Here’s a perfect example of the food shot dilemma – is this a stronger brand when we don’t see the final product steaming in the mug? Instead of showing us how good it will taste, a smiling mug tells us a story of how we might feel about this flavour – ‘Ooh la la’ in the case of French Onion. Colour-coding is also stronger in the new design, so given the grab & go nature of a snacking purchase, I think this works well. The acid test is when it’s pitched against a steaming mug of Private Label ‘quick soup’ for 0.69, but what we don’t know for sure is whether good taste, or brand personality would help us most.
Wouldn’t be too hard to do that acid test.