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Chef America
CHATSWORTH,
CA
Chef
America is the undisputed leader in the frozen sandwich category. They
manufacture many food products including Belgian Chef Waffles, Hot Pockets,
Lean Pockets and Toaster Pockets. While at Chef America, I helped them
increase their sales ten-fold.
There
were several key areas. First was building Hot Pockets. When I joined
the company the product had just been introduced in the Los Angeles area.
We utilized many forms of research to understand the consumer, including
home use tests, focus groups, panel data and scanner data. From this information
we developed advertising campaigns to emotionally reach our target audience.
Also a critical factor to our success was gaining complete support from
the retailers. We accomplished this by working with food brokers and customizing
programs to match each retailer. We avoided the standard pitfall of creating
one program and forcing every retailer to either accept or reject it.
Through testing we also learned when were the best times to use couponing
and advertising. We even were able to determine the most effective times
of day to run television ads. Once we had this information, we ran many
national TV and couponing campaigns.
Another
key area for success was the creation of Lean Pockets. When creating a
line extension, it is imperative to minimize sales cannibalization. We
avoided this by understanding our two target audiences and building similar,
yet independent brand positioning. Had we not done that, we could have
severely hurt Hot Pockets sales. We positioned Lean Pockets to appeal
to women, with a focus on working women. The packaging and all the advertising
supported the brand identity.
The
last key element to the success of both brands was the invention of the
microwave crisping sleeve. Up to that point, the only crisping material
that had been used was a disc to heat microwave pizza. I came up with
the concept of encasing the sandwiches in this crisping material, called
"suceptor film." It made the product crisp out of the microwave,
and we were able to knock out several competitors from the category.
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