Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

150 BRAND RELEVANCE
fi nally, in mid - 1992, Weight Watchers Smart Ones. These latecomers
had the diffi cult job of enticing away members of the
Healthy Choice segment. Meanwhile, the Healthy Choice team
continued to expand and improve its dinner and entr é e lines
with such offerings as Fiesta Chicken Fajitas, Country Glazed
Chicken, and Cheese French Bread Pizza.
The power of a brand to extend depends on the core brand
associations, and basis of a relationship with customers. The
Healthy Choice core associations of taste and nutrition was not
tied to the frozen food area but rather traveled well throughout
the store. In this case, the core associations was broad indeed,
providing the foundation for a powerful range brand, a brand
that ranges over products.
Various ConAgra operating units started to look to other
product areas on which to apply the Healthy Choice brand and
associations. Product classes in which there was an absence of a
brand with a strong heart - healthy dimension were prime candidates.
Frightened competing fi rms nervously reexamined their
brand offerings and product class profi les to see if they were
vulnerable. The answer was usually yes. In order to preempt
Healthy Choice and respond to the growing consumer concern
with more nutritious food, there was a fl urry of new products,
often using subbrands like Lite, Fresh, Healthy, Right Choice,
or Fat Free, designed to preempt or respond to Healthy
Choice. However, Healthy Choice, because of its strong associations
and presence in other food categories, was formidable even
when others had developed “ healthy ” subbrands.
In 1995 Healthy Choice had estimated retail sales of $ 1,275
million, up from $ 858 million in 1993, $ 471 million in 1991,
and $ 30 million in 1989. In 1993 Healthy Choice was called
“ the most successful new food brand introduction in two
decades ” by Advertising Age . The brand appeared on over three
hundred products, including soups (the Healthy Choice soup
line was named as product of the year in 1992 by Progressive
Grocer magazine), ice cream (the number one national brand