For years, Ball Park was the No. 2 player in hot dogs. That is, until parent
company Sara Leemaker of Hillshire Farm meats and Jimmy Dean breakfast
sandwichesturned to insights, backed by innovation, to take share from and
ultimately usurp the lead spot from Kraft competitor Oscar Mayer. (Per IRI, Ball
Park is now the beef hot dog sales leader, based on data for the 52 weeks ending
March 7.) The brands ascension was informed by research which showed that moms
were the primary buyers of the product, but that teenage boys, too, enjoyed
eating it. Such a consumer-centric approach has helped Sara Lee drive growth,
said CMO Philippe Schaillee. Schaillee spoke to Brandweek about why Big Food is
likely to roll out major new innovations later this year and how social media
helped Sara Lees deli business gain prominence with moms. Excerpts from the
interview appear below.
Brandweek: At a recent industry conference, you spoke about how Sara Lee is
using insights to drive innovation. Give us an example of how that worked for a
major brand.
Philippe Schaillee: I will talk to you about the Ball Park brand. For many
years, we communicated Ball Park through traditional TV and print, primarily to
a male audience. We had this character called Frank, and wed talk about the
grilling occasion and that great experience youd get from [cooking with] Ball
Park hot dogs. Looking back, Id say that was [both] intuition- and
research-based, but it wasnt really insights- based. As we dove much deeper
into an understanding of the consumer and shopper, we learned a few things. One
was that the brand was overindexing with males. They are looking for the
heartiness and real quality of a Ball Park hot dog. But [the brand] was also
overindexing more with teenage boys than with adult males. Once we learned that,
we started to look into the shopper of this [brand] and learned that she was
really looking for a hearty solution for her teenage son and husband. She
[wanted something that wasnt] just a lower quality snack or that would get them
into this mindless eating behavior, but something that was solid, yet still fast
and convenient. That [discovery] was a breakthrough.
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