FIELD REPORT: Getting into Character
The creme filling may switch colors and the crackers may change shapes, but the snacks aisle is almost as commoditized as the housecleaning section.
How do brands break through? Apparently, with licensing.
PROMO swung through the local Super Stop & Shop and Wal-Mart on Jan. 4 for a look at the snacks departments, which we found to be light on premiums, skimpy on coupon machines, almost devoid of games, contests, or sweeps — but overflowing with licensed SKUs.
Here’s a rundown:
Cookies and Crackers
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Northfield, IL-based Kraft Foods sprinkled boxes of Cheese Nips with everything from Nickelodeon’s CatDog and SpongeBob Squarepants to Universal Studio’s Jurassic Park III. Big Cheese Nips packaging carried a $1 in-pack coupon offer for the purchase of two boxes.
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Norwalk, CT-based Pepperidge Farm had $10 Foot Locker coupons on the backs of Flavor Blasted Goldfish. Regular Goldfish, along with all cookie SKUs, featured stamps from parent Campbell Soup Co.’s Labels for Education loyalty program.
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Meanwhile, Parsippany, NJ-based Kraft unit Nabisco had $1 coupons inside Ritz Crackers good for a discount off other Ritz products. Fig Newtons ran an SLO dangling a Dale Earnhardt, Jr. die-cast car for two proofs and $4.99; Teddy Grahams featured Nickelodeon’s Rugrats characters on boxes.
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Chicago-based Keebler Foods had a Sesame Street line of crackers and cookies featuring Elmo and Cookie Monster on packaging. And Mrs. Field’s Cookies occupied the aisle’s lone coupon machine, delivering a $1 coupon in a SmartSource shelf talker.
Fruit Snacks
It’s almost as if a licensed property is mandatory in this section.
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Minneapolis-based General Mills used them ubiquitously, with Betty Crocker Fruit Snacks SKUs based on Scooby-Doo, Pokémon (complete with in-pack sticker premiums), Rugrats, SpongeBob Squarepants, and Walt Disney Co.’s Buzz Lightyear, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, and Arial (you know, the mermaid). Fruit By the Foot, meanwhile, hosted a Foot-Powered Fun instant-win game offering snowboards, BMX bikes, and skateboards.
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Nabisco’s Rugrats Fun Fruits boasted an SLO for a plush-toy set from Mattel for two UPCs and $6. Blue’s Clue’s Fun Fruits were stocked nearby.
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Chicago-based Brach’s Confections had SKUs connected to Mattel’s Hot Wheels (boxes hyped an SLO for a Hot Wheels car with two proofs and $1.50), Kellogg’s Froot Loops, and pop group ‘N Sync.
Final notes: Stop & Shop’s private-label fruit snacks carried Curious George on packaging. Wal-Mart’s aisle included Kraft Handi-Snacks Kool-Aid gel cups, which had an instant-win game serving Tiger Electronics Hit Clips and other teen-targeted items.
Next month, we’ll make it over to the chips aisle.
