I’m not a fan of plastic marketing.
Plastic marketing is bland, boring and gets on my nerves. I’m not sure whether the creators imagine that anyone will identify with it, but I know that I sure as hell don’t. I think of plastic marketing as the kind of thing with beautiful, skinny people in very tidy homes. Most of them seem to have an endless supply of patience and the inclination to smile at their relatives and troublesome pets more than I would consider to be reasonable.
I can’t recall ever having gotten dressed up to sit on the couch and flip through a magazine. As a side note: if that couch happened to be covered in white fabric, people under the age of 30 (including my children) would require a permit to make contact with it. If the woman in the picture on this page was really trying to relax, she’d be in a tracksuit with her feet up, watching Game of Thrones on Foxtel with a cup of tea in one hand and a bag of crisps in the other.
I prefer marketing that’s honest, clever and funny. Most of us make our own tea, vacuum our own carpets and do our own grocery shopping so we have a fair idea of how real life works.
As British as the queen.
A great cup of tea can be one of life’s simple pleasures, but for the population of Britain it’s more than that. It’s such a fundamental part of everyday life, that provided you’re not wasting the hot water on something weak, pale or smelling of flowers, putting the kettle on is the appropriate response in almost every situation.
It’s not just women who feel this way, a hot, strong, sweet brew – often referred to as Builders Tea – is equally at home on a building site as it is in Buck House. There are plenty of well known British tea brands and I’m sure some of them probably choose plastic when it comes to marketing their brand, but I’ve recently come across one that has taken a stand and said no to faux.
My Ripper Marketing nomination of the month goes to an English tea brand with some very un-plastic marketing, Make Mine a Builders. Not only is their tea strong enough to make a spoon stand up in the cup but they’ve created a story that is charming, patriotic and funny. With headlines like “this country wasn’t build on camomile” they’re honouring traditions that lie at the very heart of what it means to be British.
Make Mine a Builders have chosen the colours of hard hats and danger tape to set the scene for their brew but combined those with traditional elements like a script font logo and a patriotic nod to the past with a vintage British flag tea cup on their packaging. They’ve created actual alliances with The Builders Federation and flown the flag for British sporting teams on social media.
Marketing like theirs is funny, authentic and so charming that you can’t help feeling unpatriotic not putting a box into your shopping basket, despite not being British or living in Britain or having to pay three times the price of an ordinary box of tea in the supermarket, for the privilege of enjoying a really decent cup of tea.
If marketing is about the sizzle rather than the sausage, I can’t help thinking that the design team at Make Mine a Builders are onto a winner. Bottoms up fellows and I hope we see plenty more great content from you in the future.
Check out their website for more great stuff: http://www.makemineabuilders.com
