Anyone who believed that the so-called 'baked bean wars' of the mid-90s had been consigned to the annals of marketing history has been proved wrong by the recent success of Premier Foods' Branston Baked Beans, which launched in October last year.

Having seen off the 4p own-label products that swamped supermarket shelves in the last decade by investing in its brand, Heinz is now up against a very different animal.

By following the classic marketing techniques of focusing on a quality product and communicating its flavour as a simple USP in attention-grabbing fashion, Premier Foods has managed to inject life into what was previously one of marketing's sleepiest corners.

Premier Foods' results, posted last week, showed that, backed by a £3.5m marketing spend, Branston Baked Beans had captured a 7% share of the £230m tinned-beans market in just three months.

The launch was sparked by Heinz's acquisition of HP Foods from Danone last summer, which meant Premier Foods could no longer produce HP Beans under licence. Premier decided to fill the void by extending its Branston Pickle brand.

Challenger strategy

The strategy behind the launch was an updated version of the 'Pepsi challenge', where Branston Beans was compared with market leader Heinz's Baked Beanz.

Martin Hall, general manager for convenience business at Premier Foods, who oversaw the launch, is well versed in taking on market leaders. Twelve years ago, while brand manager for Walkers crisps, he led a drive to take on Golden Wonder, which at the time was entrenched as the UK's biggest crisp brand.

The latest activity has seen Hall reunited with Debbie Simmons, head of promotional consultancy The Big Kick, with whom he worked on the 'Walkers challenge', and who was drafted in to mobilise blind-taste tests against Heinz.

The Branston Beans launch is all the more remarkable for its speed. It took just 11 weeks from product conception to roll-out, a process that normally takes about 30 weeks.

But Hall claims there was nothing revolutionary about the activity. 'This was a classic marketing plan,' he says. 'You design a better product, come out with a point of difference, test it thoroughly with the consumer, and devise a message that communicates the point of difference in an entertaining way.'

It was recognised early on in the process that advertising alone would not convert British consumers who had long been conditioned to think that 'Beanz means Heinz'.

'We had to challenge a fundamental consumer belief that there is only one branded bean,' says Hall. 'The only way to short-circuit that is it to get the product on people's taste buds.'

To add excitement to the sampling drive, The Big Kick staged 'The Great British Bean Poll'. Mobile-catering vans were dispatched to supermarkets over a period of four weeks; more than 750,000 challenges were conducted at a cost to Premier of £1 each.

The company claims that 76% of the consumers who took part in the trials preferred Branston; the public was kept abreast of the latest tally via an LED ticker display attached to each van.

Britain's peculiar obsession with baked beans meant the poll generated significant press coverage, with local papers publishing regional results and carrying coupons that could be exchanged for tins of Branston Beans. The activity was also picked up on by Channel 4 chat show Richard & Judy, which conducted its own mini poll.

Premier Foods also capitalised on its role as a supermarket vegetable supplier by giving away Branston Beans tins with purchases of its baking potatoes, creating standout in an aisle where the product would not normally be found.

The £3.5m pre-Christmas push has been followed up by a campaign, worth £4m-£5m, which broke in January. The TV executions, which include 'Richer Branston' dancing tins of beans, are intended to tap into the brand's core attributes, which include Britishness, its flavour and a tongue-in-cheek attitude.

Created by Premier's then-ad agency Delaney Lund Knox Warren (the account moved to Clemmow Hornby Inge last month), the commercials ranked fourth in Marketing's Adwatch during the week of 9 February, with 51% of those surveyed recalling the ad.

Alex Kuropatwa, joint managing director at DLKW, attributes the campaign's success to Premier Foods taking an old-fashioned, aggressive approach.

'The company wasn't afraid to spend money. So many marketers launch, don't spend the money and just assume people want their products,' he says.

Growing the category

Premier Foods claims that in the three months to 18 February, the standard baked-beans category grew 3% in value year on year. In the four weeks to 18 February, Premier Foods had an 8.8% share of the standard beans market, compared with Heinz's 71.6%, down from 75.1% year on year, according to IRI.

Heinz responds that it has a 68% share of the baked-beans market, which has remained undented over the past 12 weeks, including the period when Branston Beans was rolled out. It describes the Branston launch as 'a lot of noise, smoke and mirrors' that has served only to cannibalise Premier's own-label business.

'IRI data shows that since Branston has launched, own-label has dropped about 5%,' says a Heinz spokesman.

Heinz also claims that Premier Foods' share has little to do with its marketing. 'Premier is selling the majority of its volume on half-price deals. Today it is selling its product in Tesco for 25% less than own-label,' adds the spokesman.

Hall counters that while Premier was offering price deals on the product in the first three months after launch, in the four weeks to 18 February, 60% of its volume was sold full-price.

Premier's next step will no doubt be to prove Heinz wrong.