Butter Council: Soft spreads and hard battles

Butter Council: Soft spreads and hard battles

Butter Council wanted to halt the perception that butter was 'bad' while margarine and spreads were 'good'. In early 80's butter share of the yellow fats market had fallen by 50% to only 20%. Campaign wanted to encourage more 'open-mindedness', budget very small only ?600,000. To stimulate debate spend moved away from traditional women's magazines and used mid-market and quality newspapers. As a result editorial attention was gained including radio and TV news programmes. RSL research suggested that there were genuine positive changes in attitudes to butter. Achieved 4.5% sales growth, and growth in short-term share and penetration. The loss of £75million of sales suffered by margarine manufacturers was blamed by them on the campaign