Lucky Charms and the Zen of Marketing
The theme tonight seems to be food and food origins.
Lucky Charms used to have 4 marshmallow shapes: clovers, hearts, moons, and diamonds. Why they didn't go with spades, I don't know. I guess mothers around the world would have rioted if their kids started playing blackjack with their breakfast food.
Anyway, there came a day when Lucky Charms had a big marketing blitz over some new marshmallow shape. I don't remember what the shape was, but I do remember asking my brother "How in the hell did they come up with that shape." It looked nothing like what they claimed it actually was (oooh, outstanding syntax), and it was some bizarre combination of earth tone colors.
My analysis has led me to believe that this was a production malfunction, followed by a marketing save. Being a production guy, I know that stuff breaks, and product comes out bad. Typically, we scrap the stuff and try again. I imagine the margins in the breakfast cereal business are tight, so scrapping 60 tons of Lucky Charms with an off-color blob is probably a career ender for someone. So, in a panic, Joe Production Foreman called Bob Marketing Guy I Play Poker With On Fridays and asked for help. Bob called the box printer and changed the ad copy, and Ta Da - a new Lucky Charm marshmallow enters existence.
Last check, I think we're up to 7 or 8 Lucky Charm marshmallows. I have it on good authority that All Free (detergent) was born the same way - the color / perfume machine went down one night.
Lucky Charms used to have 4 marshmallow shapes: clovers, hearts, moons, and diamonds. Why they didn't go with spades, I don't know. I guess mothers around the world would have rioted if their kids started playing blackjack with their breakfast food.
Anyway, there came a day when Lucky Charms had a big marketing blitz over some new marshmallow shape. I don't remember what the shape was, but I do remember asking my brother "How in the hell did they come up with that shape." It looked nothing like what they claimed it actually was (oooh, outstanding syntax), and it was some bizarre combination of earth tone colors.
My analysis has led me to believe that this was a production malfunction, followed by a marketing save. Being a production guy, I know that stuff breaks, and product comes out bad. Typically, we scrap the stuff and try again. I imagine the margins in the breakfast cereal business are tight, so scrapping 60 tons of Lucky Charms with an off-color blob is probably a career ender for someone. So, in a panic, Joe Production Foreman called Bob Marketing Guy I Play Poker With On Fridays and asked for help. Bob called the box printer and changed the ad copy, and Ta Da - a new Lucky Charm marshmallow enters existence.
Last check, I think we're up to 7 or 8 Lucky Charm marshmallows. I have it on good authority that All Free (detergent) was born the same way - the color / perfume machine went down one night.
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