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Food & Hospitality Insight

THREE CHALLENGES FOR FREE FROM BRANDS

 

Below we uncover some of the top challenges we’re seeing free from brands experiencing

Discover how we’ve helped three high-profile free from brands creatively tackle key challenges in the current food & hospitality landscape.

Maintaining premium price in a cost of living crisis

Challenge: When free from consumers are increasingly value led, how can brands maintain premium pricing?

Key takeaways:
As concerns around the cost of living prompt an increasingly rationalised shopping basket, getting on the shopping list is key. Shoppers will naturally turn to own label products, so brands need to build emotional connections with shoppers to overcome the price wars.

How we’ve done it before: The Spice Tailor – from starter brand to leader
The Spice Tailor needed to stand up against other big, corporate Indian food brands.

We uncovered that the brand had a secret ingredient – founder Anjum Anand. We positioned her as the face of modern Indian cuisine with press trips, private cookery masterclasses with menu inspiration.

Results: Successful UK launch with the range stocked in all the major multiples; achieved double digit growth in a competitive marketplace.

How do you control the narrative around listings?

Challenge: Buyers are increasingly rationalising their ranges and making drastic changes. How can brands limit damage to reputation when this happens?

Key takeaways:

Owning the narrative around listings is key to controlling your brand message. Consider when the best time is for the story to land and whether to give it oxygen. This should be done alongside maintaining an ongoing dialogue with the retailer whilst also exploring alternative customer bases

How we’ve done it before: When a leading food brand consulted us about their range being delisted in a major supermarket, there was concern that the news would be covered in The Grocer. We provided strategic consultancy around creating positive news stories and successfully ensured that the delisting was not covered.

Advice around discounting

Challenge: What do you do when you’re under pressure from retailers to discount?

Key takeaways:

It’s not surprising that people are seeking deals right now. This can present an opportunity for brands to engage shoppers through on pack and in-store activations. PR can also be an effective tool to prove investment into your brand to retailers and showcase inherent brand value.

 

How we’ve done it before: The Flower Farm – Palm Oil Protest

The Flower Farm wanted to raise brand awareness and engage key grocery buyers.

With climate change at the forefront of the news agenda, we implemented a proactive press office, leveraging hard-hitting facts about the palm oil problem to support product reviews, trade feature generation, founder profiling and a creative news hijacking programme.

 

Results: Six months on and +30 pieces of earned media coverage successfully positioned The Flower Farm as margarine on a mission, with PR helping to secure a major grocery listing in Sainsbury’s.

With climate change at the forefront of the news agenda, we implemented a proactive press office, leveraging hard-hitting facts about the palm oil problem to support product reviews, trade feature generation, founder profiling and a creative news hijacking programme.

Six months on and +30 pieces of earned media coverage successfully positioned The Flower Farm as margarine on a mission, with PR helping to secure a major grocery listing in Sainsbury’s.

 

SPEAK TO US

Intrigued, uninspired by your current agency, plans to re-energise your comms, looking for a new home – we’d love to talk about our Food & Hospitality experience.

Helen Collingborn, Head of Food & Hospitality
helen.collingborn@speedcomms.com