Even the biggest brands can tumble when the tide turns. At the end of the 1970s, McCain introduced oven chips as an innovative and convenient new product and its sales went on to grow almost every year right through to 2004. In the mid-‘90s the business shifted its image from manufacturing company to trustworthy brand, at the same time growing its portfolio and benefiting from a wider trend towards convenience food.
But then the market changed. A huge backlash against unhealthy eating in the mid-2000s led to a denunciation of not just oven chips but all non-fresh food. The frozen food sector took a hit and processed convenience food became associated with diet-related health problems, including cancer, thanks to some products’ use of colourings found to be carcinogenic. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver’s staunch campaign to improve school dinners demonised the chip and, all in all, things were not looking good for McCain. From around summer 2005 to mid-2006 the frozen potato market went into free fall, with declining sales and deteriorating consumer sentiment.
‘Our core markets effectively collapsed as a result of a number of different drivers. There was a phenomenal pressure on the food industry in 2005 and 2006, with the media talking about an obese nation and various other health scares,’ explains McCain Director of brand communications Simon Eyles. ‘Consumers came to think that convenience food is junk food and the markets saw a double digit decline, particularly in frozen potato products.’
This had a negative impact on McCain’s profitability as the number of people buying its products tumbled. In such a weak market, the company realised that it needed to address consumer concerns directly. It needed to communicate clearly that its oven chips are in fact made from all natural ingredients, with a fat content of no more than 5 per cent and no colourings or processing.
To counteract these perceptions, McCain worked with design consultancy Elmwood – as well as its advertising agency Beattie McGuinness Bungay – to assess its position in the market and look at ways to improve communication of the brand and product values. ‘We had to fight back and to do this we realigned the company behind the strapline ‘It’s all good’, promoting the fact that the products are all natural, simple, good food,’ adds Eyles.
Every single pack in the McCain portfolio has been redesigned. The new elements in the pack design all present McCain Oven Chips as natural and unprocessed. The previous pack’s day-glo orange colour is replaced by a more muted, earthy tone, while carefully chosen photography highlights the product’s simple provenance in potatoes and sunflower oil. A less cluttered pack front promotes the key messages which McCain needed to convey – principally that the chips contain no more than 5 per cent fat. The McCain logo itself is larger and shifted to a more prominent position in the centre of the pack to ‘proudly proclaim brand and category ownership’.
A more subtle design shift was to change pack material from a waxy, glossy plastic to a softer, matt finish. This tactile change not only suggests a more simple, natural product, but also stands out against competitor packaging in the freezer cabinet.
‘We really wanted to sing the changes from the rooftops – which we literally did in our TV commercials – but design was at the heart of it as it’s our single most important communication with our customers. The packs are what they see when they are buying and using the product and there’s no point having a communications and marketing strategy if your product doesn’t then reflect it.'
From a design and print investment of £40,000, McCain has returned to growth in a declining market. Not only that, but household penetration of McCain Oven Chips is now at a record high – at 28.2 per cent of households – and value share in the market rose from 16.6 per cent to 18.3 per cent between 2006 and 2007, following the relaunch. As well as that, around 70 per cent of households now consume something from the McCain product portfolio. This performance goes against the tide of a declining category.
Alongside these impressive figures, perceptions are changing too. Consumer sentiment towards the products has improved dramatically, one of the key objectives of the design and marketing activity, and internal staff now understand and represent the brand’s promise of a simple, natural and high quality product. Overall, the investment has been totally worthwhile says Eyles: ‘The results are really strong and everyone understands the brand promise now, which is great because at the height of the backlash it wasn’t such a nice place to be.’
