Strongbow Dark Fruit Cider, 4x440ml

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Always with brands, if you want to achieve scale mass media remains an important part of the marketing mix”, she says. Both employees and self-employed workers will pay less in National Insurance from next year, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has announced in today's Autumn Statement. Despite this reluctance for feminine marketing the brand has worked hard to get more female drinkers and Sherwood-Smith now estimates that 45% of its clientele are women. Since its launch in 2013, Strongbow Dark Fruit has become the second best-selling draught cider in the UK, behind Strongbow Original but Sherwood-Smith believes there will be a day that the fruit variant will overtake its parent brand.Consumers competing for a brand’s attention is something Sherwood-Smith says is “unusual for a mainstream brand”. In more recent years Dark Fruit has been using social more heavily to capitalise on the love that has made it a ‘‘become a cultural phenomena” she says.. She explains: “The plan had never been for it to be in the on-trade, the plan had been for it to sit in grocery [in cans] but we were really pushing the agenda internally and really challenging the management upstairs and saying ‘we really believe people would buy purple pints’ and we’ve got a Dutch beer company going ‘Are you sure? Are you really sure?’. Despite the joy the team gets from engaging with super-fans on social and at events, Sherwood-Smith is adamant TV remains crucial. If on inspection there is any damage or shortage it is imperative that this is noted on the delivery note at the time of delivery as claims will not be considered if this is not completed. If you want to achieve scale mass media remains an important part of the marketing mix. Emma Sherwood-Smith, Heineken

Finally Heineken allowed Strongbow to test it out in 2014. It launched Strongbow Dark Fruits in 10 pubs within its own estate and since then 270 million pints of Dark Fruit have been poured, according to CGA data commissioned by Heineken. When the competition zigs you zag and it was really juxtaposed to all the traditional summer blue sky images of cider at the time… [we had to be] true to the infrastructure of Strongbow and not be tempted to make it feminine.”Sherwood-Smith still can’t quite believe it: “People went absolutely crazy. The success and speed at which it grew penetration and distribution completely took us by surprise so we are now in 26,000 pubs in the UK bearing in mind we started with 10.” A ‘cultural phenomena’ Autumn Statement: Workers to pay less in national insurance – but rate cuts don't offset the freezing of personal tax thresholds READ MORE: Strongbow ‘connects with nature’ in latest campaign as it aims to inspire the younger generation