We've all been had by MarmiteLast updated 14:23 21/03/2013
Isn't it time to admit we've all been Marmitedly had?
The fall and rise of "NZ's favourite breakfast spread'' has to be one of the greatest marketing campaigns of modern times.
Kudos to its maker, Sanitarium, but at times I've feared we've all entered one.
It was a year ago almost to the day that Christchurch-based Sanitarium announced that earthquake damage to its factory had halted production of Marmite - along with the production of virtually everything else in the city, for that matter.
Cue general hysteria, panic buying, and such media frenzy that it made international headlines.
From memory, it was the only story from New Zealand making the news in Sydney, where I was based at the time.
IPredict opened betting on when Marmite would be back on the shelves and - I am not making this up - a renowned celebrity photographer published an exhibition of the bottom of used Marmite jars owned by Rachel Hunter, Marc Ellis, and Sir Graham Henry.
Clearly, we'd all gone insane.
At the time, we were told Marmite would be back on the shelves by mid-year. But in July Sanitarium announced there would be a further delay till October, because damage to the Christchurch factory was "greater than we first thought''.
Clearly the company was distraught at keeping Kiwis from their "favourite spread'' - though curiously this didn't stop Sanitarium from slapping an import ban on UK Marmite, leaving 2000 jars sitting on the wharves at Lyttelton.
It was simply "timely trademark protection'', the company explained.
October came and went without any sign of Marmite till December, when Sanitarium issued another press release saying they were almost set to go, and the spread would hopefully be back on the shelves within weeks.
A full year after it disappeared, Marmite has returned in a carefully orchestrated marketing campaign that included free jars sent to politicians and media types, recipes for "Marmite chicken'' and a midnight supermarket opening that generated queues around the block in some centres.
The Apple corporation would have been proud.
Except ... some of us reckon it tastes a bit funny.
Has Sanitarium been mucking about with the recipe? As Griffins learned with Girl Guide Biscuits and Monteith's with brewing beer in Auckland rather than Greymouth, you mess about with Kiwi favourites at your peril.
I'm probably the wrong person to ask about the Marmite recipe. At the risk of having my passport revoked, I think Marmite has the colour of axle grease, the consistency of Butenol, and the taste of powdered soup mixed with salt.
And yet there's the rub, I reckon. Are the aforementioned products really Kiwi favourites? Or is it just that we're told they are?
As my colleague Michael Donaldson of the Sunday Star-Times noted in his beer column about another yeast product this week, a good backstory and Kiwi "heritage'' is becoming more important to some manufacturers than the product itself.
It's not just brewers that are doing it, of course. In this age of globalisation, the race is on for smaller, "authentic" locally made experiences that tap into the consumers' sense of nostalgia for the ways things used to be.
And there's nothing more Kiwi than Marmite, right? (Well, except that it was first made in Burton upon Trent). Politicians know the value of this too. John Key was quick to bemoan his dwindling Marmite supplies last year, though he somewhat undermined his message by admitting he could eat Australian-made Vegemite in the meantime.
Across the ditch, former (and possibly future) Labor Party leader Kevin Rudd constantly describes himself as "a happy little Vegemite'', referencing the 1954 advertising jingle of "Australia's favourite breakfast spread''. It's only a matter of time, presumably, before Key starts calling himself "a relaxed little Marmite''.
Sanitarium's marketing prowess could yet desert the company, however. One of the risks involved in taking the product off the shelves for a year could be that Kiwis lose the taste for Marmite - possibly lowering their sodium levels at the same time. That could account for the fact some people think it now tastes different.
Or, it might be just that those dastardly Aussies, always with a keen eye on the main chance, have moved in with their Vegemite and taken its place in the hearts of toast lovers. Perhaps we've all become happy little Vegemites.
All together now:
We're happy little Vegemites
As bright as bright can be.
We all enjoy our Vegemite
For breakfast, lunch and tea.
Our Mummies say we're growing stronger every single week
Because we love our Vegemite
We all adore our Vegemite
It puts a rose in every cheek!
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http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/blogs/bulldust/8455797/We-ve-all-been-had-by-Marmite
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August 19, 2013, 04:07:09 PM