According to Wine-of-the-Month Club MD Colin Collard, eleventh hour discussions held at the weekend and early Monday between the two companies aimed at persuading Woolworths to change the name of its new publication failed to bring a “workable resolution”.
Wine-of-the-Month-Club has been publishing its own lifestyle magazine, called Good Taste, for the past three years.
“At the end of the day we want Woolworths to refrain from using the name ‘Taste‘ for their new in-house magazine as it will conflict with the branding and goodwill we have built up over the last three years.
“Currently, Good Taste generates over a million rand in advertising revenues per issue and we cannot afford to allow our advertisers to become confused between Good Taste and Taste.”
He said Woolworth’s new magazine was aimed at a “very similar audience”, adding that the similarities in the names is bordering on “being almost exact”.
Like Good Taste, which now has a circulation of 23 000, Taste will focus on travel, wine, food and good living.
“This is unacceptable — especially if you consider that Good Taste now contributes 20% to the Wine-of-the-Month Club’s profits. We simply want Woolworths to use an alternative name. Can that be a problem for such a large organisation — especially one with an army of marketing gurus?”
Good Taste‘s November/December issue is going to be a 240-page bumper issue, said Collard. “We have invested a lot of time and money in building up what has become a hugely successfully magazine. We cannot afford market confusion to potentially erode our revenue. I believe we have no choice but to launch an urgent court interdict.” — I-Net Bridge