Bakers redesigns to lose the cut-and-paste copiers

Snackworks, the manufacturer of Bakers biscuits, recently launched new packaging for its range of Eet-Sum-Mor, Iced Zoo, Jambo's, Jolly Jammers, Marie, Romany Creams, Strawberry Whirls, Topper and Tennis Biscuits.

Commercial director, Mike Cathie, says: "Our new packaging reflects the changing demands of our target market, and shows that our traditional brands - which are over 160 years old - can compete with the best of the latest and younger brands."

Cathie says that for Bakers Blue Label Marie, the new-look packaging is "all about capturing the essence of this well-loved and trusted brand, and reclaiming its market leadership status by differentiating it from copycat brands".

Bakers' Emerging Markets marketing manager, Doug Place, explains: "We are differentiating our product through a really clean pack design that highlights the Blue Label name and with photography that enhances the appetite appeal by enticing consumers to want to eat these biscuits."

"The other important design element that we have incorporated is the red ribbon, which we are emphasizing more and using as a device that ties all the Bakers sub-brands together. The ribbon performs two functions: firstly, it is an indicator of the touch of magic and quality associated with Bakers; secondly, it carries connotations of gifting and something special that you want to share with friends.

"Topper is one of our biggest brands and we want to take its already well-established market presence to the next level. So in its redesign we've increased the size of the name 'Topper' on the pack to make it the hero, used colour to help denote the flavour differentiations, and retained the tieback to the Bakers mother brand through the red ribbon and the Bakers man logo.

"To ensure that the packaging is compliant with the new labelling regulations (R146), we have removed the food ingredients like vanilla pods and bits of chocolate that were pictured on the original Topper packaging," he states.

Democratising the Bakers brand to access sales in the informal sector
Doug Place of Bakers says there is a legacy of LSM 8-10 (6-7% of the population) who control the majority of the economic spend. "This is no different in the biscuit category where they are currently responsible for the majority of sales. Lower LSM groups do eat biscuits but these tend to be generic and largely commoditised brands - but this isn't a preference choice, it's because we haven't given them an affordable alternative. So we are introducing Blue Label Marie and Topper biscuits in smaller, more affordable packets (70g and 50g respectively), aimed at satisfying the emerging market's growing demand for these brands."

Bakers defines the emerging consumer as a 25 to 50-year-old who has graduated from being primarily a blue collar worker to a white collar worker. "These LSM 3-6 consumers have more opportunities within the work space and have taken advantage of the economic growth that is happening in SA. They are still supporting a fairly large household (of an average of 4-5 people) and are commuting from previously-disadvantaged areas," says Place.

"These emerging consumers certainly have a high awareness of, and place a huge value on, brands as indicators of aspiration, quality and delivery - perhaps even more so than LSM 8-10. Our research has shown that they are far more risk-averse and would rather spend what little money they have on a slightly smaller product that is really good than potentially waste it on a big product that doesn't deliver.

"Most of these consumers have been exposed to the Bakers Blue Label Marie brand throughout their lives and have seen it in a formal retail environment. All we are doing now is democratising it by making it available in channels and at price points that previously weren't available."

Informal trade is key
Snackworks tested these slightly smaller Marie and Topper formats at a range of sizes and price points, and found that the "sweet spot" was at a R2.50 price point to the consumer, which means that hawkers buy them for R1.90-R2 and make a 50-60c mark-up.

"The informal trade is a key distribution channel for us. We currently do a lot of volume through wholesalers, but have a far more established retail presence. This is largely because we have only recently begun to develop appropriate wholesale offerings," says Place.

"In the current biscuit environment hawkers are buying a pack or outer display of biscuits for R20-R30, but the bulk of our range costs R70-plus because it is aimed at the formal retail channel. Now that we have developed two good offerings for the wholesale trade, we expect natural pull-through to happen especially after point-of-sale material and promoters in the wholesalers have educated informal traders about these offerings.

"Once we have built our presence, educated wholesalers, and pushed this knowledge through to the traders, we will start addressing consumers in June/July via brand activations at SA's biggest taxi ranks."

Place says currently about 20m South Africans go through commuter points (bus stops, taxi ranks and train stations) daily, with the majority going through taxi ranks.

"We will be taking advantage of a really formalised informal sector where hawkers are well-established and have been operating a very good daily trade for the past few decades," he says. "They have good price disciplines - there won't be one hawker selling a pack for R2.50 and another for R4 - which means that we can take advantage of quite an efficient market."

"We will also get a good return on our marketing investment at taxi ranks because of the concentrations of people there.

"We will retain as much consistency as possible in communications because we believe in ensuring a consistent brand promise and personality regardless of who the target consumer is. Our communication will therefore be the same to our emerging market consumers as it is to our top-end consumers; it is just the brand offering that is different: convenient on-the-go consumption (the informal offer) versus pantry stocking (the larger packs)."

Operational impacts
"It took about six months from developing and refining the new Marie and Topper concept and business case to bringing the products to market. This process was considerably faster than other large FMCG manufacturers would have been.

"We have been fortunate that our state-of-the-art factories in Westmead (Durban) and Isando (Gauteng) have exhibited a remarkable flexibility, and we haven't had to spend massive capex. The only significant changes have been the acquisition of a new cutter to make the Marie biscuit a bit smaller, and shortening of the sealing jaws for the smaller Topper packs," Place says.

"We are initially looking at doubling the volume of Marie biscuits currently produced, being sold through this emerging channel. We are aware that there will be quite a pipeline as people get familiar with the new offerings. Informal market traders tend to be risk-averse - they don't want to buy something they are not sure will sell, so they usually try one pack in a certain flavour and then a second pack, and so on. If sales are successful then they will try another flavour. Ideally, in a few years time, we anticipate that our business presence in the informal wholesale market will be just as strong as our retail participation."

Source: Snackworks