Aggressive Competitor Defence Strategy

"Tony Nix helps us define the brand strategy, create the presentation structure and research our creative to help us win more than our fair share of new business pitches."
Bruce Illidge Principal and Creative Director IT&P Advertising, now Illidge Creative

Big Ben Frozen Pies were losing market share. Solutions Marketing was engaged to find a cost-competitive solution.

The situation -

Big Ben frozen pies were losing market share, particularly due to the Victorian Four ‘N Twenty’s expansion into QLD and NSW, backed by a substantial advertising budget.

Big Ben, despite being owned by Westons Biscuits, could not match Four ‘n Twenty’s advertising budget. Nor did Big Ben have a sales story sufficient to pre-empt competitive expansion into NSW and QLD supermarkets.

How Solutions Marketing helped -

Solutions Marketing was engaged to find a cost competitive solution.

Quickly, it was obvious that there was little respect and affinity between the marketing and manufacturing divisions of the company. Solutions Marketing realised that the low cost key to a new and compelling sales story to protect valuable shelf space was visible product improvement and new and interesting variants.

The manufacturing division was courted to play a key role in solving this marketing problem. Manufacturing was challenged to develop pies that looked better (like the ones ‘mum used to make’) and new variants that were extra tasty.

Strategy developed & implemented -

Manufacturing ingenuity found a way of making the pies so they looked better and had a ‘dome’ top. They froze them immediately and packed them differently, to avoid squashing. Not only did the pies look better immediately out of the package, but when heated, the air space in the dome expanded producing hot pies every bit like ‘mum used to make’.

Big Ben pies were re-launched as Big Ben Dome Tops. In addition an extra variant ‘Big Ben Extra Tasty” was created by adding a small % of curry, and is still on the shelves today.

The results -

The brand survived through a classic re-launch due to teamwork at relatively low cost.