英国卫报:小冰块下的大生意(9)（在线收听）

The epochal significance of the Super Cube should not be overlooked in an industry in which meaningful innovation has typically been considered close to impossible.

在一个有意义的创新通常被认为近乎不可能的行业中，超级立方体的划时代意义不应被忽视。

As the explosion in bottled water brands in the past few decades has shown, it is possible to persuade consumers of the need to buy something that they could quite easily obtain for themselves out of a tap.

正如过去几十年瓶装水品牌的爆炸式增长所表明的那样，说服消费者购买他们可以很容易从水龙头里获得的东西是有可能的。

But ice's main job is to be cold – in most applications, a distinctive taste would be a flaw – and so The Ice Co has had to work harder than any water brand to diversify.

但冰的主要工作是降温——独特的口味在大多数应用中会是一个缺陷——因此The Ice Co必须比任何水品牌都要更加努力地实现多样化。

Pressure from retailers to come up with the next big thing in ice is constant.

零售商们不断施加压力，要求他们推出一款新的冰产品。

Within The Ice Co this has resulted in some ideas perhaps best left at the bar.

至此The Ice Co内部涌现了一些比较适合应用于酒吧的创意。

There were ice shot glasses (the product of a Jagerbomb-fuelled brainstorming session; "very, very gimmicky", admitted Metcalfe).

有冰酒杯（野格炸弹式头脑风暴会议的产物，梅特卡夫承认“非常、非常有噱头”）。

There was the Ice & Easy brand of slushie cocktails – margaritas, mojitos, daiquiris, pina coladas – that arrived in a ready-to-pour freezer pouch.

还有Ice & Easy品牌的冰沙鸡尾酒——玛格丽塔酒、莫吉托、代基里酒、皮尼亚科拉达——装在冷藏袋里。

There were Ice & Slice mixed bags of ice and sliced lemon or lime ("launched too early", admitted Woolhouse).

还有Ice & Slice混合袋装的冰块和切片柠檬或青柠（伍尔豪斯承认“推出得太早了”）。

There has even been talk of glitter-infused ice, and iced baubles – although, at the time of writing, neither of those has made it past the product development triage process.

甚至还有人谈论加入有闪光元素的冰块和用冰做的小玩意儿——尽管在撰写本文时它们都还没有通过产品开发的筛选过程。

Whatever The Ice Co is selling, there remains the tricky question of how to sell it.

无论The Ice Co卖的是什么，如何销售仍是一个棘手的问题。

In the US, the approach to marketing packaged ice revolves around a single idea: fear.

在美国，推销包装冰的方法只有一个理念：恐惧。

Visit the International Packaged Ice Association's website today and the same slogan blares out from the homepage header as it has for years: "ICE IS FOOD!"

今天访问国际包装冰协会的网站，你会发现多年来其首页的标题从未改变：“冰是食物!”

This central marketing message, that ice is a "forgotten food", as susceptible to contaminants as meat or fresh vegetables,

冰是一种“被遗忘的食物”，像肉类和新鲜蔬菜一样容易受到污染物的影响，

communicates the one clear advantage of packaged ice: the manufacturer's control over the conditions in which it is made.

这一核心营销信息传达了包装冰的一个明显优势：制造商对生产条件的控制。

The Ice Co's strategy has been different.

The Ice Co的营销策略则有所不同。

The product in question is undeniably cold – temperatures in The Ice Co's factory hover around 4-5°C, and in cold storage they plummet to -20°C – but ice is not without its warmer associations.

不可否认，该产品是冷的——Ice Co工厂的温度在4-5度左右徘徊，而在冷藏库中则骤降至零下20摄氏度——但冰并非没有温暖的联想。

Ice means weddings and parties and festivals or even something as simple but delightful as that first drink at the end of a long day.

冰的意思是婚礼、派对、节日，甚至是一些像漫长一天结束后的第一杯饮料这样简单但令人愉快的事情。

In Woolhouse's words: "It's not just frozen water, you're not buying ice – you're buying that occasion. That's what you're buying into – what would a party be without ice?"

用伍尔豪斯的话说：“这不仅仅是冰冻的水，你不是在买冰，你买的是那个场合。这才是你买的东西——聚会怎能没有冰块呢？”

As heartwarming as the sentiment may be, the Covid-19 pandemic has raised a different question: what would ice be without a party?

尽管这种情绪可能是令人感动的，但新冠疫情引发了一个不同的问题：如果没有聚会，冰产业会怎么样？

What should have been a banner year for The Ice Co has instead forced it to refocus, and work out how best to plot a course through a new set of obstacles.

对The Ice Co来说今年本应是辉煌的一年，但它却不得不重新聚焦并找出克服一系列新的障碍的最佳途径。

A quirk of water is that it expands as it freezes, meaning that ice is capable of breaching even the most concerted attempts to confine it.

水的一个奇特之处在于它在结冰时会膨胀，这意味着冰能够打破即便是最顽固的用来限制它的困难。

Is 2020 the year that ice escapes The Ice Co's grasp?

2020年是否会是冰块逃出“The Ice Co”掌控的一年呢？