Marketing expert, Rory Sutherland, has shed light on what makes one of the UK's ready-meals a favourite in British households. Charlie Bigham's fresh ready meals are a firm favourite for those who want a quick and easy meal – with a restaurant quality feel – thanks partly to the brand's fancy wooden packaging.
Bigham's products are considered to be an upmarket option, including fresh, hand-prepped ingredients to create dishes ranging from Thai Green Curry, Beef Ragu and its signature Fish Pie. Rory Sutherland is a fan of the brand's marketing - drawing comparisons to household furniture giant IKEA. Sutherland is vice-chair of Ogilvy, one of the largest marketing agencies in the world, and regularly features on podcasts and delivers TED Talks on marketing tips and tricks - many of which consumers aren't conscious of.
Speaking to Simon Squibb and his 1.5million-strong YouTube following, the advertising exec praised Charlie Bigham for its ability to create a unique 'culinary experience' compared to its ready meal rivals. He said: "All of those Charlie Bigham dishes, this is what I call the 'IKEA Effect', it says you have to put them in the oven to cook them. Now, I think that's because you enjoy the food more when you've waited for it and the effort you've put into it basically creates a culinary experience the microwave doesn't.".
Sutherland added: "The other genius thing he did is that style of bamboo packaging stuff - the weird wooden packaging which fundamentally creates a kind of craft manufactured vibe rather than a factory-made vibe. All of those things, we perceive without being conscious of doing so.".
