Diamond Shares the Love for Kettle Brand Chips

San Francisco — Diamond Foods' Kettle Brand, which has relied on grassroots growth for 30 years, launched its first national campaign in 2011. Knowing there are devoted fans of the Kettle Brand chips out there, the company sought to attract more with a campaign featuring the tongue-in-cheek tagline "Nobody Likes Kettle Chips. They Love Them.""That word 'love' is what sets [Kettle] chips apart," says Ching-Yee Hu, Diamond Foods' director of marketing, describing the insights derived from focus groups conducted in the spring and summer of 2011. "This is a wonderful brand with a lot of potential. We want to make sure more consumers can discover Kettle Brand chips."As part of the campaign, Diamond Foods offered 30,000 coupons for a free bag of chips to its Facebook fans, while supplies lasted. They didn't last long – within four hours of availability, Hu says, all the coupons were snapped up. The overall effort included TV sports, digital ads, online videos, in-store activity and FSIs.Hu says Diamond actively partnered with retailers but declined to identify which ones. She says the company is considering similar opportunities going forward. "Salty snacks tend to be an impulse purchase. What we are hoping to do for retailers is take an impulse item and make it a little less impulse-driven, driving more considered purchases in-store for our retail partners."While the campaign did not target any particular retail channel, Hu says, Diamond is focusing on expanding single-serve options in grocery deli sections and convenience stores. In 2011, Kettle Brand saw 37% growth in convenience channels. Hu says Diamond actively works with regional retailers in "key opportunity markets." While Diamond has a heritage on the West Coast, Hu says there was an opportunity in the rest of the country.For the campaign, Diamond rolled out a new shipper that integrated the campaign messaging and highlighted Kettle Brand packaging. "For a lot of consumers that love Kettle, the bags are a key association with the brand," Hu says.While Hu calls results so far "really encouraging" – particularly in terms of revenue from key retail partners in October and November – she declined to provide more detail. She notes that Kettle's Facebook fan base has tripled, and that there is indication of a measurable lift in brand awareness.Hu adds that since Diamond Foods acquired Kettle Brand parent company Kettle Foods in 2010, there has been significant investment in the brand, including an increase in manufacturing capacity that is slated for completion in the first half of 2012.Kettle Brand advertising spending for the second half of 2011 – a large part of the spending for the fiscal year – was 20-25% greater than spending for the same period of the prior year, she says.Deutsch, Los Angeles, handled the creative. Maxwell PR Studio, Portland, Ore., handled public relations. Mars Advertising, Southfield, Mich., designed the in-store elements.

Diamond Shares the Love for Kettle Brand Chips

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