Media: Strategy Analysis - Helping the Brits do summer better.(Diageo Great Britain Ltd.'s Pimm's)

 
Brand: Pimm's No.1 
Client: Diageo 
Brief: Increase sales of Pimm's 
Target audience: UK adults 
Budget: Undisclosed 
 
AGENCIES 
Media: Jessica McQuade, Laura Nice and Stuart Butler at Carat 
Creative: Mother 
PR: Trimedia 

Pimm's had been growing for years, but 2004 saw a decline in sales despite strong brand awareness and affinity scores. To find out what was going on, Carat asked consumers about it in focus groups.

It found that they loved the brand but felt it was a little bit too 'posh' for them. If Carat was to meet its objective of increasing penetration from 3.2 to 4.8 per cent, it needed to make the brand a lot more accessible.

The challenge was to achieve this without compromising the fondness for the brand.

Consumers tended to associate Pimm's with a particular type of 'establishment' English poshness - reinforced by the TV-ad hero Harry. It was also closely associated with a posh English summer and season events such as Wimbledon and the Henley Regatta. People are fond of all this, but few can actually attend such events.

Also, the English love summer, but are just not that good at it - umbrellas at barbecues, long traffic jams to the coast and pasty white legs on the beach are about as good as it gets. Everyone looks forward to the few weeks of sunshine but it just doesn't always end up being the utopia we want.

Carat's key insight was that 'posh institutions' have a special place in our hearts because it wouldn't be a proper British summer without them.