Villaggio is calling all lovers of white bread. The Dempster’s brand has a new positioning and a new campaign bowing this month.
The new positioning, “Bread for bread lovers,” targets folks who – as the tag suggests – love white bread, and have no inhibitions in consuming it, says Shery Hanser, marketing director of white and fruit breads, Dempster’s.
About a year ago, Villaggio undertook a brand deep dive, she says, adding that its previous positioning introduced in 2012 (built around the “joy of coming together,” centered on friends and family eating together), didn’t offer sufficient brand differentiation, highlighted in brand health tracking studies.
After the study, she says they learned the Villaggio brand over-indexes in two segments: 1) adventurous and mobile – those in the 30- to 45-year-old age range with kids at home, and 2) traditional white bread lovers – 45+ folks who do not have kids. Both groups “enjoy the multi-sensory experience that white bread offers,” Hanser explains. “They enjoy the smell, the taste, the texture – they consider bread a pleasure versus other segments where bread is a guilty pleasure.”
She says Dempster’s didn’t have a brand that targeted those folks specifically, so the Villaggio line was a good fit.
To bow the new positioning, the brand tapped JWT to create a new TV campaign, which launched on Oct. 20 and will run through the rest of the year. It was inspired by the concept of “surprising irrisistability,” and features a young boy getting to school each day only to discover a bite of his sandwich is missing. At the end, it’s revealed to be his mom who is snacking as she prepares his meals.
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The campaign will be supported by in-store material and digital content, including banner ads and a full 60-second spot on the brand’s YouTube channel. Digital was handled by Cundari, with media handled in house.
Hanser says that Italian white bread hasn’t faced the same challenges as traditional white bread, which has seen a decline in consumption as a result of a more health-focused consumer. The Villaggio brand, she says, has seen strong and healthy growth.
