It is great to see Lucozade Ribena Suntory working hard to reinvigorate Orangina. It recently launched four new multipacks, which include slim line cans and plastic bottles, in a bid to revive the struggling brand. It is just one of a number of steps the company has taken to boost sales. According to The Grocer last year sales fell by 27.9 per cent. It is fair to say Orangina is in a very difficult market. Jamie Oliver has declared war on sugar and the public are slowly turning their backs on sugary drinks for health reasons.
But reawakening a big brand like Orangina is just the sort of challenge we love. Every company has a sleeping giant: a once great brand, gathering dust on the shelves, just waiting to be given new life. These are brands with soul and personality that have somehow faded away.
Look at Marmite. Ten years ago, everybody knew what Marmite was, but the love for the brand had evaporated. Today, Marmite is a figure of speech. The brand was revitalised by reminding consumers this was a product with such a strong personality that you either love it or hate it.
So how would we give atrophying brands the Marmite treatment? The first step to waking up a sleeping giant is recognising what makes your product special. For Marmite it was the flavour: lots of people loved the taste but they did not recognise it was Marmite because they were eating it in Twiglets or Walkers. We needed to make sure that we owned the flavour.
We also held an innovation session with entrepreneurial marketers within Unilever where we encouraged every kind of weird and wonderful Marmite-related idea. Members of staff were asked to slap a red sticker on ideas they disliked and a green sticker on those they liked. And we got buckets of brilliant suggestions including: Marmite flavoured rice cakes and limited editions.
Amongst the exciting new launches we went ahead with were Marmite Champagne on Valentine’s Day 2008 and Ma’amite for the Queen’s Jubilee in 2012. There were branded snacks and merchandise and a concerted social media campaign with our members’ club the Marmariti. Getting your brand out there with extra products from snacks to keyrings reinforces consumer recognition and highlighting the brand’s personality makes shoppers more likely to talk about it. I’m thinking Orangina ice lollies, sweets and bucks fizz, as well as jam, yoghurt and key rings for starters.
Article By Kim Van Elkan, Managing Director, Hornall Anderson
About Kim Van Elkan:
As Managing Director of Hornall Anderson UK Kim Van Elkan helps shape the future of a thriving creative business. A passionate people person Kim guides the team to stretch themselves and achieve previously unthinkable results that take them out of their comfort zone culminating in a great sense of personal achievement and pride.
Kim freely shares her 20+ years experience providing a sense of calm in pressurised situations. Trusted by clients to deliver the highest level of creativity, service and delivery through her team of highly motivated and unique individuals. Outside of work Kim is an enthusiastic baker. In fact this is the true secret to her success. Her delicious cakes keep the team happy and clients coming back for more.
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