Colin & Cuthbert

[Comefromaway]

I have to admit that I've been loving Aldi's twitter feed the last few days along with all the other companies that have joined in.

But now they have appealed to M & S to raise money for charity not lawyers by donating all profits from a limited edition Cuthbert to two cancer charities, one they are linked with and one M & S are linked with.

It's not putting M & S in a good light to be honest.

They should just rename it to Cathy and that could open a whole can of worms about presuming genders of cakes 😂

Aldi is being “targeted” because their product is significantly lower in quality than the M&S version. Once out of the box eg at a party, guests might assume it’s from Marks and be disappointed. They therefore wouldn’t buy the M&S version for their own party

Very good point. I haven't done a blind tasting (yet) but I bet there's a noticeable difference for the discerning palate. Trouble is, many people like cheap ingredients.

@HectorHalloumi

I thought it wasn't available because they had to take it off the shelves while all this was going on?

I believe M & S have singled out Aldi because they often come out top on taste tests and M & S are running scared.

#freecuthbert I'm obviously an idiot who is totally ignorant of business, eh Emilyfrost

No, it's a seasonal product and hasn't been sold since mid February.

M&S made a huge mistake targeting Aldi, even though Aldi have been sneaky with the whole charity thing today. There are so many caterpillar cakes anyway, so why Aldi? But yeah, M&S fucked up, it’s a lose lose situation for them now.

@campion

Aldi is being “targeted” because their product is significantly lower in quality than the M&S version. Once out of the box eg at a party, guests might assume it’s from Marks and be disappointed. They therefore wouldn’t buy the M&S version for their own party

Very good point. I haven't done a blind tasting (yet) but I bet there's a noticeable difference for the discerning palate. Trouble is, many people like cheap ingredients.

One of the nicest birthday cakes I've ever had was from Aldi (and it was blind as I didn;t know at the time. I'm a lover of nice chocolate (current favourite Laderach) & out of high street brands I'd say that Lidl is nicest, followed by M& S swiss followed by Aldi so I doubt the quality is that poor.

I've tried both and the aldi version is the better quality one. I found the cake on the m&s one dry and the chocolate greasy. I'm seriously thinking about stopping my weekly Ocado deliveries now and shopping in Aldi regularly instead.

Aldi Uk is a bigger company doing better than M&S (£12.2bn turnover last year compared to £10.2bn) and that is M&S group accounts whereas Aldi is just Aldi UK not Aldi Sud.

M&S must have reasonable cause to think they can win a legal battle and Aldi will be running scared because once one company wins against them for copyright infringement then every other food manufacturer will take them on and be able to show legal precedent.
Aldi manages to keep their prices low by making dupes of brand names and making the packaging as close as they possibly can.

If Cuthbert didn't have the white chocolate face in the same style of Colin then I think they would have got away with it like all the other supermarkets have, but it does look similar enough to be mistaken for the original and M&S hold a trade mark.

Aldi regularly win product taste awards. It's not actually like their stuff is shit! Tesco m and s etc don't like them because Aldi undercut their prices sacrificing a larger profit. I prefer Aldis ethics tbh.

@Soubriquet

It’s funny how M&S are only going after Aldi who are known for those who don’t have a lot of money shop at.

It’s a cheap place for people to get their shopping yet one of the most expensive places is suing the cheapest place

Why have they not gone after someone like Tesco or Sainsbury’s?

Is that what they’re known for?

None of the Aldi’s near me are accessible by public transport or easy walking distance from housing... and they’re a nightmare if you have a budget and specific things you need to buy, because you never know what they’ll actually have.

It’s all middle class people raving about the quality as far as I can see.

No, it's a seasonal product and hasn't been sold since mid February

Ahhh interesting. I bet when m&s lose all this malarkey is over that Cuthbert will be available all year round.

Round here, the car parks in Aldi supermarkets are full of large and expensive vehicles, so I doubt it’s a shop that appeals only to the poor working classes. I think the demographic is mixed. It’s where we shopped regularly until last year and if they had delivered, I would have continued. Ocado’s collaboration with M&S is not a success.

Most supermarkets have knock offs of popular brands of all kinds of things. M&S are stupid.

because you never know what they’ll actually have.

That used to be the case, but now their stock is very consistent. I used to have to go to Aldi and then to another supermarket to top up what Aldi didn't have but I'm only having to do that now if something is out of stock, and if it is out of stock in Aldi it's usually out of stock in tesco next door as well. I only don't shop in Aldi all the time because I prefer the convenience of online shopping. which Aldi don't offer. We are far from poor.

I think M&S food quality has gone right down in recent years. I used to think it was worth the extra expense for lots of things, but I find that less and less so now.

As for caterpillar cakes, if you lined them all up for me, I wouldn't be able to pick out Colin.

None of the Aldi’s near me are accessible by public transport or easy walking distance from housing... and they’re a nightmare if you have a budget and specific things you need to buy, because you never know what they’ll actually have

But that's not the case everywhere. Most of the Aldis where I live are walking distance from many low to middle income communities or on the edge of town centres so accessible to many and are as well stocked as any supermarket.

I agree that this is all ridiculous and it's got out of hand. Aldi are just doing what they've always done, and you would have to have been living under a rock for the last couple of decades to think that M&Ss argument that Aldi is devaluing the original Colin by selling their own and selling it at a cheaper price point is valid, because everyone knows that's how Aldi operates.

M&S Colin might be nicer, or Aldi Cuthbert might be, or it might not be quite as nice, but it might be nearly as good and the people who can't or don't want to pay M&S prices might be perfectly happy with the Aldi version.

The real motivation will be that M&S feels threatened by Aldi's market share increasing as more people realise that it's less about the quality of the food that makes it cheaper, but more spartan stores, simpler ranges, cheaper locations, etc.

@Suewiththegreenlights

It’s genius marketing on Aldi’s behalf!

Agree!! They’ve played an absolute blinder. M&S are going to have to work very hard not to be the villain of the piece here.

We had a Colin the Caterpillar cake last year and it was so revolting that even the kids wouldn't eat it! Ended up scraping chocolate cake into the bin- now that's a first. Dry sponge and greasy chocolate coating-
So I find it hard to believe that the Aldi version is even lower quality.....

M&S isn’t stopping Aldi from selling a caterpillar cake. They can’t stop them. They’re just saying they can’t sell a cake that’s virtually identical to the one sold by M&S. Presumably M&S has already approached Aldi and asked them to change the design, and Aldi has refused. Hence the court case. I feel it’s a very low blow for Aldi to try to claim that the money being spent on the court case would otherwise go to charity. You can’t get away with copyright infringement just by donating the profits.

All look quite similar to me, I dont think Aldis is more similar than some of the others.

@emilyfrost

I think Aldi are the shameful ones here.

They created an exact replica of an M&S product (it’s not like the other supermarkets, which are distinctive) and are now trying to get away with it by forcing M&S into an impossible situation.

Awful, awful retailer.

All of the supermarkets already had caterpillar cakes. So really M&S are the shameful one for only going after Aldi

This whole thing is pissing me off for two very good reasons. Firstly, I can't get to a M&S to buy a Colin cake (or Percy Pigs), and secondly, even if I did obtain a caterpillar cake, from any retailer, I shouldn't eat it because lockdown has left me basically spherical.

Every picture of Colin or Cuthbert or any of the caterpillar cakes just makes me sad and hungry and sad again.

I am loving the memes, though.

I’m an Aldi “idiot” ( waves to @emilyfrost) I find on the way home from my role improving the lives of children with SEND ( you know @emilyfrost using my degree) there stock is vastly improved. I feel it’s a foot stamping exercise by Marks and Sparks and like every tantruming toddler they won’t win. Aldi have played a blinder!

Have found the Aldi marketing strategy very amusing, up until the posts about the money going to charity. Aldi could make some minor changes as the other competitors have. I wonder why they are digging their heels in.

I'm with M&S. In legal terms Aldi looking pretty guilty of "passing off" to me.

Aldi's social media is brilliant, but it's a very aggressive way of tackling the issue. I can't see any self respecting judge thinking it's funny. It's a risky tactic, but (as I'm not a judge) I do find it very funny.

Aldi has always made their products look like brand versions and have also marketed their products as the same value but cheaper. If you walk down the aisle of Aldi, it’s very clear what their product is meant to be a direct comparison to. To be honest, I’m surprised it has taken this long for a company to get pissed off with Aldi and decide to go after them for copyright infringement.

The other supermarkets have other caterpillar cakes but they aren’t making that direct comparison to the main brand one. The other caterpillar cakes look quite different, the Waitrose one is quite similar but Waitrose aren’t trying to say they are delivering the same product much cheaper. All the cheaper supermarkets have gone with orange faces. I also vaguely remember Tesco’s caterpillar cake having a white face but it’s now orange, so they could well have changed the product at M&S request.

Aldi’s charity move is a low move on their part I think and it’s made my opinion of Aldi go down. I had no issues with Aldi personally, although I prefer Lidl.

I'm with M&S, I don't like Aldi's tactic of making goods look as close as possible to other brands, they have infringed M&S's trademarks so I don't blame M&S for taking the action it has.