72 STOLEN WITH PRIDE (PART 2 OF 2)

Magnum is an ice-cream brand owned by Unilever and sold under their Heartbrand line of products in many countries. It is a thick bar of vanilla ice cream, a little like a slice off a block of creamy ice-cream on a stick, covered in either white or dark chocolate.

The original Magnums, later rebranded as Magnum Classic, were sold in Europe in 1987. The true origins may be different but the story I have been told on many occasions is that the idea was “stolen with pride”.

It starts with a Unilever ice-cream executive who went on holiday with his family to Chicago. Once there the weather was lovely and he and his family discovered and enjoyed a local favourite, the Dove Bar.

On the flight home it struck him that there was nothing like the delicious Dove Bars in the Unilever portfolio and indeed there was nothing like it in any of its competitors’ portfolios in Europe.

Back at the office he re-created the experience he and his family so enjoyed and his team were immediately impressed.

Now they just needed a brand name and pretty soon “Magnum” was chosen, a name that worked on many levels. Literally, a magnum is “a large container of quality and taste”, it has very positive conceptual associations of quality, something extra, quantity, of celebration (champagne) and it is phonetically suggestive too – magniicent, magic, yum, fun.

And the moral of this story is that it’s ok to steal with pride. Are there ideas from other places in the world that could benefit your business?