Campbell planning $100 million repositioning effort

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Campbell Soup Company outlined long-term growth plans for its core businesses in healthy beverages, baked snacks and simple meals during a meeting with investors at its recently completed Campbell Employee Center. Douglas Conant, Campbell’s CEO, opened the meeting with an overview of the company’s strategies, recent performance and key success factors.


He outlined Campbell’s key success factors for long-term growth:

•Drive superior sales growth in healthy beverages and baked snacks through increased innovation, including wellness, and higher levels of marketing support.
•Improve sales growth in simple meals by:
?Expanding its global soup leadership position with regional business building efforts, stepped up innovation and increasing emphasis on emerging markets for long-term growth.
?Increasing its focus on meal makers such as broth, sauces and cooking soups.
Campbell outlined growth plans for healthy beverages, anchored by “V8” juices, and baked snacks, anchored by Pepperidge Farm and Arnott’s, and said it intended to increase its focus on these businesses.

Denise Morrison, President North America Soup, Sauces and Beverages, described Campbell’s plans for soup in fiscal 2011. As previously announced, Campbell will reposition its U.S. condensed soup line with enhanced ingredients, improved taste, more contemporary packaging and further sodium reduction.

Morrison also described Campbell’s plans to introduce an umbrella advertising campaign to reposition “Campbell’s” soup in simple meals and support its entire U.S. soup portfolio. This effort will combine the budget of Campbell’s U.S. soup brands and deliver an integrated campaign with spending levels well above $100 million.

Morrison said, “Soup provides great value, variety and versatility compared to other options consumers have for lunch and dinner. Campbell will continuously remind people of all the amazing things soup can do.”

RBR-TVBR observation: This might be a great time to reach out to Campbell’s media agency of record, Mediaedge/MEC and find out what that campaign will entail. You can bet it will include radio and television, but making good creative media pitches now might get the right attention – and dollars – flowing your way.