CAMPBELL SOUP COMPANY – BACK TO BASICS

Q1. What are the advantages of deep product mix to Campbell?

The primary advantage of a product mix is to give the company more opportunities to reach
customers. Many products in a product mix are related, so customers may feel an affinity for the
brand and will purchase similar products. .When a customer trusts one item from that brand, that
customer is more likely to trust a different product from the same brand. For instance, Campbell’s
soup account for over 60% of all US soups so due to its brand alignment, Campbell gain
opportunities to offer subsegments of this market such as dry soup, ramen noodle soups.The firm’s
mushroom farms, salmon processing plant, refrigerated salads line, and Italian cookie subsidiary
have also been up for sale due to Campbell’s brand promise.

Q2. Comment on Campbell’s strategy to go back to basics?

Campbell’s back to basics strategy are intended to target specific market segments and to promote
specific soup products. In past years, Campbell aused advertising messages that stressed the use of
soup in meals and the health value of soup. Its slogans – “M’m ! M’m! Good! and “soup is good
food” – had high recognition, but they did not directly sell the Campbell’s brand. For example, the
Campbell kids are being used to market a new line of children’s soups. Singing in rap style in one
television commercial, the kids say Campbell’s new Teddy Bear soup is “gonna make your mouth
happy”. And for the first time since the 1960s, Campbell’s bestselling tomato and chicken noodles
soups now have their own specific ad. One ad encourages homemakers to add their own ingredients
(like cheese, pasta, and even popcorn) to Campbell’s tomato soup. Other ad focus on such products
as low sodium soup, family sized cans for large families on a budget, and mushroom soup used as
stock for home-cooked meal. Similar strategies are being used for Campbell’s Franco-American
pastas, where Campbell is promoting a new line containing animals and other figures.

The firm assumed that promoting overall soup consumption would indirectly increase its sales
because its market share was so high. However, one flaw in this approach was that although
Campbell had a high overall share of the soup market, still it was not a major player in several
segments. For example, Campbell did not dominate the overall dry soup segment and such
subsegments of this market as dry ramen noodle soups from Japan.
 Q3. Relate the product life cycle (PLC) concept to Campbell’s current marketing
strategy.

Campbell’s present marketing efforts are intended to target specific market segments and to
promote specific soup products but it should also consider its other products such as dry soup,
ramen noodle soups, mushrooms, salmon processing plant, refrigerated salads line, and Italian
cookies that all are at growing stage, only soup category becomes at maturity stage and now it
needs a long term well defined marketing plan to remains at maturiy stage by means of advertising
& introducing new variants/products to competete; since raising sales via increased US soup
consumption will be difficult, per capita soup consumption has remained at 44 bowls for years and
Campbell seems to have saturated the market.