Codenamed 'Agricultural Oasis', the positioning aims to re-establish the premium credentials of the Heinz brand by ensuring the company can vouch for the quality of its ingredients and guarantee the integrity of its supply chain.
Heinz has successfully introduced ingredient verification schemes in other markets, particularly in Italy, where it brought in such a strategy for its infant feeding brand Plasmon after the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.
Nuclear fallout drifted across vast areas of Italy's agricultural land, leading to huge concerns about the safety of processed food. Plasmon responded by introducing 'Oasi Ecologica', which guaranteed all ingredients used in its babyfood were safe, and communicated it through an extensive programme of PR and advertising.
Oasi Ecologica was successful and remains a core Plasmon strategy.
Barden is understood to be keen to adopt those values for the brand in the UK and is working closely with roster agency Leo Burnett to devise ways of implementing and marketing it.
Barden, the marketer who turned around the Heinz Salad Cream brand three years ago, is also reported to be intent on introducing a stronger marketing culture. Recently, Heinz has been structured into business units with a marketer installed as general manager over each. But it has been criticised for not allowing its marketers to spend enough time on marketing.
Barden has not yet been officially installed as managing director at the UK and Ireland business, but an announcement is expected in the next two weeks.
Agricultural Oasis is an evolution of a strategy Barden worked on during his first stint at Heinz in the late-90s under Nigel Clare, managing director for European groceries.
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