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Changing times for Oscar Mayer wienersKay Plantes
Searer's office opens to a small conference room whose walls are lined with oil portraits of the Mayer family members who founded and built the Oscar Mayer brand. The commanding presence of these images is a daily reminder for Searer to stay true to the brand's three cornerstones, lest he lose the trust of loyal consumers. The first brand cornerstone is a guarantee: quality packaged meat you can trust. Second is a commitment to innovation in products, processes, and packaging. Oscar Mayer's blockbuster Lunchables innovated along all three dimensions. Finally, Oscar Mayer invests in memorable communications that reinforce the brand's essence of childlike delight. If you can hum "Oh I wish I were an Oscar Mayer wiener..." or envision the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, you understand the power of communications. The tricky part of Searer's job is to adapt the brands to wildly shifting consumer trends, lest the brands grow old. Toyota ran over your father's Oldsmobile and never looked back. The first trend is a growing ethnic population. "Woe to companies that don't recognize that Caucasians are becoming the minority population, requiring changes in workplace practices and offerings," Searer said. Signage and communications at the Oscar Mayer plant come in English, Hmong and Spanish, and the company's U.S. packaging comes in English and Spanish. The second trend is the emergence of single- and two-adult families. This group represents 22 percent of households, about the same as traditional families. These small, older households, coupled with 20- to 30-year-olds who never learned to cook, create demands for new packaging and convenience. Kraft can't fill grocers' shelves fast enough with its new microwavable-cup Kraft Mac & Cheese. A third change is consumers' focus on health and wellness. "This is no longer a come-and-go trend," Searer said. Instead, it is building multiple consumer segments (e.g., those seeking no sugar or natural/organic ingredients). An organic DiGiorno Pizza is in the making, as is an Oscar Mayer line of natural wieners and lunchmeats. Lunchables have less salt and fat than before. Not surprisingly, Kraft acquired non-meat Boca Burger. The unceasing desire for convenience is the fourth trend. Short of ingesting our food as a pill, can food become more convenient? Apparently, yes. Oscar Mayer helps consumers avoid waits at the deli line with its packaged deli-cut meat. The fifth trend is a proliferation of media options and communications overload, which complicates marketing efforts. By 2010, 50 percent of households will use TV direct videorecording. On TiVo, one such service, a whopping 82 percent to 90 percent of TV ads aren't watched. Searer's partnership with South Beach Diet helps make his company's communications more informative and valuable in the sense that they come with health and diet information and are not just pure product promotion. Consumers are less likely to turn out these messages. The final trend is consumers buying food in more places such as Walgreens and convenience stores, where Kraft's large sales force provides a competitive advantage. At the same time, grocery stores have consolidated, creating stronger buyers, private label offerings, and resultant price pressures on all food companies. Searer's predecessors never would have imagined the complexity of finding the right balance between traditional and contemporary values, and between quality and cost. Mistakes do happen. Moving the Lunchables concept into snacks and breakfast categories failed. Will "natural" processed meat fit the Oscar Mayer brand? We don't know, but without taking risks, the brands will not find rewards in a changing environment. Searer's focus has evolved over his 10 years at the helm. "I realize more and more the longer-term challenges facing this company. I increasingly rely on my great team to meet short-term performance goals so that I can focus on our most important question: 'How do we set up the brand for long-term success?' " Who is asking and answering that question in your organization? plantes@execpc.com madison.com ©2009 Capital Newspapers. All rights reserved. |
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