Souping Up Product Position
An amazing image appears in Drew’s Marketing Minute. Author Drew McLellan shares the result of what happens when BBDO asked grocery stores if they would be willing to place chicken noodle soup in the cold medication aisle. Not only does this tactic seem incredibly smart, but it also makes a consumer connection by offering a choice in a direct, and yet entertaining and informative way.
Most brands spend millions on new campaigns. But sometimes a little creativity goes a long way. The very intuitive placement of chicken soup in the cold remedy aisle differentiates the brand from its competition in a way that allows the consumer to think of it as a substitute and gives the product a unique value proposition. Can you think of a better way to position this product on something other than price?
There is a lesson to be learned here for brand marketers and retailers. As McLellan suggests, ask yourself, “Who are your substitutes? And, how will you position your brand against them to make a meaningful connection with your customer?”
Twitter
LinkedIN
Facebook
RSS
What a brilliant idea. But given ICC’s retail insights is this a tenable strategy? I can’t help but think that other suppliers, or even shoppers might not be as enthusiastic as us.
– Axle Davids
@axle The practicality of this being a long term, tenable strategy is probably not really high (I can see all sorts of issues with the FDA and false claims on soup not be approved as a modality for the common cold, efficacy claims, etc) and the practicality of stocking soup in various planograms throughout the store.. but, the idea of creative cross-merchandising within other categories to create a “solution” to a problem, not just the parts and services to fix it like the way most grocery stores operate right now. Meals are made up of recipes which have different ingredients that consumers shop for like a auto parts store.
Long term might be plastic molded cans that dispense coupons for soup and signage that has mom smiling with a ladle, only during flu season that type of thing. But the idea here is that these more long-term solutions are fueled by ad-hoc, low cost, let’s see what happens testing by bright folks who are paying attention just a little bit more than the rest of us.
New blog post: Souping Up Product Position http://bit.ly/4dYDQi
This comment was originally posted on Twitter