Awareness and associations

1- Explanation of the study and its objective

At a consumer based level, there is two core parameters that help to cultivate the brand equity : Brand awreness and brand associations. In fact Customer-based brand equity is defined as « The differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of that brand” (Keller, 1993).

With the aim to analyze the awareness and associations that Pringles and Lays generates in the crisps market, we (as editors of this blog) did a survey based on 100 answers of different persons from different backgrouds and culture and responding to different ages criteria (children, young and adults).

•    Definition of the population (Total = 100)

Asian	European	American and Canadian	African
20	30	25	25

From 12 to 18 YO	From 19 to 35 YO	From 36 to 50 YO
30	40	30

As shown in the tables above, the population is very mixed as crisps consumers are and in order to have a general point of view.

2 - Results

a-    Awareness

A high brand awareness about a product suggests that the brand is easily recognizable and accepted by the market in a way that the brand is differentiated from similar products and other competitors. Brand building also helps in improving brand loyalty, that explains the famous “Loyalty Beyond Reason”.

Top of mind Awareness
Among the 100 people, Lay’s is cited first by 45 people and Pringles is cited first by 35 people. 

Assisted Awareness
When we ask people with a list of crisps brands, and ask them if they recognize Pringles brand, 100% say yes, whatever the age, gender, and origin. Concerning Lay’s, 90% say no: the 10 people that do not recognize Lay’s are adults of 40-50 years old, 7 of them are from Africa (Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Senegal) and 3 others are from China.

Qualified awareness

• Pringles: When we asked people about products of this brand they know, 60% were able to cite the majority of the products of the brand. The majority was aged from 12 to 18 YO (20%) and young people from 19 to 35 YO (30%) – all origins included.

• Lay’s: When we asked people about products of this brand they know, 75% shown were able to cite the majority of the products of the brand. The majority were young people from 19 to 35 YO (38%); in fact 95% of young people were aware about it – all origins included.

The population aged from 12 to 18 YO seems to be more aware about Pringle’s product. However, adults seem to be more aware about Lay’s products.

b- Associations

Pringles
When we asked people about what the first three words that come to them when they think “Pringles”, the most frequented words are: “crunchy”, “party”, and “good packaging”. Something that retain our intention is that the “sour, cream & onion” combination was cited many times when the brand Pringle’s is mentioned, meaning that is the taste that has the most success at the extend to be an identification aspect of the brand!!

Lay's
When we asked people about what the first three words that come to them when they think “Lays”, the most frequented words are: “Tasty and delicious”, “quality”, “original”. The world Italian came back many time also meaning that Lays make people think about Italian tastes, the country that is the most famous about culinary delights: positive association!

3 - Recommendations

Pringle’s
Pringle’s Strengths: The brand for cool people that are looking for fun

-    The Packaging with Mr. Pringle’s as Mascot brings to the brand a good awareness.
-    The taste “sour, cream & onion” is the most famous, people seem to love it !
-    Pringle’s seems to attract “cool” people that love party and that are aged from 12 to 35 YO

Pringles has to play with its strengths using more the mascot, it can for example create a gamification using this brand’s mascot, that can attract this category of age and these people looking for “Fun”, these are cleary the main target that has to be retained.

Also, given the success of the “sour, cream & onion” taste, Pringle’s can use that for promotions, offering this taste at 50% for example if other taste are bought, in order to encourage people to discover the other taste (or the inverse, for each “sour, cream & onion” taste bought, another will be offered at 50ù of the original price!). That will not only make other taste bought bu it will also help to increase the volume of purchases.

Lay’s
Lay’s Strengths: The brand for People that want differentiation; that are looking for tase, innovation, and leisure.

-    Quality
-    Delicious
-    Original

Lay’s is considered more as a premium brand (comparing to its competitors and particularly Pringle’s), Lay’s is known as a brand that offer quality, new and delicious tastes. It’s for people that are looking for leisure.

Lay’s should take advantage from this positioning, targeting people from high social class, young and adult people. Its Key factors of success are quality and taste, it should insist on it and work for original taste coming from different combination and different culture “a potato that will make people travel the world”. It has to insist on the Italian and authentic aspect. It could be also interesting to create a new package, more original and diffrent, and more “luxuously authentic”. Also, given the category of people attracted by Lay’s, people that are looking for quality, it can be interested to innovate in ecological products, and invest and communicate on the natural aspect.

Sara ADLOUNI HASSANI

Pringles and Lay's extension

          About Pringles, product portfolio includes the core Pringles potato crisps in a canister, product line extensions featuring different compositions and flavors and Pringles “Stix”, a recently introduced cracker stick.

In term of sales, we distinguish:

• ·         Core Pringles with 90% of total sales, it’s the original and traditional flavor
• ·         Extensions with 7% of sales, it’s fat-free, light and X-TREME
• ·         Stix with 3%, it’s cracker sticks

Pringles owns a dedicated R&D team of 75+ employees with 4 main functions

• ·         Product Research: Consumer studies & testing
• ·         Formula Design: Product formulation and development
• ·         Process Development: Application of new products on the production lines, local production lines and efficiencies
• ·         Packaging: New size offerings and material designs

       We can explain the interest of these extension products by the decision of Pringles to customize efficiently flavors and packaging according to the geographic region.

Pringles manufacturing process allows for significant flexibility because they are proprietary of manufacturing process and packagind.

Moreover, they own a highly complementary ambient storage warehouse delivered distribution system.

Few examples of Pringles extension:

North America products:

·        Cajun Sweet BBQ, Onion Blossom, Mozzarella Sticks & Marinara, Buffalo Wing and Dill Pickle

Lays: “They are innovating globally by delighting locally”.

In 2011, they achieved a significant milestone, with approximately 50% of their revenue coming from outside US including 34% of emerging markets. They drove this success by recognizing that they have to win one consumer at a time, striking the right balance between global scale and local relevance. Importantly, they also continued to build our research and development capabilities as well as to strengthen new platforms for growth in global categories such as grain snacks.

Catering to local tastes and cultures, they sell unique flavor varieties of our snacks in local markets, such as Lay’s Jamon (Ham) – Spain; Lay’s Strong Horseradish – Poland; Lay’s Red Caviar – Russia; Lay’s al Plato Barbecue – Argentina; Lay’s Hot & Sour Fish Soup – China; Clipsy Serbian Sausage – Serbia; Walker’s Worchester Sauce – United Kingdom; and Sabritas Buffalo – Mexico

Build and extend their macrosnacks portfolio globally. PepsiCo is the undisputed leader inmacrosnacks around the world. They will work to build their much-loved global snack brands — Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos and SunChips — while expanding their successful grain-based snacks platform globally. They will continue to create age our go-to-market expertise to ensure that their brands are always available wherever their consumers shop.

Lay’s growth in 2011 was driven by expansion in many local markets, including Russia, where Lay’s has become the number one snack brand. For our Russian consumers, we created Lay’s pickled cucumber, which delivered strong volume growth in 2011.

Gaelle Soussan

Role of Pringles & Lays inside companies portfolio

Roles of Pringles inside Diamond Portfolio

In 2011, Pringles snack business from Procter & Gamble merged with diamond food. It was a strategic fit because thanks to this purchase, Diamond becomes the first pure actor Global snack food company.

Pringles has a specific positioning inside chips market because he has a premium positioning inside US. Additionally, it’s iconic brand equity and the 2^nd global potato chips in the world.

Moreover, Pringles allow to diamonds to reach higher level of customers and and diversify retail customer.  In 2009, Pringles generated more than 2,356 Million of $.

About Marketing & brand support Pringles has a specific position because it expands current offering for snack consumers and constitutes complementary brand portfolio which creates greater scale and efficiency for consumer support.

On the one hand, Pringles enhances scale and leverage in purchasing and distribution. On the other hand, Pringles has the ability to leverage product, package and process technology and innovation.

Pringles has a good access to high growth developing market with more than 21,8% market share in Brazil and 9,7% in Russia. Expansion of Pringles will be successful thanks to strong relationships they develop with key distributors and strong flexibility to markets.

Innovative products, development, packaging and promotion give the opportunity to Pringles to lead on the premium snack market.

Lays inside Pepsico group:

 Roles of Lay's  inside Pepsico Portfolio

Frito‐Lay employs over 48,000 people and brings in over $13 billion in annual sales.

Brands account for nearly 62% of the U.S. salty snack category. Frito‐Lay products are exported to 79 countries around the globe, including military destinations. Lay’s is the 2^nd more profitable brand of Pepsico group.

Products sold under the Frito‐Lay name are now recorded by two PepsiCo divisions: Frito‐Lay North America (North American sales) and PepsiCo International.

Sabritas and Gamesa food businesses are headquartered in Mexico City, Mexico. The South America Foods business unit is headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil.

The largest Frito‐Lay facility under one roof is located in Perry. The site produces 250 million pounds of product and ships 64 million cases each year to service 18 states.

It can take as little as 24 hours for chips to be made from a whole potato – from farm to bag.  The highest quality potatoes are harvested from over 80 farms across America to make Lay’s Potato Chips.

Lay's has a specific positioning compared to Doritos, cheetos and sun chips.
In fact, Lay's has a premium positionning with a strong commitment in health and environment.
Main action for health are that Since 2003, Frito Lay discontinued the use of hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils in making our snack chips. All their chips contain 0 grams of trans fat per serving.
Since 2005, they’ve led the industry to reduce saturated fats in our snacks like Walkers crisps in the U.K. and Lay’s potato chips in key global markets by investing in the use of heart‐healthy oils such as sunflower, corn and soybean oils.
In the U.S., they’ve incorporated sunflower oil, which is very low in saturated fat, and reduced the saturated fat content by more than 50 percent in our Lay’s and Ruffles potato chips.
These commitment give them a specific positioning for their clients and added-value compared to their main competitors.
Gaelle Soussan






About environment, Lays are commited

In 2009, 14 Frito‐Lay manufacturing facilities disposed less than one percent of solid waste to landfill — the remaining 18 facilities will achieve nearly “zero landfill” by the end of 2011.

Almost every piece of waste generated at the more than 30 Frito‐Lay plants is reused or recycled.

Frito‐Lay reduced waste going to landfills by 70% from 2007 to 2010, with 42 million additional pounds of waste now being recycled every year.

Twenty million pounds of potato peelings and corn hulls are sent to livestock farms each year for use as feed.

PepsiCo was the first company to introduce a 100% compostable bag for its 10 1/2‐ ounce SunChips multigrain chips, which are made with renewable plant‐based materials.


From 2005‐2010, Frito‐Lay eliminated 150 square miles of packaging by reducing materials by 10 percent. Frito‐Lay consumes 150,000 tons less paperboard each year simply by reusing its shipping cartons up to six times. Once the cartons are no longer usable, they are recycled

Mix Marketing and Product related attributes 

"Customer perceived value is the difference between the total cost customer benefits and cost".

LAY'S

PRODUCT attributes

Slogans:

• That’s another reason to SMILE ! Lay’s potato chips (2007)
• Food for the fun of it! (2007)
• Lays, Get your smile on! (2006)
• Betcha can’t eat just one (60’ to present)
• No one can eat juste one.

key objectives: high quality product at a reasonable price for a snack.

Quality : Lay’s chips are pursuing the quality/price ratio in their product and communicate on this added value as far as they can.

Features: All the features like spiciness and caracteristics of Lay’s are compiled by the company on the need of their customers.

Design: It matter as Lays really want to show in the mind of consumers like the traditionnal way of making chips

Size : available in two different sizes one of 100gms and one of 200gms.

PROMOTION

Lays brand image is all about good fun and tradition and when Lay’s launched a new product they use package of «buy 2 get 1 free».

Lays advertise throught various channels:

• Media, social medias
• News Papers and magazines
• Banners
• Sponsoring
• Free samples

PLACE

Lay’s is availaible in India, Pakistant, China, US, EU, Australia, Russia, Romania, Poland, Argentina. In retails stores, snacks, supermarkets. 

PRICE

Price strategy at Lay's is set by keeping the quality of the product and price offer by the competition. Lay’s try to pursue the best Quality/price ratio goal with a 3,68 $ basic 180g pack . They decrease their prices to increase the sales to capture the market.

They decrease prices in winter to lower the seasonality of sales.

PRINGLES

PRODUCT attributes

Pop-top can’s changed the way we consume chips. their chips remain fresh and unbroken, the can holds as much chips as a bag, and their curvy shape allows them to be stacked

They meet eighty percent of customer demand with only six flavor options and just one simple package design

No matter what your tastes may be, you'll find a flavor of Pringles Potato Crisps that will suit you perfectly. Not all of the flavors are available everywhere, and some are seasonal, but examples include: Original, Loaded Baked Potato, Jalapeño, Ranch, Salt & Vinegar, Spicy Guacamole, Fat Free Sour Cream & Onion, Firey Hot and so on. These are just a few examples of the many flavors Pringles Potato Crisps are made in.

PROMOTION

Pringles leads an agressive Promotion:

Starting in the 1990s and continuing today, Pringles has advertised their products by comparing them to bagged chips, which they view as greasy and broken. In each ad, a group of people are enjoying Pringles, while another person (alone) is enjoying a bag of generic potato chips (the bags themselves resemble either Lays.

Pringles is advertised in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Ireland with the slogan "Once you pop, the fun don't stop" along with the original slogan "Once you pop, you can't stop". Or again: "Other potato chips just don't stack up."

PLACE

In the United States, Pringles are seen in grocery stores, convenience stores, and many other places. Pringles uses an indirect channel to get its products to customers here and worldwide. Because Pringles are so widespread, it would require way too much effort to sell them directly to customers without the help of wholesalers. P&G uses middlemen and wholesalers so Pringles will be shipped to stores and stocked by others. Without the wholesalers, P&G would have to make huge investments to vertically integrate the marketing channel.

Pringles is a very Mass Marketed brand that is distributed through a mainly indirect channel. Also a Global Marketing Strategy is used to get business in foreign countries. Pringles is distributed through the use of wholesalers.

PRICE

Pringles prices are ones of the highest on the market (around 2,5 £) for a 180g pack. Pringles can sell its chips at this price because the customer's perceived value allow it (The difference between cost and benefits for the customer)

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pringles#Marketing

http://www.pringles.com/zone.shtml

http://voices.yahoo.com/interesting-facts-pringles-potato-crisps-that-1563557.html?cat=22

http://ibe.ucmo.edu/Spring2010/Renner/PringlesMarketingStrategy.pdf

Edouard de Joussineau

The Brand Positioning of Pringles

The Brand Positioning of Pringles

In order to understand the Brand Position of Pringles, we need to analysis Pringles from the Anatomy ofBrand positioning sides.

Analysis the brand form its’ Anatomy of Brand positioning means that we should understand the brand from the following 6 aspects: Brand domain,Brand heritage,Brand values,Brand assets,Brand personality,Brand reflection.

Brand domain:

The main target for Pringles are the crowds aged from16to25.Pringles seems to be a gender fair products, both males and females love this product

Brand heritage:

As a snack brand the brand history for Pringles is long,it was first sold in USA in 1967 and became international since 1975.

Brand value:

The brand value of Pringles can be identified from its’ slogan “everything is pops”,connecting with the promotion campaign,Pringles focuses on creating a unique fun experience.

Brand assets:

There are two main characters that make Pringlers success.Pringles are thin, "saddle shaped" potato crisps that started out being packaged in tubular, airtight, cardboard cans with plastic lids. The insides of the cans were lined with foil. Pringles had 3 advantages over traditional potato chips: 1. They were light, and not greasy. 2. Because of their unique packaging, and because they were neatly stacked, Pringles Potato Crisps came out of the tube whole and unbroken. 3. It was easy to remove the lid, take out a portion, and seal the tube back up. Pringles stay fresh longer than potato chips packaged in bags.

But these two characters although bring Pringles some problems.First , it is hard to say that Pringles is a real chips and the can package also seems not be not convenient for some situation.

Brand personality:

Pringles does very well in this aspect.The logo for Pringles is a man with bushy mustache and brown hair (but he lost all his hair except for parted bangs),it looks funny but commitment.Mr.Pringles is one of the famous personalities,the Pringles company created lots of short comics,cartoons that star by him.We can easily find them on the Pringles CM.

Brand reflection:

From the latest success campaign that Pringles launched wit Star Wars we can see the consumers’ reflection towards Pringles from some degree.The campaign is that Pringles and Star Wars get together for “the force for fun”.The success for this campaign is that Pringles and Star Wars fans are clearly passionate about the same interests – fun times, tasty snacks, and galaxies far, far away.  Exactly it shows Pringles strong impression of snack for fun.

Tu Jun

reference:

http://www.moosylvania.com/tracker/2012/03/28/pringles-stays-away-from-new-technology-trends-in-marketing/

http://www.pringles.com/zone.shtml

http://voices.yahoo.com/interesting-facts-pringles-potato-crisps-that-1563557.html?cat=22

http://www.brandingmagazine.com/2013/05/13/pringles-star-wars-force-for-fun/

LAY’S BRAND POSITIONING

What is Lays target market,  maybe students,as we known that children were driving Frito-Lay's growth in US. And anther major target market of Lays is young audiences of sports and entertainments like consumers in theaters or stadiums or at home;The brand is a very popular and it has a long history over 100 years(POD),it was founded in 1932 ,at the beginning it has been among the top selling products,because of its success,the company started production of other snacks,like Sun Chips ,Ruffles...They were originally made of potatoes, salt, and oil with no preservatives added. And now, they come in several different flavors which are packed in a bag.

 Lay’s has different style for different group.For example,  women who do not to be fat,then they can take Baked ones. Besides,Each chip cooks differently, and some may be perfectly cooked, others may become a little overcooked and browned. Although the original flavor is still the most popular, low-fat Lay’s chips and other flavors are also available.

It’s worth to notice Lay’s strategy,it pays more attention on the food itself(POD),they focus on what eating in every region means,and Lay’s product was a consumer-oriented food specially suited for the cuisine traditions of every region .

I’m interested in Lay’s advertising,I still remember one advertising which won the hearts of consumers was targeted at associating Lay’s chips with life happy moment,the company invited people show their photo of happy events creating new perception of the snack,in order to tell us that happiness is simple when you eat Lay’s.And another advertising mention the poster of hanging from the ceiling potatoes,it would like tell consumers that Lay’s potatoes are grown specially for you and it is much more closer than you could think.So I think it’s a reason why it wins(POD).

Lay’s is win in creating many ways of cooking methods(POD) ,and it also experiment with new tastes and amazing flavors(POD) and different shapes(POP). Of course it focus on health benefits(POP).

REFERENCE：

http://layspotatochipps.blogspot.fr/

http://www.differencebetween.net/object/comparisons-of-food-items/difference-between-lay%E2%80%99s-chips-and-pringles-chips/

http://www.bakeryandsnacks.com/Manufacturers/Frito-Lay-v-Pringles-Two-snack-titans-on-Facebook

http://www.fastcocreate.com/1682425/how-lays-got-its-chips-to-taste-like-chicken-and-waffles

https://twitter.com/LAYS

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B9%90%E4%BA%8B

https://www.facebook.com/lays

Yuejun SHEN

99% of the population is chip addict.

Discover why!

Lays : You can't eat just one !

Let me explain you: If you eat a chips you'll get 99% of probability to eat a second one.

Lays have understand that and build the experience around that. We already know that every chips brand put some additives into their products in order to stimulate the addiction. Glutamate Modosodique is responsible for that.

Lays experience: when you start eating lays, you become passionate even for a kid of 6 years old and forget everything, you boring meetings, your problems. Lay try to imply that when you eat it you get satisfaction and forget the life details. 

Pringles: Bring extra force: their fans ! 

The force is strong with this one. This is from a crowdsourcing video contest themed around "the force for fun". The youtube channel have been customized for the occasion.

Results: the contest have generated 900k view for this one and more than a thousand fans-generated video ideas.

They are letting their customer and fans be part of their marketing precess, making them feel like they can actively do something to help out the brands that they love. Moreover in a fun experience giving star wars fans the excuse to dress a Darth Vador costume.

Edouard de Joussineau