrast the above with the most recent incarnation below - original syntax and capitals included,

 

"A whole lot of crunch in a wholewheat munch."

"Crunch Savoury Wholewheat Sticks"

"TOTALLY ORIGINAL entertain your senses! Only TWIGLETS give you that distinctive KNOBBLY shape, combined with a ZINGY taste & crunchy bite for all round sensual SATISFACTION"

"IT'S ALL IN THE WAY WE MAKE IT... WE BAKE I FOR A LIGHT & CRUNCHY BITE!"

All very in your face, innit? Capital letters, active adjectives and that old ally of advertising uh lot uv uhlliturrration.

I am a fan of the "A whole lot of crunch in a wholewheat munch" line, hence the name of this blog, but "Hazardously knobbly!!" and "Give 'em some stick" are not too shabby either.