This isn’t your parents’ marketing style. Companies are breaking all the norms — and letting consumers rewrite the rulebook.
Our mothers and teachers always chided us for being disruptive, but if bakers and snack makers want to capture the attention — and dollars — of a new generation, they’re going to have to make a little noise.
Think about the Super Bowl. Ten years ago, when it came to the commercials, consumers would simply tune in, sit back and watch. But thanks to Frito-Lay, a brand of Plano, TX-based PepsiCo, Inc., many consumers now watch to see if their commercial will air. Speaking to attendees at SNAXPO two years ago, Ann Mukherjee, then PepsiCo’s president of global snacks and insights, called it “disrupting” the marketplace.
People these days operate through “life hacks” — shortcuts to making daily life easier and more efficient — and companies such as Mondelez International, Deerfield, IL, are hacking the marketplace. Speaking at the CES Consumer Technology Today conference in 2015, B. Bonin Bough, vice-president, chief media and eCommerce officer for Mondelez, coined the term “hackonomy,” or the idea of breaking things to make them work better.
“We refer to the term, ‘fearless marketing,’ a vision set forth by our fearless CMO, Dana Anderson,” said Mondelez’ Elise Burditt, brand manager, Oreo North America. “She continues to push the organization, especially Oreo as a marquee brand, to use fearless marketing as a ‘North Star’ in order to think differently and push brands into territories that capture consumer attention in new, compelling and, especially, culturally relevant ways.”
Disruptive marketing has practically become the new status quo, as companies find innovative — even colorful and quirky — ways to reach consumers where they live, eat, talk and even vote.
How they vote
Shaking up the marketplace can mean more than creating buzz in the typical environment. Sometimes it’s beneficial to take a marketing campaign completely outside the norm and into an area that already has consumers’ attention. And there’s no better place — or time — than an election year.
Kellogg has used the 2016 presidential campaign as a platform for promoting 22 varieties of Pop-Tarts through its Pop the Vote campaign.
The Kellogg Company, Battle Creek, MI, has used the 2016 presidential campaign as a platform for promoting 22 varieties of Pop-Tarts through its Pop the Vote campaign. Throughout the year, store shelves can see as many as 30 Pop-Tart flavors, and Pop the Vote was developed to bring awareness to the line. “A lot of consumers don’t know we have so many mouth-watering flavors available,” said Angela Gusse, director of marketing for Pop-Tarts.
The company partnered with Spoon University, an online food trends resource aimed at and managed by college students across the nation. Part market research, part social media, the site curates contributed content from thousands of students on more than 100 campuses. Pop the Vote kicked off in January with a survey of college students’ Pop-Tart preferences as well as thoughts on the election year ahead, followed by on-campus sampling events across the country. After all, Pop-Tarts are a portable product popular with college students, many of whom are participating in their first presidential election.
“ ‘Candidate profiles’ were developed, and Pop-Tarts encouraged fans to embrace the election atmosphere by learning more about the variety of flavors, maybe try something new and vote for their favorite to become the first-ever Pop-Tarts President,” Ms. Gusse said. At www.PoptheVote2016.com, consumers can view profiles and vote for their favorite flavors, with the winning candidate being announced on the website later in the year.
Some brands are finding a more tongue-and-cheek way to play on the election climate, especially in a presidential race that has gained attention for having some rather outlandish moments.
In early March, Leaf Brands issued a press release announcing the Hydrox cookie’s plans to seek the National Cookie Party’s presidential nomination. In the announcement, Hydrox asked, “With all the nuts running for president, why not a cookie?” Taking a page from the actual race for president, Hydrox poked at its main competitor, the Oreo, for its production in Mexico.
The Newport Beach-based company created a crowdfunding campaign on www.gofundme.com as an avenue for consumers to voice their opinions about cookies, politics and ingredient wars. All money raised on the crowdfunding site will be donated to KaBOOM!, a non-profit organization that provides playgrounds for US children living in poverty.
Where, what they eat
While foodservice providers such as Burger King, Miami, and Taco Bell, Irvine, CA, might be known for their memorable TV ads, they are also disrupting traditional marketing strategies by using their bread and bun products as the promotional tool, in some cases, with no information about the product at all.
Burger King is promoting its red-bun Angriest Whopper in movie theatres with ads that play like movie trailers.
As a sequel to its A.1. Halloween Whopper made with a black-bun baked with A.1. Thick and Hearty sauce, Burger King released in March its Angriest Whopper, built with a red bun that has been baked with hot sauce. According to a report in Advertising Age, Burger King is also promoting the red-bun Angriest Whopper in movie theatres, with ads that play like movie trailers, playing on the movie sequel feeling of the campaign, according to Advertising Age.
Taco Bell lured consumers into their stores by taking a similar concept a bit further and inviting them to pre-order a new product — without telling them what it was. In January, the company issued a press release inviting people to pre-order a new, yet unnamed, product for pickup on Feb. 6, with the official reveal set to air during a 30-second Super Bowl ad on Feb. 7.
“It’s a ‘blind’ pre-order … requiring just a small act of faith (not knowing what it is until you pick it up) to be at the very forefront of this impending phenomenon,” said Marisa Thalberg, Chief Marketing Officer for Taco Bell Corp.
Doritos' Spicy Street Taco flavor came to shelves after consumers voted on their favorite new "secret" flavors.
Who they are
Calling today’s consumers “adventurous” eaters is quite the understatement, considering how many campaigns revolve around asking shoppers to purchase products without knowing what they are.
In early 2014, Frito-Lay placed three varieties of unnamed packages of its Doritos Jacked product on store shelves — one red, one yellow, one blue — each a flavor that was a mystery to shoppers. The company coined it its “Bold Flavor Experiment” and identified each variety only by its package color and product code. As an added incentive to purchase and vote for their favorite, consumers were also entered for a daily chance to win rewards that included $1,000 worth of gold coins.
That June, Frito-Lay revealed the flavors to be Caribbean Citrus Jerk, Spicy Street Taco and Chocolate Chipotle Bacon, with Spicy Street Taco emerging the victor to remain on store shelves.
But what the Doritos brand is best known for in the realm of consumer-generated marketing is its Crash the Super Bowl contest, where it actually recruited consumers themselves to create their own television ads. “It was a bit of a gamble to put the brand’s biggest advertising moment in the hands of our fans, but our fans quickly proved it was a winning idea.,” said Tyler Litchenberger, director of communications, PepsiCo. “Over the years, Crash the Super Bowl has played a major role in legitimizing consumer content.” Since 2006, the brand received more than 32,000 ads from consumers worldwide.
Frito-Lay's gamble of putting its Doritos Super Bowl campaign in the hands of consumers has paid off for a decade.
Mondelez uses disruption to connect consumers with the Oreo brand on a deeply personal level. One way the company accomplished this was through personalized packaging and e-commerce. “We saw great success and engagement from fans for the limited-time Colorfilled packs, especially around the holidays when consumers were increasingly looking for customized offerings for family, friends and colleagues with a personal touch when gifting,” Ms. Burditt said, noting that the Colorfilled personalized packaging created a stepping stone for other types of customizations and creating an entirely new dialogue with the brand’s consumer base.
In 2013, Oreo launched its Wonderfilled campaign, which brought the brand to consumers in a whimsical way while encouraging them to see the world with openness and curiosity. This year, the brand took the campaign to the streets with its Oreo Wonder Vault to bring awareness to its limited-edition Filled Cupcake flavor. The vault “popped up” in New York City for one day only, and people had a chance to have a peek inside. “Upon pulling a lever, consumers watched their personal sample of the limited edition cookies traverse through a virtual ‘Wonderfilled’ world before physically dropping into their hands,” Ms. Burditt explained, adding that the Wonder Vault could pop up in any city, at any time.
Where they live
Reaching consumers through disruption doesn’t necessarily require a grand statement — at least in the beginning. Creating noise can start in an intimate place, right at home.
In his book Small Data, branding consultant Martin Lindstrom explores ways that product innovation and trends start in consumers’ homes. His book title came from observations he picked up while visiting thousands of households in the US and more than 70 other countries, noticing seemingly insignificant cues — the small data — that can lead to bigger trends in a sort of butterfly effect.
“Over the past decade, I’ve seen consumers’ cupboards, refrigerators and shelves, all to understand food habits, and time after time, I’ve been shocked to learn how many untouched opportunities exist in almost every home,” Mr. Lindstrom said. “This should be a starting point for every company operating in the baked food and snack industries: understanding eating habits and exploring new dimensions of consumption patterns like new rituals, old traditions or rosy memories.”
He pointed out that eating preferences are not usually built-in, and habits are not created suddenly. Tastes are acquired. Preferences are built. “Most, if not all preferences we have as adults are built into our brains when we are young,” Mr. Lindstrom explained. “And we link memory with taste.” To that effect, companies such as General Mills, Minneapolis, are finding success in playing on the nostalgia of sugary cereals by marketing them to older adults rather than kids.
Ready-to-eat (RTE) cereal is an area that’s waning, according to Jared Koerten, senior analyst, Euromonitor, who presented the state of the snacking industry at the SNAXPO conference in March, noting that the category has seen an average decline of about 2% over the past five years.
Also presenting at SNAXPO, Darren Seifer, food and beverage industry analyst for the NPD Group, noted that sweet cereals have become prime late-night snacking fare for parents who are otherwise making health-conscious food choices for their kids. “I see a lot of cereal commercials taking place at night now,” Mr. Siefer observed. “It has little to do with the health aspect, but they’ll talk about how they just put the kids to bed, and they’re ready to have fun.”
According to a 2014 article in Fortune magazine, General Mills attributed sales growth for its Lucky Charms brand to marketing the cereal to adults who grew up with it.
Mr. Lindstrom suggested that the key to introducing — and maintaining — a truly powerful product comes down to understanding those childhood memories and innovating from there. “Once you can pick up that small data, I fundamentally believe that true innovation happens when combining two ordinary things in a completely new way,” he said.
According to Ms. Burditt, a traditional medium such as television is still a viable avenue to disrupt an audience and take advantage of cross-platform marketing. “We still see TV as an important medium whether it’s disruptive content, a new Wonderfilled message or launching a new product offering like our Oreo Thins launch in summer 2015,” she said.
Oreo uses disruptive marketing tactics to promote comforting varieties.
Ms. Burditt looks at television as a way to drive not only awareness but also engagement. Think of how many television shows and ads have a social media hashtag placement in the corner of the screen. Mondelez jumped on this opportunity by partnering with Chirpify, a digital marketing platform that converts social media activity into consumer engagement such as loyalty programs and instant calls to action. Oreo aired a TV spot that featured a one-time hashtag. “Viewers who used the hashtag received a free pack of our limited-edition offering at the time, and we went through tens of thousands of packs in a matter of minutes,” she said.
Existing in ubiquity
The ability to market in a disruptive way doesn’t necessarily require a brand to be ubiquitous. In many ways, a noisy brand could actually lead it to ubiquity.
One way to achieve this in the marketplace, according to Mr. Lindstrom, is the ability for a company to “smash” its brand. In other words, if a company can smash its brand into a thousand pieces, a consumer should be able to pick up one element or “smashable” — a color, word, shape, sound or even icon — and immediately recognize that brand.
Bakers and snack manufacturers should think of themselves on a larger scale than just food producers, Mr. Lindstrom suggested, such as entertainment or lifestyle brands. “Ask yourself, what is your company if it isn’t a snack or baked food company? Who are you on a higher level?”
If a bakery becomes so universal that it can successfully smash its brand, it becomes so powerful that it can actually become disruptive rather naturally. “That’s my philosophy for a sonic marker,” Mr. Lindstrom said. “It’s an impression so impactful that no one will ever forget it.”
International brand-smashers
At first glance, the thought of taking your brand and smashing it into a thousand tiny pieces might seem a bit self-destructive. Not so, according to branding consultant Martin Lindstrom. His concept of smashing a brand is based on the idea that a company should be able to remove its logo on its advertising — or even its packaging — and still have the brand recognizable to the average consumer.
Mr. Lindstrom suggested that a brand should have somewhere around 10 “smashables,” or recognizable components, such as color, shape, smell or icon. “Some of the most powerful brands today have at least 10 smashables,” he said. “They help a brand build its presence far above the limited attention and engagement that comes with just a logo.”
Some iconic American brands have been able to smash their brands. In fact, in 1915, the Coca-Cola company sought out a bottle manufacturer who could design a bottle so distinctive that it if were to fall on the ground and break, it would still be recognizable … a smashable Coke bottle.
An American company may have set the smashable standard, but many modern baked food companies overseas are taking the concept to the next level, according to Mr. Lindstrom. Scandinavian bakery Kanniston Leipomo Bakery enlisted the help of a local branding company specializing in package design to reimagine how it packaged its signature gingerbread cookies. Based on observations inside the bakery, distribution chain, retail outlets and in-home research, the bakery established a brand presence and package design that married the cookie to the brand by creating a heart-shaped product that was also represented on the package design.
