Masterfoods to relaunch Tunes

Masterfoods is to revamp its cough sweet brand Tunes as a healthcare brand, moving it away from its confectionery image in a bid to make it more attractive to women.

The new version will have round instead of square sweets and will come in a box rather than stick format. Its flavour varieties – cherry, strawberry and blackcurrant – will remain the same but the price will increase from 43p to 49p. It will be launched during the autumn.

Industry insiders say the relaunch aims to market Tunes as a medicinal brand and that it will sit more comfortably in pharmacies than in convenience stores, where medicated sweets are usually placed on counter displays.

Masterfoods hopes the relaunch will help Tunes win back lost ground from the Halls range, which includes Soothers. Halls, owned by Adams, has the top two selling brands in the medicated confectionery market with Halls Mentholyptus and Soothers. Lockets, which is also owned by Masterfoods, and Tunes are the third and fourth best-selling brands.

Adams, which also owns Fruitella and Bubbaloo, launched a campaign to reposition Soothers as an impulse buy rather than distress purchase last year. Cadbury acquired Adams from Pfizer last December for £2.6bn (MW December 19, 2002).