Grow Your Market
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The Oat Group was one of three set up in 2003 as part of the Health Enhancing Foods project, funded by Scottish Enterprise (SE).
Along with the Omega3 and Berry groups, the Oat Group was established to bring producers, processors and research institutes together to look at how the products could be promoted more effectively. The overall aim is to grow each of the sectors and add value to the raw materials.
The Oat Group consists of HGCA (formerly Home-Grown Cereals Authority), Grampian Oat Products, John Hogarth, Walkers, Nairns, Oatmeal of Alford, Spoff, Ops and Technical Solutions (Oats), Michael Wilson (Farmer), Paterson Arran, Tilquhillie Puddings, and the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI). SAOS facilitates the group, with the support of HGCA.
The group's objective is to raise awareness to help maintain and drive new and increased demand for oat products, although no specific growth targets were set. However, as one of the main indicators of the PR campaign's success was the level of press and media coverage for the product, a target number of articles was agreed as a measure.
Research showed that mothers and women in the 25+ age group were the prime target, as they were the main shopping decision makers in most households.
Having established the target markets and the key messages, the group commissioned a targeted media campaign, focussed on the health of the whole family. It encompassed new oat based recipes, press packs which offered a range of media messages on the nutritional benefits and versatility of oats and background on the heritage of oats and their Scottish provenance.
To date, the campaign has generated 121 pieces of 'on message' media coverage.
Although there were no formal targets set for growing the sector, there has been generic growth in both volume and value during 2008/9. Volume growth is estimated at around 5% and value growth at 14%. This encompasses sales of raw oats, flapjacks, oat based breakfast cereals, oatcakes and cereal bars.
Key Points from this case study
- a third party helped focus this group on research and actions
- the sector was not big enough for one company to undertake this venture, but generic marketing helped the whole sector
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