From oat bran to oat health brand: Mornflake’s drive for better dietary health with a bold new brand proposition.
Despite the ever-growing fitness industry and raft of media focussed on food and diet, heart and gut health in younger adults in the UK has never been poorer, no thanks to fast food, mis-planned meals and lack of knowledge on how to improve it.
Once again, we’ve had the huge pleasure to work in partnership with Mornflake to revitalize one of its flagship portfolio products, the latest being an exciting new approach to traditional oat bran and a supporting range of ‘actively healthy’ breakfast bowls, now named Beta3 by the team at F&f.
Shocking Stats
Public Health England states 60% of adults in England have high cholesterol, with more than 20% of both male and female twentysomethings are high or borderline high. The figures rise sharply in the 30’s bracket.*
According to Holland & Barret’s research 58% of us have experienced gut health problems, with 45% of those saying their issues are chronic (lasting 3 months or more).
Younger generations are constantly bombarded with trends that claim to help them look after their wellbeing and help them live a healthier life, however, many young people are typically oblivious to the real, underlying issues and dangers. It’s a time-bomb waiting to explode.
And whilst a growing minority of people are appreciating the impact of good gut and heart health, and its direct, positive impact on our mental health as well, it’s far from being a focus for the wider general public.
A time to act
Having identified the challenge, Mornflake, Britian’s oldest family-run oat millers, wanted to help engage this younger audience with the power of oat bran – the triple power in fact to benefit HEART, BRAIN & GUT HEALTH.
“We want to embark on a mission to help the UK consume ‘actively healthy’ food – with a special focus on the younger generations. Mornflake has been dedicated to producing good sources of nutrition for 15 generations – and with hope, generations to come “Iain Lavelle, Head of Marketing at Mornflake.
The original ‘superfood’
Unknown to a lot of people oat bran gives a wealth of health benefits, being a source of protein, high in fibre and oat beta-glucans, as part of a varied, balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle, oat beta glucans have been shown to help lower blood cholesterol and provides amino acids and other nutrients.
But oat bran has a reputation for being rather dull.
Unfortunately for oat bran it’s often perceived as that brown stodgy stuff your doctor told you to eat more of to help ‘keep things moving’.
“Moreover, in marketing terms, its simply seen as a commodity – something that sits in the cupboard waiting to be baked into something, or with luck, sprinkled over a breakfast bowl.
With no ‘branded’ challenger as such, the entire shelf looks old and beige” DJ Johnston, Strategy lead at F&f
From oat bran, to an oat brand
Oat bran needed to find a branded place in the market – and in consumer’s minds that was going to appeal to the generation of people who may not yet understand why they need to be choosing these products.
Utilizing the company’s original oat bran, which is the most expertly milled, and hence nutritious product on the UK shelves, and combining other oat flake and granola portfolio products, the range comes together as Beta3.
Time to zag.
Applying our ShelfHappy® principles, F&f have developed an entirely unique proposition along with the Mornflake Marketing team headed by Iain Lavelle, that is aiming to help educate a wider pull of consumers on why they need to take gut health action now.
The new name Beta3, developed by F&f instantly conveys beta-glucan’s role and the trio of daily benefits, further driven home by bold arrow graphics, with clear and informative 360 messaging on pack.
Colour replaces browns and beige to create a strong, taste driven range of breakfast cereals and original oat bran. It was key when appealing to a younger audience that the brand didn’t lean too far into feeling cold and scientific – with taste and enjoyment as the driving accessibility.
Beta3 launched into Sainsbury’s, ASDA, Morrisons as well as Ocado during October 2024, and other exciting new products are in the pipeline if all goes to plan.
* Other Sources:
Office for National Statistics : the second most common cause of death was ischaemic heart disease, accounting for 10.3% (59,356 deaths) of all deaths registered in 2022.
“Most adults in the UK should be receiving treatment for high cholesterol but are not, while a quarter have untreated high blood pressure, the country’s biggest medical-research project suggests”Fergus Walsh, Medical editor BBC
Funded by government and industry, https://ourfuturehealth.org.uk analyses people’s genes and lifestyle to prevent disease. One of the project’s leaders said he was “shocked” by the findings so far.
“When we looked at the first 100,000 people we put through the system, we found that actually over half had cholesterols that should have been treated and hadn’t been treated…and they included people that were actually quite young. Prof Sir John Bell, from the University of Oxford, who chairs Our Future Health
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