Marketing Memo: Mega-Food Marketer Kellogg Co. is Launching a Line of Hip, Urban Streetwear as a Way To Earn Some 'Street Cred' From Younger Consumers

Mega-food company and breakfast cereal brand king Kellogg Co. isn't historically known as a hip and edgy brand marketer.

In fact, for decades since it's founding as the conservative food company from Battle Creek, Michigan which specializes in iconic breakfast cereal brands like Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Frosty Flakes, Fruit Loops and Rice Krispies, along with 22 other varieties, it has been a generally conservative and mainstream food product marketer.

However, Kellogg Co. did start moving into the natural foods segment a few years ago. First it acquired the natural foods brands Worthington and Loma Linda, which it still owns. Both are all natural brands of canned and frozen all-natural, vegetarian healthy foods products. Kellogg's has expanded both brands to include additional varieties of both canned vegetarian items and healthy frozen entrees.

A little later Kellogg's acquired the Morningstar Farms brand of healthy and vegetarian frozen and refrigerated entrees, side dishes and breakfast items, which it has grown considerably in the last few years.

The mega-food marketer then followed these acquisitions up by buying the Kashi natural foods brand, which at the time was primarily a line of all-natural and organic cereals with a couple other items like cereal bars under the Kashi brand name.

Kellogg's currently markets six different varieties of Kashi brand cereal, ranging from the original Golean variety to the newer Heart-to-Heart heart-healthy line. There also are energy and breakfast bars and snacks under the Kashi brand, as well as frozen foods items.

Most recently, the $11 billion a year food company acquired two strong natural foods brands: natural and organic Bare Naked Granola, a line of granola-based cereals and Garden Burger, the healthy soy-based line of burgers and related items. Both acquisitions fit perfectly with Kellogg's core natural and organic foods business, which is breakfast cereals and related items and healthy and vegetarian-based meals and breakfast foods.

In many ways the Battle Creek food and cereal maker and marketers' move into the natural foods sector shouldn't be a surprise. Not only is it a smart marketer that has spotted the huge potential of the natural and organic categories, but Kellogg's actually has its roots in making and selling healthy cereal such as All Bran and the original Kellogg's Corn Flakes, which contained no sugar or other artificial sweeteners.

Of course, it then got into sugar-sweet cereals like all of the other major cereal marketers because frankly that was--and to a large degree still is--hot. The company's best-selling cereal brands remain its sugar-filled cereals such as Frost Flakes, Fruit Loops, Frosted Mini Wheats, Apple Jacks and others.

However, even with its key brands the company has been coming out with reduced sugar varieties, as well as bulking up the cereals with more whole grains and fiber in recognition of the healthy eating trend.

Kellogg Co. also is a major maker and marketer of crackers and cookies, including mainstream brands like Keebler, Sunshine and Austin, specialty brands like Carrs and Famous Amos, and natural brands under the Kashi label.

The company also markets high sugar content snack items like Kellogg's Pop Tarts and Kellogg's Rice Krispy Treats, but also offers health snack items like Kashi granola and cereal bars and Stretch Island Fruit Leathers, which is another natural foods company it acquired.

Lastly, Kellogg's has extended its brands into a mainstream line of products it calls its specialty channel offerings. These items include Kellogg's Graham Cracker Pie Crust, Keebler Ice Cream Cones and a handful of other items.

Kellogg's gets hip with new line of urban streetwear

The purpose of the brief history above of Kellogg Co., from conservative mainstream food product and breakfast cereal marketer to a more diversified food company which is increasingly looking to the natural and organic foods categories for new growth and sales, is simply to show an evolution in the development of the mega food company, including growth in the natural channel via acquisitions.

With that diversification, as well as general changes in the culture and spirit of the times over the years, Kellogg's has decided it needs to create a bit more edgy and hip image for its brands.

As a way to do this, the company has launched a line of Kellogg-branded "urban design" apparel in partnership with the popular urban clothing design company Under the Hood. "Under the Hood" is one of the hottest new lines of clothing to hit the market, and has an urban streetwear, hip-hop style to its designs.

The Kellogg's-branded items in the line include: Kellogg's Corn Flakes-logo hip T-Shirts and pants; Fruit Loops-branded pants with the famous Fruit Loops' parrot logo on the pants' pockets, along with Fruit Loop T-shirts; Tony the Tiger Kellogg's Frosted Flakes emblazoned T-shirts, jackets and sweat pants; Honey Smacks cereal Jeans and Shirts; Jackets, pants and shirts featuring the famous Keebler Elves and other branded clothing items. Items also include shoes and "hoodies," the trendy and popular light jackets worn by young men and woman.

The Kellogg's-branded urban wear apparel line created and produced by Under the Hood is designed to appeal to young, hip kids and young adults. And, since that is the super-popular "Under the Hood" clothing companies target market--the line should do very well.

The hip street wear also is designed to strengthen sales of Kellogg's cereal and other food products among the younger demographic, as well as to help create a more hip and edgy image withing this target market for the brands.

Since the urban-style and hip hop scene which goes with it appeals to young people of all races, along with the fact that suburban youth love it as much as urban residents, the Kellogg's-branded apparel should reach a wide target audience.

The idea is to mesh a person's lifestyle with what one eats. It's sociographics mixed with psychographics, along with identity marketing.

We expect the hip streetwear line to do well because of the association with Under the Hood, which is such a hot clothing company and line right now many of its items are back ordered by consumers.

We also expect to see lots of cross-marketing by Kellogg's of its cereals and the branded urban streetwear clothing items. For example, offers on the back of cereal and snack foods item packages, in-store point-of-sale displays, giveaways and media advertising in hip publications targeted to the same demographic as Under the Hood's clothes are.

In terms of the quality of the Kellogg's-branded streetwear from Under the Hood, we recently talked to a 16 year old who bought a Tony the Tiger T-shirt, Jacket and pair of black sweat pants with Tony embossed on all three items of clothing. His comment when we asked how he liked the three items of Kellogg's-branded streetwear? He said, mimicking Tony the Tiger..."There Grrreat!

Beverage Marketing Memo: High-Energy Jolt Soda is Back and Hitting the Streets of Southern California With A 'High-Energy' Gorilla Marketing Campaign

Carbonated energy-drink brand Jolt Soda wants to rev-up its brand power and product sales, and it's developed a high-energy, creative way to do so.

The energy-drink category brand is hitting the streets of Southern California with a multi-elemental gorilla marketing or street campaign designed to create fun and excitement around the Jolt Soda brand and line of high-energy beverages.

Using a vehicle that looks like it belongs to an urban police department's Swat tactical team, accept that it has the words ABSURD ENERGY in bold letters on the sides along with colorful pictures of Jolt Soda, the Jolt street team is visiting 125 high-traffic areas in the Southern California counties of Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino, between now through May.

The gorilla marketing street team (pictured at left in Hollywood) will give away more than 150,000 full-sized samples of Jolt Soda during the eight week campaign. Additionally, the street team is handing out thousands of retro-style Jolt branded free T-shirts and decals to people who come in contact with the Jolt Patrol roaming brand builders in their Swat Team-inspired vehicle.

The Jolt Patrol has numerous fun games and activities going on as part of its traveling marketing campaign, all designed to reintroduce the Jolt beverages to consumers using humor and irreverence. The result: Jolt hopes to start building an image as the irreverent or humorous energy drink brand.

One activity that's capturing the hearts--and hands--of consumers who encounter the Jolt patrol is called Grocery Cart Bowling. The Jolt Patrol marketers and funsters set up inflatable Jolt Soda cans and then let the consumers use shopping carts to bowl the makeshift bowling pins down.

The gorilla street marketing campaign is part of a more comprehensive relaunching of the Jolt brand by its owners, Wet Planet Beverages.

Another aspect of the brand relaunch and gorilla marketing campaign in Southern California is that Wet Planet has signed Jolt Soda up to be a sponsor of the Los Angeles division of the 11-team league World Adult Kickball Association. Yes, professional kickball.

Among the gorilla marketing activities Jolt will conduct, will be to have Jolt-branded coolers available to supply players at all the local kickball games with plenty of free high-energy soda.

Jolt brand ambassadors also will give free samples of the energy beverage to fans watching the kickball games, along with giving them store indicator cards that will list the names and addresses of stores within a two-mile range of where the games are being played, and a coupon for a discount on the drinks.

Jolt Soda has been around since 1985 when it was first launched. However, it's has some difficult times brand-wise, as well as getting a bit lost in all the clutter created by the dozens of new energy drinks introduced in the last decade.

But not anymore if the crative gorilla marketing campaign works. Jolt plans lots more activity like its gorilla marketing street patrol campaign and kickball team tie-in in Southern California.

Jolt also has launched a gorilla marketing campaign at numerous college and university campuses. The campaign hires students as Jolt Ambassadors. The student reps offer samples of the drink at various campus events as well as hold contests and giveaways of free Jolt brand items like the T-shirts and decals.

There currently are seven flavors of Jolt Soda: Power Cola, Cherry Bomb, Orange Blast, Blue Raspberry, Wild Grape, Passion Fruit, and one sugar-free variety called Ultra.

The goal is to re-energize the Jolt brand and do so in a way that grabs consumers' attention, offers them participation with the brand, makes them laugh and smile, and creates an edginess for the brand in the consumer's mind. After all, the drink's name is Jolt.

Marketing Memo: Marketer is 'Dancing Close to the Edge' With its Postioning of the Super-Strong Breath Mint 'Antipoleeze'

Move over "curiously strong" Altoids, A Brooklyn, New York-based division of a Swiss company named RNY Group recently introduced a new breath mint it says will eliminate bad breath odors caused by alcohol, smoking and food.

The super-strong bad breath-elimination mint is made in Switzerland and in being sold under the interesting name of "AntiPoleez" (yes, as in police). The product's package features a picture of an attractive blonde-haired woman in a police uniform, tipping the brim of her policewoman's cap, with the name of the brand, "AnitiPoleez" right below. To the immediate right of the brand name is the subheading "Eliminates alcohol and tobacco breath."

Although the booze-breath-busting mints were only recently introduced, and are currently being sold primarily online through the company's website and in a few bars, restaurants, convenience and grocery stores in the East Coast and a few other parts of the U.S., critics of the product are starting to emerge.

These critics are saying the product's name and how it's being marketed (see our description of the package above) could lead consumers to believe they can drink, take the mints, and then pass a roadside alcohol breath test if stopped by a police officer for suspected driving while intoxicated.

The critics also say the product and its marketing positioning might promote alcohol abuse and smoking, especially among underage kids who when they discover the booze and tobacco breath-busting mints could feel its the solution to covering-up such behaviors as drinking and smoking from parents.

RNY Group, the marketers of "AntiPoleez," say the above concerns don't reflect the intention of the company or its marketing positioning for the new super-strong breath mint line, despite the product name and picture of the sexy policewoman on the package.

On its "AntiPoleez" website--which offers a brief background about the product and merchandises a number of different packaging options for the super-strong breath mints, including the 48-serving "Fiesta Pack" ($14.99) and the even larger 96-serving "Frat Pack" ($28.99)--the company has a constantly moving banner which reads: "Don't Drink and Drive," as a disclaimer.

The website's home page also has two boxes containing text, one which explains how the super-strong breath mints work, and the other explaining what the booze and cigarette breath-busting product is for. There is no direct mention on the website about using the mints to mask alcohol breath while driving.

The corporate story is that the president of Switzerland-based RNY Group needed a solution to a personal breath problem. That problem is he likes to drink alcohol. However, his girlfriend is totally against it. Therefore, he created the super-strong breath mints as the solution, allowing him to enjoy his drinks but mask the odor when he's around her. There's no mention about whether or not the scheme worked.

The "AntiPoleeze" brand mints contain a mixture of various sweeteners and ammonium chloride, which is perhaps the product's secret alcohol and tobacco breath-busting ingredient.

the company claims (and offers to give consumers their money back if they disagree) the super-strong breath mints don't just mask food, tobacco and alcohol breath odors, but eliminate them, based on the combination of ingredients contained in the breath mints.

The company's marketing message with the breath mints is clear: They will "eliminate" the smell of alcohol on a person's breath. The elimination of cigarette and food odors is secondary.

Further, the picture of the attractive blond dressed in a police uniform on the package--along with the name of the product itself--sends a clear message as to what the primary use of "AntiPoleeze" breath mints is: to eliminate that boozy-breath smell in general and also so the cops won't smell it on you if you get stopped.

As far as we know, and we did ask a lawyer friend, the company is doing nothing illegal in its marketing of the product. Unethical? Perhaps? Dangerous? Maybe? We leave that up to our readers to decide for yourselves. We do however believe from a marketing standpoint the company is dancing dangerously on the edge in terms of the breath mints positioning.

The name of the breath mints largest packaging offering, the "Frat Pack," also sends a clear signal to college students that they're part of the target market. Although we always thought having a slight alcohol-tainted breath was somewhat of a rite of passage for college students. By the way, we've heard the super-strong mints are beginning to gain a consumer base among students at a number of New York City colleges and Universities.

Even though "AntiPoleeze" currently has only limited distribution--something the company is trying to change by searching for distributors who will gain distribution in more convenience stores, supermarkets, drug stores and other retail venues--we think the controversy over the product and its marketing positioning also is just getting started.

We anticipate perhaps you will soon be hearing from the group Mothers Against Drunk Driving on the use of the mints to mask alcohol breath and driving issue, police departments and associations, conservative political groups and others, once the product starts to gain increased publicity and awareness.

Of course, the fact is consumers can always use a better breath mint in general. It's not just alcohol and tobacco breath that's a problem, is it? If the "AntiPoleeze" breath mints work as good as the makers and marketers say, they might just be missing a far bigger market, which are the hundreds of millions of Americans and others across the globe who just want to eliminate bad breath in general, and have yet to find a breath mint on the market that does so to the degree they desire.

Think about it. In marketing, sometimes positioning a product as too niche-oriented can lead to less rather than more sales. In the case of bad breath--and solutions to the problem--consumers from all social, economic and ethnic groups see it as a problem and spend lots of money every year trying to solve it.

In other words, consumers in mass are constantly looking for "the next new thing" in bad breath solutions. If "AntiPoleez" is that better solution, we think the marketer might want to consider broadening its market positioning for the product.

After all, when was the last time you heard anybody say they felt their breath was perfect?

Beverage Industry Memo: Coke For Passover: Beverage Giant Coca Cola Makes 'The Real Thing' For Jewish Holiday

In mid-to-late March -to- April each year in the U.S., Beverage giant Coca Cola goes back to the future so to speak and produces a limited amount of "The Real Thing," which is the company's original Coke soft drink beverage made with pure cane sugar or sucrose (sugar refined from sugar beets) instead of high-fructose corn syrup, which is the sweetener it's used in all of the carbonated sodas it produces and sells in the U.S. and most everywhere else in the world except Latin America (and particularly Mexico) since 1985.

Prior to April, 1985 when Coca Cola announced it would switch to using high-fructose corn syrup in its flagship Coke brand, along with its other brands of soft drinks, the beverage maker used sugar in all of its sodas sold throughout the world. Coke was the first soft drink-maker to switch to using high-fructose corn syrup, primarily because it's cheaper than sugar, and the other U.S.-based soda pop makers followed the leader.

Those real sugar Coke days also were when the beverage giant created its popular "The Real Thing" marketing and advertising campaign. "Coke; it's The Real Thing...Coke is." That very popular tag-line, which became part of the American lexicon, went away once Coke no longer was sweetened with sugar but rather with corn syrup instead.

Many U.S. consumers crave "The Real Thing." So much so in fact, that a huge market exists in the U.S. for Coca Cola produced in Mexico using sugar. The "Real Thing" is then shipped across the border into the U.S. for sale at stores which primarily cater to Hispanic consumers.

But the world's number one carbonated beverage maker and marketer does make an exception to its high-fructose corn syrup-only as the sweetener of choice policy in the U.S. once each year. From mid-to-late March to April each year in the U.S., Coca Cola produces limited runs of its Coke soft drinks using sugar instead of the corn syrup during the three weeks or so leading up to the Jewish Passover holiday. (PepsiCo also produces a limited run of its Pepsi brand carbonated brand soft drink sweetened with sugar for Passover.)

Among the foods Observant Jews aren't allowed to consume during the Passover holiday period include any food or drink made with chamez. High-Fructose corn syrup falls into this category since anything produced from refined corn it chamez as stated in the Torah. Observant Jews must follow all of the proscribed Passover dietary restrictions as laid out in the Torah. The punishment for eating chametz during Passover is karet ("spiritual excision.")

Since Coke doesn't want to lose sales from Observant Jews during Passover, it's been producing the soft drinks made from either sugar cane or sucrose (sugar refined from sugar beets) for years since it stopped using sugar completely in Coke produced in the U.S. and most elsewhere in the world in 1985.

"Real Coke" for Passover is generally only available during the religious holiday in large metropolitan areas with high populations of Jewish consumers such as Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore-Washington D.C., Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco and Houston, Texas. Since Coca-Cola's system is to have local bottlers produce all of its soft drinks, the local bottlers in those regions are responsible for making and selling the Passover sugar-sweetened Coke.

Selling the Passover Coke isn't a problem however. The beverages fly off store shelves as soon as they're stocked--and it's not just Observant Jews who are buying the "Real" Coke to drink during the eight key days of Passover. Indeed, consumers of all stripes and religious backgrounds who prefer the taste of the sugar-sweetened Coke to today's high-fructose corn syrup version, stock up on the limited-run soda pop as soon as they see it in stores.

The Passover Coke is certified by local Rabbinical councils as "Kosher for Passover," which is the designation required in order to satisfy Jewish dietary laws during the religious holiday observance.

The special sugar-sweetened, Coke is usually bottled in 2-liter plastic bottles, which are distinguished by their yellow caps that sport the OU-P (Kosher for Passover) symbol or the words Kosher L' Pesach in Hebrew on the cap. Some Coke bottlers produce Passover Coke in cans as well as the 2-liter plastic bottles, but it's a rarity. [You can read more about the OU certification at their website here.]

We've often wondered why Coca-Cola hasn't introduced (or actually reintroduced) Coke made with pure cane or sugar-beet refined sugar since it's sugar-sweetened Mexico-bottled soft drinks are so popular with consumers of every ethnicity in the U.S.

A little background: In the mid-to-late 1980's, Hispanic foods distributors in the U.S. started exporting the Mexico-made Coke across the border (without Coke's express permission) to sell at Hispanic grocery stores and in Mexican restaurants in parts of the U.S. where there were large Mexican, Central and Latin American immigrant populations. Not only did the Mexican-bottled Coca Cola catch on fast with the immigrants, but non-Hispanic consumers in the U.S. discovered the sugar-sweetened version in the stores and Mexican restaurants and grabbed it up regularly.

Just a few years later, in the early 1990's, conventional supermarket chains with stores in high-population Hispanic communities, along with specialty foods distributors, started getting numerous requests to sell and distribute the Mexican-bottled Coca Cola.

Specialty foods distributors like A-1 International Foods in Los Angeles (now part of Tree of Life), Hagemeyer's Gourmet Specialties in Northern California (now owned by Unified Western Grocers), Gourmet Award Foods in Texas (also owned by Tree of Life) and others started distributing the sugar-sweetened Coke to supermarket chains and independents like Safeway Stores, Inc., Fiesta Mart, Ralph's and numerous others, who put the Mexican-bottled Coke in the Hispanic food and beverage sets in their stores in neighborhoods where there are high Latino shopper demographics.

Sales of the Mexican, sugar-sweetened Coke have soared since then, as more supermarkets, grocery stores and restaurants have stocked the soda pop. Today, it's a good bet that if a shopper of any ethnicity goes into a Hispanic grocery store, supermarket (chain or independent) or authentic Mexican restaurant, you can get a bottle of bottled in Mexico Coca-Cola, made using sugar rather than high-fructose corn syrup.

This gets us back to "wondering" why Coca-Cola hasn't reintroduced a "new" everyday version of the popular vintage (and current Passover and Latin American version) sugar-sweetened Coke in the U.S., which is its largest market globally. We think we know why. Our bet is the giant beverage marketer believes if it did so, the sugar-sweetened version of Coke would be so popular it would seriously hurt sales of corn syrup-sweetened Coke, even though the soda pop would have to retail for more because of the higher price of sugar compared to lower-cost high-fructose corn syrup.

Instead of let what would be a very popular version (sugar) of Coca Cola canabalize sales of its corn syrup-sweetened carbonated beverage by marketing a sugar-sweetened version--in addition to being subject to the price fluctuations of the sugar market--we suggest the beverage marketer prefers to just stay with what it has, despite the strong niche demand for the "Real Thing" among a healthy segment of American consumers.

High fructose corn syrup is generally plentiful--although that's changing a bit since a good portion of the food and sweetener-grade corn crop acreage in the U.S. is being planted for ethanol fuel-grade corn currently--and inexpensive relative to sugar. (If the ethanol trend continues, and corn-based products like sweeteners keep going up in price, maybe sugar will make a comeback as the carbonated beverage sweetener of choice? For example, commodity price of corn is up over 15% in the last year.)

However, when it comes to Passover, which begins on April 20 this year, the giant beverage maker and marketer stills go back to the future and produces a limited amount of its vintage Coke. And, since there aren't any religious tests given at the supermarket checkout stand, any consumer who desires can buy the sugar-sweet stuff.

Further, lets not forget, the Mexican-bottled Coke made with sugar is available in many parts of the U.S. where there are substantial Hispanic consumers. Since Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the U.S.--and are a fast-growing population not just on the east and west coasts but in places like Iowa, Idaho, Illinois and elsewhere throughout the country as well--we suspect people in parts of the U.S. where the Mexican Coke isn't currently available will see it in many of their stores soon.

Meanwhile, during the upcoming Passover season, Coke is rolling out its Passover Coke. We suspect it won't stay on store shelves very long if this year is like the last few years in terms of the special yellow-capped carbonated beverage's brisk sales. Hag kasher vesame 'ah (happy and kosher Passover). It's "The Real Thing."