Merrydown Cider
Branding and own label

Own label is when a product is identified by the business that sell it, rather than the company that produces it, for example; Tesco value Baked Beans is an own label product (the Tesco Finest range would be a type 2 own label as it’s a higher quality) but Heinz Baked Beans is not. Merrydown is not an own label brand.
Branding is creating an image of a brand in the customer’s eyes, this is usually done by advertising campaigns and is used to create a unique image of the product/company in consumers’ minds.
“A successful brand image BS can be thought of as the combination of three elements: a good product (P), a distinctive identity (D), and added values (AV):
Bs = P×D×AV” is how Doyle (1998) described a successful brand image.
Merrydown is a cider made in England. In this report I will be writing about their branding and how they combat own label products.
Merrydown use an Umbrella brand plus eponymous brand name on the bottles of cider they sell. In 2012 Merrydown started using Ziggurat Brands to help them rebrand there company. On their website Merrydown use different sized and coloured fonts to set their message apart, the wording they use is also quite playful to set themselves apart from their competitors.

As you can see by the diagram above, Merrydown use rhymes and hyperboles which is most likely to come across as playful and witty to the potential consumers viewing the page which would have been designed to give the potential consumer a positive opinion of the brand. Merrydown could be seen as using a Fox dancing and playing a guitar as their Brand Association, this is a positive thing because the image on the bottle makes it look like the fox is having a good time, this will form a connection in the minds of the consumer between Merrydown and having a good time.
Merrydown make dry, medium and flavoured