Mr Kipling, the fictional baker whose genial manner has helped sell millions of cakes, seems to have lost his way. Sales have plummeted despite a marketing revamp and the brand's 'exceedingly good' claim no longer rings true for many consumers.
Though accounting for a quarter of the UK cake market, the company last week announced a 12% drop in sales of cakes, and immediately blamed the decline on cash-strapped consumers.
However, not everyone is buying the explanation. A number of more challenging problems lie elsewhere, such as the expansion of retailer own-brands, including Tesco Finest and Sainsbury's Taste the Difference.
Indeed, while it has worked hard since its launch in 1967 to create a line of cakes that could not be bettered, the range and quality of products available in supermarkets today means its claim is now lost in the clamour.
Once admired for its down-to-earth nature and the friendliness of its iconic character, Mr Kipling has already undergone a modernisation programme, with updated packaging, the introduction of new products and a change in advertising strategy.
Its advertising had taken a serious knock in 2003 when an execution by Saatchi & Saatchi drew 797 complaints to the ASA, making it the most complained-about TV ad ever. The execution featured a modern slant on the traditional Christmas nativity play, with Mary 'giving birth' on-stage.
Brand owner Manor Bakeries withdrew the creative, despite breaking no advertising rules, when it realised the controversy would damage the brand.
New packaging designed by Turner Duckworth and its introduction of individually wrapped cakes have also failed to have an impact on sales.
The development of products such as blackberry and custard pies, comes as part of an effort to move back to its heartland of tradition. And new ads, by WCRS, appointed in May last year, focus squarely on the product.
Given the brand's recent challenges, Marketing asked Andrew McGuinness launch partner at Beattie McGuinness Bungay, who oversaw the Muller account at his previous agency, TBWA\London, and Mike Branson, managing partner at brand design agency Pearlfisher, which has worked on packaging for Green & Black's, for their views on how the Kipling brand might re-establish itself in the cake market.
DIAGNOSIS 1 - ANDREW MCGUINNESS, LAUNCH PARTNER, BEATTIE MCGUINNESS BUNGAY
Business can be cruel. There you are, sat at RHM overseeing a powerhouse brand with annual sales of 拢270m. Then three unrelated but devastating forces conspire to gouge a 12% drop in your revenues.
First, there was the obesity debate.
As the nation became more health-conscious, a business making cakes was never going to escape unscathed.
Second, there was the creation of an inappropriate piece of advertising - remember the furore about last year's 'Nativity play' ad? Great ads have high impact and high relevance. Here, client and agency were seduced into making a high-impact, wholly irrelevant ad for a quintessentially middle-England brand.
Third, and most devastating, consumers now more than ever seek authenticity from brands. Witness the rise of brands such as Innocent and Green & Black's.
From stir-fry sauces to soft drinks, consumers seek brands with a strong back story, credibility founded on a brand truth. The fabricated, 50s world of a quaint old duffer risks appearing not only irrelevant, but potentially dishonest.
REMEDY
- Devise ads that celebrate what Mr Kipling represents. A brand such as Aunt Bessie's shows that heritage and contemporary relevance are not mutually exclusive.
- Tap into the emerging anti-food fascism trend; we all want a treat now and again.
- Look at what the modern manifestation of cakes could be. Take inspiration from how the New Covent Garden Soup Company successfully removed its soups from a category stuck in a timewarp.
DIAGNOSIS 2 - MIKE BRANSON, MANAGING PARTNER, PEARLFISHER
Mr Kipling is a brand we all know and love. It is a brand rooted in tradition and has always remained true to its heritage.
Of course brands need to continually reinvent themselves and it will always be challenging for a brand such as this to stay relevant and desirable without losing the heart of what it stands for. However, the new incarnation of Mr Kipling has moved us away from the warmth and sense of tradition associated with the brand. It has been given an overtly contemporary, 'foodie' look, easily adoptable and adaptable for many rivals.
Mr Kipling doesn't need to play by others' rules; while wanting to be seen as contemporary, the brand is playing by contemporary rules when it doesn't need to. It has lost a certain sense of identity and seems less proud, even apologetic, of its heritage and of the Mr Kipling persona that gave the brand its clear expression.
The brand needs to stand firmer, to recognise and embrace its heartland as a brand with heritage and authenticity that is actually very in tune with the present buying motivation of the consumer.
REMEDY
- Try to enhance the 'home-made' and premium nature of the products or promote the expertise and personality of 'Mr Kipling' himself.
- There is the opportunity to both resurrect the existing sense of teatime ritual and reinvent it at the same time.
- Product and packaging need to work better together to give the brand a clearer, more honest and consistent brand message.