Strategy and Tactics for 2014 August 12, 2013

• Where We Are Today

• Opportunities and Tactics for 2014

• Case Studies

• Brand foundation and promise have been determined and used as guideline for packaging refresh

• Spirited & Alive - Genuine and Real – Dedicated & Authentic

Where We Are

• Brand foundation used as a guide for the new packaging refresh on chip & kettle line

Where We Are

• Marketing communication strategy beyond packaging refresh has not been determined

• We have done a great job determining our brand foundation and rebranding our packaging. Now we need to build upon those efforts by understanding our consumers and determining what is a relevant connection to the Mikesell’s brand for them

Where We Are

• How do we market Mikesell’s for 2014 to increase revenue?

• How do we improve Mikesell’s with regards to the key strategic objectives and imperatives for 2014?

A Renewal Strategy

What: A strategy to revitalize brands that have a strong heritage.

Why: Longtime brands with ingrained equity and awareness often lose engagement with consumers. These brands are often jump-started by new leadership, or when it’s clear that they need a new life and new consumers.

RTB: Reconnecting consumers with forgotten comfort brands and introducing new consumers to the brand can be an effective strategy.

The Solution

• Market Opportunity: Grow as a vibrant Challenger, extending appeal to new, younger audiences (Millennials) while honoring the core.

• Reason To Believe: There is a difference between brands that have died and those that have been outplayed.

Why this strategy for Mikesell’s?

• Articulate our younger target - Who is he? How does he evolve the core Archetype/story?

How to implement?

Brand Archetypes

Matt’s a regular, “salt of the earth,” Midwestern guy, who lives in Dayton. He likes what he likes because it pleases him; not others. He’s proud of his roots, comfortable in his skin, and is loyal to what is familiar to him. He returns to the brands of his youth again and again, because he knows them. His view? “If I know it’s good, why go searching?”

He lives in the moment—following his moods and his passions—not high fashion. But don’t get the idea the Matt doesn’t have style, he does—loads of it. But it’s a style that’s all his own. He fills his closet the same way he fills his life and activities—what do I like? What am I in the mood for? What reflects me and my values? It’s not a style that’s contrived or overly analyzed—sure, it’s thoughtful but mostly it’s natural—i.e., a compilation of stuff that reflects who he is and who he aspires to be.

Meet Matt...

He takes his interests and passions seriously, but not himself. He’s as quick to make fun of himself as he is to laugh at all the stupid things and people in life. Quick, dry humor is his strength—there are just too many everyday things that shouldn’t go unnoticed!

Maintaining the lifestyle he wants is important to Matt, and because he doesn’t have a lot of discretionary income, he’s super savvy at finding deals on the things and places he loves (dining, bars and clothes). And if Mom and Dad are paying? He’s going! No apologies, no embarrassment—he enjoys his family and the finer things in life.

Mostly, Matt likes to hang out with his friends… at bars, fast casual dining, sports (watching and playing), shared passions (cars, music, canoeing) and just plain hanging out at someone’s house—especially before going out for the evening.

Spirited and alive. Genuine and real. Dedicated. That’s Matt.

Matt (con’t)...

• Build on the solid brand foundation to extend appeal and drive new promotion and product tactics- Focus near term on the Dayton market to build powerful

regional equity- Then, leverage Mikesell’s “no where but here” strength as

the basis for growth (“pull” through high demand vs. “push” strategy)

How to implement?

• Consumer • Heritage• Product• Social Media• Social Life• Events

Tactics for 2014

• Main Priority: Get to know our younger consumer through consumer research

• Why: Connecting with new audiences is the best way to understanding them and reaching them. Millennials, especially, want to be engaged.

Tactics - Consumer

• Research Objectives: - Understand the Mikesell’s brand values that appeal to each

generation and across generations. Which are the timeless values we can leverage best? (e.g., Authenticity)

- Understand Mikesell’s value and experience drivers (past and present) – e.g., quality impression, ingredients, imagery/iconography, history–to help shape the renewal strategy moving forward.

- Understand gaps and opportunities in the market not addressed by competitors and/or shortcomings of competitors (Frito)

- Understand chip drivers – i.e., what do people talk about when it comes to chips? What is particularly emotion-evoking that has not been addressed/explored fully?

Tactics - Consumer (con’t)

Research Methodology:

•Target: 3 Consumer Bases (with multi-generations in each) -Long-time fans-People who have tried the brand but don’t like it (yet)-New consumers who have never heard of Mikesell’s •Design: Focus Groups•Execution: Option 1 - External Firm; Option 2 - Deskey to design guide and facilitate onsite; contract with 3rd party research firm to conduct recruiting

Tactics - Consumer (con’t)

• Promote elements of Mikesell’s history that reinforce points of differentiation - Tell the story of longstanding manufacturing processes that have

contemporary appeal, especially those pertaining to Green/Recycling/Reuse practices and the Mikesell’s “craft” of chip-making that leads to distinctive product qualities

- Leverage the Dayton heritage as a family-owned, local company- Revitalize the concept of the Chipper Shipper program by selling

chips through the website and bundle with Dayton/Cincinnati regional food gift packages currently available online (e.g., bundle with Montgomery Ribs, Marion’s Pizza, Esther Price, Graeter’s Ice Cream)

Tactics - Heritage

• High quality standards = Your Promise - Ensure quality today is where it needs to be

• Seasonal or other Limited Time Offers (LTOs) aligned with regional foods/flavors and core values that transcend audiences and reinforce POD- Heritage – resurrect a beloved flavor or formula that is no longer

available- Midwest Family-Owned – Introduce regional favorite flavor/product

(e.g., Cincinnati Chili, Goetta) - Reinforce Quality – revive the Florida potato stamp/product

supported with promotion

Tactics - Product

• Market “Buy a case” to these users and to activities that they would do (i.e., having friends over to watch a game, throwing a party, hosting a cookout) and direct them to how easy it is to do with the online store. - Offer regional cases (“party box/kit,” sports box”) to buy online and

with a purchase of a case, include coupons for discounts on pizza, sports or University of Dayton t-shirts or memorabilia, discounts on tickets to sporting events. Customize these kits and offer them as exclusives with limited amounts of each available.

Tactics - Product (con’t)

• Run a kickstarter campaign to make a "new" user flavor—asking people to "donate" to the cause will get this flavor made and allow individuals to get involved—offer to send a case of the flavor if they donate X amount, free bag for X, etc., —this will give the community a cause to get behind and allows the brand to be pushed out into discussions.

• Product line optimization – maintain best selling products, while pruning the tired to enable room for new innovations.

Tactics - Product (con’t)

• A proactive engagement strategy for social channels - Millennials will want a different type of engagement so we will have to

develop a strategy that suits our various audiences including the use of other platforms (ex., Vine, Instagram)

• Revisit contests and sweepstakes to stay relevant to loyals but also reach our Millennials- Run online contests to become the ambassador similar to the Fox

Sports Ohio search to find their person — users submit short videos of why they like the chips, winner gets a case a chips a month, and we ask them to do things for us online (or possibly offline at Dayton events) during the year

Tactics - Social Media

• Use Facebook and Twitter to start building a larger fan base of Millennials (must be supported by social ad campaign)- Set up a discount code specific to Twitter that we can ask users to

tweet us pictures of their gatherings or chip experiences during the year, and when they do, the brand replies to them offering a discount code for the online shop (when that code is used, we then put something additional into their case when shipped as a reward — bonus item, merchandise, etc.)

• Polish the website (incorporate new personality messaging and visual cues)

Tactics - Social Media (con’t)

• Develop a Brand Ambassador Program- Millennials want to experience a brand. They want to make up their

own minds about the quality and value of a product. An acquisition strategy will be developed to identify and accept members into the program.

- Mikesell’s Fanbassadors would receive:• First tasting of new flavors• Special offers and coupons via social media• Surprise packages for parties (Superbowl, March Madness, spring

break road trips, etc.) to share with friends

Tactics - Social Life

• Food Trucks- Starting in Dayton, Mikesell’s should partner with food truck operators to

carry its snacks and sponsor various events with the truck owners, or participate in existing events such as First Friday Food Truck Rally.

• Truck Stops- Revisit the idea to own an event that would generate conversation through

social channels.- Travel to highly populated areas where Millennials frequent to pass out

free samples. • Identify other events to participate in: on-campus, Oregon District happy

hours, Tough Mudder, etc.

Tactics - Events

What: 2009 branding renewal designed to revamp the drink’s image, especially among young consumers

How (Tactics):

Redesigned packaging, with new retro-style logo based on an early Cheerwine logo

Partnered with Krispy Kreme to launch Cheerwine flavored LTO product

Relaunched original formula, with sugar (not HFCS)

Expanded distribution, mainly through Pepsi distributors

Cheerwine

Old SpiceWhat: Revival of the 71 year old deodorant line in 2011 to reconnect with younger generations

How (Tactics):

Incredibly successful “Old Spice Guy” ad campaign

New deodorant products aligned with need states (Smooth Blast, Game Day) and personality types (“Cunning Gentlemen,” “Nocturnal Creatures”)

Brand extension into contemporary adjacencies; e.g., Body Wash

New packaging that retains iconic Old Spice font, ship imagery, and red color

Results: Body Wash sales rose 40% in the first three months following the relaunch

Golden Wonder (UK)What: Founded over 60 years ago, Golden Wonder was once the biggest selling crisp brand in Britain, but was overtaken in the 1990s by Walkers which outspent and outsmarted it.

How (Tactics Underway):

Reminding consumers of the brand’s existence and what it stands for (i.e., heritage values)

Rebuilding retail distribution

Developing new flavors, and partnerships with others like Heinz

Social Media campaign, clearly challenging Walkers

Jumping swiftly on gaps in the market, such as a recent backlash of vegetarians against Walkers crisps, inspired the “vegetarians welcome” Facebook banners

Results so far: 47% increase in sales after first year

HaggarWhat: In 2011, the 85 year old men’s clothing manufacturer best known for popularizing the term ‘slacks’, made a plot to return to the conversation.

How (Tactics):

New ad campaign and eco-friendly product line to appeal to younger consumers

Email and social media push

Partnership with retailers for enhanced in-store

Results: Haggar’s core consumer fell from between 40 and 50 years old a decade ago to somewhere between 25 and 35 years old today

Thank You!

Appendix

• Maintaining the brand promise - If elements of Mikesell’s points of differentiation or overall promise

are weak/have weakened, then initiatives/tactics should be created to address issues affecting the consumer brand experience, e.g., Product Quality—Define clear and measurable targets and

implement metrics for tracking• Ensure Effective Retail Distribution

- If new users are not able to access the product when they try to, they will lose interest and sales will be lost (potentially forever as new users have no loyalty)

- Is expanded distribution needed to reach new users? Are current distributors refreshing shelves? Are new distributors interested? Developing clear tactics and support programs may be needed.

Drivers to Success

Millennial statistics regarding online usage:

In general:

-83% of 18-29 year old Internet users utilize social media (source: Pew Research)

-60% of Millennials produce and upload online content, including photos, videos, wiki entries, blog posts, micro-blog posts and product/service reviews, compared to 29 percent of non-millennials (source: Barkley, The Boston Consulting Group, SMG)

Communication Strategy

Millennial statistics regarding online usage (con’t):

Facebook:

- 1.4M men in Ohio between 24 and 48 are on Facebook (source: Engauge)

- 55 percent of American adults age 35 and under use Facebook every day (source: Associated Press CFK Group Poll)

Twitter: - 1.12M men in Ohio who are on Twitter are interested in Food (no age-based

targeting available) (source: Engauge)

Communication Strategy