FDBusiness.com

Häagen-Dazs has announced a major brand reset, to bring a new generation of shoppers on board as part of a wider portfolio update. The brand will receive a refresh through distinctive new packaging and formats, a new experientially focused marketing programme and a new lifestyle led campaign. The update, which will be significant in continuing Häagen-Dazs’ impressive growth to continue accelerating the business, will be supported by a £5 million marketing programme.

Richard Williams, marketing director for General Mills Northern Europe which is responsible for the Häagen-Dazs brand, says: “We are excited to unveil Häagen-Dazs’s new look, which is part of an exciting new era for this much-loved ice cream brand and signals our ambitions to expand our foothold within the UK market. This year we have already had significant success in expanding the formats available in our portfolio and the rebrand is the next natural step to ensure Häagen-Dazs is truly on-trend and competitive. We already enjoy an extremely loyal customer base who know they can expect a certain level of quality from the Häagen-Dazs name, and we now hope to attract more younger consumers into the brand as they search for little luxuries in their everyday life.”

A bold and contemporary new look

Delivering strong on-shelf stand-out, Häagen-Dazs’s new range was created by a series of global artists commissioned to translate consumer descriptions of each flavour SKU into colours and shapes producing striking, modern designs, each unique to its own taste interpretations. Each pack also features an updated logo moving away from the traditional luxury cues of black and gold towards a more modern and ownable signature burgundy brand colour. Accents of Häagen-Dazs’s burgundy is also woven throughout the updated packaging, which is being implemented across the full Häagen-Dazs range of pints, stick bars and mini cups collections across the UK trade.

Brand expansion into new formats

Having created the luxury ice cream category in the 90s, Häagen-Dazs was notably one of the fastest-growing ice cream brands last year, growing four and a half times faster than total Ice Cream (+2.6%)[1].

In February this year, Häagen-Dazs strategically expanded the success of its ice cream stick bars from the convenience channel to grocery retail nationwide and since launch has secured an impressive 8.4%[2] share of the luxury handheld ice cream sector. Offering everyday luxury, the range is four-strong – comprising of Salted Caramel, White & Almond, Vanilla Caramel Almond and Mango & Raspberry (70g each) – and answers growing consumer demand for convenient take-home, handheld snacks. The ice cream sticks bars benefit from an emphasis on quality within both the chocolate coating as well as the ice cream inside. Prior to the launch, many handheld ice cream formats retailed under £1 leaving a gap in the market for a more premium- product. With the rise in quality-conscious consumers, the Häagen-Dazs range with its premium ingredients is ideally positioned to capitalise on this demand.

Meanwhile, in March the ice cream brand announced the launch of a mini-cups collection range in the UK, seeing an industry-first as it took a ‘flavour approach’ to the range, with variants including a Caramel Collection, a Fruit Collection and an updated Vanilla Collection. The mini-cup range also included the first sorbet category launch by the brand in the UK with mango and raspberry flavours under the Sorbet Collection. The stick bar and mini cup launches are positioned to further set Häagen-Dazs apart from competitors, offering a complete portfolio of super indulgent, top tier ice cream.

New brand behaviour for a new generation of consumers

Provocative and brave marketing, such as Häagen-Dazs’ 1991 ‘Lose Control’ advert which was widely considered a milestone moment in the advertising industry, brought mass awareness and appeal to the brand in the 90s. Soon hailed a cultural icon of its time, this combined with its high-quality ingredients, meant the brand achieved fame and notoriety amongst the highly sophisticated and cosmopolitan ‘Gen X’.

2017 heralds the start of a bold new brand reinvention for Häagen-Dazs as they once again aim to redefine the rules of ice cream. The makeover, which is centred around ‘everyday luxury moments’, is positioned to broaden the appeal of the brand. It will play into the desire of trend-setting millennials to live in the moment and enjoy every day through unique and authentic experiences they can participate in as well as share online to give them social currency.

The wider ramifications of the brand reset will see a totally new experiential behaviour become central to the new marketing campaign. Kicking off this new direction will be a multi-sensory luxury ice cream experience curated with culinary innovators, Bompas & Parr, and focusing on the sensorial delights of ice cream. This new stance will also be amplified through a full scale above the line campaign, ‘Everyday Made Extraordinary’, launching in summer demonstrating how Häagen-Dazs elevates a recognisable, everyday moment into the extraordinary.

[1] Nielsen MAT 31st December 2016

[2] Nielsen 4 w/e 25th March 2017