Dear Laphroaig, Thank you for #OpinionsWelcome – your use of reactance (the cognitive bias that occurs when individuals feel compelled to like something more, when others reject or disapprove of it) is masterful.
In fact, so much of #OpinionsWelcome is brilliant – not least your fresh consistency, new expressions of the same core idea, aka in marketing speak as “campaignability”.
Thank you for being self-aware enough to know that people, many people - most people? - find you to be extremely challenging. And cannot say your name. And for making a virtue of both.
Thank you for being brave enough to make it abundantly clear that you're not for everyone. Very few brands would be comfortable including such detailed and derogatory “descriptors” in their own communications.
So, thank you for: A strange smell; iodine; like a medicine cupboard; school lavatories; oily, like smoked fish; seagulls’ armpits; damp dog; tree bark; brine; smoky bacon; tar.
And thank you for these guys’ NEFs (Not Enjoying Face):
But also thank you for Granny who responds “Not really” in response to being asked whether she likes it, whilst putting the glass to her mouth for another sip.
But also, thank you for, in amongst the feint praise, interspersing: Peat; cream; freshly cracked pepper; seaweed; ancient woodlands; rugged mountains; giants wielding swords; beast.
And thank you for finding (the poet?) Joseph Elliott-Coleman.
And thank you for being customer – and non-your-customer – centric. Thank you for removing any doubt, that these are real people saying what they really think about you and reacting authentically.
And finally, thank you for not going fully polarised, into the love it or hate it territory. Yes, the Marmite brand is brilliant, but thank you for choosing an alternative more nuanced path. Thank you for embracing the concept of disagreeing agreeably.
Just as Rory Stewart and Alistair Campbell have brought the phrase bubbling to the forefront of my mind as the founding principle of their brilliant Rest is Politics podcast, you have demonstrated that it's ok – in fact a good thing – to have an opinion that's different from those around you, friends, family or indeed strangers.
So thank you. Thank you for inverting the laws of logic - by appealing to the few, you're actually appealing to many.
Thanks again Ned