We reached out to MiniMBA alumni Zoë Carter to learn how ‘Part of the Family since 1830’ reached our screens. Zoë talks brand heritage, loyalist research, custom funnels and audacious goals.
AGA and Rangemaster are to range cookers what Hoover is to the vacuum cleaner. So, when Zoë Carter got the call that she’d be joining the in-house team at AGA Rangemaster as a Brand Management Consultant, she was ecstatic.
She had not long graduated from the MiniMBA in Brand Management and – even after two successful decades in the industry – Zoë couldn’t wait to put everything she’d learned on the course into practice, she says, starting with a thorough brand diagnosis for Rangemaster.
“The Managing Director at AGA Rangemaster is someone I’ve worked with previously and comes from a marketing background,” says Zoë, “so I knew it was going to be relatively easy to get him on board.
“I said: look, I’ve been given this method and I wholeheartedly believe if we just follow the process, we will end up with an incredible result.”
Under Zoë’s guidance, they followed the MiniMBA process “to the rule,” delivering one of our favourite ads of the year.
Rangemaster’s ‘Part of the Family since 1830’ campaign launched, rather cleverly, during the first episode of a new season of The Great British Bake Off:
We know that great brand-building advertising can drive short-term impact too, or “long drives short.” But even within a month of campaign launch, Rangemaster saw an incredible uplift in sales.
Sales are up 50%
“Sales, year on year, are up. They’re up over 40% in September and 50% in October and November!
“It was a brand campaign, so to be delivering those sales is fabulous,” says Zoë.
Diagnosing a heritage brand
In the excitement of managing a new brand, it’s tempting to jump in and start making tactical decisions. But the telltale sign of a trained brand manager is the discipline to step back and do nothing. Yet.
As Mark Ritson puts it, “You can’t manage a brand without first understanding the specialness from doing a proper diagnosis.”
We’ve previously outlined the three steps of a “proper” brand diagnosis here, but the journey begins with a walk through the company archives.
And so, “following the MiniMBA module on diagnosis to the letter,” she says, Zoë began her time at Rangemaster by immersing herself in the rich history of the brand.
“Rangemaster has been based in Leamington Spa since William Flavel invented the range cooker back in 1830. People have written books on it! We’re on the same site. The factory is still here. So when Mark says look at location, look at heritage, look at founders … that was incredible in terms of getting a good grounding in the foundations of the company.”
I would recommend loyalist research to every single brand manager
After gorging on all the secondary data she could get her hands on, Zoë moved on to qualitative research.
“We did two loyalist focus groups – which are just a joy to do. I would recommend them to every single brand manager. To hear people talk about your brand with such love and passion is very, very motivating.”
They also ran two ‘prospect’ focus groups with people already in the kitchen buying process, to understand more about their purchase behaviour and garner some more typical brand associations for Rangemaster.
“We ended up with the purchase journey and brand associations to test, which we then took to the quantitative stage – again, literally following the MiniMBA brand survey to the rule,” says Zoë.
And why not? It’s what Mark Ritson uses in his own consulting work. In Module 3: Brand Diagnosis, Mark shares the blueprint of his quant brand survey. The final step in brand diagnosis, the 10-item questionnaire gives brand managers everything they’ll need later to build a data-driven strategy.
Brand survey data can be used to feed segmentation, brand awareness and perception tracking, competitor analysis, custom marketing funnels and more. That’s why getting brand diagnosis right is so important – it sets you up for a much smoother ride down the rest of the track.
“One of the things I felt after doing the course is if you simply follow what you’ve been taught, you can’t fail. It gives you that confidence,” says Zoë.
“The brand survey data gave us, amongst other things, our custom funnel. Which very clearly showed that we needed to put all our focus on improving brand awareness – getting people into the top of the funnel.”
An awareness problem
A custom funnel is one of the most powerful diagnostic tools in a brand manager’s toolkit. And Zoë’s work on Rangemaster is a great example of why.
For a quick introduction to MiniMBA’s custom funnels, read: “Stop using generic funnels – here’s how to build your own”
“We built a custom funnel for Rangemaster and it quite clearly showed that we had category with rejection – people who would never consider a range cooker. They were all about a built-in single oven and that was over 40%.”
More promisingly though, the Rangemaster funnel also flagged an issue with low brand awareness that would not just be easier, but far more rewarding to fix.
“We had an awareness problem,” says Zoë. “But once people knew who we were, our conversion through the funnel down to sale was phenomenal. So, it was clear what direction that we needed to go in.
“We needed to raise brand awareness for Rangemaster, because we knew once we got people into that funnel, they were going to convert all the way through. And that’s been demonstrated the sales for September, October and November.”
We knew once we got people into that funnel, they were going to convert all the way through
As category leader, the funnel also gave Rangemaster a second, loftier goal. They needed to raise the profile of range cookers as a whole.
“When I last put a kitchen in about 20 years ago, I didn’t know anything else I wanted, but I knew I wanted a range cooker. At the time, they were the thing to have in the home.
“Rangemaster was – and still is – the category leader and because of the lack of investment from Rangemaster as the leading brand, the category has declined. One of the big jobs we’ve got is to put the category back on a path to growth.”
This meant pure distinctiveness wouldn’t be enough. The primary goal of the campaign was to build brand awareness for Rangemaster, but they also needed to position against the alternative: the built in oven.
“The way those brands present themselves – your Miele, your Bosch, your Siemens – it’s that Germanic, very clean, minimalist kitchen.
“We wanted to go head-to-head with them and talk about the British way of cooking and the fact a kitchen is meant to be lived in and experienced. It’s meant to be a fun, vibrant place.
“So definitely part of the thinking was: how do we position ourselves against the German brands to show that we’re offering something different and something more uniquely British?”
We wanted to go head-to-head with them and talk about the British way of cooking
Although the TV ad was a mass-reach campaign with a prime-time media budget, Rangemaster still had a very clear target segment in mind, Zoë explains.
“We did an amazing piece of segmentation work with our agency, Mr President, who helped us quantify the opportunity. I never thought I’d get so excited about segmentation! It helped us really clearly identify who we needed to be talking to.
“We identified an audience – our target segment – which is ‘people entering their big era.’ It’s young families, who’ve got probably a couple of young children, and their social life within the home is at its peak. Family gatherings, birthday parties, friends coming over to play, all that sort of stuff. A lot of hosting.
“It makes sense for them to have a range cooker due to the flexibility and the capacity that product offers versus a built-in oven.”
How Rangemaster became “part of the family”
The idea for the campaign creative came straight out of their loyalist research, says Zoë. “People talked about the product with such pride and said it’s almost like a member of the family.”
Instead of leaning into a low-hanging, soppy execution, Rangemaster took an unexpected (and much funnier) turn. The ad opens with warring in-laws arriving, unannounced, at a young couple’s doorstep – apparently too excited to wait for an invitation to meet ‘the new arrival.’ This soon turns out to be a Rangemaster, rather than the couple’s new baby.
“Mr. President came up with six incredible creative ideas. We decided to go back to our loyalists and we talked them through each concept. The new arrival was the out and out winner – people absolutely loved it.
“And out of that, the strapline was born. ‘Part of the family since 1830’ speaks to that emotional side, but the brand heritage as well. Without diagnosis, we wouldn’t have seen any of that.”
We’re in this for the long term
Importantly, this diagnosis work has not just produced a great brand campaign, but a forward strategy as they continue to invest in brand and category growth in the coming years.
“We’re very much in this for the long term,” says Zoë. “We will run the ad again in 2026 as it is. But the plan is to work with that idea.”
Beyond an immediate sales uplift, ‘part of the family’ has clearly struck a chord with audiences. There has been calls for the characters to reprise their roles in a long-running ‘OXO Family’ style series of ads, Zoë tells us. And suggestions are flooding in for Christmas storylines.
“I don’t know where we’re going to take it next – but you know you’re on to a good idea when people are really inspired by it and coming up with their own ideas.”
Looking further into the future, Zoë says, “We have a big, audacious goal. In most kitchen projects, appliances come last. You want the furniture, you want the look of the kitchen, and you spend all your budget on that…
“So, we’re thinking about trying to trigger a kitchen purchase due to that desire to have a Rangemaster product in your home. But that’s quite a long-term goal!”
The broader benefits of MiniMBA training
We’ve talked about the very tangible benefits Zoë took from doing the MiniMBA in Brand Management – a fantastic brand campaign that is already boosting sales by 50% and a strategy that looks set to deliver strong brand growth.
But there are broader benefits that factor in heavily too, Zoe tells us. “I’ve worked in marketing and been successful over the years, but always felt that I should get a formal qualification.
“As somebody towards the end of my career in marketing, my god, I wish I’d done it when I was younger (or it had existed when I was younger). I had all the right kind of thinking and right instincts in marketing, but I wasn’t ever approaching it in that logical, structured way.
“The other thing is my confidence. Now, going into meetings, having all the evidence-based argument that MiniMBA gives you is just amazing.
“I’m so passionate about this industry and I totally agree with Mark when he says if marketers are going to be taken seriously, it’s so important that we’re properly trained. I’m guilty of it too, because I waited this long to get formal qualification.
“The plan is to put the senior team here at AGA Rangemaster through the course next year.”
To learn more about brand diagnosis and why it matters, read: “The missing step in marketing plans: brand diagnosis.”
Or for a deep dive into brand diagnosis, brand strategy and creating brand campaigns that drive business impact, sign up for the next MiniMBA in Brand Management.