Hormel Foods wants consumers to know who’s serving dinner.
Hormel is gearing up for an umbrella branding campaign that showcases its wide range of refrigerated and shelf-stable foods. The company’s first-ever umbrella ads break next month. At the same time, a new brand mark will begin appearing on packages of Hormel-branded food.
The new brand mark will first appear on Hormel Natural Choice deli sandwich meats, and roll out through 2008 to all products that bear the Hormel Name. Hormel said its research showed that the brand mark helps consumers find items more easily on-shelf, conveys a friendlier and higher-quality image, and raises awareness of the breadth of its portfolio.
Hormel said its new ads, themed “Create something great,” will spotlight four of its “priority brands”: Hormel Natural Choice deli sandwich meats, Hormel fully cooked entrees, Hormel Chili and new Hormel Microwave Trays.
TV spots feature a fictitious food expert challenging a woman to cook meals under specific criteria (make a sandwich without preservatives, or make dinner without using the oven or utensils). Each of the priority brands gets its own 30-second spot; ads run on network daytime and cable TV. Print and online ads support. BBDO, Minneapolis, handles ads; PhD, Minneapolis, handles media. Spending wasn’t disclosed.
Hormel also will run national consumer promotions, including FSIs, via Magiccom, and account-specific flights via Ryan Partnership; both agencies are in Minneapolis. Burson-Marsteller, Chicago, handles p.r. Semmer Group, Minneapolis, created the brand mark.
Hormel isn’t the first food giant to use a corporate branding campaign to boost its full portfolio. Sara Lee began a similar umbrella campaign last fall, a $20 million-to-$30 million effort themed “The Joy of Eating” (PROMO Xtra, Aug. 24, 2006). Since then, Sara Lee’s food and beverage sales have risen 5% to $1.13 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2006, mostly on the strength of new products and improved operations, Sara Lee said.
Hormel reports that its total sales were up 6% to $5.75 billion for fiscal 2006, ended Oct. 29. The biggest sector, refrigerated foods, rose 5.6% to $2.96 billion. The second-biggest unit, Jennie-O Turkey Store, rose only 1.6% to $1.11 billion. Grocery products rose nearly 6% to $846 million; specialty foods (Hormel’s ethnic brands) jumped 20% to nearly $625 million.
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