Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e- Advertising and Sales
Promotion
Text © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002http://www.mhhe.com/fourps
449
http://www.mhhe.com/fourps
Lay’s were cut from a thin
sheet of dough made from
potato flakes. No one knew
if people would pay a higher
price for a crisp; it was a newunsought product.
Baked Lay’s went into
national distribution in the late
fall, but initial sales were only
one-third of the forecast. Tradepromotion and personal selling
had helped get Baked Lay’s
on store shelves, but without
TV ads to give a reason to buy,
the packages were collectingdust. By contrast, regular
Lay’s were selling well even
though there had been little
advertising since the “bet you
can’t eat just one” campaignover a year earlier. Yet itusually does take more ad
weight to introduce a new
product—even one with a
famous name—than to sup-
port an existing one. AndJohnson knew that it would
take effective advertising to
win back the support of
Frito-Lay salespeople and to
interest consumers in bakedcrisps.
Johnson had worked with
BBDO—Lay’s long-time ad
agency—to set specific objec-
tives for the campaign and tocreate an attention-getting ad
that would interest women with
a low-fat pitch, but not turn off
men—who are the biggest
snackers. The launch of thecampaign was on New Year’sDay with an ad that showed a
trio of supermodels doing
unlikely things like chowing
down on the crisps. The
tagline “Now you can eat likeone of the guys and still look
like one of the girls” gave con-
sumers permission to indulge
their cravings without the guilt.
That copy thrust hit the rightchord with women, and it
didn’t turn off men. It was also
consistent with the “better for
you” positioning of Frito-Lay’s
whole low-fat line. A heavyflight of ads ran on targeted
media throughout the spring.
Research on the effective-
ness of the ads showed
strong results, but the adsdidn’t carry the whole load inhttp://www.mhhe.com/fourps
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