>>How is one of last year's top launches faring?
Product: Spudz
Company: Quaker
Launch date: September 2003
It looks like Quaker should have listened to buyers before it launched Spudz last year. If it had, the company might not have had to relaunch the puffed rice and potato snack only a year after it first hit shelves.
Quaker this month announced it was ditching the Spudz brand in favour of bringing it firmly under the Snack-a-Jacks umbrella as Mini-Bites.
Darren Jones, Somerfield’s category buyer for biscuits, said: “As suggested to Quaker before launch, Spudz should have been launched as part of the Snack-a-Jacks brand as it was an extension of the rice products.
“The Spudz name confused consumers as it made them think of crisps.”
However, the product, which was backed by a £5m marketing support package, has by no means failed. According to figures from ACNielsen, Spudz has captured more than 6% of the total crispbread and ricecakes market, a proportion that now translates to monthly sales of more than £40,000 [Scantrack and Homescan, four weeks to June 12 2004].
But the relaunch would suggest that Quaker is not entirely happy with the performance of the snack, which it hoped would expand the brands appeal to men and children.
The company said the rebranding of Spudz has been designed to tap into the success of the Snack-a-Jacks brand, which it claims has become a £50m brand since its launch in January 2000.
Product: Spudz
Company: Quaker
Launch date: September 2003
It looks like Quaker should have listened to buyers before it launched Spudz last year. If it had, the company might not have had to relaunch the puffed rice and potato snack only a year after it first hit shelves.
Quaker this month announced it was ditching the Spudz brand in favour of bringing it firmly under the Snack-a-Jacks umbrella as Mini-Bites.
Darren Jones, Somerfield’s category buyer for biscuits, said: “As suggested to Quaker before launch, Spudz should have been launched as part of the Snack-a-Jacks brand as it was an extension of the rice products.
“The Spudz name confused consumers as it made them think of crisps.”
However, the product, which was backed by a £5m marketing support package, has by no means failed. According to figures from ACNielsen, Spudz has captured more than 6% of the total crispbread and ricecakes market, a proportion that now translates to monthly sales of more than £40,000 [Scantrack and Homescan, four weeks to June 12 2004].
But the relaunch would suggest that Quaker is not entirely happy with the performance of the snack, which it hoped would expand the brands appeal to men and children.
The company said the rebranding of Spudz has been designed to tap into the success of the Snack-a-Jacks brand, which it claims has become a £50m brand since its launch in January 2000.
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