What a difference a decade makes. With more sophisticated palates, today's consumers are not only likely to eschew the old ready meal mainstays, they are also just as likely to pick up one of the bewildering choice of alternatives in a supermarket as in M&S.
Which is why last summer it was time for action at M&S's head office, Michael House. In a bid to regain some of the ground lost to its rivals, M&S gathered a team of its most senior product developers to come up with the concept for a summery food range that would tickle the taste buds of today's consumer.
It decided on food inspired by the tastes and traditions of southern Italy and launched Savour Italy' on April 22.
The team's decision marked the beginning of what was to be Marks and Spencer's biggest country campaign' to date and one of the biggest, excluding Christmas, overall. Savour Italy would be the first country campaign to cut across all categories covering not only ready meals, but also its meats, cheeses and wines. And it would be one of the quickest to progress from concept to the shelf, hitting the stores just six months after conception.
Seeking greater authenticity
But first, the ingredients had to be sourced. Last October, product developer and former chef Daniel McDowell headed off to southern Italy with another member of the buying team and a US consultant.
Wending their way southwards from Rome through Naples and Sorrento, the team descended on famous restaurants, chic cafés and local markets, sampling local cuisine such as lemon infused chicken, light buttery risottos and salmon fillets in crusts of olives and capers.
McDowell explains: "We were looking for greater authenticity. Most Italian dishes have been anglicised and we tend to think of Italian food as being heavy and creamy the lasagnes and carbonaras that come from northern Italy. Southern Italian food is much lighter. People don't know about it here and it is perfect for the summer."
The team also tasted local produce such as Parma ham, bucatini pasta which is made using a brass dye rather than Teflon dye, giving it a scratchy surface that soaks up sauces better and Sorrento lemons. In fact, the lemons became the leitmotif for the whole project.
"Most lemons in UK supermarkets are Spanish. Best quality is mostly deemed to mean the most perfect shape and shiniest skin," says McDowell.
"These stood out because they were bulbous and very different in taste."
It took a month of speaking to local growers to find someone who could supply the chain. "The Sorrento lemons were the hardest to pull off. We had problems with the language, and then we had very strict rules that we had to follow about who we could use. Many of the standards of Italian producers were just not up to M&S, or indeed UK, standards."
Eventually they found a family that could supply lemons of a good enough standard in sufficient quantities.
The next step was to start developing the range itself. This was no easy task either. Although there were 70 people in the food division working on the campaign, they had been set a rigid deadline and Christmas to contend with.
Says McDowell: "We worked with the suppliers first. Then it was a matter of starting to develop samples that would feed, say, two to three people to develop the tastes. We then increased the samples so they would feed 100 people and tested the meals again."
Sicilian fell by the wayside
Inevitably, some ideas fell by the wayside plans for Sicilian dishes for instance. "It wasn't right seasonally," says McDowell.
He refuses to disclose how much the whole project cost, but in the end, the team came up with 24 new product lines that fell into one of three categories: everyday family food, modern Italian the sort of dishes people would expect to eat in a restaurant and main meals for two. The range includes Sorrento lemon roasted chicken, expected to be one of the biggest sellers, Roman-style hunter's lamb, and Neapolitan-style stuffed salmon with herb gnocchi. Around 60% of the ingredients for the special prepared meals and 40% of the ingredients for the everyday and modern Italian meals had been sourced in Italy.
It is too early to gauge whether the range will be a success with customers, but the decision to cover a number of categories has worked, insists McDowell, and M&S plans to roll out similar cross-category campaigns in future.
His real goal though is to challenge people's perceptions of ready meals and Italian food. "The good thing about Italian food is that it's about simple food made from high quality ingredients," he says.
Even the days of the once-ubiquitous lasagne may be numbered,if McDowell has his way. "We're going to knock lasagne off its pedestal once and for all," he laughs.
{{ANALYSIS }}
Which is why last summer it was time for action at M&S's head office, Michael House. In a bid to regain some of the ground lost to its rivals, M&S gathered a team of its most senior product developers to come up with the concept for a summery food range that would tickle the taste buds of today's consumer.
It decided on food inspired by the tastes and traditions of southern Italy and launched Savour Italy' on April 22.
The team's decision marked the beginning of what was to be Marks and Spencer's biggest country campaign' to date and one of the biggest, excluding Christmas, overall. Savour Italy would be the first country campaign to cut across all categories covering not only ready meals, but also its meats, cheeses and wines. And it would be one of the quickest to progress from concept to the shelf, hitting the stores just six months after conception.
Seeking greater authenticity
But first, the ingredients had to be sourced. Last October, product developer and former chef Daniel McDowell headed off to southern Italy with another member of the buying team and a US consultant.
Wending their way southwards from Rome through Naples and Sorrento, the team descended on famous restaurants, chic cafés and local markets, sampling local cuisine such as lemon infused chicken, light buttery risottos and salmon fillets in crusts of olives and capers.
McDowell explains: "We were looking for greater authenticity. Most Italian dishes have been anglicised and we tend to think of Italian food as being heavy and creamy the lasagnes and carbonaras that come from northern Italy. Southern Italian food is much lighter. People don't know about it here and it is perfect for the summer."
The team also tasted local produce such as Parma ham, bucatini pasta which is made using a brass dye rather than Teflon dye, giving it a scratchy surface that soaks up sauces better and Sorrento lemons. In fact, the lemons became the leitmotif for the whole project.
"Most lemons in UK supermarkets are Spanish. Best quality is mostly deemed to mean the most perfect shape and shiniest skin," says McDowell.
"These stood out because they were bulbous and very different in taste."
It took a month of speaking to local growers to find someone who could supply the chain. "The Sorrento lemons were the hardest to pull off. We had problems with the language, and then we had very strict rules that we had to follow about who we could use. Many of the standards of Italian producers were just not up to M&S, or indeed UK, standards."
Eventually they found a family that could supply lemons of a good enough standard in sufficient quantities.
The next step was to start developing the range itself. This was no easy task either. Although there were 70 people in the food division working on the campaign, they had been set a rigid deadline and Christmas to contend with.
Says McDowell: "We worked with the suppliers first. Then it was a matter of starting to develop samples that would feed, say, two to three people to develop the tastes. We then increased the samples so they would feed 100 people and tested the meals again."
Sicilian fell by the wayside
Inevitably, some ideas fell by the wayside plans for Sicilian dishes for instance. "It wasn't right seasonally," says McDowell.
He refuses to disclose how much the whole project cost, but in the end, the team came up with 24 new product lines that fell into one of three categories: everyday family food, modern Italian the sort of dishes people would expect to eat in a restaurant and main meals for two. The range includes Sorrento lemon roasted chicken, expected to be one of the biggest sellers, Roman-style hunter's lamb, and Neapolitan-style stuffed salmon with herb gnocchi. Around 60% of the ingredients for the special prepared meals and 40% of the ingredients for the everyday and modern Italian meals had been sourced in Italy.
It is too early to gauge whether the range will be a success with customers, but the decision to cover a number of categories has worked, insists McDowell, and M&S plans to roll out similar cross-category campaigns in future.
His real goal though is to challenge people's perceptions of ready meals and Italian food. "The good thing about Italian food is that it's about simple food made from high quality ingredients," he says.
Even the days of the once-ubiquitous lasagne may be numbered,if McDowell has his way. "We're going to knock lasagne off its pedestal once and for all," he laughs.
{{ANALYSIS }}
No comments yet