Tiger Brands refreshes iconic heritage brand, Koo

Source: © Twitter Twitter Koo, one of Tiger Brands’ iconic heritage brands, has refreshed its positioning, in response to evolving consumer needs

It has refreshed its positioning, to showcase the value it brings to consumers, including convenience, healthy nourishment, superior quality taste, and homegrown ingredients.

These features combine to make it one of South Africa’s most valuable brands and the market leader in the South African Canned Fruit and Vegetable Category, which is worth a cumulative R3.2bn and growing.

“We have proactively refreshed our iconic and well-loved Koo brand positioning, balancing its heritage with evolving consumer needs, while remaining true to the Tiger Brands purpose to nourish and nurture more lives every day,” says Zayd Abrahams, chief marketing and strategy officer, Tiger Brands.

Executed across advertising and packaging

The refreshed positioning of the 83-year-old brand, which offers a diverse and versatile range of grocery essentials, including its much-loved Koo Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce, comes after an intensive and carefully consumer-researched process and will be executed across all communication touchpoints including advertising and packaging.

“The Koo consumer puts the nourishment of their families, themselves, and whole communities above all else. They have busy lives and demand convenience. Koo delivers on this need for them with fresh, superior quality essentials made with locally sourced ingredients that offer wholesome homestyle local flavours and taste,” says Edna Mohale-Maphita, culinary marketing director, Tiger Brands.

“Mzansi has walked this journey with Koo for over eight decades and we look forward to nourishing and nurturing them into the future,” adds Mohale-Maphita.

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Refreshed packaging

The refreshed KOO packaging highlights the key intrinsic features of each KOO product range:

• Everyday range (Baked Beans, Garden Peas, Pilchards,) offering affordability and tasty nutrition.
  
• Value Add range (Chakalaka, Mixed Vegetables) which is convenient and ready to eat.
  
• Premium range (Corn, Garden Peas, Kidney Beans, Speckled Sugar Beans, Sliced Beetroot) focused on the benefits of health and wellness.
  
• Fruit range to (Peach Slices, Guava Halves, Fruit Cocktail, Apricot Halves, Pear Halves) satisfy growing consumer snacking trends.

A product that supports local

“Koo is a South African brand, proudly so, that offers local ingredients grown by local hands in local soil. It nurtures and celebrates a process that takes fresh produce from our farms to tables across the country to offer great taste and healthy nourishment that is accessible to all. Koo is for Mzansi, by Mzansi,” says Abrahams.

In addition to sourcing local raw materials from local farmers, Koo works closely with the agricultural community to develop women and youth smallholder as well as commercial black farmers to grow a strong pipeline of producers that form part of the Tiger Brands supply chain through the Tiger Brands Agriculture Aggregator programme.

The Tiger Brands Agriculture Aggregator programme supports the inclusion of black commercial farmers, with a focus on black women farmers, into the organisation’s supply chain.

These farmers produce some of Tiger Brands’ key raw materials for its largest brands, including Koo.

Commercial farmers in turn support and source from black smallholder farmers, growing Tiger Brands’ indirect supply chain. Koo also offers culinary school bursaries to young aspiring cooks.