KitchenAid Encourages Baking for Breast Cancer Research

Whirlpool Corp., Benton Harbor, MI, and its KitchenAid brand have had an ongoing relationship with Susan G. Komen for about 14 years, yet participation among retailers and shoppers had waned over time.So they turned to Catapult Marketing, Westport, CT, for the cure to that dilemma, which resulted in a fall 2015 campaign aimed at independent retailers but also enthusiastically adopted by hardware and home center chains that drove significant jumps in awareness — and, although it wasn’t the main focus, sales — despite an investment of only about $800 per store. They repeated the campaign this past fall and may do so again.The “10,000 Cupcakes, One Great Cause” campaign, an entry in the Institute's 2016 Design of the Times competition, invited consumers to bake cupcakes and share photos of them on social media with hashtags #10000cupcakes and #donate. This triggered a $1 donation from KitchenAid to Komen, up to $10,000.“We hit upon a great consumer insight: people want to get involved,” says Stacey Rubin, senior vice president, accounts for Catapult. “Also, smaller retailers don’t have [large budgets] and are hungry for turnkey programs that help them connect with consumers on a local level. This was a win-win-win for consumers, retailers and the brand.”The campaign, which centered around an in-store graphic with an overhead shot of pink cupcakes in a kitchen scene, spread to a total of 31 retailers in 2015 and a few more in 2016, including regional retailers Nebraska Furniture Mart and hhgregg and national chains Lowe’s and The Home Depot. Catapult produced 16,500 of the displays in 2015.The end results for 2015: 14,000 social media posts, 29,000 visits to the promotional microsite, the full $10,000 worth of donations, and a 20% sales lift for KitchenAid in the fourth quarter of 2015, including an 85% sales lift in October 2015 at Nebraska Furniture Mart and a 55% boost in online sales for hhgregg.“The primary goal was retailer engagement, so for a program that hadn’t gotten retailers involved, that was a huge [key performance indicator] and a huge win,” Rubin says. “Number two was consumer engagement, both in terms of brand and cause, and we met our KPIs in terms of getting people to post. … Sales were never a KPI, but we were very happy to say that we did get significant sales lift during the program.”The initial impetus for the campaign drew from a number of insights: KitchenAid customers love cooking and causes but aren’t sure if their individual efforts change much and might respond well to a group call-to-action. These customers, particularly Millennials, also want to connect with brands that share their values. Appliance retailers want easy-to-execute experiences that will stand out in the “sea of stainless” and drive traffic.“Our goal was to create an alignment, so they were contributing and getting their hands dirty,” Rubin says. “That led us to look around at trends in our marketplace and realize the cupcakes are a relevant trend in the food world. Finally, there was the trend of what we call ‘food-stagramming,’ people making food and taking pictures of it. We put that all together.”“It started as a program for the independents who lack marketing budgets and assets. But then, key accounts got interested.” – Stacey Rubin, Catapult senior vice president, accountsBefore consumers reached the store, the path to purchase was laid with “a really big toolkit,” which included a KitchenAid microsite, assets for a variety of social channels, email promotions and digital assets for retailers including banner ads and social posts that they could personalize, Rubin says.As the promotion moved into year two, KitchenAid created a video for retailers to share online and via social media, as well as a sell sheet that suggested how to create events where people could take pictures of themselves holding the cupcakes and go to an in-store photo booth to upload them, Rubin says.Individual retailers unlocked their own creative appeals. Nebraska Furniture Mart held “huge” events, she says, while hhgregg leveraged its blogger networks and created its own contests. More than 20 independent retailers overall got involved. “We were not targeting big-box stores,” Rubin adds. “It started as a program for the independents who lack marketing budgets and assets. But then, key accounts got interested.”Although originally intended as a one-year program, “10,000 Cupcakes” proved so successful that retailers demanded it back — and Whirlpool quadrupled the budget to $100,000 for 2016, primarily to fund the video work, “which we felt was an important element to increase the emotional connect to the program,” Rubin says. She feels “90% sure” that there will be a year three.

KitchenAid Encourages Baking for Breast Cancer Research

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