Mark Ritson on Branding: Serious dough to be made

categories, bread.

Yes, bread. Not search engines or cola - good old-fashioned bread. And
old-fashioned is the right term for it, since the two brands at the
centre of this titanic battle are using every ounce of their heritage to
gain market share. It's North versus South; first versus second;
Warburtons versus Hovis.

The war was being won hands-down by Warburtons. For every two loaves of
Hovis sold in the UK, it sells three, and its sales have grown by 24% in
the past year alone. But all that changed with the spectacular campaign
Hovis launched last month. Warburtons is fighting back with its own
big-budget ad, which broke on Friday. So who wins the battle of the
breadbasket?

Let's look at the management teams. Warburtons is a family business and
proud of it. In marketing terms, however, it could be out-thought by
Hovis' leadership. When Premier Foods bought the brand as part of its
2007 acquisition of RHM, Premier's chief executive, Robert Schofield,
made it clear the deal was 'about big brands' and there was none bigger
in the UK than Hovis. Jon Goldstone, Premier's top marketer, is no mug
either, with a strong branding background at Procter & Gamble. While it
is important for Warburtons to defend its market lead, Premier Foods'
existence is now staked on its ability to build brands, and the
financial markets are watching what happens with Hovis.

Then there is media planning. While both brands are spending similar
amounts, Hovis is well ahead. Its latest ad was launched in a break
during Coronation Street. Aside from the huge audience it delivers,
Corrie is also the perfect media context for the brand: traditional,
domestic, emotional. In contrast, Warburtons got similar audience
numbers when it premiered its ad during The X Factor, but totally missed
the context. It's a similar story with the length of the ads:
Warburtons' 60-second spot is longer than the usual, but hardly breaks
the mould. Choosing 122 seconds, one for every year in its history, was
a stroke of genius by Hovis. It not only makes for an epic ad, but also
emphasised the brand's heritage in the launch PR backing the
campaign.

In positioning terms, Warburtons is emphasising its leadership of the
category as 'Britain's favourite baker' and its family-owned heritage.
'It's a rare thing these days for a large business to be run by family
members; we think that means something to consumers,' explained
Warburtons' marketing director, Richard Hayes. True, but the brand has
strayed dangerously close to making the family, rather than the brand,
the focus of communications.

Hovis, in contrast, leads with an emotional appeal tied directly to its
position as a staple of family life and British culture. It's a very
subtle but agency-derived way of communicating heritage to consumers.
Usually founders beat agencies hands down, but the Hovis ad is hard to
resist, particularly when it builds so beautifully from the
boy-on-a-bike ad directed by Ridley Scott in 1973.

We should know by Christmas which brand is winning the battle to be the
best-loved bread. Can a TV-led campaign reverse a brand decline almost
single-handed? Don't bet against it. Hovis' name derives from hominis
vis - the Latin for 'strength of man'.

- Mark Ritson is an associate professor of marketing and consultant to
some of the world's leading brands

30 SECONDS ON ... HOVIS

- The Hovis Process, patented by Richard 'Stony' Smith in 1887, involved
the extraction of wheatgerm from the wheat, lightly cooking it to
preserve its nutrients, then putting back into the flour many times more
wheatgerm than it originally contained.

- The flour was originally known as Smith's Patent Germ Flour and the
bread produced from it Smith's Patent Germ Bread, but a competition to
rename the flour was won by student Herbert Grimes in 1890.

- Before the launch of the latest advertising campaign, Tim Kelly, head
of Premier Foods' bread division, improved the formulation of the
product, upgraded its bakeries to improve manufacturing and introduced
new packaging.

- According to Premier Foods chief executive Robert Schofield, the
company's long-term strategy for Hovis focuses on brand extension: 'The
prospects of what we can do with that brand are enormous. We will try to
develop that brand outside of its core.'