The Juneteenth Branding Scramble

One of the crowd source outcomes of these #BLM protests is the public's reaction to state and city monuments regarding key figures of our nation's history. These are former presidents, politicians, and war "hero" figures who transformed our nation a couple hundred years ago...such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, etc., and pro-Confederacy monuments in the southern US states (e.g., Jefferson Davis). Here's a site that goes into detail about Juneteenth, celebrated annually on June 19. I'm pretty sure most people in the US have not really heard nor seen any cultural awareness festivals surrounding this non-holiday significant date; unless you live in Texas where it became a state holiday in 1980.

Racism is a hot topic this year and legacy brands want to be seen as being culturally sensitive to its consumers. These companies have announced that they're changing their racial stereotype product images of certain branded products:

• PepsiCo / Quaker Oats North America
• Aunt Jemima (product features a black woman)
• Mars Inc
• Uncle Ben's (logo features a black man)
• B&G Foods - Cream of Wheat (logo features a black chef)
• Conagra Brands
• Mrs. Butterworth's (a matronly-shaped bottle since 1961)
• Land o' Lakes - changed its almost 100-year old logo earlier this year to replaced the focal image of a Native American woman with the text "farmer owned"

Do you think brands are overreacting to public sentiment? Why would it matter if a black man or woman is a spokesperson for a consumer product? To me, as an Asian consumer, these products don't appear to have a sinister, racist motive for featuring African Americans in their product packaging.

If there were really such a fervor over racism on branded packaging, why then are Aunt Jemima and Mrs. Butterworths the two most popular syrup brands by product revenue? 130.59 million Americans used Aunt Jemima and 51.8 million American used Mrs Butterworths in 2019, according to Statista. 54.86 million Americans consumed Uncle Ben's rice and rice dishes in 2019 (source: Statista), yielding $11 million in annual revenue.

Frankly, I'm not sure that a logo change would help you sell more product to the demographics that already purchase the product based on other factors: price, availability, taste, quality, etc. For brands that have been around for a long time, these announcements seem more like a PR stunt than anything else. IMHO. 

I suppose time will tell us if the logo rebrand has helped Land o' Lakes capture more consumer market share next year when they celebrate their 100th anniversary.

The Myth of Organic and Sustainability Food Marketing

The use of "organic" in food marketing is highly unregulated outside the US and the word "sustainability" is un-standardized and means both wild and farm raised. The USDA, a government agency that regulates agriculture in the US with the intent of protecting consumers, has guidelines about what can be labelled as organic but is so understaffed that labeling abuses are all too frequent and unenforced. And, the harvest standards are different across the many segments of the food industry, from meat production to fresh produce to fruit to fish and seafood. 

The current USDA definition of "organic" is:

"Organic is a labeling term that indicates that the food or other agricultural product has been produced through approved methods that integrate cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. Synthetic fertilizers, sewage sludge, irradiation, and genetic engineering may not be used."

"Organic" is not the same as "natural", even though by a plant or animal's chemical structure it is. And, it certainly does not mean that fertilizers aren't being used to cultivate the food source. A farmer can feed GMO soybeans to his chickens and produce organic fertilizer from the dried chicken droppings; which is then tilled into the soil to produce more food. Can it really still be considered organic? Of course, because we're only looking at the end product and not the whole process of how that product gets to the market.

The myth of sustainability is that if we (as farmers/gatherers/food producers) use herd management best practices, this food source can be harvested indefinitely. If you think that eating buffalo meat is healthier and better for you because it's a leaner meat than beef, and you eat it because it isn't raised on a farm, think again. All buffalo meat in the US is farm-raised and the herd is roughly 500,000. All wild, free-range buffaloes in the US exist only in environmental and government preserves--and hunting these is a crime. 

Our greed and growing appetite for consumption fuels these myths.

Think you're supporting a small food co-op, family farm, or responsible food producer? Take a look at this infographic and see who owns these popular organic food products.

Target Ad Audience and Branding

I don't follow football, or much of sports for that matter except for the Olympics. The only time to tune in for Superbowl Sunday is to watch the cacophony of ads. At $4 million per 30 second slot, this is all the more reason to make whatever message your company wants to convey really count. Instead of harping on the truly terribly ads, I thought I might point out ones that really captured my attention. Movie previews are excluded. I looked at things like:

• Core (corporate) message or product brand easily understood?
• Speaks value to the right audiences?
• Feel good? Wacky? Clever?
• Did the end of the ad drive another campaign action?

Worth Mentioning to Others:

Budweiser: Clydesdales "Brotherhood" - 9.3 million views on YouTube (budweiser)
Jeep: Whole Again with Oprah narration - 1.3 million views (thejeepchannel)
Skechers: Man vs Cheetah - 335k views (skechersperformance)
Audi: Prom - 9.2 million views (audiofamerica)

These ads had multichannel flair, presumably to drive the audience from TV to social media. 

Oreo: Whisper Fight - 1.1 million views (oreo); Choose you side at Instagram (2200 followers before ad aired, post-Sunday almost 50k followers); would have a higher impact if the Instagram purl was advertised

Budweiser: Clydesdales "Brotherhood" - Name the baby Clydesdale (Hope and Stan), tweet name using #clydesdales @budweiser

Speed Stick:Unattended Laundry - 1.1 million views (speedstick); Tweet your #handleit moment

Death of a Brand Name

Kraft Foods, a company and brand that has been around since 1903, is throwing in the towel with its 100+ year legacy for its flagship name for something completely bizarre. I should clarify that Kraft is still around, except it won't be branding its snack foods under the flagship name. Kraft's flagship products include brands such as Cadbury, Maxwell House, Nabisco, Oreo, Oscar Meyer, Philadelphia, Trident and Tang. Part of this name, ticker, and branding split is to protect the larger branded assets (mostly the grocery category) from the volatility of the snack foods category, which has faced a lot of regulatory and agricultural pressure lately. The new name for the snack foods entity will be Mondelez International Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLZ, as of Oct 1, 2012).

Seeking Alpha has a pretty good by-the-numbers breakdown of how this company and stock split will affect investors. Read more?

Chobani Market Share

Greek yogurt is as Greek as french fries are from France. Greek yogurt is a style of strained yogurt which has the consistency and flavor of whole milk yogurt; both of which have more protein per serving than their 1% or nonfat counterparts. I've had the opportunity to eat real Greek yogurt in Greece, so, I must say that all American-made yogurt pale in comparison. Some notable stats about yogurt:

• $7.6 billion: US yogurt industry in 2011
• 93%: average additional cost of Greek vs non-Greek yogurt
• 5 years: projected market gain of Chobani as a $1 billion business
• 25%: Chobani's market share in the US
• 2007: Chobani started selling yogurt cups at a grocery store in NY

Chobani has run only one ad campaign and relies heavily on word-of-mouth and social media buzz. While yogurt is marketed to a broad audience, women are the primary consumers who account for 63% of grocery sales.

Source: Steinmetz, Katy. "Smooth Operator: How Chobani spread Greek yogurt across America", Time, 2012-06-25, pp. 70-71