From Bulmers, a new flavoured schnapps range TARGET CONSUMER Fundraiser Ella Maria Moffat, careers advisor Amanda Wood and journalist Tatum Anderson (all 27) Ella Maria: "The packaging made the product look like samples you'd give to a doctor, which is a bit off putting. They all spilt when opened, which was really annoying. Cranberry was liked, vanilla was ok, grapefruit smelled awful. My personal favourite was vanilla, but none of us would buy any of them". Amanda: "The vanilla tastes like liquid ice cream. What's the point of that? All of them look like water or specimens - not very appealing. Tatum: "When I pulled the tab the liquid went in my eye. The container is naff. People drinking pints wouldn't be interested in balancing them on the side of the glass." Rating out of 25 ­ 12 The expert: Sally Easton Master of Wine and wine buyer for Berry Brothers and Rudd The packaging appears to be the most significant aspect. These individual shots conveniently sit on top of a bottle or over the rim of a glass, appealing to two categories of drinker. The grapefruit smells of thinners and plastic and tastes sweet and sour; the sour apple smells of almond shampoo (i.e. marzipan aromas with alcohol) and tastes of sour apples; the cranberry smells of red cherries and tastes of coconut and cherries and the vanilla smells of warm vanilla ice cream and tastes of plastic. They are all sweet, cloying and leave an unpleasant bitter and chemical finish on the palate. Success rating out of 25 ­ 15 The designer: Graham Shearsby Board creative director, graphics, at Design Bridge This has the appearance of an npd concept given to a manufacturer to resolve. The clip-on shot glass looks like an industrial component, the graphics look unresolved. Engineering has taken a higher priority than communication. The clever' name describes the mechanism but fails to provide any emotional motivation to buy. The generic club flyer script is aimed at the rave generation, with little else to provide any visual interest or depth. While clipping a shot glass on to another glass is novel, is it enough to base a new brand on? This should have been fun, but instead it is obviously cynical. Success rating out of 25 ­ 10 The buyer: Steve Mayes Category controller at Landmark As a broken-nosed rugby player who prefers 10 pints to more refined drinks, my only exposure to shots is half pints of tequila on tour. So I sought out a target audience. Overall, "funky" and "appealing" were consistent responses. Comments on the flavours varied from "nice", "cool" and "easy to drink" to "smells like a tomcat, "this was the one that made me sick" and "I didn't try it because I'm never drinking again". Good idea, reasonably priced, could do well as a trend or fashion but where does Bulmers get the easy to open claim from? Maybe it is easy but you always spill it. Success rating out of 25 ­ 20 Total score out of 100 ­ 57 {{DRINKS }}

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