Re-energizing Sales Grew Market Share "We knew that the key to successfully introducing new products in a cramped market was going to take more than just a great chip."
By Christina Sloan
The Challenge Li'L Guy Foods is a 43-year-old, third-generation, family-owned, Kansas City business. Despite our long history in Kansas City, and great consumer brand perception, growing our revenue base relative to the increased costs of doing business was a constant struggle. The question became: How could we use new products, packaging innovation and marketing to re-energize our company sales?
New Products With a Hook Kansas City consumers annually spend almost $6 million on tortilla chips, a segment of the $9 billion dollar national salty snack category. We knew that if we could leverage our experience in tortillas and tortilla chips, we could increase our market share using new product lines and innovations. We also knew that successfully introducing new products in a cramped market was going to take more than just a great chip. We began the search for a hook that could create value to chip consumers and be well-received by our retail partners.
The resulting idea was to create one of the industry's first "re-closeable chip bags." We investigated a number of Web sites where consumers wished for re-closeable chip bags. Blog and newsgroup posts were consistently crying foul, saying that companies didn't seem to care. If the product went stale before the bag of chips was done, the consumer had to buy more. These consumers resented the business models that so egregiously benefited the manufacturer and not the consumer. Our answer was practically given to us on a silver platter.
Preparing Ahead of Time for Success The process of adding new products and revamping our current chip lines touched every aspect of our company. Product development details required product and packaging development, consumer testing, retail placement and a comprehensive consumer/retailer marketing plan.
We knew early on that our marketing program and production would be closely tied. To meet the demand, we upgraded our fryer and installed more steeping vats. A new bagger allowed us to efficiently run our new high-end recloseable packages while providing the versatility for future growth by allowing the production of a new and wider variety of packing options.
Sponsorship Marketing The decision to partner with the Kansas City Chiefs was based on their ability to effectively bring our product to all our consumer and retail markets.
To best use our Chiefs tie-in, we decided to launch our new and revamped products at the start of the 2007 football season.
Chiefs branding on the new packaging was used to reinforce our hometown presence with consumers, and we used product sampling and giveaways at home games to put new products directly in consumers' hands. Retailers also loved our ability to bring a high-end sponsorship to their stores through our point-of-purchase and on-package branding.
Conclusion In a little under nine months, Li'L Guy Foods was able to bring to market our first new tortilla chip products in more than two years, and in more than 85 percent of Kansas City's retail grocers. Our goal was to create a long-term strategy that could create growth and increase relevancy with our customers. We know that our innovations in packaging have been successful in giving consumers new options for longer lasting products at home. And, our new flavored chips have created new retail relationships and re-energized our existing customer base.
Christina Sloan is vice president of Li'L Guy Foods. You can reach her at (816) 241-2000 or
The Challenge
