Sara Lee encourages food-lovers to get emotional
new marketing campaign designed to remind food lovers of the joys
of eating - shirking the trend towards functional foods.
The bread and dessert maker is rolling out a widespread campaign across all media for the full range of its branded products.
The advertising strategy, labelled 'the joys of eating', is an unusual move on the part of the company given the significant growth in demand for convenient and healthy foods.
Vice president of Sara Lee brands Peter Reiner said: "People may be busy, but they genuinely don't prefer functional food they can eat in the car. They are really emotionally connected to food, love food and would rather have fresh, great-tasting food."
He added: "The campaign breaks the convention of food advertising today by shifting the emphasis from 'functional food as hero in a chaotic world' to positioning all of our Sara Lee products as better, emotionally enjoyable and tasty choices."
As part of the marketing campaign, the company will target food-lovers and encourage consumers to add their own touches to Sara Lee desserts and cakes.
The launch of 'the joy of eating' will include a website forum where visitors can chat and exchange recipes.
The unusual campaign could be seen as an effort to rejuvenate the company who revealed earlier this month that it had fallen behind in achieving its target of €10bn in sales by 2010
Although net sales in the North American retail bakery sector rose 7 per cent to $499m (€391m), operating costs amounted to a loss of over $170m (€133m) for the financial year ending this month.
And net sales for the international bakery division fell 3 per cent to $742m (€581m)
The company is currently investing in restructuring geared at selling off assets like its European meats division, and other apparel including sportswear brand Champion, in a hope to concentrate on its more established bakery line, and other household goods.
