Milling & Baking News - June 1, 2004 - 56

M E R C H A N D I S I N G

George K. Baum
Advisors' Nationally
Recognized Food &
Agriculture Practice
Serving the
industry through:

·
·
·
·

M&A advisory
Divestitures
Recapitalization
Private Capital Raising

George K. Baum Advisors LLC
INVESTMENT BANKERS SINCE 1928
A Subsidiary of George K. Baum Holdings, Inc.

TWELVE WYANDOTTE PLAZA
120 WEST 12TH STREET
KANSAS CITY, MO 64105
(816)474-1100

56 / Milling & Baking News, June 1, 2004

Procter & Gamble unveils unique
promotional weapon for Pringles
CINCINNATI - For serious potato chip
lovers, snacking is never a trivial pursuit.
But beginning this summer, Procter &
Gamble Co. intends to make it just that.
The maker of Pringles potato crisps
has announced it will introduce Pringles
Prints, featuring a unique design printed
on every crisp.
By August, each Pringles Prints crisp
across the United States will contain one
of 2,400 randomly selected
trivia questions and answers from six different Trivial Pursuit
Junior categories
as P.&G. teams
with Hasbro,
Inc., maker of
the popular
board game.
In addition,
Pringles Prints
Fun Facts, Animal
Facts and Jokes will appear in select retail locations beginning this month.
In what the company termed "revolutionary technology," the proprietary design process will allow the company to
customize each crisp by printing words
and images directly onto it.
P.&G. plans to support the entire Pringles Prints program with a multi-million
dollar marketing campaign, including
television advertising, new packaging
and coupons.
"Pringles is the leader and founder
of the stacked crisp category, and now
we're taking it to a whole new level," said
Jamie Egasti, vice-president of Procter &
Gamble's North America snacks division.
"With the introduction of Pringles Prints,
we have developed a new way to delight
customers by adding fun and excitement
to one of kids' favorite lunchtime snacks
while delivering incremental volume
growth for our customers."
Pringles Prints will feature questions
and answers from Trivial Pursuit Junior
categories including Music, Movies,
Nature, Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow
and Whatever. Words and images will
appear in blue or red, applied with food
coloring that P.&G. pledges will not alter
the product's traditional taste.
The company will offer Pringles Prints
only in the classic Original flavor but
plans to offer new colors, designs, images
and related partnerships in the future.
The introduction of Pringles Prints and
the corresponding marketing blitz comes
amid a heated battle with Frito-Lay, Inc.
for dominance in the potato crisp catego-

ry - a status the Pringles brand has long
enjoyed since its birth in 1969.
The brand still has annual sales of
about $1 billion, making it one of the
most successful in P.&G.'s portfolio.
But Stax, launched by Frito-Lay just last
August, already reportedly has garnered
a 20% share of the market for potato
crisps, made with potato flakes instead
of real sliced potatoes.
Frito-Lay has used in-store merchandising and marketing efforts
to gain that
share.
P.&G. officials in March
accused FritoLay of false
advertising after
the latter's newspaper and television
advertisements claimed more
customers preferred
Stax to Pringles. P.&G.
officials said its internal
research
showed that slightly more
consumers prefer Pringles.
P.&G. did not threaten legal action in
the matter, and Frito-Lay said at the time
it would continue running the ads, based
on findings of an independent research
company, for several more weeks.
The disputed campaign will run until
about the end of June, said Charles Nicolas, a Frito-Lay spokesman. MBN

Dick Clark to host
41st Pillsbury
Bake-Off
MINNEAPOLIS - General Mills ,
Inc. has announced that Dick Clark
will serve as host of the 41st Pillsbury Bake-Off, where 100 cooks
- 95 women and five men - will
vie for the $1 million grand prize.
General Mills also revealed that
noted fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi will design special aprons for
the event.
The finalists will prepare their
recipes in General Electric mini
kitchens June 28 at the Renaissance
Hollywood hotel.
The next day, Mr. Clark will announce the 13 prize winners that
will take home cash or GE appliances for their recipes. MBN

bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

http://www.bakingbusiness.com http://www.world-grain.com

Milling & Baking News - June 1, 2004

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Milling & Baking News - June 1, 2004