Homepride Flour is an iconic brand found in homes and baking aisles up and down the country. In 2016, they launched a new multi-channel marketing strategy to solidify the brand as the UK’s top premium flour. It promoted their proud national heritage: the only flour made with 100% British wheat.
Cyber-Duck produced a new website that highlighted this core proposition. Together, we took users on a nostalgic journey that emphasised Homepride’s undeniable premium quality.
Objectives
Homepride Flour has been a staple of great British baking since 1964. Accompanied by Fred the Flour Grader, their iconic bowler-hatted mascot, few supermarket brands are more recognisable. Homepride has cultivated a loyal following from older consumers – Baby Boomers and Generation X – who you would stereotypically expect to love the art of baking.
But that’s changed. Wildly popular shows like The Great British Bake Off have helped the nation’s appetite for home baking soar, especially amongst families and social-media active young adults.
Appeal to a new younger audience: reaffirm the brand’s heritage and promote their core USPs: premium quality with great packaging and 100% British flour.
Increase overall traffic and recurring visitors to the website, with attractive content that generated good engagement data.
Integrate and grow Homepride’s fabulous #BakeBritish community, featuring the delicious user-generated recipes and photos.
Drive Homepride’s chief campaign goal – increasing their market share.
User-centred Strategy
The website design was informed by insights from our certified user-centred design process. We grew a deep understanding of the home baking market’s changing dynamics and Homepride’s positioning within it. The key was supplementing our quantitative research with in-depth stakeholder interviews.
These interviews didn’t just give us significant insight into the challenges faced by Homepride. They revealed the key quality that makes Homepride a superior brand of flour – 100% British wheat, carefully pre-sieved, with a handy re-sealable pack – compared to market rivals.
THE WEBSITE
Our research identified four ingredients that were critical for success. So, we dedicated an entire section of the website to each ingredient and tied all the themes back into the homepage.
Products
Recipes
Next, the website needed to inspire generations to get baking with Homepride Flour. This website section featured a range of creative, fun recipes to suit every level. Detailed recipe pages were created to guide keen bakers.
HERITAGE
No other brand in their market boasted a heritage as rich as Homepride. This USP deserved its own section. It featured their separate ecommerce store – fostering brand loyalty by encouraging bakers to gather their Fred-themed collectables.
Community
Building a strong, dedicated brand community was a strategic goal for Homepride. Drawing on our experience building brand communities for other clients – including CitizenSafe and the Institute of Motor Industry – we realised social proofing and ‘celebrity’ endorsements were the best way forward.
Meanwhile, the community website section introduced a group of talented cooks. It showcased the top bloggers’ baking efforts and revealed why they chose Homepride Flour.
SUBTLE TOUCHES OF VISUAL DESIGN
At Cyber-Duck, we pride ourselves on crafting delightful experiences for clients’ visitors. This website is no different. Three visual moments we created have the ‘wow’ factor.
The tantalising video captured the art of baking! Six scenes ignited users’ passion for baking: from kneading and rolling out dough, to baking and icing the final touches for a delicious cupcake. The overlay text set the tone for the website: “Great British Baking Since 1964”.
The top navigation subtly adapted to ensure Homepride’s brand is kept front-of-mind. As users scrolled down, a blue background appeared. This helped differentiate the navigation and surface website content. The right featured a ribbon that emphasised a key Homepride USP: 100% British wheat.
The last moment is clear for Homepride’s most dedicated readers. Their mascot, Fred proudly sat on the footer of each page. On desktop, as a user’s mouse rolled over Fred… he gives a little wave!
Results
Homepride’s project was perfectly suited to our capabilities at Cyber-Duck. We love helping brands refresh their image – as shown by our other case studies with household names like Maxinutrition and Eurofighter.
We delivered a delicious responsive website. It struck the right balance – showing off Homepride’s heritage, whilst widening the brand’s appeal to a growing audience of baking enthusiasts. Traffic increased by over 4,650% in the first six months after launch. It’s clear the content is easier to navigate and more engaging, with a 1,650% increase in page views and 13% reduction in the bounce rate.
Overall, the website acted as the centrepiece for Homepride’s wider integrated marketing strategy and encapsulates the brand’s positioning as a proud, high-quality British product. Critically, their website is easier to find and being shared. Homepride’s new traffic is primarily organic (6,900% increase) and social (13,100% increase).
We knew we wanted a smart website with a clearer customer journey through our heritage, products, Homepride bakers and recipes. Cyber-Duck helped us to realise our requirements by producing a beautiful but relevant site.
Our visitor numbers have grown exponentially and I’ve had some wonderful feedback. Our next task will be to continue growing the site together through carefully curating sections and content that are relevant to our target audience.
Kate WellsBrand Marketing Manager, Homepride