The Magical World of Airports

It was a late Thursday evening, I was at Amsterdam Schiphol airport waiting for my flight to depart to London. The flight got delayed, very unusual news for low-cost airlines. To gain some time, I decided to explore the shops inside the terminal.

I was amazed with the massive flow of people from all over the world and how airports represented a fantastic opportunity for brands to consolidate as global players. Furthermore, having a captive market that is eager to buy gifts for their love ones allows brands to engage with consumers in a deeper and more meaningful way.

Channel’s new N°5 L’EAUN pop-up shop (picture below) was the first store that grabbed my attention. The stall was located in a high footfall area. The fine and exquisite smell of the perfume pushed me inside the store. The face of the new campaign is Lily Rose Deep, she is an up-and-coming actress that embodies her generation and its values of freedom and boldness to perfection. 

Lily’s youthful image helps the brand to modernised and transform it’s heritage into a contemporary and fresh brand (to watch Neu Channel N5 commercial click here). The salesperson showed me samples of the different essences that goes inside the perfume and offered me to purchase the fragrance in two different sizes, these are 35ml (60 eur) and and 50ml (around 80 eur).

After leaving Channel pop-up shop, I jumped to Johnny Walker boutique. The store makes a wonderful job to immerse you into its brand history. I was astonished by the limited edition whiskeys which designs got inspired by iconic elements from the period each bottle has been created. The store is a true “brand equity booster”, its premium design anchors Johnny Walker in consumers mind as a high-ended brand.

I visited other stores but I couldn’t find any juicy story. It was late and I was tired of waiting for my flight, so I decided to go for a coffee to Starbucks. To my great surprise, the coffee brand was offering a service called “Starbucks Evenings”. The Evenings menu begins at 4pm and it includes an assortment of wines, crafted beers such as the new Espresso Cloud TMA  and various small plates, salads, flat breads and other many options.

While sipping my coffee, I started analysis why Starbucks introduced this new service. This menu extension will help the firm to increase the amount of visitors during the less busy periods of the day, furthermore, it will permit the brand to attract a larger audience (people that want to enjoy a salty and more elaborated evening snack & drinks). Moreover, wine and coffee have certain similarities that the brand will leverage on such as the growing access to both good coffee and wines and knowledge about both drinks has proliferated. 

Will Starbucks try to become the next wine “sommelier” brand? is the company piloting this service to subsequently introduce a new breed of stores? is it a way for Starbuck to get further penetration in the European market where evening snacking is so important? or can it be that the brand is as well premiumising its offering to charge a higher price to clients?

Oy! I lost track of time and it’s already time to board my flight! I grabbed my luggage and ran to the gate. What a flabbergasting experience has been exploring the magical world of airports!

Magnum – consistently cracking ice cream moments!

Magnum is one of the most well-known ice cream brands in the world. For more than 25 years it has tantalised the taste buds of fans around the world. 

This blog post will immerse you into the brand origins, the deep consumer insight behind Magnum and how it consistently taps into this insight with its marketing campaigns. This is the story of a brand that moved from being a simple stick to become a symbol of everyday pleasure. 

Magnum was created by Unilever in 1989 in cooperation with the Callebeut a famous Belgian couverture chocolate producer. Both companies came out with a premium ice cream that had the perfect balance of the highest quality chocolate and ice cream pleasure. It was the first hand-held ice cream specially developed for adults. Originally, Magnum was launched under the German Nogger brand. After a few years it transitioned into a stand-alone-brand. 

Magnum aims to attract “pleasure seekers” these are people that are looking for pleasure in their day-to-day. Nowadays, people have busy days full of activities and responsibilities, they don’t have time for themselves. Hereafter, people have the need to unleash their true pleasure and reward themselves. Magnum entice consumers to look for more moments of personal pleasure. This consumer insight travels all over the world and makes of Magnum a popular brand worldwide.

Magnum’s global expansion started in the mid-nineties with its introduction to the US market. The brand positioned itself as an ice cream for adults targeting people with witty & sexual oriented commercials (give a look below to Magnum’s most emblematic ad in the US during the 1980s).

After a successful introduction into the US market, the brand initiated its global expansion with the introduction of Magnum “Seven Deadly sins” ice cream collection (2003). The great success of this marketing stunt paved the way for the brand to launch other famous campaign which consistently built on Magnum’s brand image such as the beautiful “Five Kisses” campaign (2013), “Magnum Silver” celebrating the brand’s 25th anniversary (2014), “Magnum Pink & Black” (2015) and this year “Magnum double” that dares pleasure seekers to release their inner beast by opting for an even more indulgent ice cream experience. 

In 2013 the brand introduced the Magnum Pleasure stores, this is a pop up concept to bring the ultimate indulgent experience to people and give them the opportunity to decorate their Magnum. 

Magnum campaigns mentioned above allowed the brand to position as a trendy and premium ice cream manufacturer. Brand consistency through time has been a key pillar of Magnum success, nowadays, people associate Magnum with much more than an simple ice cream stick,  it enables people to find occasions during their day to let their true pleasure go.