Sainsbury's tastes the difference

By SARAH MARKS FOR MAILONLINE
Updated:

 

WHETHER they make you salivate or regurgitate, it cannot be denied that celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's adverts for Sainsbury's have accompanied the supermarkets chain's move from the bed next to Marks & Spencer in the ward for seriously ill retailers to the recovery room.

Although chief executive Sir Peter Davis would claim it is his healing hands that have administered the necessary course of treatment, it is Jamie's adverts that have reached out to consumers, reminding them of Sainsbury's traditional strong points.

Focusing on the quality of the food rather than the price has all but obliterated memories of the cringe-inducing John Cleese fronted Value to Shout About campaign.

The first Oliver ad was aired just three months after Davis took over in March 2000 and there have been 12 so far, all featuring slice-of-life glimpses of the Essex chef with his friends and family. Over a similar period, the shares have risen from a low of 285 1/2p to 438 1/2p despite profits falling 15% to £434m during Davis's first year.

The latest ad hits the small screen next week, promoting the retailer's Taste The Difference range in general and a new strawberries-and-scone-flavoured ice-cream in particular. In the advert, Oliver cannot help but scoff a whole tub of Cream Tea ice-cream that wife Jules has hidden in the fridge, thus depriving their lunch guests of the pudding she had been planning. The designer fridge is, of course, chock-a-block with delicious morsels from the Taste the Difference range, which was launched last October to compete with rival Tesco's Finest range.

Taste the Difference started with 350 items and a further 50 have been added over the past 10 months. Weekly sales tipped £5m this month and a further 100 new lines are due to be introduced this summer. Sainsbury's research suggests that 60% of shoppers buy from the range and the most popular items are vine-ripened tomatoes, dry-cured ham and traditional beef.

The supermarkets chain has certainly squeezed its money's worth out of Oliver. The company is believed to have paid him £1m for the two-year contract and, in addition to the dozen advertisements already filmed, he has opened supermarkets, contributed to the development of new products such as the recently launched range of herbs and seedlings and acted as an ambassador for the group in general.

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