Q&A: Golden Wonder’s marketing director

Scott Guthrie
Marketing director
Golden Wonder

Marketing Week (MW): Why is Golden Wonder running a PR campaign calling for cheese & onion crisps to be sold in green packets and salt & vinegar in blue?

Scott Guthrie (SG): We’re reminding people that we’re still here and increasingly available. For me the value of a brand is determined by three things: the number of places that sell it, the rate at which it sells and the price you get for it.

We’ve been lagging on the first one – we just haven’t been available in as many places as we once were, so that’s changing. But it’s one thing getting distribution and another letting people know you’re there. The campaign is a chance to reconnect people to the brand through that emotional connection with colour and nostalgia. It gets people talking about the brand.

MW: How does Golden Wonder plan to build on the campaign and grow the brand?

SG: Golden Wonder has gone from being the brand leader to effectively being a challenger brand so we had the licence to do a campaign like this. This is about creating some visibility and noise about the brand. We’re never going to outmuscle the market leader in terms of spend so you have to consider how to create conversations about the brand at a lower cost.

But it’s also important to say that we can’t rely on nostalgia forever. That’s not our long-term strategy and the colour of the packet is not Golden Wonder’s reason to be. We’ll definitely be putting more money behind the brand and we’re looking at a campaign over the summer. That will give people a clear reason why they should buy Golden Wonder and why the brand is relevant to them today.

MW: Did Golden Wonder have any success in its recent ‘pro-vegetarian’ social media activity after Walkers revealed it was adding meat to some products?

SG: We saw a huge uplift in interest in the brand as a result of that activity and that’s starting to translate through into sales as people look for an alternative. That’s the great thing about social media – you can react to situations quickly and the message spreads very quickly too.