Milka to attract Dairy Milk...will it end up as the battle between Kraft and Cadbury?

Kraft...after it managed to acquire Cadbury it decided to go head to head with it's flagship brand...Dairy Milk. In this regard, Kraft is gearing up for a UK roll-out of its flagship Milka chocolate brand in the UK

Kraft will launch Milka with a TV campaign, created by Ogilvy, on April 19th. Shooting for the spots are expected to start next week. The activity will include multi variate advertising including adverts in the press to promote the six different Milka variants and highlight the fact that they are made with Alpine milk.

Currently Dairy Milk is market leader in the UK, with sales of £371m last year, (nearly twice as much as its nearest competitor Mars' Galaxy which made £192m last year).

Will this start causing distress already between these two confectionery brands?

A new flavour will hit the market soon...discover the fifth taste

A new ingredient will hit British kitchens...it cannot be described as sweet or sour, bitter or salty...it is simply the Fifth Taste. This new taste is being launched by Laura Santtini, a chef and food writer.

The Fifth Taste, is basically a tube of umami, whose Japanese name roughly translates as "deliciousness".Waitrose will be the first supermarket to stock Taste No 5, a paste made from umami-rich foods such as tomato, Parmesan cheese and porcini mushrooms.

The new flavour, can be used as a main ingredient in stews, meat, and even as a condiment spread for panini, crostini and dressings. The existence of the umami taste was first discovered early last century by the Japanese and, although widely adopted in Italian cuisine, has only recently been accepted by Western scientists.

Will you be one who tries it? Let us know what you think about it...next week will be on sale.

Toyota is still not out of the woods

Toyota's problems might not have ended at all as it is considering the global recall of 300,000 Prius hybrid models as it is being claimed that these might be suffering from braking problems on icy roads.

A spokesman for Toyota in Great Britain said that the company is looking at all the customer feedback and data they have from US and Japanese bases. However for the time being the company hasn't yet decided what to do.

Should it be admitted that yet another problem has affected another Toyota model, it prove to be a huge blow to the Japanese automotive giant, which has already launched the recall of eight million vehicles suffering with an accelerator pedal fault.

Toyota is actively working on PR to help reassure consumers on the quality promise of the brand. These promotions have been launched five days after the marque rolled out a similar campaign in the US.

Toyota is closely monitoring customer opinions and concerns and no decision has yet been taken on whether to run further marketing activity later on this week. In my opinion, Toyota should not look at costs of marketing at the time being and go aggressive to reassure its current and potential clients. One must remember that Toyota is associated with quality and such link must be defended as it represents a competitive advantage for the brand.

Dominos change their route and take onboard Web2.0

Do you remember when Dominos was hit by a wave of negative publicity after some of its employees decided to put a video of their wrong doings online? At the time Dominos did not have any Web2.0 presence but was forced to go in and reply to the video in a few days.

From them on, Dominos looked at the internet as a good medium to promote. They have now issued a facebook campaign, basically a superfans app that sends users a promotional code linked to an offer. In addition there is an online competition to find Domino’s biggest followers or the 'Superfan King' and 'Superfan Queen'.

Fans have to compete between themselves on the number if fans they recruit. The winner will get prices from Dominos. The Domino's fan page on Facebook will also feature Domino's news, events and details of how to order online. Their change in online strategy can also be seen from the words ofDominos the outgoing marketing director who said that Facebook is central to Dominos social media strategy and this application will enable them to leverage the importance of brand advocates in growing their customer base.

Is this an admitance of the importance of the internet?