Promo - December 2008 - (Page 22)

Meal Assembly A table easel alerted customers to the Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce sampling program going on at meal assembly kitchens. Continued from page 21 Mills set out samples of its Chocolate Turtle Chex Mix at 500 kitchens. “This may work to give sampling campaigns the added benefit of wordof-mouth transmission; when you distribute products among groups related by common interests, they tend to talk to each other and to their friends,” says General Mills Promotions Planner Molly King. At the Meal Assembly Network Web site, www.mealassembly.net, visitors can locate a kitchen in their neighbor- THE DISH ON MEAL ASSEMBLY KITCHENS number of kitchens US 1,002 Canada 61 Australia, Britain, New Zealand 1 each u.s. revenue 2008 $370 million 2006 $220 million 2004 $30 million portions served 2008 110 million 2006 70 million 2004 9 million kitchen formats • 1/3 of the industry is made up of the two largest franchises: Dream Dinners (207) and Super Suppers (143) • 1/3 are smaller franchises (10 to 50 locations) • 1/3 are independent stores customer demographics • 90% to 95% women, mostly moms • HHI greater than $80,000 per year • Use meals to cook at home • Dual- and single-income families business formats • Session dominant: customers sign up in advance for a session and come in to assemble the meals themselves. Customers are typically there for two hours. Average bill: $150 • Retail dominant: standard hours, customers don’t sign up in advance, often pick up pre-assembled meal to go. Average bill: $50 Source: www.easymealprep.com hood and also see what brands are being sampled at which locations. One location, Cookin’ Dinners in Norwalk, CT, is sampling Fresh at Hand spices, owned by C.F. Sauer Co., which also markets the more wellknown Spice Hunter brand. A program for its top-two sellers— basil and garlic—began last month and continues through the holidays as people spend more time preparing meals and entertaining. A recipe for George’s Famous Gumbo that called for a half packet of basil and a half packet of garlic hung over the preparation station one day last month. Nearby, a table was set up that displayed the spices, along with other products sampled at the kitchen, including General Mills Chex Turtle Mix, Betty Crocker Molten Chocolate Cake Warm Delights Minis and Splenda packets. Betty Crocker was running a national ad campaign at the time of the sampling. George Gardone, the owner and chef at Cookin’ Dinners, says the program benefits both the brand and the kitchen because the samples expose the products to a targeted audience and provide a “beautiful giveaway” to his customers. “It’s a good marriage,” he says. About 300,000 Fresh at Hand garlic and basil packets were shipped to 500 kitchens. “It makes sense that the way to sample is to provide people with products to use at home at their leisure,” says Tania Biswas, senior brand manger at C.F. Sauer. To determine whether the program is working, Biswas relies on the customers for feedback. Each customer receives a branded card that reads: “We want to know what you think.” An incentive to be automatically entered to win a $250 Visa Gift Card encourages them to go online and complete a survey. Six weeks later the company will go back to those consumers to find out if they had subsequently purchased any Fresh at Hand spices. “There’s always the caveat that this is the first time we’re doing it. We always go back to see if it works,” Biswas says. The spice program followed a successful program the firm ran in June through the Meal Assembly Network for its flagship brand, Duke’s Mayonnaise. Dream Dinners, a chain of kitchens that has 179 locations in 37 states, has not worked with the Meal Assembly Network, but runs its own promotions. It has partnered with Nestlé, Kraft Foods, McCormick, Martha Stewart and Redbook. It alerts its 300,000 customers to the promotions through an e-mail blast. The kitchens, or stores, as cofounder Stephanie Allen prefers to call them, featured a pot roast recipe from the new Martha Stewart’s Cooking School cookbook. It ran a cross promotion with Redbook magazine, which supplied a recipe, Country Chicken with Apples, and, in turn, featured Dream Dinners in one of its issues. Dream Dinners customers were offered a special one-year subscription rate of $5.99. And in a signal that products other than food may find a niche in the kitchens, Dream Dinners ran a promo for Liberty Mutual during fire safety month. It played up recipes like Firehouse Penne with Meatballs that could be spiced up to one, two or P three alarms. l 22 December 2008 / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / Promo http://www.mealassembly.net http://www.easymealprep.com 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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