Promo - December 2008 - (Page 21)

Meal Assembly Free samples: a new ingredient at meal assembly kitchens By Patricia Odell Photo by Curt Goodwin A new venue for sampling is being tested by the likes of Juicy Juice, Tabasco, General Mills and Martha Stewart: meal assembly kitchens. There are 1,002 of these kitchens across the country where moms, singles and groups of girlfriends come to prepare fresh meals at stations replete with fresh meats, fish, sauces, spices and vegetables. They make the meals chosen from a variety of monthly recipes for one or multiple days, then take the meals home to cook that evening or freeze for a later date. Some chain kitchens, like Dream Dinners, which has 179 locations, host their own programs. A new entity, the Meal Assembly Network, a promotions agency, is working to roll many of the fragmented kitchen businesses together into one channel for marketers to reach a coveted demographic: women 25 to 54, single- or dual-income households with children, and average household incomes of $55,000 to $75,000. The network, founded by Andy Potter, a former vice president at promotion agency Promote It International, offers three types of programs: recipe sponsorship, sampling or both. One of his clients, Tabasco, ran both in 100 kitchens last February, including Dinner by Design, a 56-kitchen chain based in Chicago. Under the recipe sponsorship, Tabasco created a suggested recipe that incorporated its Chipotle Pepper Sauce, Raspberry Chipotle Chicken, to be promoted as one of the monthly dishes customers could make while in the kitchens. In the sampling component, customers who put that recipe together used the product as an ingredient to make the dish. All customers, including those who ordered meals to be picked up or delivered, received 1⁄2-ounce samples, a Chipotle Lover’s Guide of recipes, and coupons for 60-cents off the product. The promotion was played on several of the kitchen’s Web sites. Some kitchens preferred to create their own recipes, like Wild West Chipotle Meatloaf and the Black Bean and Corn Chipotle Dip. “Internally we struggled, since this is a totally new segment of business for us,” says Sally Davis, who works on the Tabasco brand products as assistant brand manager for parent company McIlhenny Co. “While we wanted to provide a suggested recipe as a parameter for how best to use this product, ultimately we deferred to the chefs to do what they do best and experiment with it.” For some kitchens, promoting the same recipe as the kitchen down the street posed a conflict. “We didn’t want to force the kitchens to use that recipe if the competitive kitchen down the street was using it. We left it flexible,” Potter says. Manuals are also delivered to the kitchens with details on running the promotions, along with branded table easels, posters and other marketing materials, Potter says. As with any new venture, kinks are being worked out. The Tabasco promotion was challenged when many of the half-galSample packets of Fresh at Hand basil and garlic were designed to look like the glass jars people would find in stores, clear packaging that showed the ingredients inside. lon plastic jugs of sauce were damaged during shipments to the kitchens. “We lost a lot of product in the eleventh hour, but our warehouse got the product out in time,” Davis says. “Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, something happens. We were just excited that we could pull it off.” Davis says she was “sort of aware” of the meal assembly concept through a co-worker, but when approached by the Meal Assembly Network, she thought specifically about the Chipotle sauce. “We know that consumers really have to taste [Chipotle] to know that it’s completely different from Tabasco Original Red and can be used in totally different ways,” Davis says. “This went beyond people just taking a product home and you never really know if they use the product or not.” To determine the program’s returnon-investment, Davis relied on a recap and feedback from Potter. “The program was validated by feedback that found consumers being surprised that the product was different, that people had never heard of it,” Davis says. “We thought that alone was a huge success for the product. We felt really good about it.” Davis says the company will “definitely” be considering another sampling program with the Meal Assembly Network in 2010, but is focusing on Tabasco Original Red in 2009, “which doesn’t need as much sampling.” In less complex promos, Juicy Juice provided drinks and Lipton supplied its Pure Leaf Tea for customers to sip while preparing meals, and to be packaged with meals to go. And General Continued on page 22 Promo / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / December 2008 21 http://WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - December 2008

Promo - December 2008 Contents Editor's Note Alternative Viewing UGC Refresher Course KFC Takes Wing Title Sharing the Holidays That Holiday Glow Wish List Commentary Ready to Eat Recession Busters Q&A: A Higher Mark Resource Center The Agency Center Gift Giving Index of Advertisers

Promo - December 2008

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