Marketing News South Africa

Be a cash test dummy

Cherryflava Media’s recently launched Cherrypicka.com allows readers to try out and review products from various local brands, in addition to reading about new trends emerging in business, marketing and advertising. “The web really allows for honest review of brands - and therefore I saw potential in putting all of that thinking in one place,” says Jonathan Cherry of cherryflava.com.
Be a cash test dummy

Continues Cherry “The idea actually came about during a wine tasting. It seemed so normal to taste wines and make notes of the ones you liked to buy later on. I wondered why no other brand managers had ever thought of potential customers 'taste testing' their products in a more organised way.

“More and more I realised that I paid less attention to ads and rather Googled the name of a restaurant or guest house or whatever it is I'm thinking of buying, to see what other users have written about it.”

As a part virtual shop, part blog site, Cherrypicka allows readers to buy test tickets to try out the showcased brands, and then share the reviews of their experiences on the blog.

“I also really wanted to find a way to generate a bit of viral buzz for local brands that don't have big ad budgets to help them. Getting potential customers to hunt and seek out new things to try, and pay a bargain price for the honour was a nice way to do that,” he concludes.

About Simone Puterman

Simone Puterman (@SimoneAtLarge) is currently editor-at-large at Marklives.com and deputy chair of the Sanef online editors subcommittee. After majoring in psychology and linguistics at Rhodes University, and then completing her honours in psychology, she has been in the world of B2B publishing since 1997, with 7.5 year stints at both WriteStuff Publishing and Bizcommunity.com (March 2006-August 2013). Email her at moc.sevilkram@enomis.
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