Moving your ice cream upmarket

Melbourne Herald Sun, Thursday December 5, 2013

As the weather warms you start to notice the ice cream fridge in the milk bar, again. As soon as the mercury heads into the high 20s and 30s, the ice cream and soft drink companies can take deep breaths of relief before ploughing into a frantic six months of money making.

Back to the fridge - I became aware of a stunning range of products, expensive stick ice creams from Connoisseur, with names like "Kangaroo Island Honey with Pistachio" and "Murray River Salted Caramel with Macadamia". I tried one and sure enough it was first rate. "Who is this company?" I thought.

A little detective work - called "read the fine print" - revealed that this line comes from Peters. Aha - clever marketing!

The venerable company will forever carry memories of Dixie Cups, vanilla scoops and Zig and Zag. But meantime the world is getting older and tastes are moving upmarket.

When Streets introduced the premium Magnum bar in the early 90s they raised the price point, changing what the adult consumer was willing to pay. Peters responded with the me-too Heaven range. But now, by bringing in Connoisseur, they are moving the goal posts again.

They took the name from their premium tub range, but deliberately gave the product an adult, very personal treat image. You're willing to pay the extra because this is classy, it's delicious, just for you - give the kids Icy Poles, spend that extra couple of dollars on yourself.

This demonstrates how to take your product upmarket. Because just putting on a higher price tag won't do the trick. If the brand were not changed, it would retain the thought, that it's just a Dixie Cup tarted up. You have to remove the product from a lifetime of history and persuade the consumer to look at it for the first time.

So when Toyota realised they had reached the glass ceiling of perception with their cars - no-one was ever going to believe a Toyota could be as good as a Mercedes or BMW - they had to re-invent themselves. And the Lexus was born.

It had all the touches and gadgets and finish of the pricey Europeans, it had style and performance. It had a separate showroom - usually next door to Toyota's. It was different, posh. Fortunately they delivered what they promised and had a huge long-running success.

The supermarket giants, after so many years of slugging each other on price, have pushed upmarket with the Battle of the Chefs. Curtis Stone, for Coles, has done wonders for their daggy high street history. So much so that Woolworths have been forced to retaliate with their own bovva boy, Jamie Oliver. They both have that combination of kitchen expertise and boyish sex appeal.

The hardest job was McDonald's. The customers were looking for a little more than a two-minute drive-through experience, or a hasty burger and chips in the midst of a kiddie birthday party.

It took franchisee Anne Brown, in that distant outpost of the McDonald's empire, Melbourne Australia, to persuade them to let her try the idea. In 1993 she created an island of calm in her restaurant with espresso machine and easy chairs, where customers were invited to sit and chat: the McCafe was born.

It succeeded, improving revenue by 15%. Management were impressed. But they didn't open one in the US till eight years later, after 300 had opened in 17 other countries.

Moral: if you're looking for leadership, don't wait for head office.