Richmond, B.C. based Nature’s Path Organic Foods is hoping to increase its name recognition with organic customers and branch out to the mainstream market in a $3 million multi-media campaign running in Vancouver, Portland and Boston.
The campaign by Egg Brand Development in Seattle promotes the company’s flagship cereal, Flax Plus Pumpkin Granola, and includes television, radio, train and bus wraps, street sampling teams, social media, a contest and an interactive online game.
The advertising directs consumers to NaturesPath.com/getonthepath where they can take a quiz to find out where they are on the “path to sustainability.”
Hilary Bromberg, strategy director and partner at Egg, said emphasizing “path” rather than “nature” also helps with name recognition.
“People who had been eating their cereal for years never even knew the name of the company because it’s so generic, it almost seems like a house brand of a supermarket,” said Bromberg. “The name was absolutely unmemorable, the logo was unmemorable even with our core consumers. When you don’t even remember the name of the company that makes the cereal that you love, there is really not going to be much brand loyalty.”
The campaign follows a $500,000 test campaign that ran in Toronto at the end of 2008, said Maria Emmer-Aanes, director of marketing and communications for Nature’s Path. Following the 12-week campaign, sales rose by 13% and were up by 33% from the same period the year before.
“We want this campaign to motivate people to learn more about the path to sustainability without any of the green guilt,” said Emmer-Aanes. “We’ve tried to make the campaign fun, quirky and a bit tongue-in-cheek to let people know that sustainability is a journey.”
For instance, one of the print ads reads “On the path to sustainability, look for the crunchy, toasted oat clusters along the way.” Another says: “The path to sustainability is sprinkled with tasty pumpkin seeds.”
Bromberg said the campaign launch also comes at a time when competitors like Kellogg‘s Kashi and Cascadian Farms, owned by General Mills are becoming more aggressive with their marketing and increased ad spend.
“We’re seeing double digit growth in organic products, so there is definitely more mainstream interest and we need to start speaking to these people in order to grow the market share,” said Bromberg.
While 3% of the population are dedicated organic consumers, added Bromberg, about 20% of the mainstream population are “conscious consumers”–a perfect target for Nature’s Path’s products.
“They are trying to be more conscious of the purchasing decisions that they make, buying from socially responsible companies, making better choices in their life in terms of what they put in their bodies. So for those people this cereal represents a step in the right direction,” she said.
The next step is to redesign the packaging more in line with the new messaging, said Emmer-Aanes.
