MARKETING MISTAKES

SOUP WARS

I think most seniors like soup. Especially really good soup with flavorful ingredients, no skimping on the vegetables or chicken. Years ago it was a simple choice, Progresso was so far superior to any other brand that it was no contest. Reminded us of the soup our mothers used to make.(Most mothers anyway)

But there was a problem. It was so much more expensive than competitive brands, that most of us couldn't afford it. ..and they didn't issue many coupons or put it on sale very often either.So not too many people found out about this little "secret".... Campbell continued to dominate the market.

So as a marketing executive with Progresso what would you do?

Promote aggressively to capture market share and get people to try your soup, knowing that your brand had the others beat by a mile as far as taste. Lock those customers in before your competitor woke up.

No...that would have been too easy and too sensible & would probably have resulted in lower prices today and certainly a better soup for the money...ie. a better value. So they let Campbell off the hook...and what does the marketplace look like today?

Both companies have been purchased by corporate giants.What do you think that means for pricing?...which is bound to hurt consumers and who will that affect directly?...those that can't afford it, on a limited income, like Seniors.

Campbell Soup finally woke up and discovered their pocket had been picked!! They evidently lost a large percentage of market share vs where they were. (although I am not in possession of any numbers, I'm guessing by their actions lately in the marketplace.) Look at the media and tell me if you don't see their logo much more frequently. It's called "protection of market share" or frantic reaction to a truth...Progresso is a much better soup in many yardsticks of measurement. ... and Campbell knows it. The MSG scare put out by Campbell is a bunch of crap designed to scare away Progresso customers.

MSG is basically salt (called sodium on cans)

Progresso light chicken noodle 18.5 oz. has 70 calories and 680mg of sodium

Campbell's Light Harvest..18.6oz,,has 50 calories and 480mg sodium

Believe me, not enough diference to really matter.

They have been advertising much more heavily..in places they never bothered to cover before...like Blogs.

Google the name Progresso, go to their corporate site, print out some coupons ... and try their soup, You'll like it. They have been running four cans for $5.00 sales lately so they are rapidly becoming no longer The High Priced Brand.

Campbell MADE A MARKETING MISTAKE..THEY SHOULD HAVE LOCKED UP THE MARKETPLACE WHEN THEY WERE RIDING HIGH. was it ARROGANCE???

LATEST NEWS...(Jan. 20, 2009...) estimate (or educated guess) in a previous post from Seniiorblog, was that Campbell had suffered a significant loss of market share in the Soup marketplace.

There has been some heavy advertising lately indicating they have come out with a new line of soups called V8. They took their proven franchise brand and are attempting to transfer it to another product.

Why is that good for seniors? By injecting a health plus benefit in using V8 (identified with good health), they are providing more good health positive products under the Campbell overall banner. Maybe even the salt content will shrink in the future. So I applaud their efforts to fight back in the soup wars against Progresso.

maxwell

Disclaimer

SENIORBLOG nor any of it's associates DERIVE ANY BENEFIT FROM THIS BLOG...(I just like their soup.)

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Another marketing mistake.....A sweet story....(for their competitors...)

In south Florida about 10 years ago there were no sugar free cookies available in the supermarkets. Publix, who had a lock on the market, had their own bakeries...but didn't make them Why? I don't know.

The need was certainly there. Perhaps they were unprofitable.

They could have grabbed a strangle hold on this market niche. But did not act. Soon a small company, Murrays by name, saw the unfilled need and came in to the marketplace. Sugar free cookies, and they were darn good too! A fair size, fair price and they fought for shelf space.

They were on their way to locking in the market niche when something happened. The same thing that happened to many small companies that showed early success...They did exactly the wrong thing. They saw themselves losing some market share so instead of lowering prices to increase sales and protect hard earned market share, they raised prices and shrunk product size.So many companies make that mistake.

Their cookies still tasted ok but 2 bites and they were gone!! And they hit the customerprice resistance line. very simple marketing rule...you can only raise prices so far and then you start to lose customers.

so what happened next? You guessed it...Another company from Canada,

Voortman by name, came out with a delicious sugar-free cookie, a large one at a reasonable price and as of this post, are proceeding to put Murray's out of the market. Publix who could probably compete, has not made the attempt and they are out of the race for now.

Why do we hear this story time after time??

I'm sure you have heard by now that the newspaper business is slowly disappearing. (We predicted this months ago because, we thought, they were concentrating on bad news in bad times.Turns out to be more complicated than that. And what is thePalm Beach Post response to shrinking readership? They dramatically raised prices. from 50cents to 80 cents in one fell swoop.An increase of close to 40% Did they really think raising prices by such an exorbitant amount would increase their readership?? If nothing else the've certainly priced yourselves out of the Senior market.

Bye-Bye Palm Beach Post. Go back to school after your paper folds and learn marketing one.

maxwell