Every year, Fürstenhof GmbH, based in Finkenthal near Rostock, sends out four million egg cartons to retailers under the Hähnlein brand. These can be found at Rewe and Edeka as well as at Alnatura or Denn's organic markets. Recently, however, the Hähnlein shelves at these retailers have become a bit more colorful. That's because the producer association which includes a good 20 farms has developed new peel-off labels with six different designs that are now presented on the shelves next to each other. Thus, for example, the brother cock rearing is presented once, another time the ecological cycle or also the new transparency offensive, in which customers can apply as egg inspectors via the label.
“We had previously tested multilayer labels on the cartons to provide more background information on our eggs,” says Leonie Behrens, who is responsible for marketing in the management team. What is new – and rather unusual in the retail trade – however, is that in the outer cartons for the retailers there are now six different packaging designs mixed together.
This has been copied from brands such as Coca Cola or M&Ms. “It simply stands out more on the shelf,” says Leonie Behrens. For this reason alone, retailers have already decided to add Hähnlein eggs to their product range. For customers, on the other hand, this gives them “the opportunity to find out about all the different aspects of our eggs.”
And this is becoming increasingly important in the competitive environment. Because on the one hand, the interest in information is great when it comes to eggs. “The more original the product, the more critical the customer is,” Behrens knows. On the other hand, Fürstenhof has to advertise more to set itself apart from competitors. Once, for example, the farm association in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was considered a pioneer of brother cock rearing, but since the ban on chick-killing, the practice has become widespread.
Hähnlein eggs are now advertised with displays on the shelves or the company's own store television program “Hühner TV”. But the most important advertising medium for the marketing manager is still the packaging. “The customer spends more time looking at it, for example when they study the label next to the newspaper at the breakfast table.”
However, it is not really possible to measure the success of the peel-off labels. “It would be nice if we had a peel-off rate,” says Leonie Behrens – In other words, statistics on how many customers actually open the label. “But we haven't got that far yet; so far, there have only been initial qualitative surveys.”
Nevertheless, the marketing expert assumes that the whole thing will pay off. Despite higher costs. For egg cartons, one usually calculates about one cent per egg, Behrens reckons. For cartons with peel-off labels, on the other hand, between 1.2 and 1.3 cents would have to be estimated. “There's a double markup added,” she explains, “first for the more elaborate label and second for the lack of varietal purity.” In times where one haggles with retail trade over cent amounts behind the decimal point sometimes, this is not exactly irrelevant, she says.
The whole campaign will initially run for about a year. Then, new designs will probably be developed, for example with a QR code link to Hühner TV. Or already during the year, when the egg inspectors are selected in a lottery. “The important thing is that we put enough variety on the labels,” Behrens says.
By the way, she can also imagine peel-off labels for other products. For example, for the in-house Bolognese sauce, which is made from the raised brother roosters. Or the special egg liqueur made from eggs that can't be sold, such as those with spots or wavy shells. Cocktail recipes, for example, could be placed here. “In any case, we have enough stories to tell,” says the head of marketing.
