When time allows, we like to celebrate the great relationships that we’ve formed with our client partners. At F&f we believe that the rapport we build with marketers and brand owners is the absolute key to creating ShelfHappy® brands and career success.
“Happy you, happy brand” has become something of a motto for us!
Meet: Iain Lavelle
Iain is Head of Marketing at Morning Foods Ltd, the company that brings us Mornflake Mighty Oats and a wide variety of other breakfast cereals and oat based products, including Oatmade.
We’ve been working with Iain since he joined the company in September 2021 across various repositioning projects and some exciting NPD work that’s in the pipeline for 2024.
Iain is a top chap to partner with and has a deep understanding of both client side marketing and the agency world, having previous been with Warburtons and McCann Erickson to name but two of his appointments.
We’ve asked him to introduce himself by way of a Q&A that we put to people that we’d like our readers to meet…
Can you tell us a little bit about yourself professionally, your various roles, how long have you worked in the food and beverage industry?
I’ve worked in FMCG for the last 10 years, prior to that I spent twelve years in marketing agencies, the majority of which was spent at McCann working solely on the Aldi business. So retail and FMCG has been my bread and butter.
Having spent the early part of my career specializing in comms my focus is now much broader and firmly rooted in commerciality and feasibility. I’m now in my fourth category, I started my FMCG journey in bakery, I spent some time with burgers, then bog roll (and household towel) I’m now back in food with breakfast cereal. It’s the ever changing trends, innovation, the need to bring creativity to my role as well as requiring a sharp commercial focus that keeps me engaged and hungry for more.
Why did you choose food and beverage FMCG as your ‘thing’?
The food industry chose me, it was a call from a recruiter that lead me to taking my first forays into food with Warburtons, within six months of landing the role I was shooting ‘The Deliverers’ TV advert with Sylvester Stallone.
Whilst it isn’t all Hollywood glitz and glamour its an industry I feel very passionate about. Taking a project from inception to launch, from the early days sat in development kitchens tasting product concepts, through to customer sell ins and then launch is what I love. Working as part of a cross functional team to bring NPD to market is really exciting, each project brings different challenges and facing into these and finding solutions is the most satisfying part of my role. But it’s the work after securing the listing that is critical to success, keeping shoppers and buyers engaged and driving salience.
You can find out more about Iain and Mornflake are taking the UK farming and food production challenges seriously here
What are your personal passions related to the industry?
Whilst I’m not curing disease or rescuing kittens from burning buildings I need to feel like I’m making a positive difference. Getting home from work and looking my children in the eyes is critical for me. Hopefully by championing British food manufacturing and promoting sustainable production I’m part of a wave of voices providing people with the opportunity to make informed choices about the food they eat and where it comes from.
We need to do more to protect our UK food production, we’re incredibly lucky to live on a group of islands with some of the best food producers in the world but if we don’t protect it, then we’ll lose it.
In 2020 the UK imported 46% of it’s food, whilst this provides choice and offers food we can’t grow in our climate, there’s a balance that we need to strike where we continue to protect our UK food producers. It’s about celebrating what we have and ensuring we protect it for the future.
This starts by protecting our environment, something that as a family we’re passionate about, this Summer we took part in the Surfers Against Sewage Great Paddle Out, a national demonstration against water pollution. This was a catalyst for change, just this month the UK government has committed to transformational reform of the broken water sector. For me it’s about demonstrating to my children that we can be the change we want to see.
How do you think the brands you’ve led have helped to grow your own career?
I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work on a wide variety of projects throughout my career, within different brands and categories. In each role I’ve been pushed outside of my comfort zone. And it’s from this discomfort that skills and confidence grow. It doesn’t have to be seven figure comms campaigns to get me excited about what I do, some of the most satisfying and rewarding projects have come from seemingly everyday business challenges.
I worked with UK and Spanish production planning teams in order to migrate one of our core lines to Spain to unlock manufacturing capacity for an NPD launch, something that shoppers will never see but it was solving a key business problem. The pace and energy of FMCG has meant that if I’m standing still for too long I know I need to push myself into the next adventure.
What project initially led you to working with Family (and friends)?
I first started working with the team at F&f on our premium ‘Mighty Oats’ range.
The team challenged me to ensure we were thinking bigger. It resulted in the launch of our ‘Positive Energy’ positioning, highlighting our USP. We produce our own energy with our own wind turbine and solar farm. We also have a zero waste policy, everything that comes in from the farmers field is utilized, from the inedible husk which goes to animal feed to stones which go to fill pot holes.
There was a great story to be told and F&f helped us get to the core of it and translated it into a consumer friendly positioning and our new look pack design. The team understand how to leverage a brands USPs to the best advantage. Their experience and passion for what they do is commendable.
Our Mighty Oats Superfast SKU has grown 4.7% in the last twelve months vs category growth of 1.6% so there is great momentum behind our new positioning, now that’s ShelfHappy!
Would you recommend working with the F&f team to younger marketeers? What might they gain from the experience?
I would recommend working with F&F to all marketers. As a marketeer you need to be open to being challenged in your ways of thinking. F&f are committed to that challenge, they believe it’s the best way to bring about positive, mutually beneficial solutions and I have to agree. And they know a thing or two about design!
Finally, what’s the one piece of advice you’d give to young marketers looking to build a successful career?
Iain goes onto say he “still has a lot to learn” himself, with his usual modesty. Thanks Iain for a fantastic response to our questions and your openness.
It’s a cliché but a cliché for a reason. Be curious, ask questions.
Spend time outside of the marketing department make connections with the wider business. It’s critical that you understand the whole business, get to know the supply chain team, spend time with production, make sure finance are your friends. Push yourself out of your comfort zone, there is a lot to learn about marketing outside of the marketing department.
