Oreo Promotion and Price Analysis

Essay by shellymichaelsUniversity, Bachelor'sA, March 2007

download word file, 4 pages 5.0

Nabisco Oreo Cookies, a brand that is older than the automobile assembly line. It is estimated that an average of 4.3 billion cookies have been eaten each year over the last 90 years. How does the number one sandwich cookie remain number one and not crumble? This paper will examine the marketing messages conveyed via television, print, and point of purchase for the 91-year-old sandwich cookie created in 1912. Secondly, an overview evaluating message positioning as it relates to the appeal of the target market will be presented. Thirdly, the position of Oreo brand products in the products' lifecycle will be described in relation to the status quo pricing of the industry.

These days, food commercials glamorize eating "experiences." Kraft and Nabisco approach the Oreo in the same way. Eating an Oreo is not just eating an Oreo, they say, it is the experience of dunking it in milk, twisting it apart and licking it clean.

Television commercials allude to this ritual as a passing on of a family tradition. This type of message targets both the children and older adults alike. Reminiscing about that childhood experience, dunking Oreos in milk and sharing that with a child or grandchild is the expected response from the television commercials' promotional message (Barboza, 2003). An "Oreo Cookie" commercial, for example, features a little girl who is about four years old mimicking her grandfather's actions in eating a cookie. By using youth and old age in commercials, advertisers can sell nostalgia as a way of making commercials more memorable. The goal being, if consumers remember the commercials then they are likely to remember and purchase the product.

Commercials also target the health conscious, by reducing fat in cookies and developing alternative Oreo options to include Carb-Well Oreos, and 100-Calorie thin crisps. In addition,