It's a truism that we do not know what we've got until it's gone. Occasionally a product becomes so familiar that we become blasé about it - and occasionally sales fall as a outcome. This frequently happens with products that we keep in mind from our childhood, the traditional homely products that we do not purchase anymore but would hate to see disappear.
A threat to withdraw such a product could well provoke an outcry - as happened when Coca-Cola withdrew the traditional Coke recipe in favor of an "improved" recipe. Despite the fact that customers preferred the flavor of the new formula, the business had not reckoned with the iconic status of the product (perhaps surprisingly, since Coca-Cola have usually promoted the product for its traditional qualities). The lesson of Coca-Cola was not lost, nevertheless.
Salad cream is really a traditional British salad dressing, having a flavor and texture somewhere in between vinaigrette and mayonnaise. For almost 100 years it has been the salad dressing of choice in Britain, but during the latter part of the twentieth century it began to be replaced by mayonnaise. In 2000, H. J. Heinz announced that their salad cream could be withdrawn because of falling sales.
The media immediately leaped on the story, and also the public outcry that ensued produced a mass of publicity for the product. Sales revived dramatically, and the product now has its personal website, complete with a chef (Dan Green) creating recipes for the product. Pouring it over limp lettuce is really a thing of the past - Green provides recipes for beef wraps, spaghetti nicoise, couscous with wok-fried vegetables, and many more. The website points out that salad cream has 66 percent much less fat than mayonnaise, a notable benefit in the healthconscious twenty-first century.
There's no question of the product being withdrawn now - sales have soared, and Heinz are now investing £5 million a year in promoting the brand. Ad agency Leo Burnett have produced an innovative and entertaining series of advertisements, and salad cream is now firmly back in the mainstream.
This method only works with well-known, iconic products. The news media must turn out to be involved - without publicity, there will probably be no public outcry. You must be prepared to follow up quickly with conventional advertising and other promotion when the publicity is at its peak.
Care needs to be taken that individuals don't feel "conned" by the promotion. You might need to consider other methods to revive the product, in conjunction with the threatened withdrawal - Heinz promoted new methods of using salad cream, in innovative recipes.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Alan G. Nicholson at 01202011
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