Triscuit Brand Repositioning (“Trisophistication”)
May 14th, 2009 by Ace
Caught our fine friends at Nabisco (subsidiary of Kraft “no, we’re not owned by Philip Morris anymore” Foods) in the much-practiced but little-acknowledged act of brand repositioning, so egregiously that I couldn’t help but document it. In each of the pictures below, the box on the left is the old Triscuit box; the box on the right is the new Triscuit box.
FRONT
Note:
- The transition from the curved County Fair-like logo with hard edge and bold-accented font, to the flat-line, soft-haloed, blog-like font with wider spacing;
- The artsy all-caps with “scratch” border added to the “Original” designation;
- The similar change in the style of the heart, plus its reduction to a minor presence in the layout;
- The elimination of the “Made with 100% whole grain” and “0g Trans Fat” designations from the heart;
- The shift in the depicted food layout from the Midwestern picnic-style white plate with cheddar and grapes to the herb-accented cutting board and marbled cheddar (LOL!);
- The overall moderation of the color palette, especially the change from the yellow stone-like background to the brown-golden parchment-like one.
BACK
Note:
- The complete replacement of any sort of nutritional, health or weight management advocacy with the “romantic” tableau, depicting the product in context with a wine glass and cloth placemat, and used as the foundation of a more complex cuisine;
- The use of the descriptive text to create associations of comfort and luxury.
SIDE
Note:
- The alteration of the description of Triscuits as involving a “process” that creates a cracker one can “feel good about eating” to asserting that Triscuits are “carefully woven” and “baked to perfection”, creating associations of artisanship, and derivative implications of connoisseurship on the part of the purchaser;
- The removal of the “Low Saturated Fat”, “No Cholesterol” and “Sugar Free” designations;
- The change of the associated cross-brand catch phrase from “Sensible Snacking” to “Sensible Solution”, presumably to avoid the negative connotations associated with “snacking” and substitute a more pro-active sounding term;
- The removal of the secondary product shot in favor of short how-to recipes for the Triscuit-based items pictured (including tie-ins to other Kraft products, naturally);
- The change of the Web tie-in from the complicated and nutritionally associated Nabiscoworld Sensible Snacking subdirectory to the straightforward and brand-focused Triscuit dot com.
Might we logically conclude from this that Nabisco is seeking to position Triscuits in such a way as to appeal to a more affluent, worldly, possibly younger and less health conscious strata of consumer, one that places emphasis on cultural sophistication and upward mobility?
Nah…
Bonus!: SIDE 2 (Nutritional Panel)
Note:
- The conversion from the exclusive use of soybean oil to soybean “and/or” palm oil;
- The change of the Saturated Fat content per serving from 0.5g to 1g. (While this might be the basis of the removal of the “Low Saturated Fat” designation on the other side panel, the total fat cited in that designation [4.5 grams per serving] remains constant. Also, the sub-types of fats listed on the original panel only add up to 4g total, making it unclear whether there was a numerical error that has been corrected on the new panel, or an unlisted type of fat was replaced by more saturated fat [such as that in palm oil]);
- The change in the RDA% of sodium from 7% to 8%, despite no change in the milligram content or RDA statistics (by the math it’s 7.5%, so maybe they’re rounding up);
- The inclusion of a potassium RDA%;
- The correction in the RDA% of dietary fiber from 13% to 12% (now mathematically accurate);
- The mysterious halving of iron RDA% from 8% to 4% (difficult for me as a layperson to get a comparison of iron content in soybean oil vs. palm oil without subscribing to an academic nutritional or chemical analysis journal, so don’t know if that’s it);
- The disappearance of monoglycerides (also weird on every level, as they’re commonly used as binders or emulsifiers between ingredients, and there were supposedly only three ingredients to begin with; are those ingredients now getting along? Does the palm oil do whatever the monoglycerides were doing?)
- The removal of Kraft Foods Global to Northfield, Illinois, where the rent is probably a lot cheaper than in East Hanover, New Jersey.
I’m a geek about this kind of stuff. I love looking at how packaging has changed over the years.
It seems to me that when a packaged food item changes its look, it’s often a distraction away from the changes in its product.
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Whoa, this in intense/astute/interesting… Have you ever considered a blog devoted to the subject of packaging/food marketing?
It’s probably a combination of factors leading to this change. First, I think the Obama administration is putting the fear of the FDA into Big Food again. Especially in light of the recent Cheerios kerfuffle:
http://www.fda.gov/foi/warning_letters/s7188c.htm
If the letter is coming public now, makes you wonder how long Big Food has been receiving warnings about the “health” claims they put on their food.
I think we’ll see a lot of companies quietly shutting up about the healthiness of their processed, mass-produced foods.
Secondly, the brouhaha about trans fats has made it important to find low-cost sources of fats which do not contain trans fats but can still provide the mouthfeel and emulsifying properties of trans fats. Palm oil fits the bill.
Thirdly, palm oil contains saturated fat. Although the more rigorous scientific studies show that saturated fat is actually not a threat to cardiovascular health and can actually improve it in some instances, most governmental public health agencies are still stuck on the outdated idea that saturated fats are bad. Therefore, the heart healthy claims have to go. Ironically, Triscuits may be less heart UNhealthy now than they were before. However, this by no means makes them heart healthy, so it’s probably good that the heart healthy claim goes.
I used to love Triscuits when I was younger but found the texture kind of lacking as an adult. Maybe palm oil will improve that.
Ten Feet: Thanks for widening the aperature to include the political context, and for your spot-on summary regarding trans/saturated fats and palm oil. I wasn’t aware of the Cheerios letter. I’m thrilled to see Big Food shut up about anything, although I do cynically wonder how much difference it will make in the long run. Witness the following scary, scary article published on May 14th in the New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/business/15ingredients.html?_r=1&ref=health
Joy: I would love to a do a blog devoted to discussion of packaging and marketing, not just for food, but for everything, advertising in general– all the silly, crazy, tricky, tricky stuff that corps use to make you think you want their stuff, and would prefer not to have a light shone on. (I heard today that Snapple took enough flak for having “The Best Stuff on Earth” include high fructose corn syrup that they’ve replaced it with straight-up sugar, and have launched an advertising campaign to sell that change to the public– but neither do they dare mention that sugar is what replaced the corn syrup! Twisted…) But I barely have enough time to provide content here. Better that I clutter up Yoko’s recipes with hopeless academia.
At least for now…
I share your lack of optimism when it comes to food safety, but I do think that advertising claims on food products may change.
As for a blog devoted to marketing, until you set up yours, I think you’ll enjoy this guy’s:
http://copyranter.blogspot.com
so… I am looking at this… and thinking “It’s all nice and dandy, that I see 61% less sodium| on the box… then I read the ingredients…
so
Tell me… what the hell is ingredient “IL# D5068″. It seems weird that this ingredient is listed after a period, unlike with the other ingredients, that are separated with a comma … but this is definitely in the list of ingredients.
Nothing like being cryptic on your list of ingredients eh?… no searches turned up anything on this…
good point matthew (yes, my name is matthew too). i actually arrived at this site while searching for that ingredient (if it is indeed an ingredient). i guess no one has had any luck yet?
Hello Matthew and Matthew:
I’m a bit at a loss to respond to your query, because I don’t see the ingredient designation IL#D5068 anywhere in the pictures I shot for this article, nor anywhere on the box of Triscuits I pulled out of my pantry. (Possibly the addition is very new?) If I had to guess, though, I would bet that it’s NOT an ingredient, but a designation: “Ingredient List #D5068″.
I submitted an e-mail to Nabisco via their web site asking for an explanation.
According to Kim McMiller, Associate Director of Consumer Relations at nabiscoworld.com:
Mystery solved.
This is a very interesting conversation. As someone with allergies, I am always looking at ingredients to be sure I can safely eat something. I was curious about the IL # D5068 as well. Good to know it’s just an internal recipe thing. Thanks!
Canola oil: 0mg iron/ 1Tbsp (14g)
Palm oil: trace iron/1Tbsp (14g)
Source: Kirschmann, John D and Nutrition Search, Inc. “Nutrition Almanac”, 6th ed. McGraw-Hill, 2007.
I came looking for the tracking number myself, and saw that you lacked the assay info, so I thought I’d share. (The Nutrition Almanac is really great if you want to know what’s in natural foods, and what foods to eat for various micronutrients).