Opportunities Crumbling in Aisle 16
So, imagine my surprise last night at Oceanside’s WinCo supermarket. In Aisle 16, by the end cap for Otter Pops, was a display screaming “NEW OREO BAKEWARE.”
Baking pans of assorted shapes and sizes, branded with Oreo’s traditional blue colors, pushed into the middle of the aisle. Glued into each pan was a sell sheet with the product’s specifications, along with images of Oreo cookies and other, presumably homemade, baked goods.
The sell sheet offered care instructions in English, Spanish and Arabic. There was even a cute little bite out of the UPC code.
Only…where were the recipes?
With 36 varieties, I’d call Oreo a prolific company. Indeed, I’ve always considered the original cookie version to be comfort food.
Yet they missed a trick by providing an expensive, custom-made display introducing a new brand extension and not cross-promoting to their other offerings.
The Chinese company licensing the Oreo name here has one objective: selling pans. So, I blame the Oreo marketing people for missing this trick.
Because including a couple of recipes would have also sent customers scurrying to Aisle 8 for flour and sugar, to the fridge for milk and eggs, and to Aisle 4 for (you guessed it) Oreos.
And to encourage that sale in the cookie aisle, they could have included a coupon.
C’mon, folks…this isn’t rocket science!
True, company parent Mondelez International makes a few cents from selling these pans, but their real interest is selling cookies. The socks, candles and other ancillary items sold on their website are supplemental to their business, not the main event.
Yup, someone in the marketing department should be kicking themselves today, recognizing the enormity of their oops!
You’ll probably also offer new products or services at some point, lest you be (in Ronald Reagan’s words) consigned to “the ash heap of history.”
When considering your audience, suppliers, production and distribution, recognize the cross-marketing opportunities. Done properly, they’re a great way to draw attention to multiple parts of your business.
And if you don’t have enough avenues to draw attention to, strike an alliance with another business or a nonprofit. This will not only provide you with a strategic partnership, but it will allow you to reach out to each other’s audiences and mitigate risks by splitting the costs.
With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.
Better marketing is baked in at www.marketbuilding.com.