Warburtons? Making crisps? Now that's what you call a brand extension and a half.

Yet you can see why. Exactly a year since Walkers launched Red Sky, sales of the premium potato chips have come from nowhere to challenge established players such as Tyrrells, and the market as a whole is up 5.5%. Warburtons believes that with its baking heritage, it can bring something new to the party, and grab a piece of the action in a lucrative £2.2bn market.

What makes the launch even more intriguing is comparing and contrasting its approach with that of Walkers. With Red Sky the Walkers brand is conspicuous by its absence from the packaging.

It was as if an association with Walkers an everyday brand would cheapen the image of the newly launched premium potato chip. And as well as being deliberate, this is, of course, hugely ironic, because the success of Red Sky to date appears to be based on combining an upmarket look with a (relatively) low-quality, mass-manufactured product. It must be coining it in.

Now compare the Warburtons approach. Again an everyday brand, by contrast, the Warburtons logo is writ large on all the packs, and appears to be using the association with the mother ship to emphasise not so much its premium position as the relatively small leap from a baker of bread to a baker of crisps.

The packaging is also in stark contrast to the traditional look and feel of the Warburtons plant bread range, using playful and child-like images of cats and ducks, contrarily, to convey its adult credentials.

In short, the entire venture feels bizarre and counter-intuitive, and for that reason alone, I like it. Factor in the distinctive taste, and with the big bucks of Warburtons to support it, perhaps it will follow in the footsteps of this year's list of winners in The Grocer's Food & Drink Awards.

Read more
Warburtons muscles in on bagged snacks (20 February 2010)
Warburtons seeks a slice of credibility in bagged snacks (20 February 2010)

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