Brand Research

BRAND RESEARCH

Ernest Adams


General:




From Goodman Fielder


Ernest Adams is New Zealand's leading sweet-baked brand offering consumers a range of delicious baked goods available through grocery outlets.


As New Zealand's favorite bakery brand it provides delicious sweet alternatives to baking with ready made cakes, desserts and Christmas baking. The range includes slices, loaves, cookies, éclairs, brandy snaps, meringues, profiteroles, cakes, sponges, puddings and tarts.


Ernest Adams established a New Zealand baking business in the 1920s. English-born Adams came from a family of bakers who immigrated to Australia and where under his father's name, Herbert Adams is a large Australian food company.


(http://www.goodmanfielder.co.nz/index.php?q=node/50)






History


The company was established in Christchurch by Ernest Alfred Adams, an English-born baker, in the early 1920s. His father, Herbert Adams, was the founder of a large Australian-based food company. The company was originally called Adams Bruce Limited, with Adams in partnership with Christchurch baker Hugh Bruce. The company grew rapidly, with bakeries in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin by the time of Bruce's retirement in 1929. Following Bruce's retirement, the company was split, with Adams Bruce operating in the North Island and a new company, Ernest Adams Ltd., taking over the South Island arm of the business. Despite his official retirement, Bruce continued to work for the company as manager of the Christchurch factory until his death in 1939.

















Design:


- Plastic/Foil-like bag


- Nostalgic imagery: Checkered teatowel, red cooking tin.


- Evokes a sense of Homemade but a tad too try-hard, overselling. Too serious


- NZ Made stamp; too understated, needs to be more pronounced.


- cardboard boxes for other goods, inviting to consumers as can see goods inside.






Macrotrends To Consider:


(These are global trends that are current with today, that consumers naturally begin to adhere to without consciousness)


- Balance Health + Indulgence (1)


- Interest In How it's made (2)


- "Show me something new" (3)


- Fusing Flavours (4)






How Ernest Adams adheres to these macrotrends:






1) Ernest Adams' only possible score in this goal is it's gluten-free alternative cookies






2) The story of Ernest Adams' bakery upbringing may hit home for consumers to have trust in the quality of the baking goods the company produces, and may potentially cause consumers to allow Ernest Adams to be an alternative to home baking






3) + 4) For the last 2, Ernest Adams has stretched it's flavour spectrum. It's current flavours on shelves are;


- Double Chocolate Chip


- Peanut Brownie


- Shortbread


- Chocolate Chip


- Apricot Choc Chip


- Anzac


With obviously Peanut Brownie and Apricot Choc Chip being the most "fusing" of Flavours. However all of these flavours are pretty standard across Cookie brands.






Issues So Far:


- NZ-made not stressed enough


- Not radical enough flavours


- Design too overselling in the same bracket as Farmbake






Potential Changes?:


- Take different route on design? Maybe more playful like Cookie Time/less nostalgic but more imaginative


- Incorporate more NZ iconicness into design


- Think up new flavours, possibly with gooey/creamy centres?






Perceptual Map: