Amanda Miner and Paige Sweet

MKT 302

Professor Pirouz

February 5, 2021

Case Analysis: Campbell Soup

Introduction:

Campbell Soup is a company founded in 1969 as the Joseph Campbell Preserve

Company. Started by two men, Campbell and Anderson, severed their partnership seven years

later. This split was due to differences in how they wanted to see the company grow in the future.

Campbell wanted to have it grow in the product type and have the growth increase significantly.

Anderson wanted to focus on having the existing product grow at a steady rate. The mantra that

Campbell created is how the company has grown and incorporated improvement into its goals

and products.

The company is primarily in the industry of food and beverage department, in their

category from 2007, they are ranked fourteenth in the amount of revenue received. Within the

food and beverage industry, Campbell Soup owns 4100 trademarks in 160 different companies.

They have a wide variety of products that are varying in region and price point. In North

America, they have a substantial lead over their categories where they consistently rank 1 or 2.

Since they have a strong industry position, it protects them from financial trouble.

Questions that Faced Campbells:

When the company began to look at their goals on how they could fit best in the industry,

it changed how they positioned themselves. Campbell's put these goals into three different

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categories: health and wellness, expansion, and corporate development. This created a focus on

branding for healthier markets, expanding into new partnerships, finding new markets, and

increasing innovation and corporate responsibility growth.

From a goal perspective, some of the questions that Campbell's can ask are as follows:

How can the company's expansion expand into new markets and for a healthy consumer? How

can the company advance its social responsibility? How can there be an improvement in the

company? In 2008 when the company requested assistance, they looked at what are ways to

understand their consumer? When we put changes in the soups, should it be all of them or rolled

out at a controlled pace? Should the advertising of the company re-do the soup cans?

Gathering Research:

In the past, Campbell Soup focused on brand equity and relationships with retailers. This

focus promoted sales but did not help Campbell's understand who their end users were. The

importance of knowing behaviors and attributes about their end-user would help retain existing

customers and connect with new customers. Campbell's needed a packaging and a product

revamp. By getting to know more about who was buying their soups, Campbell's could create a

product line that fit their customers.

To understand what was relevant to the end consumer, Campbell Soup had to do more

than focus groups and surveys. They chose three companies to collect data in three different

ways. Choosing three data collection companies is vital because Campbell's maintained diversity

in their collection tools. This diversity creates unbiased data, which is better for decision making.

Campbell Soup also collected data in a way that was unconventional at the time. They were not

only understanding what their customers did but why they did what they did. Collection tools

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that incorporated neuroscience and the live shopping environment would give Campbell's more

information on how to revamp their product line based on their customers.

Ways that Campbell's decided to collect information from their consumers, they used

numerous methods. One method was using an MRI scan to see what people thought of the

product and how that would change the rest of the company. This the company to consider how

their current consumers would feel about their methods. This was the first time the industry was

beginning to use biometrics for something that was not directly health-related. People who were

aware of this information might find it an invasion of privacy and something that they believe is

not necessary to be on the soup market's cutting edge.

Understanding the Market:

Customers have the option to buy soup in three different ways: canned, dehydrated, or

broth and bouillon. Of the three types of soup, canned soup is the most developed category.

Being the strongest product, improving canned soup is in Campbell Soup's best interest.

Additionally, customers have shown a liking towards healthier low-calorie soup options.

Forty-five percent of Campbell's soups are below one hundred calories, and about one-third of

their soups have a half cup of vegetables. Finally, Campbell Soup has customers internationally.

The United States is the largest market and is working on emerging into Brazil, India, China, and

Russia. Soup consumption in Russia and China is the highest out of the emerging markets that

Campbell's is targeting.

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Competitor Analysis and Segmentation:

Because Campbell Soup's primary markets are in the United States, its main competitors

are in the United States market. Major competitors include ConAgra Foods, General Mills,

Hormel Foods, Unilever, Kraft, and Heinz. Similar to Campbell Soup, all these competitors have

acquired multiple brands or have merged with other companies. That means all of their

competitors are diversified as far as product categories. Additional competition comes from

private labels that retailers launch. These private labels offer healthier and cheaper alternatives to

Campbell Soup. This puts Campbells in an unusual position because they are now competing

with their retail customers.

Industry Analysis:

First, the food and beverage industry is driven by the United States as it is the most

significant geographical center of interest for companies. In the United States, there is an upward

trend towards at-home consumption, which includes soups. Moreover, the food and beverage

industry does not have to worry about the threat of recession. Despite income, consumers still

have no choice but to eat and drink.

Next, there are two types of food and beverage companies: those that participate in

middle stages and those that participate in late stages. Companies that participate in the middle

stages may harvest or mill raw agricultural products. Later stage companies usually manufacture

or package products. Neither of these types of food and beverage companies interacts with

consumers; instead, they interact with packers or retailers. Because these companies do not deal

with the end-user, they do not know much about the buying or consumption process.

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 Finally, the government highly regulates the food and beverage industry. Most of these

laws control different parts of the value chain. This regulation makes it harder for new smaller

companies to enter into the industry. To become a more developed company, many brands and

companies consolidate or acquire one another. Subsequently, fifteen companies hold fifty percent

of the market share.

Recommendations:

Currently, Campbell Soup has dedicated a portion of its margin to the research and

development processes. Campbell's uses 1.5 cents of every can towards this opportunity, and a

wide range of companies do the primary research on their behalf. Suppose there is an increase in

the budget for these efforts. In that case, they might create an internal department that allows for

the growth in the industry that is very specific to them.

As consumers look for healthier soup options, it would be beneficial to showcase how

Campbells is already making healthy soup. Campbells would not have to dedicate time and

resources to create new products. Instead, they could relabel the products they already have. This

would be cheaper and allow them to join the market quicker and be apart of the trend.

Resegmenting towards healthier consumers would most-likely require a change in

packaging. To avoid the brand from becoming completely unrecognizable, the company would

have to still incorporate original logos and slogans on their new soup flavors. A recommendation

is to keep the original packaging on the main best-selling products. For example, keep the same

packaging the same as the original on tomato, chicken noodle, and cream of chicken. This would

keep the existing customers coming back and would not upset them by the new packaging shift.

Additionally, the new packaging that includes the original packaging elements may attract new

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customers back to the original packaging. Andy Warhol displayed the Campbell Soup label as

one of the iconic packaging designs among food brands globally. This recognition is another

reason Campbell Soup should keep some parts of its original brand.