Chocolate Oranges - a Nudge, a Tap, and a Policy Unwrapped...

Terry's Chocolate Orange - tapped and unwrapped
Image by VerseVend via Flickr

Ah, what a gift to political rhetoric the Chocolate Orange is.  In a 2006 speech whilst leader of the opposition, David Cameron criticised 'irresponsible' marketers for placing special offers on chocolate next to tills in retail stores, highlighting the ironic unhealthy/healthy name of the Chocolate Orange and saying '"As Britain faces an obesity crisis, why does WH Smith's promote half-price Chocolate Oranges at its checkouts instead of real oranges?"(BBC, 2006).  Which party does he belong to again?

Well, this week the chocolate orange has reared its tempting, medusa-like head once again, with Ed Miliband dredging up this as an example of Cameron's failure to deliver on the promises made in opposition, telling 'The House' Magazine "If he can't sort out the chocolate orange, he's not going to sort out the train companies, the energy companies, the banks, is he?" (The House, 2012).

Terry's must be wondering what on earth is going on.  They've had quite a year of bizarre and perhaps somewhat unexpected publicity as it happens.  One of their flagship products and a staple in the Christmas stockings for many of us, the Chocolate Orange experienced something of a sales spike last autumn when a 'glitch' in Tesco's computer systems meant they could be bought for just 29p.  A buying frenzy ensued, with happy shoppers posting photographs of them posing with their 'Orange Art' in the form of giant pyramids of the boxed chocs (Huffington Post, 2011).

So, is all this publicity good or bad for the Chocolate Orange?  Well it depends where you stand on the 'all publicity is good publicity' debate.  My view is that anything that gets an old product in the news, particularly an old favourite, is going to have a 'Nudge' effect on sales (although you do have to get your pricing right of course...).  The irony is that a reliance on Nudge politics is exactly what Ed Miliband is criticising David Cameron for: "You know he believes in a nudge philosophy which seems to amount to just asking people to do nice things. But that isn't going to sort out the problem. You've got to change the rules" (BBC, 2012). 

Nudges work in marketing because they remind us of things we like (Barnard and Ehrenberg, 1997).  It's pretty simple isn't it? Reminding us of pleasure makes us more likely to seek it, whereas reminding us of pain and responsibility makes us want to...well...eat more chocolate...

I'll let you unwrap that one.