'Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch'
Heinz's latest marketing scheme dabbles into pop culture and the latest sports media news. I stumbled upon an article on Marketing Dive titled “Heinz is on Top of it." As an avid sports fan, the combination of marketing and football immediately piqued my interest. The well-known condiment brand took advantage of the latest headlines involving Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to promote a special limited-edition product and engage with its consumers.
The article written by Abby Miller of DMN highlights Heinz’s immediate action to capitalize on an opportunity presented by a viral moment involving Taylor Swift and her choice of condiments while attending a Kansas City Chiefs football game. With over 32 million views, the viral moment posted on Twitter created headlines all throughout social media. In the picture, Taylor Swift can be seen together with a fan eating a piece of chicken with ketchup and another white sauce assumed to be ranch. As a result, Heinz, in collaboration with ReThink released a limited edition product called ‘Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch’ in response to the viral moment. These bottles were limited to 100 bottles which corresponds to Taylor Swift’s lucky number 13 and Cheif’s tight end Travis Kelce’s jersey number, 87. As said by Miller, Heinz leveraged this viral moment to not only establish an emotional connection with consumers but also “reinforce the brand identity” of “It Has to be Heinz.” By leveraging the influence of viral marketing, Heinz developed a product with viral appeal that resonates with consumers, ultimately boosting both brand recognition and consumer involvement.
The new product launch of the “Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch” bottles was not about the quality and success of the product itself. Instead, Heinz used the power of viral marketing in order to capitalize on the opportunity given through a viral moment. Through the launch of their highly exclusive product, fans can take part in a raffle on Heinz’s official Instagram page for a chance to win. This genius marketing strategy drives traffic to their social media pages while simultaneously appealing to their consumers and creating buzz around their brand. This marketing strategy is more about maintaining relevancy as one of the world’s most iconic food brands.
In capitalizing on this viral moment, Heinz was faced with the challenge of responding quickly and effectively. They did so by releasing the “Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch” bottles in under 24 hours of the viral Twitter post! Going back to their value proposition, Heinz values their position as one of the most trusted food brands in the world. With this, they are able to outperform their competitors by utilizing their sleek marketing strategies such as the one discussed in this article in order to act as more than just a typical condiment brand.
This marketing approach is unique as it directly relates to a trending moment that they seemingly made their own. They were able to successfully use the power of the relatively new concept of viral marketing in today’s digital age. By bringing together sports and music fans alike, Heinz successfully appealed to a mass audience by incorporating the numbers “87” and “13” together into a single limited edition, desirable product. This strategy demonstrates Heinz’s ability to stay ahead of the curve in order to maintain relevancy in a highly competitive market.
Heinz’s marketing approach while very unique, only brought about positives for the company. As one of the new rules of marketing claims, “Marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment your audience needs it.” The success of the marketing technique was solely based on the timeliness of the promotion. By quickly taking advantage of the viral moment, Heinz had successfully created a buzz around their business.
While the marketing strategy was a success, I would certainly make changes in order to advance the short-term promotion into more of a long-term product. If Heinz were able to mass produce the “Ketchup and Seemingly Ranch” sauce they could broaden their consumer base even further by appealing to everyday shoppers in stores as well as spread through word of mouth. While the intent was likely to create exclusivity amongst the 100 bottles, I believe that Heinz missed an opportunity to test the waters further with the mass production of the newly created sauce.
While doing this assignment I’ve further understood that timing is everything. As learned in our textbook this week, a crucial rule of the New Rules of Marketing claims, “Marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment your audience needs it.” As Heinz clearly demonstrates, the success of a marketing strategy is truly dependent on timing. As for the article, I think one of the most important lessons is to take advantage of today’s digital age. With social media, and the internet in general, there is so much opportunity to further connect with your target audience in order to maintain a competitive edge in the market.
.png)
Comments
Post a Comment