Choose the Cheese! (Original #3)

Grocery shopping.

To some people, this is the most unimaginably brutal “chore” that they could imagine. Making a list, driving to the crowded store, filling up a cart, unloading a cart to, often times, be met with the most unpleasant cashier EVER, loading the car, unloading the car, practically breaking your arms by trying to carry every single bag in at once, then, the daunting task of unpacking all of the aforementioned groceries.

Having said this, it should come as no surprise that I go grocery shopping as often as humanly possible - multiple times a week in many cases. Whether it be Trader Joe’s (great customer service), Stop&Shop, Shaw’s, Whole Foods…I don’t discriminate. I even sometimes find myself going to the grocery store when I don’t even need anything! I go to buy things for my boyfriend, taking his money (with his permission of course!) and getting his groceries. So, with the amount of time that I spend in the grocery stores, I’ve started to pay attention to the marketing and advertising strategies of the companies out there. On a recent trip to the store, I found something that caught my eye. It’s a product I’m sure many of you are familiar with:

All hail the almighty Cheez-It!

Yum!

On this particular day, I was cruising around with my rattle-y shopping cart when I stumbled upon a cardboard display case for these delicious cheesy treats. But to my surprise, it wasn’t for the original cheddar flavor, or even any of the other delicious flavors they have made…it was a SAMPLER BOX with NEW flavors!

I was immediately struck by the fact that they were coming up with some great flavors: Asiago, Colby or Romano. Then, I was even more impressed with the fact that they were asking ME!...silly old ME to help them decide on their newest flavor. Oh, I felt so special! They had me hooked.

Upon digging a little deeper into this wonderful marketing ploy, I discovered that there’s already a huge online following of this “Choose the Cheese” campaign. They’ve got a flourishing Facebook page where consumers can cast their vote for their favorite variety.

So what is Cheez-It’s objective here? Well, for starters they want to make their consumers feel valued. CHECK. I personally felt like my opinion mattered. This increases my loyalty towards these enchanting crackers. They’re also making moves to ensure the success of their new product. They could have just as easily released a new flavor, without any indication of its potential success, and taken a gamble in today’s market. However, Cheez-It recognized that their industry was truly bombarded with zillions of “cheesy-cracker-like” options. What could they do to ensure their success? ASK. Ask us! What do we want!? Make us feel special and then deliver what we ask for! They’ll then be supplying a demand that they made us want! Sneaky, sneaky Cheez-It…I’m on to you.

Does this story sound familiar to you? That’s probably because Groundswell has a whole chapter pertaining to “embracing the groundswell.” More specifically, they gave the example of a man named George and his beloved dog Pooch.

In this example, Del Monte Foods wanted to create a line of dog foods. Since they obviously wanted to launch a successful product, they assigned Gala Amoroso, senior consumer insights manager, to figure out what the consumers wanted in their dog foods. To do so, she utilized MarketTools, an online community vendor/moderator. They created “a private community called I love my dog - Dogs are people, too,"(p.180) to open up the lines of communication with their target audience. Through MarketTools, Del Monte Foods was able to reach people like George and ask them questions such as, “Imagine that your dog could write out his or her fantasy of what to eat for one day. What would that look like?” (p.180). In doing this, Del Monte is essentially making dog lovers, like George, fall in love with them. George’s loyalty likely increased to Del Monte because he felt as though they truly understood his love for Pooch and he began to feel as though they really cared about what Pooch would want to eat if he could talk. On the other end, Del Monte is getting the valuable information they need to create a product that won’t flop once it hits the shelf. They’ll already have created a demand for a product they have yet to even create.

Genius.

I just loved Groundswell’s example of George and Pooch tied so harmoniously with what’s actually out there. Organizations, like Del Monte and Cheez-It are doing excellent things in their marketing departments by embracing the groundswell. Ask us what we want and then deliver…I assure you, we’ll buy.

Heck, I know I can’t wait for Cheez-It to release their new product. I’m so interested to see how this project will pan out for them. I wish more organizations would do this – give us a chance to sample a few options and allow us to choose. Can you think of a product you wish would allow you to sample before they released it? Foods, drink, or even something like clothing, cars...anything. I’d be interested to hear what you think!