BRAND POSITIONING
Putting the distinctiveness back into John West – With added strength!
The Problem: How to overcome the loss of Branded product quality differentiation against Private Label?
For many years the John West brand was positioned around ’the best’ (”You only get the best with John West” / “It’s what John West reject that makes John West the best”). But the product quality gap to competitors had slowly closed, removing the reason to believe and the relevance. The brand needed a new direction.
The Solution: As Marketing Director I repositioned the brand around ‘STRENGTH’, built off a proven reason to believe (Protein), a clear functional benefit (the better you eat, the stronger body and mind) and an emotional benefit (able to take on what-ever life throws at you). All brought together under a new big brand idea “Eat Strong Go Strong”.
The Profit: A modern new brand platform for the long-term, unlocking multiple brand building opportunities – such as the ParalympicsGB gold partnership.
BRAND BUILDING
Making Avonmore the ‘milk experts’ – With extra creaminess!
The Problem: How to stop commoditisation of branded milk before it even starts?
The milk market in Ireland, being heavily brand led (>50% share) saw the arrival of the Hard Discounters (Aldi / Lidl) put pressure on branded sales and the ability to retain the brand price premium.
The Solution: A 360o brand campaign built on product Quality and rooted in milk science, blended with dairy farming expertise. I termed this the ‘Avonmore Quality Milk Story’.
I used the fast-growing ‘Coffee Culture’ as the vehicle to engage consumers, building the activation plan around Barista endorsement and a Foodservice entry programme, aligned to a new brand positioning, comm’s campaign, NPD and breakthrough pack innovation.
The Profit: This total activity programme turned the 10-year decline of Avonmore milk into positive yoy growth (+2%).
PORTFOLIO STRATEGY
Bringing meaning to a disconnected portfolio
– With the Power of 3!
The Problem: How to weaponise a multi-brand portfolio to reignite business belief and restart a stagnant £1.2bn category.
The cooking sauces category had stalled with value flat and volume declining. Household %pen was saturated (94%), category consumption had become routine, with the average consumer consistently spending £1 per week.
Premier foods portfolio of 3 cooking sauce brands was lacking clarity on category roles, often leading to the brands competing, and not utilising their individual and collective strength.
The Solution: I developed a portfolio strategy, giving each brand a clearly defined vision, category role and brand positioning. This strategy also included strategic pricing rules as well as innovation and format strategies for each brand.
The Profit: The new strategy (‘The Power of Three’) forged a unified brand portfolio under a vision ‘better together’ and identified £125m of growth potential (+12%).
PACKAGING INNOVATION
Bringing uniqueness into a commodity category
– With insight!
The Problem: How to create a unique competitive advantage in a world of commoditised generic plastic milk bottles, driven by price and efficiency of low-cost production?
The Solution: I used consumer insights to develop a next generation pack format. Consumer ethnography identified a key consumer insight – the first pour from a 2L carton was often sideways, allowing for more pouring control, especially with younger consumers.
Leading an internal and external cross-functional team, together we re-engineered the plastic bottle blow-moulding process. Moving the bottle opening 18mm off-centre allowed the creation of a unique jug shape, with a bigger handle, without needing to change the production fillers. This significantly minimised the Capex investment required.
Knowing the importance of a branded name, or ‘hook’, for consumers – the EASY-POUR JUG was born.
The Profit: In the 12 months following launch sales of the 2L bottle increased by +50% vs. prior year, whilst holding the +€1 price premium.
MARKET ENTRY STRATEGY
Building a European Business Unit – With Plant Power!
The Problem: How to create a 2nd growth engine for established seafood brands within Europe, with a clear point of difference?
Thai Union had launched Plant-based Seafood products in Asia, however costs were becoming prohibitive creating a barrier to Retail and Foodservice scale up. At the same time, Alternative Protein was a growing consumer trend within Europe, with many new brands (both existing and start-up) gaining distribution.
The Solution: I built the European market entry strategy around an internal start-up approach, securing €5.6m of investment. Using external partnerships to create bespoke ingredients from Algae and Seaweed, I introduced ‘intel thinking’, using the same ingredients across multiple brands , just like an Intel Chip. By unlocking European production on existing seafood production lines (through a new QA process), I kept overheads down and enabled cost parity to be achieved.
The Profit: Within 18 months products were selling in 7 European countries, under 4 Thai Union brands, creating a €4m Business Unit, whilst saving €1.6m of initial investment.
MARKETING CAPABILITY
Outstanding Marketing at Premier Foods – With Ompf!
The Problem: How to raise the bar on marketing talent and capability?
Following the acquisition of several businesses, Premier Foods lacked a consistent approach to marketing and team development, impacting the consistency and quality of brand thinking and activation.
The Solution: Working closely with HR I developed a marketing capability programme called Ompf! (Outstanding Marketing at Premier Foods), built around “How to be a Brilliant Marketer”. I focused on ‘raising the floor’ to bring everyone up to the same level, and then on ‘raising the ceiling’ to help individuals develop to their potential.
The Ompf! framework covered 5 core competencies and was embedded within a wider marketing development programme, with 3 pillars: “Outstanding Brands / People / Place to Work”.
The Profit: The Premier Foods “way of marketing” was born, enabling greater consistency across all brands..
PACKAGING INNOVATION
Bringing differentiation to a commodity category
– With a Twist!
The Problem: How to fight back against the increasing commoditisation of Canned tuna, when the only battleground left was price?
The Solution: I briefed a structural packaging agency to create a multipack with ‘no outer packaging’, in the face of sustainability pressure. Competitors were swapping plastic for cardboard which added cost but brought no competitive advantage or premiumisation.
The simplest ideas are sometimes the best. Whilst most solutions we explored brought more cost and complexity, the use of a simple metallic strip was the clear winner and SmartStrip technology was born. This allowed the creation of a patented 100% recyclable packaging format.
Years of weight reduction initiatives had left significant headroom inside the can, lowering product quality. By using the outer packaging change as an opportunity to reduce the physical can size, product quality was improved whilst delivering consumers greater ease and convenience.
The Profit: The new EcoTwist multipack delivered increased profitability, and was recognised for saving 65T of plastic, 400T of Steel and reducing ingredients by 1,500T, winning several Gold packaging awards.
