The germ of an idea

It would seem that when it comes to bread, most people, mums, dads, even their more health-aware kids, all know that eating ‘bread with bits’ makes for a healthier diet. But beyond the dyed-in-the-wool seeds and grain lovers, taking up this healthier habit is a step too far for most bread lovers. Given Kingsmill’s magical ability to create super-tasty better for you breads, finding a very Kingsmill way to offer a tasty ‘with bits’ healthier option was a natural next step for the brand. Dragon Rouge’s challenge was to explore how the brand could deliver a unique take on ‘with bits’ bread that could uniquely chime with the core Kingsmill audience in the same way that made Crusts Away and 50/50 runaway successes.

Sowing the seed

Working from wide ranging inspiring starter insights and looking through a Kingsmill lens, we pushed out the possible directions for a ‘with bits’ offer in an energetic i-vision workshop with added creative inspiration coming from diverse food world experts – bakery writers, nutritionists, food bloggers and trends specialists. We pushed thinking wide, taking inspiration from other brands and categories that had made health tasty, or smuggled goodness in; brands that have disrupted, or shifted the visual and verbal language of the category. And we created a raft of focused yet inspired ‘raw’ concepts that were ‘live tested’ in viewed groups that evening with target Kingsmill consumers. This clarity of focus plus a real world check in let us progress with confidence to creating evolved, highly priority concepts which we took out to Kingsmill loyalists and switchers alike, in nationwide consumer testing.

The really simple one

It’s rare to get such clarity and an outright winner from consumer research, but the simplicity and fit of a ‘with bits’ bread range concept that could offer a ‘seeded step’ for every taste was a clear frontrunner from the off. Add to this the very Kingsmill style delivery of the ‘mums’ champion’ promise through a secretly seeded ‘ground seed-rich’ loaf SKU plus a straightforward, upbeat, personality packed tone of voice for the range branding, and the brief to create the new seeded loaf range was clear.  Thus, from an eight week start to finish in the innovation and research phase – the new range was ready for launch grocery multiples within nine months in January 2011.