A few weeks ago, I was on the chip aisle at Walmart when I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. Sitting in the popcorn section at the end of the aisle was a bag of Sour Patch Kids-flavored popcorn. Immediately all I could imagine was the gummy/crunchy textural nightmare contained in that bag. It hasn’t left my mind since that moment. Next to it was a misplaced bottle of Oreo-flavored Coca-Cola. Was I in a parallel universe? As I’ve lost sleep over the idea of eating that popcorn, a couple of questions began eating away at me.
First, why are new snacks only ever flavored after existing snacks? Have we successfully discovered the best form of every flavor? Is it more effective to sign a licensing agreement with Oreo than it is to write the words Cookies N’ Cream on your new Coke bottle?
Second, who on Earth is buying these new snacks? They don’t even sound good. How is this a good idea for the company that makes them? You spend 100 years perfecting the recipe of the world’s favorite soda only to immediately make it taste like cookies for no reason? Who even wants this?!
After what was probably an overkill amount of deliberation, I came to a series of conclusions. These aren’t foods meant to be enjoyed at all! I like to think of them as marketing campaigns. Let me explain.
It Gets The People Talking.
These are products designed with internet virality in mind. Something as ridiculous as an Oreo-flavored Coke would make you turn your head in a real grocery store, so it’s good at capturing the attention of social audiences. You see a video of someone drinking a weird soda; you send it to 3 of your friends with a message that says, “This looks crazy lol,” and suddenly you’re doing free advertising for the Coca-Cola corporation. Not to mention the fact that two big brand names in a row is great for SEO, getting these things in front of even more eyeballs. But they don’t succeed off of internet likes alone. So how else do these things keep getting made?
Isn’t it Like, Gross?
Short answer? Probably. But that’s fine.
When Hidden Valley collaborated with Van Leeuwen last year to make ranch dressing ice cream, they weren’t trying to make a snack that people were doing to enjoy for generations. They were making something for that aforementioned online audience to buzz about, try, declare it disgusting, and move on from. It doesn’t matter if the thing they’re making is gross, because you’re only supposed to buy one, if any. Most of the value of these collaborations is in how they increase the brand awareness of the two products that are converging. For example, I’d never heard of Van Leeuwen Ice Cream before I started researching this article, and now I’ve made you read their name twice. Seems effective!
You Already Know Who They Are.
This kind of thing wouldn’t work without pre-established brand awareness. There isn’t really any potential for a viral moment or a headline if it’s just something weird coming out of the blue that no one really likes. An off-brand “Cookies N’ Cream Soda” would get skipped over without a second thought. If someone went on Shark Tank with Room Temperature Sour Gummy Popcorn, they would be relentlessly bullied by the mean bald one.
It only works because the customer has an existing relationship with both brands and can imagine what these combinations would taste like. When done right, their first reaction will always be, “THAT can’t be any good, can it?” And if that question can make someone curious enough to spend $4, we’re off to the races.
Suffering From Success.
We’ve established that these collaborations can only exist because of the recognizability of their parent brands, but the opposite side of that also comes into play. These products are tasked with solving a really interesting problem:
If 94% of the world’s population can recognize the Coke logo, how do we convince people who aren’t Coke fans to buy in anyway?
For example, I would never buy pre-popped popcorn in a bag. I actively dislike Coca-Cola. But against all odds, I’ve purchased both snacks in some kind of movie night combo from hell. They got me! I’m not recommending the products; I’m not even reviewing them. I just let my curiosity get the best of me, and as far as my customer journey is concerned, things have gone exactly as intended. They found a way to put their products in the hands of an audience that wouldn’t usually buy them, and I think that’s pretty clever.
Mystery Solved.
At long last, I feel like I can put this one to bed. Hopefully I can make it through my next trip to Wal-Mart without feeling the need to dissect the intentions of every innocuous item on the shelf. If I can’t, this blog will be the first to hear about it.
In the mood for more marketing mysteries?
