Kikkoman Loves Food Occasions

Posted on by Chief Marketer Staff

Kikkoman is a party brand. It loves barbeques, Super Bowl tailgate parties, Thanksgiving, Christmas and other special occasions. These key food occasions provide timeframes for the brand to push out recipe ideas for new ways to use its products along with incentives to purchase. 

Over Thanksgiving, for example, Kikkoman tapped into home cooks interest in learning how to brine a turkey. Brining requires salt, lots of it, which the soy sauce has, but the message was also focused on the benefit of the added flavor the soy sauce could bring to the star of the Thanksgiving celebration. The messaging was delivered through food bloggers, coupons at Kikkomanusa.com, Kikkoman Facebook page and bottle necker, which included a QR code or text could to receive back information or a video about brining.

“We found this little niche to talk about at Thanksgiving that gave us a nice opportunity,” said Howard Klein, senior vice president, group management director, at DraftFcb Chicago, a PROMO 100 agency, which handles promotion and shopper marketing for Kikkoman.

In another promotion to increase sales through an unexpected use, 2 million packages of broccolini carried $1-off coupons with a recipe that uses soy sauce. A big benefit? The retailer allowed Kikkoman to put up a display in the produce isle.

Kikkoman also likes entertainment properties for foodies. It has a partnership with the Food Network and its popular “Next Iron Chef” series through advertising and product integration. In a highlight of the partnership, during the Dec. 4 elimination show Kikkoman Panko Bread Crumbs and Ponzu Sauces were used as the “secret ingredient” the chefs used to create sweet desserts. After the ingredients were revealed a TV spot, created by Kikkoman’s branding agency Draftfcb San Francisco, alerted viewers to a $3-off coupon for either product that could be downloaded at Foodnetwork.com.

“This was a unique opportunity for us to alert ‘foodies’ and everyday cooks to recognize the many unexpected, different ways Kikkoman products can be used, and to encourage them to try the products at home in these new ways,” said Michael Evans, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Kikkoman. “The chefs in the “Secret Ingredient Challenge” each had 30 minutes to use two products associated with Asian-savory cuisine to create a dessert. They showed just how easy it is to use the products in new ways in sweet applications.

Up next, the Chinese New Year will have a big play both digitally and at retail with displays, at shelf messaging, coupons and other P-O-P materials.

“All media digitally is married up to in-store messaging so that the consumer gets that message at the appropriate time during the season,” Klein said. “We try to be seamless during the seasonal periods where Kikkoman can fit in.”

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