‘Where Went Wrong’

‘Campbell Soup’ a US based company that was known for their soup flavors & quality, since a
very long time. Campbell had two major competitors there, ConAgra & H.J Heinz, which were
doing well in their frozen food business with focusing on the dietary benefits. So the question
arises that if Campbell is good in its soup business as they are known for their soup business, can
they be good in food business also?

Yes, Campbell a well known brand for soups decided to enter into food business as they found
that the opportunity is there. People in US are becoming more health conscious and need healthy
food, but not in place of preferred medicine.

The name they have chosen for a meal, ‘IQ Meal’, feels like an electronic device which can cook
your meal. Brand name is the first thing that attracts the customer and this problem I believe
comes because of the person who had the responsibility for this product is from the technical
department. How can a person who is efficient technically or in R & D, can’t be good in
marketing and knows what actually customer wants.

The other problem is the way Campbell had structured the product itself. They came up with the
one price option which is again not decided by looking at the segment. The price was so high
that a normal middleclass person can’t afford that. They also didn’t give any flexibility in terms
of the product quantity.

One another major problem was the distribution channel they have chosen. That’s right that UPS
is known for their delivery quality but it doesn’t mean that they can satisfy the customer as a
company’s sales person can do. It created dissatisfaction among the customer and they stopped
buying the product.

These all problem generated because of the wrong vision of the CEO, who didn’t look at the
proper process for the new product development. He didn’t ask the sales or the marketing people
about the reaction of the customer and their actual needs. All this resulted into the failure of the
IQ Meal.

Conclusion

If we look at the history once we can find that if a company has core competency in something
and they are moving somewhere than mostly the result will be negative. So if Campbell is known
for Soup’s than they should expand that business either by adding some different flavors or by
giving some innovative product according to the requirement, which may be healthier soups
range.

Nikhil Singhal