Comment: Blackthorn's long-term success is sad but true

The Gaymer Cider Company's (GCC) fight back following damaging press coverage of its new-look and new-taste Blackthorn has begun in earnest (see linked stories).

GCC changed the recipe of this South West favourite, going after drinkers of sweeter ciders such as Magners, but hacking off hardcore fans. Now it is claiming the move has led to increased sales. This is a brand that has had little invested into it for a while. GCC's money has gone on making it appeal to the masses and on expanding its distribution. So we shouldn't be surprised by the turnaround.

What really matters for Blackthorn's stockists is weighing up the short-term effects of the brand's relaunch with the long-term ones, all with cold, hard business sense.

Short term: GCC got it wrong with knocking down everything the brand stood for and starting again. Blackthorn fans' anger surprised GCC to the extent that a few weeks ago it was forced to make dry cider Natch available on draught for the first time as something of an olive branch. If it wanted something to suit the palates of modern cider drinkers, the company would have been better off launching a brand new brand, rather than having this PR hash.

But, in the long term, trampling over a few drinkers matters little when you've developed a commercially more successful mass-market brand. Why be loved by a few fans of diversity when you can be liked by the many drawn to having more of same?

A sad state of affairs perhaps, but business reality. To be really big, you can't afford to be constrained as a local product appealing to loyalists.