Campbell's brand loss may open can of worms

MEDIA&MARKETING: CAMPBELL'S SOUP is an iconic brand that has been slurped in Irish kitchens for decades. But now the famous canned soups, celebrated in artform by Andy Warhol, are about to disappear from the shops.

The reason is that, 18 months ago, Premier Foods, the UK firm which owns the Batchelors, McDonnell and Erin soup brands, bought Campbell Soup Company's assets in Ireland and Britain. Campbell's is still a big player in the US soup market and elsewhere in Europe and only granted Premier a licence to continue using its brand until mid-2008.

So from the end of April, all the Campbell's branded soup products in Ireland will be transformed into Erin brands. It's a tricky move for Premier, which plans to spend € 2 million on advertising the name migration.

Premier insists that the only thing that is changing is the name. "We own the ingredients mix. We got all the Campbell's recipes as part of the sale," says marketing manager Ciara Dilley.

The soup market in Ireland is worth € 75 million. According to market research company Nielsen, Knorr is the number-one brand with a 60 per cent share, followed by Campbell's in second place and then Erin.

The largest portion of Campbell's consumers are urban middle-class women in their mid-30s and 40s. Dilley admits that, in focus groups, a sizeable portion of consumers reacted with "shock and horror" at the disappearance of the Campbell's brand. But she adds: "By the end of the research process some were still disappointed but they understood our reasons."

That's fine in one-to-one chats, but getting the message across through advertising to a mass market is a different issue. The risk for Premier is that consumers who can't find cans of Campbell's soup will opt for a non-Premier brand.

At the moment, the red-coloured Campbell's cans and packets look like they always did, except that the word "Campbell's" has been replaced with the Erin brand signature. Elsewhere on the label, consumers are told that the contents are "Previously Campbell's". From July, all references to Campbell's will disappear, as will the familiar look of the Campbell's branding. From then on, your can of condensed tomato soup will be an Erin can, with no hint at all of the soup's American heritage.

The reason why Campbell's outsells Erin in Ireland is that consumers prefer the taste of the American formula. In addition, Campbell's has strong brand values, especially on the condensed soup side. So Premier is faced with an interesting marketing challenge.

The € 2 million marketing spend informing consumers of the name change will involve advertising across television, outdoor and women's magazines, as well as direct mail.

Semi-State battle

It is unusual to see one semi-State body take a swipe at another semi-State in its advertising. But a new campaign by Fáilte Ireland to promote holidays at home has raised a few eyebrows at the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA).

Fáilte Ireland's campaign emphasises the negative aspects of holidaying abroad, with the aim of illustrating the stress for families of travelling through airports. One of the advertisements, created by agency DDFH&B and running on television and radio, features disgruntled children pestering their parents in an airport. The stressed parents tell their children the terminal is still miles away.

DAA director of corporate affairs Vincent Wall says: "We've had a little chat with Fáilte Ireland about the ads in question and have suggested to them that there is a whole range of positive aspects to holidaying in Ireland they could have used, rather than running an admittedly tongue-in-cheek reference to the joys of air travel."

John Concannon, director of regional development at Fáilte Ireland, counters: "The airport is not a fantastic experience for most people. But if you holiday in Ireland, you can be in any part of the country within four hours without any hassle."

Coming next from DAA? "Remember last summer? Forget rainy Ireland and fly away to the sun."

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© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times