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Innovating within the gluten-free market

In 2009, food manufacturer Nairn's Oatcakes embarked on an challenging project to develop a new range of gluten free oat products.

The scale of the project involved sourcing uncontaminated pure oats, setting up a separate production facility with new machinery and marketing the products in a different category. Working in a competitive marketplace, Nairn's achieved the launch on an extremely limited marketing budget.

• Nairn's knew they could produce gluten free products that tasted just as good as their wheat free range.
• The result is a range of gluten free porridge, instant porridge, oatcakes and muesli.
• The products have already secured listings with major retailers.
• On a limited budget, Nairn's undertook an ambitious marketing plan based on digital and social media, attendance at events such as the Allergy Show and partnership with organisations like Coeliac UK.

Nairn's has a 50 per cent share of the oatcake market and is a well known and trustedbrand. In 2009, Nairn's identified that they were losing some of their customers to'gluten free' alternatives because changes to allergy labelling meant that most oat products had to state 'contains gluten' as there was a small chance that oats could be contaminated by other gluten grains.

From market research undertaken by Nairn's, it was clear that Coeliacs want to eat gluten free versions of mainstream products, that existing oat product alternatives were unadventurous and above all they want the real thing – oats not oat substitutes. As there were no existing gluten free oat products, Nairn's wanted to captialise on this. Nairn's also felt that the significant health benefits derived from oat products would have a positive impact on Coeliacs, who often struggle to get the necessary nutrition from their diet.

The result was the creation of gluten free instant porridge oats, porridge and muesli which has secured listings with The Co-operative, Tesco, Sainbury's and independent food stores.

With a limited marketing budget of £60k, Nairn's communication plan was based around getting the message to Coeliacs that their products were safe to eat. This included a digital and social media strategy as currently over 234,000 gluten free shoppers are active online and use the internet to search for new products. Nairn's also sponsored and attended 20 key events such as the Allergy Show, regional food fairs and dietician events.

Working closely with Coeliac UK, over 90,000 advertising inserts promoting the Nairn's gluten free range were placed in their 'Crossed Grain' magazine - the market leading title for the gluten-free sector with a circulation of over 60,000. Nairn's also featured in the British Dietetic Magazine.

In 2011, with no other gluten free oatcake on the market, Nairn's expanded their range with the addition of plain, cheese and seeded oatcakes. When their plain oatcake was exclusively launched in Tesco, within three weeks it was the 3rd top selling product in the 'free from' listings.

Next steps?

Nairn's have just launched a new 'naturally energising' website that includes a new gluten free section and further supports Nairn's move into more community based communication using Facebook and Twitter.

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