Ouma Rusks Print Ads

Brief:

For this assignment we were give 5 South African Brands, each with their own identified problems and then told to choose the brand we wanted to improve. I Chose Ouma Rusks.

Ouma Rusks began in the year 1939 in the small Eastern Cape town of Molteno by a woman named Ouma Greyvensteyn. Since then it is almost impossible to think of another Rusk brand that comes close to the taste and enjoyment of Ouma Rusks. However this brand noticed a problem that needed to be changed; Ouma Rusk sales dip during the summer season, therefore advertising is needed to make sure that consumers consider Ouma Rusks as the perfect way to fill the morning gap everyday.

For this specific campaign I have chosen to go with the concept of “incomplete” in order to make consumers feel as though, without an Ouma Rusk their mornings simply aren’t complete. The purpose of this brand communication therefore, is to encourage consumers to complete their mornings with an Ouma rusk every morning not just in winter, to make consumers feel that without an Ouma rusk every morning, they’ll feel incomplete.

The Strengths of this brand lie in the fact that it has been around since 1939 and has built a strong brand identity and customer loyalty with its consumers. People are more familiar with the brand and therefore will often choose to purchase Ouma Rusks over other biscuit or rusk brands. Ouma Rusks are also positively associated with the homely feeling and a sense of security and belonging that comes with eating this brand of rusks. The weakness of this brand is the fact that there are more and more competitors arising and that the sales seem to dip in summer, as Rusks are often associated with warmth and enjoyment in the winter season, with a cup of warm coffee or tea.

Ouma rusks target market is working females from about 24-49 years of age who have a family. These consumers are more affluent falling into the higher LSM 7-9 group as a result of a price barrier with the entry price into this brand being at around R17.These females have a traditionalist mindset, their traditions and values are important to them. In terms of race, research tells us there are four black consumers for every one white Ouma rusk user. It is important not to confuse the target audience with the brand identity, which is for obvious reasons explained in the background as white and Afrikaans.

The main marketing objective is to create a desire within consumers to purchase and consume Ouma Rusks every morning, all year round, regardless of what season it is. In order to create this desire the aim of this campaign is to make consumers feel that without an Ouma Rusk every morning their morning will be incomplete. Therefore I have created a series of print ads that show ‘incomplete’ situations, with the coffee puzzle missing a piece, the word coffee missing a few letters and the last print ad being a sad cup of coffee which is incomplete without an Ouma rusk. These print ads could be a campaign where by a print ad depicting the concept of “incomplete situations” is released every month for a year, showing how Ouma rusks should be eaten all year round.

The message of my campaign is a simple one; complete your morning and fill the gap with all hot beverages, every morning with an Ouma rusk.

Print Ads: