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New & Improved!

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When it comes to marketing, I’m promotionally impaired. I never could get the hang of touting stuff, so it should come as no surprise that I’m baffled by my Artichoke Bruschetta. When I bought and opened a jar in November, it was just fine, especially as a substitute for red sauce as a base on some homemade pizza. But when I went back and bought another jar of the very same product in January, the label had changed.

New recipe? How much of a recipe is required to make Artichoke Bruschetta? Both jars list the same ingredients (Artichokes, Sunflower Oil, Red Bell Pepper, Yellow Bell Pepper, Fresh Garlic, Lemon Juice, Salt, Fresh Parsley, Oregano, Sodium Acid Sulfate, Pepper and Ground Chili Pepper) and the very same “Nutrition Facts”, right down to the last single gram of protein.

Maybe they did change something significant in the formulation, but why paste a “New Recipe” banner on the label? I can imagine only three possible thought balloons hovering over the heads of Cub shoppers as they take note of this product on the condiment shelves.

1) Bought it and liked it.
2) Bought it and hated it.
3) Artichoke what?

For the person who bought and liked it, the banner is reason to worry.
For the person who bought and hated it, the banner confirms their initial reaction – Yuk!
And for the the rest, the banner says Artichoke Bruschetta is hard to get right.

I don’t know beans about marketing. What am I missing? How does “New Recipe” move the product? Especially when you could use the same valuable label space to say something that might actually improve sales, like “Now With More Artichokes!” or “Now With Fewer Artichokes!”

What phrase would YOU add to the label?

66 thoughts on “New & Improved!”

  1. Dale – very cleaver to use this as pizza base – you just succeeded in promoting artichoke bruschetta!
    the “new recipe” could mean they cooked it longer or shorter time or any variation in the way they put it together or roasted the artichokes before they added them. there are intentional and unintentional additives in a recipe. maybe they made sure to have fewer unintentional (which don’t have to be listed – like mouse hair or aphids)
    but some folks are attracted to “New” i guess.
    did it taste any differently?
    usually if we like something from the store, that is the kiss of death. the product is taken off the shelves in quick order. not new, just gone. this could be a tactic to increase sales in a product that is slated for the can soon. better buy up all the jars you can find………
    good chilly morning, All!

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  4. free or 1/3 more are sure ways to make a potential customer feel good about buying a product. so gluten free or fat free or low cholesterol are good items to put on labels. i got a kick out of the pretzel bag with fat free in big letters for all the diet conscious pretzel eaters out there. i always remember the article i read on campbells soups and how they had problems with the rodent hair content in their ingredients maybe now with fewer rodent hairs would be good.
    i see you bought the first one on 11/14 how long did it last? i see the second one didn’t get dated, does that mean you were sure it would be gone quick? i have condiments that have been delegated to the garage fridge for the infrequently used. when do you discard old stuff. i noticed you didn’t include the year so i’m guessing you watch pretty close

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  5. Good morning to all. Probably the people that wrote those lablels are being cleaver. They might have reduced the amount of some ingredients to save money and now are covering it up by calling it a new recipe. To get more out of their new label they could say “great new recipe” but it really is a “not so great new recipe”. They are required to put the ingredients in a certain order with the main ingredients first. However, they could just reduce all of the top ingredients by about the same amount and still be able to list them in the same order.

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    2. Maybe we all just assume it’s a new recipe for making the bruschetta when, actually, it’s a new recipe for business success.

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  7. Maybe somebody with a big ego played around with the recipe and wanted every one to know about the work done on fine tuning it. If that is the case the guy with the big ego probably really wanted the new label to say something like “incredible, fantastic, new recipe”.

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  8. Morning all. The cynic in me says that the only recipe they changed was the picture on the label. I understand the function of marketing in our world, but that doesn’t make me trust it. I routinely say to the teenager (usually in response to something she’s just seen) that “if you heard it on tv, it’s a lie”.

    I’m having a bit of trouble envisioning myself in a marketing meeting discussing the change of a label… I’m SO not good at these kinds of meetings. I probably was taking a sanity break (hallway or bathroom) when they decided to put “New Recipe” on the label.

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  9. “All natural” or “organic” seems to be the buzzwords the will sell almost anything AND let you charge a higher price – whether it’s true or not. I recently became aware that much of what is being sold at Whole Foods as “organic” comes from China, and that no one has verified that these items are, in fact, organic.

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    1. Silk Soy milk is one example of this. It used to be made from soybeans grown right here in the US. Now it’s made from soybeans that are imported from China. Silk responded to consumer complaints by removing the little USDA organic symbol, thereby conceding that they no longer know if the beans are truly organic. Most people don’t notice or know anything about it. I stopped buying Silk products.

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      1. I won’t buy Silk products either, Krista…
        I only recently had to buy a carton of their soy milk and something seemed “off” about it… it created an oily film (like an oil slick) in my coffee. I haven’t bought it again. I wasn’t aware of the label change but glad to be made aware of it now.

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      2. I receive an e-newsletter from the Organic Consumers Association. They were influential when the USDA changed the rules regarding organic foods labeling, although it did not go entirely in the right direction in many ways. If anyone would like to receive a copy of their e-newsletter, I’d be happy to send it to you – just send your e-mail address to willi6931 at hotmail.com.

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  11. Hmm, I see this product is made with Italian artichokes. This seems a missed opportunity to me-Italian, big deal, anyone can have “Italian”. It is like saying French wine-who cares. Now, Siennese Artichokes, Sicilian Artichokes, Bolonese Artichokes-these are regional delicacies, suitable for serving to the aristocracy and gentry. You should feel privileged that your local Cub thinks your neighborhood is upper crust enough for such stuff.

    I will never, ever get over seeing rhubarb for $4/pound and Wisconsin cheddar in the imported cheeses section of the high class grocery store in Washington DC.

    oh, and Traditional Recipe is much better stuff than the New trash they are trying to push off on you.

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  13. It may be that they thought group two:
    2) Bought it and hated it.
    might give it another try if the word “New” was in there… while group one:
    1) Bought it and liked it.
    hopefully liked it well enough to risk a small change.

    OT: Blevins Book Club meeting at Barbara in Robbinsdale’s this Sunday at 2:00. (Not reading the book is never a problem.) If anyone wants to join us that I haven’t contacted, email me at mmbbhassing@usfamily.net for directions.

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  14. I first noticed that both jars had been meticulously cleaned. Clearly not the dishwasher – hand washed and dried. I’m thinking Dale might save containers such as this for cataloging and storing items.

    I confess I’m a ‘saver’ of such containers. This is a trait I learned from my grandfather, a blacksmith. As he walked to and from the factory in the Lake/Hiawatha neighborhood, he would pick up any bit of metal. A small bolt here, a washer or nut there, or a rubber thing-a-ma-bob over there. After a short trip in his pants pocket, the jewel would end up in one of dozens of glass pickle jars hanging from the unfinished ceiling in the basement workshop. Ingenious, the metal lid would be screwed to a board that, in turn was nailed to the ceiling rafters, each jar easily within reach yet well above the top of your head.

    In today’s world, I find the small plastic Skippy peanut butter jars, creamy or chunky, work the best. After amassing a dozen or so, remove the labels and simply screw the lids to a 1×4 board and screw that to the workshop ceiling. As they are plastic, the worries of dropping one, as I did in my grandfather’s workshop, is no longer a concern. The best part is getting to decide what ‘class’ of hardware to store in the new filing system!

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    3. inspirational. mike herboldts dad had baby food jars in his workshop as you describe. i have nuts and bolts but lord knows where. if i start the skippy program today maybe in a couple years i can be semi organized. thanks for the observation

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    4. My dad used unlidded jars, and they were not organized. Tons of ’em all over his basement workshop. He was not a handyman (and should not really have been allowed near tools), but came from a generation where men should have these things and know how to do things, so he did his best. He was a darn fine house trim painter, though and quite adept and re-glazing a window. If you ever need window hardware for old fashioned storms and screens (the sort where you replace the whole works spring and fall), there are bunches and bunches in my parents basement. Nary a bolt or screw of an appropriate size when you need it (though plenty of inappropriate or uselessly small ones), but all the window hardware ever.

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      1. Dad’s shop had all the bolts, washers and nuts thrown together in an old coffee can. I hate that. I have separate containers for each size bolt sorted by length, and then separate containers for washer and nuts. Either commercial plastic bins (home in my unheated shop) or cardboard storage boxes at the college shop. Plus some heavier metal boxes for the bigger bolts. There are ‘collections’ of misc flat washers / spacers. And once you get up to the 5/8″ or 3/4″ bolts, they’re all together.

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  15. Well, I’m thunderstruck by this post, and I can’t believe you guys are not picking up on what I am. The post seems to be about marketing, but along the way it drops a bombshell: Dale eats bruschetta with artichokes! That’s gourmet food in a jar, and, folks, they don’t give that stuff away!

    Did the rest of you all know this and just not tell me? This turns upside down my image of Dale, and my mind is reeling.

    I can’t tell how many hours I’ve spent worrying about Dale, for I came to this blog right about the time he was let go my MPR. I have agonized over mental images of Dale in an MPR t-shirt (in spite of the weather) at some little sidewalk table selling Morning Show pledge drive mugs to keep his bank account above water. Or images of Dale at some stop sign holding a sign saying, “Pls Help! Will DJ for food or money!” (And do I need to point out that such a sign would hardly work if Dale begged for an exchange of DJ talent for artichoke bruschetta? That kind of image only exists in New Yorker cartoons.

    We have a radically new image of Dale to accommodate now, Dale as Daddy Warbucks. Remember the old “Grey Poupon” TV commercial? Now we can imagine a follow-up commercial with a Rolls Royce lowering its window so someone can ask, in dulcet upper class tones, “Pardon! But do you have any Grey Poupon?” And Dale lowers the window of his Rolls Royce and says, with just a bit of edge, “No but I have something quite a bit better.”

    If caviar seems a bit rich on your breakfast eggs, Dale, just wash it down with champagne. 🙂

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    1. I bet his he has special spoons for cream soups and others with a different shape for clear soups and I bet they are sterling silver.

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    3. For many years, one of the Tejas chefs lived a couple of doors down from us. Child learned early on about artichokes and butter. Not too many 6-year olds reply “artichokes with butter” when asked what they want for dinner! Not considered gourmet food at our house.

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  16. Morning–

    I’m not sure I’ve ever had an artichoke. I’m not even sure what they look like… (Yes I am sheltered down here in the valley and we like it that way!)
    My label would have to say “New Recipe! Made with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!”

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  18. Dale, the point of labels, tags, or banners like that is that it’s an easy way to garner what marketing is all about: attention. Your analysis is tending to focus on the negative to apathetic mindset…either 1) dislike, 2) dislike, or 3) lack of knowledge/experience. What the marketing folks want you to conclude is either 1) if you liked it before, you’ll like it even more now, 2) if you hated it before, we’ve changed it, so try it again, or 3) look, it’s something ‘new’ that you haven’t tried…so why not try it? Granted, the word ‘improved’ would make it a little more explicit but they also don’t want to completely alienate their customer base that has already been buying. ‘Improved’ implies change more than just ‘new,’ and some people get really upset by change, especially if it’s a product they love.

    When I told my Dad that I wanted to go into marketing, he really couldn’t figure it. “If you’re working for a company, why don’t you just offer the best product at the best price?” When I tried to explain that wasn’t how business worked, he countered with, “So, marketing is all about shafting the customer.” At which point, he proclaimed it to be a “dishonorable” profession and steered me down the path I have unhappily occupied since.

    Let’s see…phrase that I’d add…
    1) Gia Russa Artichoke Bruschetta. It’s pronounced, “YUM!”
    2) Free Italian Girl Inside!
    3) Don’t Question Us…Just Eat It!
    4) Now with More Vowels!
    5) More Artichokey and Bruschettaesque!
    6) Bella Bruschetta
    7) The Betta Bruschetta
    8) An Offer You Can’t Refuse
    9) We Know the Pope
    10) Look At How Much Work this Poor Girl Put Into Making This…and You Won’t Even Try It?

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      1. I’d have to agree with your dad as well…
        but, wow, your REALLY did miss your calling thatguyinthehat!
        I can’t wait to go buy some of this stuff. You have a gift! 🙂

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    2. thatguyinthehat, you crack me up.

      I have to admit that I tend to agree with your dad about marketing. When I was working for the law firm, it was just becoming fashionable for law firms to hire marketing professionals to put a little pizzaz on the otherwise dull lawyer image.

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  19. I just remembered; I used to eat HoneyComb’s breakfast cereal. And then suddenly the flavor changed. Mom assured me it was the same thing and there wasn’t any ‘New Recipe!’ label on the box but they were different — and not in a good way. Never ate them again and I think that’s when I first became disenchanted of humanity and lost my trust in the system. At 10. Life was harder after that.

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    1. was that when they had the stagecoach on the honeycomb comercials on saturday morning cartoons. my brother was a honeycomb fan just from the rawhid like theme music

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  20. I recently heard something about a mouse in someone’s salad and now tim writes about rodent hair in cans of soup. This is just one of those days when I feel out of touch with the world around me.

    I’m pretty dull on this subject. I’ve never been very good at thinking of marketing strategies, ploys or phrases. I do think that it’s genius to write the date on a jar when you open it and put it in the refrigerator though. You learn something new every day.

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  21. Fun reading today…not sure I can keep up. I would add this, “for a thick head of curly locks, eat Artichoke Bruschetta. You may not smile afterwards, but your hair will be happy.”

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      2. Burnt toast brings back fond childhood memories. My mother always made toast in the broiler and had a knack for forgetting completely about it until we were all seated around the table and grace had been said… at which point she would leap from the table and run to the kitchen to rescue the blackened bread (sounds cajun, I know… but it’s not). The first several minutes of many a meal were accompanied by the sound of my mom in the kitchen scarping burnt toast with a knife.

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      5. I’m convinced that burnt toast had nothing to with it, I’ve consumed my share. My mother’s favored method of toasting bread seemed to follow Piet Hein’s advice:

        TIMING TOAST
        Grook on how to char for yourself

        There’s an art of knowing when.
        Never try to guess.
        Toast until it smokes and then
        twenty seconds less.

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    2. Make sure to put ‘eat’ in very small print, compared to the rest. That way, people would think it’s shampoo. You’d sell more and market research would be much, much easier. “Who’s using our product?” “The people walking around with artichoke flecks in their hair.”

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  22. Any time I see “New Recipe”, “Improved Formula” or any similar proclamation, it triggers disappointment in me… it’s NEVER good (this coming from a devout optimist). I put effort into finding products I love that are safe, delicious, good for the environment or just plain awesome. The label SHOULD read “Now with less of whatever it was you loved!”

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  25. “Now with a NEW label!”

    or…
    “With a free baguette in every jar.”
    They named it Artichoke Bruschetta so that by looking at the jar, you know right away how to serve it. The jar contains an antipasto. “Bruschetta” is the total of what is served, the roasted vegetables on top of the bread.
    And yes, I work in marketing. (I know, I know. Believe me, I know and I often agree!)

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