It may not be the sexiest category in FMCG, but the world of butters and spreads has been ripe with sub-plots and name-calling in recent years.
We've had the Sex Pistols' John Lydon extolling the virtues of Country Life and putting down non-British brand Anchor. In 2007, meanwhile, when Lurpak overtook Flora as market leader after almost 20 years of dominance by the latter, it boasted the nation now wanted a butter 'created by cows, not chemists'.
The Unilever-owned margarine brand vowed that Flora would become 'much more aggressive' in the broader spreads market. However, the gap between Arla-owned Lurpak and Flora has only widened, with the former now worth more than £260m.
Indeed, only last week Unilever made brief mention of its 'weak' spreads business in its otherwise strong third-quarter results announcement.
The company believes that by centring Flora's positioning on the health benefits of eating a 'spread', it may have lost ground to buttery brands taking advantage of the emerging trend for home-baking. Flora's 'Cooking for Schools' campaign, launched in 2008, is part of a strategy to address this.
Unfortunately, a heavy promotional agenda has failed to help the value of the brand, although it has reduced activity in this area this year.
With butter brands often the first choice for TV chefs and foodies alike, is there a healthier future ahead for Flora?
We asked Tom Morton, chief strategy officer of Publicis Group UK, who has worked on the Muller Dairy account, and Richard Tolley, founder of consultancy Krux Strategy, a former Flora brand manager and Dairy Crest group marketing director.
TOM MORTON, chief strategy officer, Publicis Group UK
There are two conversations around spreads. By trying to take part in both of these, contradictory, conversations, Flora is spreading itself too thin.
There's the farmers' market conversation about home-baking and natural foods. And there's the positive conversation about active choices, superfoods and the prospect of eating your way to health. These conversations lead to different brands: one to Lurpak and one to Flora.
The product that's most left out of the conversations is Flora's Original spread, which faces a near 10% sales decline, while the tasty Flora Buttery and cholesterol-reducing Flora Pro.activ products have posted healthy sales gains. For the first time, Pro.activ is now bigger than Original. That's a profound shift. It reflects the success of Flora's heart-health marketing and raises the question of Original's future.
It's time to lead with Pro.activ while playing in Buttery as the 'taste' hero - a healthier, credible butter challenger.
REMEDY
- Stay the course. Accept that there's a decade-long transition out of generic vegetable spreads into better health benefits and buttery tastes. Sales changes just reflect the shift.
- Expand the heart-health platform. Make sure Flora owns that conversation, offering diet packages and so on.
- Monitor the conversation around heart health. Flora's territory is one of the richest online conversations - the brand should be joining in.
- Consider launching convenience foods such as snack pots or ready meals. Make it even easier for people to cut their cholesterol through eating Flora products.
RICHARD TOLLEY, founder, Krux Strategy
I started my career working on Flora, with my first day spent going through its advertising reel. Upon leaving Unilever, I spent 14 years competing against it, first at Anchor then at Dairy Crest.
Flora first launched as a 'good for you medicine' product in Belgium in pharmacies, but in the UK its positioning was as a 'good food' gourmet spread. Over the next two decades, 'good food' and implicit health (Flora was not allowed to say it was good for you) drove it to the number-one spot. Flora owned 'family', 'love' and subsequently the 'category'. Great.
However, the dichotomy of 'medicine' versus 'food' was finally resolved in the 90s, when Victor Meldrew told us it did actually 'lower cholesterol' and Pro.activ launched. Flora finally became a medicine - 'anti-food' and anti-category.
It threw away 'families' and the category meme. It drove uniformity and efficiency. Its global advertising became bland, reflecting its bland taste. Flora is now a cross between a medicine and an insurance policy.
Now, a butter that owns 'good food' is much bigger than it.
REMEDY
- 'It's food.' It's no good carrying on selling a better-for-you cigarette; you are either for the category, or against it. People do not want to eat insurance policies. Most people live in the 'now'. Re-embrace families and love of food. Own the category meme. Move from 'not' to 'now'.
- Really drive efficiency. I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and Bertolli are basically the same. Accept it, and absorb them into Flora. Lock the category down. Save lots of money, invest elsewhere. Give butter its Pyrrhic victory.