Marketing Spoonful

With the acquisition of American Idol and country recording sensation Carrie Underwood as brand spokesperson, Olay has taken its advertising to a new level: the level of identification.
It will be interesting to see how the brand changes in the coming months in terms of the identity its handlers desire and the image it takes on [...]

Tags: Carrie Underwood, food marketing blog, identification, Olay, product spokesperson

It takes a special person to say the word “wiener” with a straight face. Linkhaus, a new hot dog eatery in Wichita, Kansas, uses the term shamelessly to describe its “well endowed” dogs.
The place is really down to earth. It’s definitely a guys type of place. You can catch ESPN and other sports channels on [...]

Tags: food marketing blog, hot dog, Linkhaus

I had the pleasure of attending the Rural Grocery Store Summit in Manhattan, Kansas, this week. I met a lot of great people who are doing their best to preserve an important part of the struggling rural environment.
I learned that over the past five years, nearly half the rural grocery stores in Kansas have gone [...]

Tags: community engagement, customer engagement, food marketing blog, rural grocery store

I’m not sure how often this occurs, but it’s an interesting phenomenon that what we would call brand standards for franchises are sometimes blatantly ignored. Signage is a tough one to get over on, but you and I both know there are a lot of unapproved coupons and brochures floating around out there.
But tonight, I [...]

Tags: 7-Eleven, brand standards, food marketing, food marketing blog, franchise, ICEE, Icy Drink, Merchandising, Slurpee

Creating a new brand identity for yourself is easy. Creating a new brand image? Not so much.
That’s because of an important, yet subtle difference between identity and image:
Identity is WHO you are. Image is HOW you are perceived.
To state it another way, your brand identity is HOW you want to be perceived, while your image [...]

Tags: Branding, Dippin' Dots, food marketing blog, Hormel, Hyundai, identity, image, Kia, Lexus, marketing strategy, Tyson

I heard a really funny story the other day. I was teaching a course on the basics of starting up a business to a class of about 10 people. Now, when I teach this class, I like to use the example of starting a pizza restaurant to illustrate how to locate, price, create a product, [...]

Tags: buffet, CiCi's, Domino's, food marketing blog, getting your money's worth, Papa John's, pizza, Pizza Hut, value

Remember, just a few short years ago when there was one small spot on the convenience store refrigerator shelf for a lonely little energy drink called Red Bull? Now there are several coolers filled with every kind of energy drink one can imagine.
Funny thing, though. When I was at Big Lots tonight (part of a [...]

Tags: AMP, Crayola, Crayon, Crayon Sports Drink, energy drink, food marketing blog, G2, Gatorade, Hansen's Natural, Red Bull, sports drink

Beer ad featuring wheat shock and beer bottle romance: Check.
Beer ad featuring guy talking to dog after telling girlfriend his beer is more important than her: Check.
Beer ad by major company featuring small business during the Big Game: Check.
Miller High Life is planning to purchase air time during the Big Game and give it to select [...]

Tags: beer ad, beer commercial, Bud, cause marketing, Miller High Life, small business marketing

Increasingly, we’re seeing advertisers tapping into the core elements of health and beauty that stand for true happiness to consumers.
We saw Dove do it by encouraging women to unlock the power of their inner beauty. Now Danone is using celebrity spokeswomen to demonstrate a lovely connection between taste enjoyment, nutrition, digestive health, beauty and happiness.
It’s [...]

Tags: activia, beauty, food marketing blog, health, jamie lee curtis, martine mccutcheon

It’s good to have fans. I mean, how could it be a bad thing? Well, it certainly can’t hurt, but I don’t recommend relying on it completely for your marketing strategy.
If you’re on facebook, you are probably a fan of a favorite restaurant, cause or other organization or silly little thing. I, myself, am a [...]

Tags: Facebook, facebook fan, facebook page, facebook strategy, food marketing blog, social media, Web strategy