Channel 4 - Ski Yoghurt

Like the preceding post, this summary of the Channel 4 programme on Ski, covers the marketing techniques used to support the brand leader in the face of new competitors and an economic downturn.

Much of this approach was employed at Meadowhall where I was fortunate to be Marketing Director over the opening period and later as Head of Marketing for Legal & General’s Centres.

The lessons learned during my marketing career are synthesised into the ‘Magic Programme’, which helps deliver the ultimate competitive advantage in retail-service excellence.

1. History to 1973

Ski fruit yoghurt, with added sugar, was launched in 1965 and revolutionised the yoghurt market which today is worth £2 billion. It experienced rapid growth and although it attracted competition from both own-label and branded yoghurts, in 1973 it held a dominant market share of 42%.

2. The Story

Every brand should tell a story. Not necessarily a true one, but a story, which is convincing and is consistently told and delivered. What advertisers call ‘the suspension of disbelief’. Iconic brands tell a story at the outset of their lives and, with the passage of time, changing tastes and circumstances must be prepared to re-invent themselves by updating their story.

Ski is made to a unique Swiss recipe with real, visible fruit pieces and was seen as the ‘full of fitness food for all the family’. Its personality was lively, fit, happy and healthy, drawing on the ‘source effect’ of the Alps.

In reality, the impact of the added sugar was the factor which gave Ski its enormous success, particularly with children for whom it was perceived by mothers, the prime buyers, as significantly healthier than ice cream.

Even when presented with evidence that Ski had as much sugar as ice cream, the story held and Mums refused to accept it was the case.

The arrival of St Ivel’s Prize did nothing to dent Ski’s story as the brand presented itself as a ‘macho, fruity’ offering which found little emotional connection with women – think Donald Trump.

Furthermore, the new commercial, created in 1975, reinforced Ski’s story very powerfully.

2. Challenges we faced in 1973

• The economic outlook was dire with a recession in full swing and GDP down by 4%, the worst economic performance since the war.
• Inflation was running at 20% with interest rates at 15% and industry suffering from the imposition of the Three-Day-Week as a result of the miners’ strike.
• Imported raw material prices were spiralling and The Prices Commission was set up to limit manufacturers’ ability to raise prices.
• Unigate and Unilever simultaneously launched new yoghurt brands four weeks after I started my job as Senior Product Manager, Ski.
• These launches had an immediate impact on Ski’s sales.
• A major Usage & Attitude Study, followed by extensive focus groups and blind tastings were carried out.
• These showed Ski’s brand proposition ‘The Full Of Fitness Food’ to be relevant and robust with high levels of conviction that it was the best in value, healthiness and quality for all the family.
• However, the Unigate brand ‘Prize’ out-performed Ski in blind tasting where it was perceived to be thicker and fruitier than the market leader.
• As a brand, Prize was warmly received and its advertising widely appreciated, although it was seen as a ‘pushy number two’ to the cooler, more aloof Ski.

3. Steps we took to address the challenges

• The product quality problem was the major issue. Originally made in batch production, that process was gentle and produced a thick, creamy yoghurt with visible fruit particulates.
• The move to mass production meant that the product was pumped from incubation to the filling heads across a significant distance. The result of this was that viscosity was adversely affected and the added fruit pieces fragmented in transit.
• Furthermore, the mass output meant large quantities of fruit were required and to meet this need year-round, frozen fruit was used. Frozen fruits, especially dark ones tend to lose colour through freezing.
• Hence, most of the Ski output was thin and pale-coloured with little in the way of visible fruit pieces.
• The vivid findings of the research were sufficient evidence to convince R & D that change was urgently needed, despite their initial diffidence.
• Through Marketing, a viscosity standard and colour for each fruit were defined and the techniques for controlling these naturally were implemented in the mass production operation.
• To emphasise new fruitier Ski, the packs were redesigned to show specific fruits on the churn pots. In parallel, the blue background was modified to convey that shade of blue proven in research to best convey ‘fresh’.
• As there was little awareness that Ski offered 20g more yoghurt than its competitors, the pack size was reduced to 150g, with the unique churn shape retained despite opposition from the factory.
• The Advertising Agency, Masius Wynne Williams, came up with an advertising idea involving novel stop-start video technology, which they ‘steamrolled’ the company into approving, a reflection of their long-held role as de facto marketers for the company.
• Post launch research demonstrated a high level of consumer dissatisfaction with the outcome, so the ad was immediately dumped and the agency was obliged to pitch to retain the account, which they successfully did.
• As the Advertising Standards Authority had outlawed the ‘Full Of Fitness Food’ tagline, a new ad was produced with the original Manfred Mann melody and altered lyrics. The result was that, in research, most respondents still heard the tagline although it wasn’t there!
• The new ad campaign was preceded by an intense round of presentations to all the major retail groups to establish a year-round programme of in-store activity designed to create a dominant presence in chiller cabinets.

4. Outcome

• Unilever withdrew the Cool Country brand in 1976.
• Unigate failed to damage Ski’s share, which recovered to 42% and the former launched Shape to replace Prize.
• Ski’s price increased by 6p to 9p in two years, and with the pack size reduction, the price per ounce grew from 1p to 1.8p, an increase of 80% and an enhanced gross margin.

5. Epilogue

Ski is now owned by Nestlé but doesn’t register in Mintel’s yoghurt Top 10, which gives Müller top place. Ironically, after several changes of hands Müller bought a significant part of what was Express Dairies, the owner of Ski.

Back then, production ruled the manufacturing roost and the Ad. Agency had great influence on marketing strategy. Ski was one of the first brands to specify how a product should be delivered and to lead the Ad. Agency to focus on the production of a carefully executed outcome guided by research rather than being concerned with strategy.