Bertolli Olivio: How brand worlds become lucrative markets

This paper explains how Bertolli, having out-grown the margarine and fats category, stepped out beyond its health and vitality positioning to exploit the rich Italian brand world that its advertising had built for it. By launching innovations, which fitted with the powerful world already in place, the media efficiencies were remarkable, with no increase in ad spend Europe-wide and advertising accounting for 42% of sales. Media investment has paid back £228m plus an incremental £30.4m in profit in UK and Germany alone, but moreover, advertising has 'bought' the option for Bertolli to play in categories 1000 times bigger than where the brand began