Unilever United States

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Unilever United States

REAL COOKING CAMPAIGN
SOOTHING CUCUMBER EYE TREATMENTS ADS CAMPAIGN

700 Sylvan Avenue
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 07632-9976
USA
Telephone: (201) 894-2104
Fax: (201) 871-8257
Web site: www.unileverusa.com

REAL COOKING CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW

Although dry mix meals had been available since 1937, when Kraft introduced its packaged Kraft Macaroni and Cheese dinner, the category did not begin to expand until 1970, when General Mills launched its Betty Crocker brand of dry dinner mixes called Hamburger Helper. The consumer-goods giant Unilever jumped into selling dry dinner mixes (food kits that usually required only the addition of meat for a complete meal) with its Lipton Sizzle & Stir in 1999. By then the total category accounted for $450 million in annual sales. In 2000 Lipton Sizzle & Stir claimed $30 million in sales in the category, which had grown to $500 million in total sales. The number one brand that year, with $405 million in sales, was Hamburger Helper. Kraft Foods' Stove Top Oven Creations captured $65 million in sales.

Despite the successful introduction of its new product, which had been supported by a $15 million marketing campaign created by the New York office of ad agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty, Unilever hoped to increase sales of its Lipton Sizzle & Stir brand to $40 million in 2001. As part of the growth effort, Bartle Bogle Hegarty developed a new ad campaign for the brand. Called "Real Cooking," the campaign put a unique twist on the traditional family gathered for dinner, using celebrities in the roles of parents and kids. It had a budget of $25 million and, like the initial campaign, included television spots and print ads.

"Real Cooking" was a hit, earning praise from Adweek, which named one of the television commercials a Best Spot of 2001. Also recognizing the TV spots for their humor and creativity were Entertainment Weekly, Time, and USA Today. But while the campaign was a success, the product was not. Sales of Lipton Sizzle & Stir failed to meet Unilever's expectations, and in 2002 the company canceled the campaign and shifted its marketing focus to its more popular Lipton Side Dishes brand.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

When Unilever United States made the decision in 1999 to venture into the rapidly growing category of dry dinner mixes, the company did so by expanding its Lipton brand. At the time Lipton was best known for its variety of teas, dry soup mixes (especially Lipton Onion Soup), and dry side-dish mixes (such as Lipton Noodles & Sauce). The new product, Lipton Sizzle & Stir, was launched in January 2000 with the support of a $15 million marketing campaign that included television spots and print ads. The campaign, which was created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, New York, targeted women ages 25 to 44 years old and had the tagline "Surprisingly Real." TV spots used supposedly real situations to highlight the idea that Sizzle & Stir was a more substantial or "real" product than competing dry dinner mixes. In one spot a teenage boy dropped a fork on the floor, picked it up, wiped it off on his shirt, then placed the fork on the table beside his mother's dinner plate as the words "Real teenager. Would rather be someplace else," scrolled across the screen.

The campaign helped push sales of Lipton Sizzle & Stir to $30 million during its first year on the market. Although the "Surprisingly Real" campaign was a success, Unilever hoped to attain annual sales of $40 million the following year. Bartle Bogle Hegarty was charged with creating a new campaign for the product. The new campaign took the idea of traditional family dinner settings and replaced the standard cute kids and patient parents with not-so-typical characters played by an unusual mix of celebrities. Themed "Real Cooking," the campaign began in early 2001.

TARGET MARKET

The goal of the Lipton Sizzle & Stir "Real Cooking" campaign was to reach all busy families, and in particular mothers who may have been working outside of the home but were also responsible for serving healthy meals at the end of the day. A report in Advertising Age cited studies revealing that mothers, regardless of how hectic their schedules were, wanted to mother the way that their own moms had done. Studies also found that many women were frustrated or felt guilty about their inability to emulate the cultural definition of traditional moms in the style of June Cleaver, the ideal mother in the 1950s sitcom Leave It to Beaver. "Real Cooking" was designed to convince these women that it was possible to serve a home-cooked meal without spending hours chopping, stirring, and sautéing.

The campaign further enhanced its message by using celebrities easily recognized by women 30 to 45 years old, the main purchasers of meal kits. Reaching a younger demographic was an alternate aspect of the campaign. According to Supermarket News, in 2001 consumers ages 15 to 24 ate out three or more times each week. Bringing these young people back to the family kitchen to enjoy a home-cooked dinner was a potential benefit of the campaign, but more importantly, it could help establish brand identity with young consumers who would be the purchasers of meal kits in the future.

COMPETITION

Kraft Foods got its start in 1903, when James L. Kraft began a wholesale cheese business in Chicago. In 1937 Kraft introduced the granddaddy of convenience foods, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. It did not take busy housewives long to appreciate that the new convenience foods could help them make a good meal with less time in the kitchen. Other convenience foods followed. Stove Top Stuffing mix became available in 1972 (at the time the brand was owned by General Foods). Kraft's Stove Top brand was revamped in 1998 as Stove Top Oven Classics, boxed meals that included everything but the meat. It was reintroduced to consumers with a $15.5 million marketing campaign. Stove Top Oven Classics quickly caught on, and by 2000 sales had jumped 51 percent to $65 million. In 2001 Kraft added three new flavor varieties to the brand. But with ever increasing, and less expensive, meal kit options available to consumers—110 such products were offered in 2002—Kraft's Stove Top brand sales were slipping, achieving just $40 million in sales in 2002. Kraft discontinued its Stove Top Oven Classics meal kits in 2003.

UNILEVER PROGRAM HELPS KIDS VISIT NATIONAL PARKS

The America's Best Classroom program was part of an ongoing, multimillion-dollar effort by Unilever to help preserve and protect the United States' national parks. In 2002 the program, through a partnership with the National Park Foundation and the Albertsons grocery-store chain, provided $190,000 in scholarships to kids from 18 communities. The scholarships helped fund trips to national parks for more than 2,500 kids from Boys and Girls Clubs in participating communities throughout the United States. Scholarships were awarded based on the number of purchases made of Unilever products at Albertsons stores in each community. Participating communities included Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, Denver, and Orlando.

General Mills may have been best known for its brand icon Betty Crocker. The mythological homemaker got her start in 1921 as a pen name that consumers wrote to for baking advice. Betty Crocker began offering consumers convenience foods with the 1931 introduction of Bisquick baking mix. In 1950 General Mills published the first Betty Crocker cookbook, and in 1970 the company launched Hamburger Helper under the Betty Crocker brand. Although Kraft's Macaroni and Cheese mix had been on the market for close to 40 years when Hamburger Helper was introduced, Hamburger Helper fueled the popularity of dinner meal kits. Eventually the brand was expanded to include Chicken Helper and Tuna Helper. Despite growing competition from brands such as Kraft's Stove Top Oven Classics and Lipton's Sizzle & Stir, Hamburger Helper maintained its number one spot, with a 75 percent market share of the dry-dinner-mixes category in 2001. To help maintain its top spot and ward off competitors, General Mills reintroduced its "Helping Hand" spokescharacter, first used in advertising for the Hamburger Helper brand in 1977. Beginning in September 2001 television spots appeared that featured an updated version of the disembodied, four-fingered hand with eyes, a red nose, and a mouth; the accompanying voice-over stated, "Helping you make a great dinner tonight."

MARKETING STRATEGY

To help Lipton Sizzle & Stir break through the cacophony of typical food advertising, Bartle Bogle Hegarty took a nontraditional approach to traditional families and dinnertime. The "Real Cooking" campaign began in February 2001 and included television spots and print ads. The TV spots portrayed a traditional family dinner scenario of parents stirring a hot pan on the stove and kids arguing about who would set the table, but with what could only be described as a nontraditional family preparing the meal.

Kicking off the campaign was a television spot titled "The Woolerys," which was followed by a spot titled "The Ts." Both spots featured an oddball cast of characters—a who's who of former A-list celebrities—filling the roles of parents and kids. Starring as the parents in "The Woolerys" were game-show host Chuck Woolery and talk-show host Sally Jesse Raphael, and actor Pat Morita (of the Karate Kid films) and singer Little Richard played the argumentative siblings. The spot opened with Sally chopping a carrot into a skillet on a stove while Chuck read instructions to her from the back of a box of Sizzle & Stir. Chuck stated that the serving instructions suggested adding broccoli, to which Sally responded, "That's just a suggestion. I grew this carrot and, so help me, I'm going to use it." In the midst of the discussion over what vegetable to use, Pat was busy setting the table. Sally called Little Richard to "see if Pat needs help setting the table," to which Little Richard, in typical annoyed-kid fashion, tossed a spoon onto the table and said, "There. I helped." A battle between the two "brothers" was stopped when Chuck, in his sternest dad voice, said simply, "Boys." Sally added, "Come on, boys. Can't we have one nice meal together?"

"The Ts" followed a similar format but with actor Mr. T, complete with gold necklaces and Mohawk haircut, as the dad and actress Lonnie Anderson as the mom. Taking on the roles of brother and sister were actor George Hamilton and gymnast Mary Lou Retton. In the spot Mr. T was standing over the sizzling pan of food on the stove while Lonnie called, "George. Set the able." George, engrossed in a program on television, responded, "In a minute." On the sidelines was Mary Lou, who answered the ringing telephone and said in a teasing voice, "George. It's a girl." George took the call, saying to Mary Lou, "At least I get calls." With the inquisitive family looking on, George looked uncomfortable and said into the phone that he couldn't talk. After hanging up the phone he said to his "parents" and "sister," "She's not my girlfriend." Mary Lou tauntingly responded, "Is too." At which point George took a big-brotherly swipe at her. Mr. T scolded in his coarse voice, "Knock it off."

Each television spots had the tagline "When you cook, you're a family" and sent the message that the definition of family as well as family cooking had changed over the years and that Sizzle & Stir was ready to meet the changing needs of both. Print ads showed the pseudo-families gathered in their respective kitchens while mom cooked dinner. Included in the bottom right portion of the ads was the tagline "When you cook, you're a family," a menu stating "Dinner at the Woolerys" or "Dinner at the Ts," and a list of ingredients: a package of Sizzle & Stir, and appropriate meat and vegetables.

OUTCOME

The "Real Cooking" campaign was recognized for its humorous and creative approach toward families gathered around the table for dinner. An article in the New York Times described the campaign as "offbeat" and stated further that it seemed to have "captured the public's imagination." In addition, Adweek named the "Woolerys" television commercial as one of its Best Spots. Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, and Time also each named "The Woolerys" as one of the best TV commercials of 2001. Writing for Advertising Age, Bob Garfield stated that the campaign created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty was "fabulous." He added that the use of non-traditional families in a traditional setting coupled with good food photography almost assured that the campaign would not fail.

Fail it did, however. In January 2002 Unilever canceled its "Real Cooking" campaign citing the failure of Lipton's Sizzle & Stir meal kits to live up to the company's sales expectations of an estimated $40 million annually. Although the company spent about $38 million in advertising for the brand from 2000 through September 2001, it reported just $30 million in sales. Recognizing that the brand was floundering with consumers, the company refocused its marketing on its Lipton Side Dishes, which accounted for $250 million in sales in 2000. Unilever charged Bartle Bogle Hegarty with creating a campaign as edgy as the Sizzle & Stir effort for that product line. The new $15 million campaign for Lipton Side Dishes, which began in May 2002 with the theme "Dinner Games," replaced the Sizzle & Stir campaign.

SOOTHING CUCUMBER EYE TREATMENTS ADS CAMPAIGN

OVERVIEW

In July 1998 Chesebrough-Pond's, a division of Unilever United States, introduced a new item—Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments—to its Pond's line of facial care products. These were pliable, premoistened eye pads that were designed to look and smell like real cucumbers and that Pond's claimed would "relax and relieve tired eyes." Using cucumber slices over the eyes had long been a staple treatment in spas and salons. Pond's hoped that its synthetic version of this age-old remedy for swollen eyes would captivate consumers who wanted an indulgent beauty regime that also provided concrete benefits. Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments, which contained cucumber extract, aloe, vitamin E, chamomile, and green tea, promised to reduce eye area puffiness and lighten dark under-eye circles.

To promote the new product, Pond's turned to its advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, to create a campaign that would not only fuel the sales of Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments but also continue to modernize the company's image. The resulting print campaign was a visually stunning effort that incorporated Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments into simple, uncluttered ads. The ads bore only the tag line "Feast Your Eyes," the Pond's name, and small-print copy listing the product's ingredients and extolling its virtues in short, declarative sentences ("Better than real cucumber"; "Relax away puffiness in 10 blissful minutes"), thus making the product itself the focal point of the executions. The pads were depicted tumbling out of a glistening glass jar, looking like nothing so much as thinly sliced cucumbers—right down to the seed patch in the middle. The effect was intentional. "We made face care have appetite appeal," Mike Indursky, the category director at Pond's, told Advertising Age.

Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments performed far above expectations. The product had a profound effect on the company's image, helping Pond's in its quest to position itself as an innovative company capable of meeting its powerful competitors head-on. Moreover, Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments and its supporting campaign helped bring younger consumers to the Pond's facial care line, an important accomplishment for the brand.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Pond's was one of the original participants in the birth of the facial care industry, and it had gone on to become an "institution in a jar," as the April 26, 1999, issue of Advertising Age quipped. But while its cold cream could claim the distinction of being one of the oldest cleaners still in existence, the storied history of Pond's alone could not ensure the continued success of the company as the skin care market modernized and high-tech formulations came to be preferred by consumers. With the debut of over-the-counter products containing alpha-hydroxy acids in early 1990s, a premium was increasingly placed on laboratory-engineered offerings over the old-fashioned products made by Pond's. The company did make efforts to keep up with these changes, and in 1993 it created the Pond's Institute, a research and development facility dedicated to formulating cutting-edge products. Despite its best efforts, however, Pond's continued to struggle with image problems. According to the October 13, 1997, issue of Advertising Age, Pond's was "having a rough time in facial care," with its sales of both moisturizers and cleansers steadily decreasing.

It was interesting that the opportunity for a turnaround by Pond's was provided, although unintentionally, by a competitor. In 1997 the Andrew Jergen's Company released its Biore line of facial cleansing products. Among the new offerings was Biore's Pore Perfectstrip, which adhered to the face and removed blackheads. The cosmetic was an instant success. That same year, following Biore's lead, Pond's introduced its own pore strip. This, too, met with an enthusiastic response, especially from younger consumers concerned more with acne than with the wrinkles that so exercised the company's traditional base. As an industry analyst told the December 21, 1998, issue of Advertising Age, "The experience with pore strips showed Pond's there is an opportunity in the 18-to-34 market."

TARGET MARKET

With the debut of its Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments, Pond's hoped to continue to attract younger consumers to its facial care brand. "The challenge is to show young women that 'This Pond's is for me, [it's] not just my mother's Pond's,'" a cosmetic consultant explained in Advertising Age. The desire of Pond's to court younger women was grounded in impeccable business logic. Not only would women under the age of 35 add valuable immediate sales for the company, but as they matured, they would also be more likely to remain loyal to the products. Market research in other fields had consistently demonstrated that brand allegiances were formed at a young age and that the bonds were strong, often remaining with consumers for their whole lives. This dynamic held true in the facial care industry as well. "If [a company] can get them into the line," an analyst told Advertising Age, "[it] can get them to trade up to [its] other products later." The primary way in which both Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments and Ogilvy & Mather's supporting campaign targeted these younger women was to stress the product's natural ingredients. "Natural ingredients are broadening facial skin care's appeal to a young generation of consumers," proclaimed Chain Drug Review. In addition to touting Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments' virtual garden of botanical extracts, the print ads portrayed the eye pads as realistic, even as edible.

At the same time that Pond's wanted to expand its presence among younger women, the company did not want to alienate it core base of consumers, who were typically 35 and older. The company therefore sought to make its new product speak to women of different ages. Pond's targeted more mature women by emphasizing the product's soothing properties. A company spokesperson reported to the Rose Sheet that 60 percent of women experienced daily stress and said that they needed "magic moments" of private time to relax. Often they used baths or other beauty regimes as ways to diffuse their tension. "We were looking at quality-of-life issues and how difficult it is for women to balance things like work and family," Indursky told the June 28, 1999, issue of Advertising Age, as the Pond's category director explained the impetus behind Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments. To reach these women, Pond's pitched the product with the line "Relieve Your Tired Eyes and Renew Your Spirit."

COMPETITION

The chief competitor of Pond's in the facial care market was Biore, the Jergen's brand that had breathed new life into the entire category. "Cleaners before Biore were dead," an industry consultant said in the June 29, 1998, issue of Advertising Age. "Biore showed that technology could bring them back." When the company launched its five-item skin treatment line, it immediately set its sights on women between the ages of 18 and 34, a group that had generally been ignored by facial care companies. The Pore Perfect strip was the centerpiece of this strategy. The company recognized that it was "a new brand in a world of giant manufacturers serving a very skeptical group of consumers," as Biore's marketing director, Jeff McCurrach, confessed to Brandweek. For this reason Biore adopted an innovative marketing approach to distinguish itself from its competitors.

TOO NATURAL?

Pond's put a great deal of effort into making its Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments resemble actual cucumbers. The company was almost too successful. One beauty columnist jokingly reminded her readers not to eat Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments by mistake.

Biore's Pore Perfect strip campaign eschewed glamorous models and avoided making sweeping claims. Instead, the component spots focused on the workings of the strip—showing it resting on a model's nose—and often portrayed the results of the product—blackheads adhering to the strip's surface. "We weren't just giving hope in a bottle," McCurrach stressed in the June 29, 1998, issue of Advertising Age. "We had a state-of-the-art product and we demonstrated the results," he added. "The first reaction is 'Oh, that's gross.' Then people realize they can really get their faces clean."

In addition to its print and television ads, Biore tried unconventional strategies that paid off handsomely. It signed up as a sponsor of Lilith Fair, a traveling music tour featuring all female performers that garnered a huge following among Biore's target audience. The company then deployed a battalion of company employees at every Lilith Fair event. Armed with spritz bottles and Pore Perfect, Biore's staff convinced a sizable number of women to try the product, and sales skyrocketed. In its first full year after the strip's introduction in the United States, Biore commanded an impressive 22.5 percent of the facial care market.

The rest of the industry recognized Biore's phenomenal debut and began to introduce more products designed to appeal to younger female consumers. Neutrogena Corp., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, was already a category leader when it released its Neutrogena Deep Clean cream cleanser to augment it full line of facial cleansers and moisturizers. Johnson & Johnson also produced its own full skin care line, called Clean & Clear. In addition, Procter & Gamble sought to reinvigorate its classic but tired Noxzema facial cleanser in 1999, especially by drawing consumers between the ages of 18 and 30 to the brand. The company launched the new line Noxzema Skin Fitness and supported it with a massive advertising campaign conceived by Leo Burnett. Aware that many of the young women it wanted to reach were athletic, Procter & Gamble used fitness themes to market the items. The campaign adopted the tag line "Feel Fitness within Every Inch of Your Skin," which was incorporated into television ads featuring personal trainer Kathy Kaehler as a spokesperson.

MARKETING STRATEGY

Despite the venerable pedigree of Pond's, Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments were a "latecomer to the category," noted Advertising Age. To break through the numerous advertisements of its competitors, Pond's counted on Ogilvy & Mather to formulate a campaign that would catch consumers' attention and carve out a niche for Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments, particularly among the coveted younger demographic group. To accomplish this goal, the company opted for visually arresting ads. As Women's Wear Daily remarked, the print executions had a "cleaner, more sophisticated look than [had] been associated with the brand in the past." Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments, looking more like a snack than a beauty product, were the center of the ads. The presentation was calculated to make consumers more receptive to the pads. "Food is the ultimate comfort area," a Pond's spokesperson told the Syracuse Post-Standard. "People always return to that."

The recurring image of cucumber slices was intended to resonate with consumers in other ways as well. "The sight of a woman relaxing with cucumber slices over her eyes has become a visual cliche of sorts, the image of the pampered spa guest," explained the Newark Star-Ledger in its October 18, 1998, edition. By tapping into this trend, Pond's could accomplish two goals. First, the pictures of cucumbers allowed the company to tap into an idyllic imagery that crossed generational lines. Consequently, it did not have to risk alienating one age group by keying the ads to the concerns of the other, for example, by focusing on wrinkles rather than acne. Second, the ambience of affluent luxury projected by the spa association could polish the entire Pond's brand, not just boost sales for an individual product.

To reach all segments of its target audience, the company placed the ads for Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments in a diverse array of magazines. Ads appeared in such cosmetic industry staples as Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, and New Woman. In addition, Pond's recognized that many of the women it wanted to connect with were interested in health and fitness. Accordingly, the ads appeared in publications such as American Health, Shape, and Fitness. Pond's also wanted to be sure that it did not overlook its traditional consumers and therefore ran ads in Ladies' Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, McCall's, and Family Circle.

OUTCOME

For Pond's, Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments rein-vigorated both its sales and image. Almost immediately, Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments became one of the 15 best-selling items in the skin care industry. The company's 1998 retail sales soared 169.9 percent over the year before, to reach a volume nearly four times its 1991 sales. The company's share of the facial care market in 1998 rose to 16.7 percent. Even more impressive was Advertising Age's assessment of June 28, 1999, that Pond's had captured the number two spot in the facial cleanser category (behind Biore but comfortably ahead of Noxzema) because of the blistering sales of Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments. Pond's reported that the product generated tremendous repeat business. In fact, retailers complained about being swamped with requests for Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments. Moreover, beauty magazine columnists lauded the product, both for its ability to diminish eye puffiness and because the process of applying the pads themselves was so relaxing. The annual Cosmetic Executive Women Awards named Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments as the best mass-market skin care product of 1998.

Especially promising was the fact that the product had attracted consumers from a wide age range. Category director Indursky crowed to Women's Wear Daily that for the first time in eight years his company could claim that "no matter how old you are, Pond's has the skin care product for you." The company professed such delight with the results of the Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments campaign that it dedicated its largest marketing budget ever to the Pond's brand in 1999. With this allocation the company aimed to use Soothing Cucumber Eye Treatments to make further inroads into the younger market. One month after the product hit retailers' shelves, Pond's debuted another new item, Cleansing and Make-Up Remover Towlettes, to follow in the pads' wake. Pond's also announced plans to introduce Clear Solutions, a skin care line specifically designed for younger women, in 1999.