Case 3-2 Heinz Is Looking for Attention From upside-down bottles and wacky-colored ketchups to unusual store displays and customercreated television commercials, H. J. Heinz [http://bi.galegroup.com/essentials/company/304112?u=tlearn_trl] is definitely looking for attention. Although Heinz sells 650 million bottles of ketchup each year, the company is anything but complacent about keeping its brands and products in the public eye. One way it does this is by using special in-store displays. To catch the eye of tailgaters browsing in Sam's Club and other warehouse stores, the company has created cardboard displays shaped like the back of a pickup truck and filled them with grab-and-go picnic packs of Heinz ketchup, mustard, and relish. When Heinz introduces new products and packaging, it gains more shelf space, attracts attention, and highlights each item's appeal to the senses. Its E-Z-Squirt Ketchup, in vivid, childfriendly colors like green, purple, and blue, was a standout on store shelves. Its organic ketchup comes in an upside-down squeeze bottle with a green lid that sets the product apart while linking it to the category of natural and organic foods. Heinz is also developing a sweeter variety of tomato for future ketchup products. However, what appeals to consumers' taste buds in one country may not appeal in those in another country. \"Consumer tastes are still very local,\" observes a Heinz executive, \"[which is the reason why] we still like our recipes to be very locally tweaked, even in ketchup.\" Chefs, scientists, designers, engineers, and marketers work together to create and taste-test new ketchups and other food products at the Heinz Global Innovation and Quality Center outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The result is untraditional new flavors keyed to specific markets, such as the chili ketchup and sweet onion ketchup recently launched in U.K. stores. The center also hosts a \"supermarket\" where marketers can observe how consumers behave as they walk down aisles filled with products by Heinz and competing firms. With so many food products vying for attention in advertising media and on supermarket shelves, getting consumers to notice a ketchup adlet alone act on itis another key challenge. Heinz communicates through numerous messages running in print and broadcast media as well as online; it also uses in-store and in-restaurant communications to reinforce brand image and loyalty. Heinz has also sponsored Top This TV [https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=uh2FBhPGcHg] contests in which consumers submit homemade 30-second commercials featuring Heinz ketchup, which are then posted on YouTube for viewing and voting. The top prize is $57,000 (a play on \"Heinz 57 varieties\") and a spot on national TV for the winning commercial. To encourage participation and wave the brand banner, Heinz promotes these contests on its ketchup labels, on TV, in print, and online. Hundreds of consumers uploaded entries to the first two contests; many of these commercials, including those created by the finalists, are still available on YouTube and on Heinz's topthistv.com website. Media coverage and word-of-mouth buzz spread the contest message quickly and kept people talking about the homemade commercials even after the voting was over and the winners had been announced. Heinz also mounted a contest to gain community attention and involve U.S. students and teachers with the brand and its communications. The Ketchup Creativity contest invited students in grades 1 through 12 to submit artwork for Heinz single-serve packets. From more than 15,000 entries, the judges chose 12 winners to have their artwork displayed on millions of Heinz ketchup packets. Each winner received a $750 scholarship; each winner's school received $750 worth of Heinz ketchup and $750 worth of art supplies. Student-created artwork made the winning ketchup packets stand out and added to the visual appeal of a product that rarely gets the spotlight to itself.i Case Questions 1. Using the concepts discussed in this chapter, explain how Heinz has been successful in generating exposure and capturing attention. What other ideas would you suggest Heinz try to foster exposure, attention, and perception? 2. In terms of exposure, attention, and perception, what are some of the potential disadvantages of Heinz's Top This TV contests? 3. Do you think that Heinz will gain long-term benefits from holding a contest for students that focused on the visual appeal of designing single-serve ketchup packets? Explain your answer. i Daniel Lovering, \"Heinz Expands Global Tastes,\" Associated Press, February 4, 2008, www.ohio.com; Carrie Coolidge, \"Anticipation: H. J. Heinz,\" Forbes, December 10, 2007, p. 188; Donna Kardos and Matt Andrejczak, \"Food: Heinz Net Rises as Sales Offset Costs,\" Wall Street Journal, November 30, 2007, p. C11; Christopher Megerian, \"The Prize in the Parking Lot,\" BusinessWeek, September 3, 2007, p. 11; The Sauces and Condiments Aisle Was Shaken Up in March This Year by Heinz,\" Grocer, September 22, 2007, p. 44; \"Ketchup Passed as Art,\" UPI News Track, April 6, 2007, www.upi.comewstrack; Louise Story, \"Putting Amateurs in Charge,\" New York Times, May 26, 2007, pp. C1, C9; \"Heinz Launches Its Organic Tomato Ketchup,\" Marketing, February 7, 2007, p. 45