David McCann: It's all about the name on the label

IT is a condition of evolution that to survive one must often learn to adapt.

Nowhere is this maxim more accurate than in the bear pit of Western supermarket aisles where failure to reinvent and keep up with the times can spell brand oblivion.

For the majority of products this is undeniable, but for some "heritage" brands - like Heinz and Coca-Cola - the opposite is true: become too modern and brand loyalty is at risk.

According to a marketing expert Susanna Freedman, of Tsuko creative partners in Leith, companies that corner the market first are the most successful. "Nostalgia is an emotion that these brands have acquired - and capitalised on - over many years," she says. "Very few changes to the product, coupled with inventive promotional campaigns to attract new audiences, seems to be the right recipe to sustain brand position."

One such product is Heinz Tomato Soup, which this week toasted 100 years at the top. Despite minor alterations, it has retained, for the most part, its classic image, like many of the other well-known brands which are more popular today than their creators would ever have dreamed.

Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup

The canned-soup variety has been sold in almost identical packaging since its birth and celebrated its 100th anniversary yesterday. In contrast to its reputation today, tinned soups were something of a luxury when first produced in the late Victorian and Edwardian era.

Over the last century, Heinz has sold 8.2 billion tins of Cream of Tomato, with 94.9 million this year.

The cream of tomato soup was originally manufactured in Canada and imported into Britain, but after the First World War, the company opened a factory in London. By the 1950s, the soup was so popular manufacturing was transferred to its plant in Wigan, which is Europe's largest food factory.

To mark the landmark year in the product's long history, Heinz is selling soup in replica 1910 packaging.

Coca-Cola

It is one of the most recognisable brands on Earth, but Coca-Cola began as a patent medicine, sold in chemists for 5 cents a glass at soda fountains. Its creator, pharmacist John Pemberton, concocted the carbonated beverage in a three-legged brass kettle in his backyard and claimed it was a remedy for many illnesses.

Originally sold as a coca wine called Pemberton's French Wine Coca, the drink was stripped of its alcohol content during prohibition in 1886 but traces of cocaine could still be found in the drink until 1903. At one time it was said to contain an estimated nine milligrams of the drug per glass.

Fast forward 100 years and despite its humble over-the-counter beginnings, Coca-Cola is ubiquitous feature of the modern brandscape. Coca-Cola has become the first brand to top 1 billion in annual UK grocery sales.

WD-40

The scourge of creaking joints and malfunctioning bicycle chains everywhere, this all-action lubricant was exclusively devised in 1953 to halt erosion on aeroplane nose cones, Atlas Missiles and to displace moisture from electricity circuitry.

Soon, Rocket Chemical Company engineers, whose founder Norman Larsen invented the oil, began sneaking it home for personal use after realising its domestic potential. But its practicality couldn't be hidden for long and within five years WD-40 was on market shelves. Today the company produces more than a million gallons of its "secret sauce". The name was christened by its inventor Mr Larsen while he was developing the product in California.

In the throes of trying to perfect a formula for a solution that would displace water, the inventor succeeded on his 40th attempt, prompting the moniker "Water Displacement 40".

Kellogg's Cornflakes

A daily staple at the breakfast tables of many Scottish households, this popular maize-based cereal was discovered by accident rather than design in 1894 when two brothers - Dr John Harvey Kellogg and William Keith Kellogg - sought to make sheets of dough with stale wheat. Instead, what they found was flakes, which they toasted and later patented as a tasty foodstuff.

The product as we know it was born following a fall-out between the brothers over the addition of sugar. Dr John was aghast, prompting his less austere sibling to branch out on his own. William established Battle Creek Toasted Corn Flake Company in 1906 which later became the Kellogg Company.

Irn-Bru

Advertising slogans for Irn Bru claimed it was "Made in Scotland from Girders" which is not without merit owing to the 0.002 per cent ammonium ferric citrate listed in the ingredients. But it is thought the name originated with the rebuilding of Glasgow Central Station in 1901. Legend has it AG Barr approached a steel works company proposing a refreshing alternative to the large volumes of beer being drunk by workers suffering under the heat of their labours. This went on to be known as "Iron Brew" because of its connections to the construction works.

Some years later, Scotland's other national drink underwent a compulsory name change following a legal challenge in the wake of the Second World War. In a phonetic revamp, Iron Brew became Irn-Bru owing to the fact the was no brewing involved in the manufacturing process.