There’s been a lot of caterpillar cake drama, but which names do you remember?
Pretty much every supermarket has a caterpillar cake named with a cute yet slightly weird name: Curly, Clyde, Wiggles, Cuthbert (👀 ), and of course, the G.O.A.T, Colin.
But why have the big brands turned to personifying a caterpillar cake? And in Marks and Spencers case, bought in a female love interest (she’s called Connie the caterpillar if you’re interested).
Well it turns out that naming products helps the customer to recall the product and therefore increase sales.
Colin vs Cuthbert
Marks and Spencers may be a bit miffed that all the other supermarkets have come in with their own personified caterpillar cakes. Yet none have marketed them in the same way M&S have.
There is a Colin the caterpillar empire out there, with loyal devoted fans. In fact the marketing has been so well done, that many will think of the brand just at the mention of ‘caterpillar cakes’.
German retail giant Aldi, have in recent years come for other supermarkets with their cut-throat advertising. They’re not only cheaper, but also know how to show off their deliberate replicas and compare them in humorous ways, resulting in audiences flocking to their stores.
Aldi is not only seen as a cheaper alternative, but also more relatable - so why would we choose snobby colin over cool cuthbert. I think we can see why M&S sued Cuthbert over any of the other caterpillars now…
The Infamous IKEA Djungelskog
Stepping away from caterpillar cakes (😢 ) we can see how the naming of products is used elsewhere to boost recall.
IKEA sticks to their roots when it comes to naming their products, and it works wonders as their USP.
If you’re familiar with Twitter you may remember hearing about the big bear toy IKEA has in stock. But can you remember what it’s called? No? But you know exactly what I’m talking about, because it went viral, partly for its ridiculous Swedish name. Sorry, Sweden!
The Djungelskog bear became a Twitter meme, which saw the search term ‘Djungelskog’ peak multiple times over the past year. And I don’t think many people in the UK were searching for the Swedish word, that translates to ‘jungle forest’, other than to find this bear.
Recall = Conversions
All in all, recall is a massive part of conversion and it turns out that personification does a good job of making people remember you and encouraging them to go back time and time again.
In fact, M&S does this incredibly well with just 2 products. The supermarket itself is targeted at those who are fairly affluent and like the finer things in life, yet will still bag sales from us regulars who can’t resist the temptations of a decadent caterpillar cake and some piggy faced sweets (don’t dare accuse us of forgetting Percy!)
What I’m trying to say is product names do matter. A product with good recall associations, as well as being easily marketable, will always create the best conversions.
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