Culture Matters
What Makes Brands Cool? The Six Ways to FoodTok; What Happened to Middle-Class Brands?
In today’s newsletter:
Extremes Win: The loss of the middle-class brand
Do You Feel Me?: What makes brands cool?
Beginner’s Mind: The Catch-22 of Innovation
Will it Platform?: Brands in the age of TikTok
Tidbits: Quick links to fun food news
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The Collapse of the Unremarkable Middle Brand
Planters (a Hormel brand) is launching a new line of deluxe seasoned snack cashews. The $3.99/5oz bags include flavors such as Cinnamon Brown Sugar, Dill Pickle, and Rosemary and Sea Salt.
New DTC company Primary Beans is launching a suite of dried beans that connect the consumer directly to the grower. The climate-conscious company offers single-origin, ‘fresh’ dried beans that hail from 13 unique regions in the world. Varieties include Chaparro beans from Guerrero, Mexico, and Southwest Red beans developed at UC Davis. Primary Beans are $9 per pound.
Malt-o-Meal (a Post Consumer Brands company) has launched three new summer-inspired cereals. Flavors include Strawberry Shortcake, Key Lime Crunch, and Orange Creamsicle ($5.50 for 30oz).
Aldi US announced a massive discount to their seasonal assortment. The company announced last week that prices on over 250 products would be marked down, saving customers $60 million this summer. The company is advertising the price reduction as a doubling down in their Price Promise during inflationary times.
So What? The recent bankruptcy of Bed, Bath and Beyond highlights an ongoing trend in the US, the loss of the middle class and their go-to stores. Demographic data shows that there has been a downward slide in the middle class for decades and a related loss of middle-class retailers like JC Penney and Sears.
I would make the case that we are seeing a related pressure on middle-class CPG brands to either go up or down-market or face extinction. The products and brands that aren’t remarkably affordable or remarkably premium face death in the unremarkable middle.
The massive SKU rationalization and price hikes we saw during COVID was partially due to supply chain pressures but also the result of a much-needed purge of these ho-hum products and a reset to a new normal. Now that the dust is settling, we are left with a starker bifurcation of (newly) premium brands and low-cost value products.
Whereas decades ago, big CPG could offer a ‘good, better, best’ array to appeal and contain a wide consumer base, I think those days are ending. Now, many CPG companies have ceded value to private label and look to more premium offerings to achieve the necessary margins requirements.
The next few years will be interesting to watch. Most big CPG are not set up to play on the extremes, having evolved in a solid middle environment. To play at premium, CPG companies will need to significantly up their game in terms of ‘surprise and delight’ and a faster innovation cycle to justify the higher price tag. At the same time, retailers will be scrambling to sweep up the high-volume value consumer.
What Makes Brands Cool?
Pennsylvania snack brand Utz has partnered with Mike’s Hot Honey to release a limited-edition Utz Mike’s Hot Honey Potato Chip. The new chip combines the classic salty crisp chip with sweet heat seasoning. The product is currently available at grocery, Club, and online.
Hormel’s SPAM has launched a new UK campaign called “Keep it Real” with a series of adverts featuring an everyman character discussing his love of the canned meat and TV chef shows. The ‘tongue in cheek’ ad shows how SPAM can be both versatile and tasty without being pretentious. The new ads were developed by the creative agency Cheeky Communications.
Grain-free, high-protein, low-sugar cereal Magic Spoon has launched two new varieties, Oatmeal Cookie and Chocolate Chip Cookie. The nostalgia-inducing editions are reminiscent of favorite kid’s cereals but without the nutritional negatives. While Magic Spoon is quickly gaining retail distribution, it appears that these new varieties are available online only.
Back in March, Patagonia Provisions announced Patagonia’s first acquisition in 20 years with the purchase of Moonshot crackers. The climate-friendly crackers are organic, plant-based and carbon neutral.
Trader Joe’s has released a limited-edition new version of the popular Springle Jangle snack mix called Enchanted Jangle. The new version features sweet candy pieces chocolate-coated pretzel nuggets and strawberry-yogurt-coated marshmallows with salted waffle pretzels. Additionally, Trader Joe’s is extending their Everything but the Bagel Seasoning line to include a new mini sandwich cracker. The tiny crackers are seasoned with the classic poppy seed and onion-garlic mix and smeared with a cream cheese filling.
So What?
Whether I’m working with a startup or an established CPG, a question I often get is, “how can we make our brand or product cool?”
On its surface, this seems like a ridiculous question. We all learned in high school that, if you must ask about being cool, you probably don’t stand a chance of actually being cool. However, in the world of CPG, that’s not always the case. Yes, you can buy your way into cool through celebrity affiliation (see Prime beverage), but that only works if the celebrity stays on top (and the endorsement money continues).
Outside of celebrity affiliation, I’ve notice there are consistencies between cool, badge brand companies that other brands can emulate. I’ve come to call these cool signifiers the The C.R.A.F.T. Checklist:
C - Cultural Niche
The coolest brands start in small enclaves with people who are hardcore users (the original gurus). These niches users are the arbiters of cool (for this topic) and it’s their passion that provides the spark for the brand to grow. While these consumers are often fickle (moving to new brands frequently) it’s their approval and constant acknowledgment of a brand’s bona fides to their less niche friends that allows it to gain mainstream credibility.
A good example of this is the original Huy Fong Sriracha sauce. Started by Vietnamese immigrant David Tran in 1980, the ‘rooster sauce’ grew in popularity in Asian grocery stores and restaurants in LA for decades before going wildly mainstream in the mid-2000’s. Huy Fong’s Sriracha was and is a cool brand, adorning countless countertops and clothing, but it owns it’s permanence to its slow build. While the Asian food elite of California have now moved on from Huy Fong (they’re more into Three Mountains instead) they will still ‘tip their hat’ to Huy Fong, which is enough to maintain it’s cool credibility.
Mike’s Hot Honey is an example of this niche start leading to cool status, from its founding in a small, Brooklyn pizzeria to a slow, word-of-mouth spread through the NY food scene.
R - Rule-breaking Autonomy
One of the hallmarks of cool brands is that they are nonconformist to the status quo within their category. When the mainstream is embracing one theme or aesthetic, they go the opposite way. Sometimes this is done purposefully to be the iconoclastic anthesis and other times it’s due to a brand being so out of touch that it suddenly becomes cool again.
LaCroix is a great example of the latter. Started in La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1980, LaCroix was a sleepy brand that never gained a foothold outside the upper Midwest. In the mid-2010’s the brand’s 90’s aesthetic, marketing minimalism and no-sugar formulation was antithetical to the brashness of big-name, high-sugar soda brands. The brand was so uncool that it was suddenly cool.
In a similar fashion, SPAM plays here. While the brand has definitely attempted to alter its image to appeal to changing health concerns (e.g., Turkey SPAM, Low Sodium SPAM), overall, the brand has maintain the same look and formulation even during low times of consumer love. In fact, in our era of less processed, wellness products, SPAM’s ability to be proudly canned meat is what makes it cool (see the SPAM attire that recently dropped)
A - Adversarial Loyalty
What is Luke without Vader, Neo without Agent Smith, Harry without Voldemort? The best way to become a hero is to have an enemy to push off of; enemies help define us and give fans an outlet to channel their dislike of the ‘other.’
While this tactic is powerful and galvanizing for fans, it is also fleeting. Your competition often adapts, incorporating some of your brand’s traits, but also your brand inevitably starts to get called out for similar certain practices itself. Net-net: this lever gets your brand buzz, but it often burns out quickly (and sometimes takes your brand with it).
Chipotle is a good example of a brand that has used this tactic. For years, they compared their “food with integrity” against fast food giants like McDonald’s in controversial ads like “The Scarecrow” (a strange twist seeing that Chipotle was, at one time, ~90% owned by the Golden Arches). KIND is another brand that has used similar rhetoric, calling out Clif for their high sugar content (although its interesting to note that this ‘bar war’ has stopped now that KIND and Clif are both owned by large confectionery companies, Mars and Mondelez, that likely don’t want to talk about sugar).
Magic Spoon is using this lever by pushing back against big cereal companies; without Big G or Kellogg cereals, there would not be a Magic Spoon. While this is making them cool now, it’s likely fleeting. The brand must make use of the buzz today to make a long-term name for themselves before this lever wears thin.
F - Firmly Authentic
There are a few business words that make me cringe every time I hear them: healthy, convenient, and authentic. I cringe because each of these words has become so loaded down with disparate meanings that the words themselves have become almost meaningless. Ask 10 brand managers what ‘authentic’ means in terms of their brand and you’ll likely hear ten radically different statements.
However, there is a definition of ‘authentic’ that I do ascribe to in terms of brand coolness, and it is this: the ability of a brand to adhere to a strict mission or code of conduct through times of turmoil. Being old, alone, is not authentic. If your brand has been around 100 years but you’ve violated everything your founders originally stood for, you are not authentic. But if you’ve stood for something for 20 years, even when it would have been easier to sell out, that’s truly authentic.
Patagonia, and Patagonia Provisions, is a standout brand here. Their ‘purpose over profit’ commitment is unwavering and extends through their clothes and equipment as well as their foods. By having a clear and specific mission, the brand is able to make decisions that keep them relevant (e.g., the Moonshot acquisition) while still remaining authentic.
T - Trailblazing Innovation
Cool brands are constantly setting the innovation pace for the category. While smaller brands might be first to spot and even showcase a flavor or texture trend, cool brands make it their own in a big way.
Trader Joes is the retail example here. They have a knack for finding trends just breaking through with the Early Majority and pushing them into the mainstream. The positive side of using this lever is constant innovation creates a consistent buzz of news and social shares about your products. The downside is that there are very few permanent SKUs and the push to innovate is relentless. Being late to a trend means losing cool status, so with each new launch you are in danger of losing your cred.
Find the ‘Beginner’s Mind’
Olive oil brand Pompeian has launched a new Made Easy line of oils. The four olive oils in the line are simply labeled Fry, Bake, Sauté, and Drizzle. The company says the new line is meant to eliminate confusion over olive oil use by consumers.
Pound of Ground (a JBS company) has launched a new product called Burger Thins. The product helps consumers quickly cook a burger from frozen in 5-6 minutes, eliminating the “red brick kitchen nightmare” of frozen ground beef that was meant for dinner. The 2.6-ounce patty is under 200 calories and will be available at leading retailers.
So What? It’s likely not unusual for you to be in an hour-long meeting discussing the minutiae of your category, things like the difference between mushroom vs butterfly popcorn, consumer preferences for egg yolk color in different parts of Europe, or the effect of packaging shape on new product trial. Anyone working at a CPG company knows an immense amount about a very narrow consumer category and product.
That’s a problem.
The Catch-22 of launching new products is that you need to have an expert-level degree of knowledge about your product while, at the same time, develop concepts for consumers who are often novices. The discrepancy between these mental states is extremely difficult to bridge.
Take the olive oil example above. I’m sure everyone at Pompeian are very well versed in the nuances of olive oil acidity, color, and viscosity. In fact, I’d wager they sit around and sip olive oil produced from around the world and can identify cultivars by aroma! So, when they are coming up with ideas for new products, it’s very easy to ideate ‘too high’ and create cool products that they find impressive, versus ideas that the average consumer actually wants. That’s what makes something as rudimentary as their new Made Easy line impressive. Any olive oil snob would blanch at this type of gross oversimplification, but it's likely in line with real consumer needs.
When you are creating new products, you often need to channel the ‘beginner’s mind’ of the consumer that isn’t burdened with industry knowledge. It’s not easy, but some of the most successful products have been born this way.
Engaged Brand Eating
General Mills’ Lucky Charms and communications agency VMLY&R Commerce have created Lucky’s Charmology, a digital fortune-telling tool for every bowl of cereal. Consumers can scan their bowl of Lucky Charms to get a personalized reading.
Speaking of Lucky Charms, the brand is also launching a new marshmallow-revealing technology with a new Hidden Dragon cereal. When exposed to milk, white marshmallows transform to reveal a yellow dragon, pink dragon, or dragon egg and flame. This new limited time only cereal also introduces a new character to the Lucky universe in the form of a dragon.
Oreo (a Mondelez company) has launched a new line of panda-designed cookies in Japan. The embossed biscuits (first released in China) have six different panda poses that are fully revealed when dipped into milk. The milk fills the cookie’s crevices and shows a playful panda.
Doritos is back with a new Roulette SKU. This time it’s Flamin' Hot Limon. All chips in the bag are seasoned with the brand’s hot and sour limon spice mix, but select chips are super-hot and sour. The new Roulette is a Walmart-only exclusive.
So What? Today’s CPG brands are in a very tough position. They not only need to maintain the attention of a distracted, fickle consumer, but they also need to defend against category upstarts looking to steal share.
The new products above solve this dual problem via increased engagement. By slowing down and forcing consumers to pay attention to the transformation experience (see my previous comments on the rise of transformation in CPG), brands are helping to cement a unique connection. I’m especially intrigued by the Charmology and Oreo examples where the companies have forced engagement with the brandmark in a fun and subtle way.
As brands look to compete in increasingly crowded categories (especially premium ones, see above), these are the type of executions we will be seeing more of.
TikTok-pectations
Perfect Bar (a Mondelez company) has launched Perfect Bar Layers, a spinoff of the company’s original line that combines the denser texture of nut butters and fruit with crunchy bits of gluten-free oats. The bars are available as Crispy Peanut Butter & Chocolate Layers and Crispy Peanut Butter & Berry Layers.
Burger King UK has introduced Doritos Chilli Heatwave Chicken Fries, in collaboration with Frito-Lay. The limited time item consists of chicken breast strips coated in Dorito crumbs, fried and seasoned with Doritos Chilli Heatwave seasoning.
Hershey has launched a limited-edition bar of white ‘chocolate’ crème embedded with sprinkles of popping candy.
Jell-O (a Kraft-Heinz brand) has launched a new line of Jell-Os that are to be made with AHA soda. The sugar free sparkling Jell-O comes in classic flavors like Lemon, Lime and Strawberry, but are suggested to be matched with AHA’s lime + watermelon, blueberry + pomegranate, and blackberry + lemon.
So What? What I find most interesting about TikTok or Instagram Reels when it comes to food/bev trends, is the amount of experimentation it causes. Users are constantly trying to find combinations that will break through on the platform. I bucket these attempts into six ways-in:
Efficiency Hacks (see the Tortellini Bake, upside down pastries)
Shockingly Beautiful (anything by Amaury Guichon)
It Shouldn’t Technically Work But Does (e.g., cheese wrapped pickles, Avocado Ice )
Surprising Combinations (e.g., ice cream wrapped in Fruit Roll Ups, McDonald’s Hash Brown McFlurry sandwiches)
Reintroduction (e.g., tinned fish)
Gratuitous Displays (e.g., WaterTok combinations, giant, gooey burgers, etc.)
As brands try to speak to consumers in our TikTok world, they must find their voice through these ‘ways in.’ Some will be useful at different stages of the marketing funnel. For example, Shockingly Beautiful brings awareness but does it lead to conversion? Right now, I’m seeing a lot of new products leaning into Surprising Combinations (see everything above) and Reintroductions (Late July’s latest launch of Green Goddess chips) but I think there is room for brands to grow and market in each.
TIDBITS
Ready for a quiz? See how good you are at spotting the AI generated image (best on desktop/laptop)
Green royalty—King Charles has a car that runs on leftover cheese and wine
In 2022, Americans spent more on (legal) weed than they did on chocolate
Taco Bell is asking the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel Taco John’s 34-year trademark on the saying “Taco Tuesday,” saying it should be “available to all who make, sell, eat, and celebrate tacos.”
Perdue is launching a beer specifically designed for Beer Can Chicken
Pairwise has introduced Conscious Greens, a less bitterness green that eats like lettuce but has the superfood nutrition of mustard greens. This is the first (of many) gene-edited products (not GMO) made possible through CRISPR technology coming to US markets.
The shape of a Pringle crisp is trademarked, as is a Hershey’s kiss, but can you trademark the shape of lettuce?
The craziness (and multiple injuries) that is the 2023 Gloucestershire Cheese Roll (including this Canadian woman that was knocked unconscious)
QR code menus are fading in popularity
Bill Nye breaks down his favorite snacks (Oui yogurt, Sunchips, etc.)
Scientists have found the ‘hangry’ neurons
College football alert: The Cheez-It Bowl will now be called the Pop Tarts Bowl
Instacart is rolling out a feature that allows you to pick your ‘favorite shopper’ to select your groceries.