Alpro has been given a multimillion-pound facelift in a bid to return it to double-digit growth.

Brand growth had been “pretty much flat over the past year” admitted commercial director John Allaway, with sales of the core Alpro Soya drink down 0.2% to £39.6m in the year to 3 October 2009 [Nielsen]. In 2007 value growth had been 23.3% and in 2008 it was 3.4% [Nielsen].

In its first major marketing push since being bought by Dean Foods last year, Alpro is rolling out new pack designs to fresh soya milk this month, then yoghurts and desserts later in the year. As well as a simplified front-of-pack design, the logo now features an image of a soya bean.

“The time is right to relaunch Alpro with the kind of strong, clear, consistent positioning and the weight of marketing support that will ensure it is recognised by mainstream consumers,” said Allaway. The spend was Alpro’s largest investment to date, he added.

The texture had also been improved, said Allaway, conceding that soya products traditionally suffered in comparison to milk. “Over the years we believe we’ve closed the gap [with dairy] but we believe there is still room for improvement,” he said.

A TV campaign targeting older women kicked off last month using the strapline ‘recommended by kids for active grown-ups’, with national press and consumer magazine ads following this month and next. Ad space has also been secured around Sex and the City 2.

Meanwhile, rival manufacturer Arla has launched a campaign to promote its Lactofree dairy range under the strapline ‘dump the lactose, not the dairy’.

Targeted at ABC1 women, it will remind lactose-intolerant consumers that they do not need to remove dairy products from their diet.

The campaign will feature 20 and 30-second TV ads, in-store creatives and national and consumer PR.

“We want people to reconnect with the dairy products they love, just without the lactose,” said Lactofree brand manager Samantha Glassford.

Topics