Friday, September 26, 2008

BLOG 4: PoSitIoNing for Flat EaRth !!


When I first watched the ”Flat Earth” commercial I didn´t understood the relationship between the logo with a pig image and the potato chips. Yet, after I investigate I now understand that the company is trying to make us know that awkward things can be real (impossible can be possible). I'm sure Frito Lay meant its new natural foods "Flat Earth" brand name and flying pig logo to seem unconventional and clever, because fruit and vegetable snack chips are unconventional.


Each time we think of chips brands, I am sure we think in Cheetos, Doritos, Ruffles, Tostitos, etc. which are targeted to young people, especially to men who don´t care about maintaining a good body shape. But Frito Lay concerned about its consumers health and necessity of abandoning greasy bags of chips for healthier snack foods, have recently designed ”Flat Earth” chips with which you get 1/2 serving of fruits or veggies in every serving. So if we eat the whole chips bag we can justify it with, "well, I just had my servings of veggies and/or fruit!" That is why I think these chips are totally targeted to women among 25 to 40 years old, who consider themselves or who aspire to have a wealthy living style. However, this doesn´t means that men couldn´t try them.



I believe that the positioning of the brand is really clear, because since you see the webpage you can realize that the message they want to transmit is of a healthier and better world. Also, the brand slogan “When pigs fly” is telling us that impossible things can be done even if we don´t realize them in our minds (Just as Flat Earth did). Moreover, I believe that even if we can relate pigs as being dirty and fat animals, this is not the image that “Flat Earth” wants to create in our minds, because they are creating a cute and lovely image of a pig with its wings, and because they are showing with their commercial a neat and green environment. So I believe that the brand has a good positioning statement because it really reflects “Flat Earth´s” competitive advantage. In other words, “Flat Earth“provides healthier chips, even if these are always seen as greasy and unhealthy products.


Furthermore, I think that the brand tries to motivate consumers to taste the “impossible” chips showing in the commercial the woman who was enjoying its chips before eating them. For example, now that I saw the commercial I would like to buy the chips just to taste them and have an opinion about them. Also, another thing that can motivate people is the fact that in the commercial they show all the chips features so the fact they looked just like a potato chip but much healthier than a chip is a good statement to call consumers attention.


I think that until now “Flat Earth” is showing a clear and innovative implicit message below the brand´s name, but if I had to change something I think I would eliminate the pig from the logo (not from the slogan), because even if it´s perceived as cute by many women, it could be kind of contradictory, because as I said before, when people think of pigs they can relate to them as fat and unclean. Even so I recognize that “Flat Earth” really took care of all the small details when they first launched their campaign. Another thing I would consider to change would be the blue color of the bag, because even if that color makes us think about lighter products, a green color will be the best in my opinion. So that consumers can think about the brand as healthy chips, and not as light chips.

If the brand wants to be positioned to a younger audience such as college young women I would suggest the company:


- To launch a campaign in which they kind of challenge young college people. This means that they could launch a campaign daring people telling them that they can't eat even one, so they are consequently going to buy “Flat Earth” chips to taste them.
- To install in every school vending machines with “Flat Earth” chips all around the country.
- To maintain and reinforce the nothing is impossible slogan.
- To use well known actress which promote the brand, just as Eva Longoria did for Magnum.
- To make more emphasis in the product features to appeal body conscious women.
- To organize focus groups in which they join young college women to ask them their preferences in some topics, as in which kind of media they see mostly all of the products they buy, their favorite flavors, the opinion leaders they follow, the environment they imagine when they think of the brand, etc.
- To select another environment for the commercial. For example, instead of using a big beautiful house that can only be afforded by older people, they should use a department where mostly all young people use to live.

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