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American food is about to look a little bit duller, but thats probably for the best. Since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. introduced a ban targeting eight synthetic dyes in processed food, Kraft Heinz and General Mills have both committed to removing them across all their product lines by the end of 2027 in what will be the most significant ingredient shift in the processed food industry since the ban of trans fats in 2018. But PIM Brandsmakers of Welchs Fruit Snacks, the top seller in its category worldwideposits that this transition may be harder than it looks, at least if companies want to protect the bright color experience of their products. It would be darn impossible, in my opinion, to just snap your fingers and say, Okay, we’re gonna make everything better in the next year or two, says Michael Rosenberg, president & CEO of PIM Brands. I think Americans are just a little bit more aggressive and punchy and just want to visually enjoy their products. Its a challenge of both consumer expectations around product consistency, but also, in terms of human perception: Bright colors can actually make things taste sweeter or skew our tastebuds in other ways. Today, the company is announcing that its removed all artificial dyes from its mixed fruit Welchs Fruit Snacks, with the remainder of its portfolio transitioning next year. But the road to get here was anything but quick or easy for the companydespite having its own food science team in-house. Instead, its been a 10-year process, the company says, adding that it couldnt have possibly reacted rapidly to the demands of the new administration. It happens that all this coalesced just as the MAGA movement was really intensifying, but that’s just pure coincidence, says Rosenberg. Because we started working on this before any of this ever was even on anybody’s radar screen. Welch’s Fruit Snacks with artificial dyes (left cluster) and new natural dyes (right) [Photo: courtesy of the author] The challenge of natural dyes The big truth about dyes is that they make up very little of the food we eatmaybe 0.5% of a Welchs Fruit Snack is added color by volume, according to Bhavna Ramani, chief R&D and production officer of PIM Brands. But their use has still prompted legitimate health concerns from researchers. The synthetic dyes used in the U.S. arent actually banned in Europe, but since 2010 manufacturers have had to place a warning label on foods in the region using them. Manufacturers have tried to avoid using these warnings, so their versions of products like Fruit Loops often eliminate artificial dyes and appear duller as a result. The Welchs team tracked these concerns a decade ago, and began a plan to transition its product. Its challenges ranged from feasibility (how do you source a color as rare as blue?) to its own scalethe companys own color suppliers couldnt meet their demand. As of today, a simple Welchs Fruit Snack is a portrait of our complex global industrial supply chain. The majority of its ingredients are a real fruit puree that match the flavor they’re advertising. That means for a strawberry snack, the company uses strawberries rather than defaulting to cheaper ingredients like apples and pears and supplementing flavor with extracts. But these fruits generally dont supply the amount of color to which artificial dyes have accustomed us: peach, for instance, would be but the faintest shade of orange without dye. Welchs approach means that it already sources 30 different fruits from countries around the globe, tracking seasonal produce worldwide so that it can constantly produce all of its flavors of fruit snack. When its hot in one place, its cold in another, says Rosenberg. So we’re really traversing the globe for our raw materials. Shifting to natural dyes meant shifting from a synthetic supply chain, derived from abundant petroleum, to a complex global footprint with similar problems to Welchs primary fruit sourcing. Imagine that you need a certain fruit to source a certain color. If its grown in China instead of India, it will be different due to the climate and terroir. Each fruits hue could shift alongside ensuing chemical differences. That means fruits sourced from two different parts of the globe for color need to be constantly rebalanced and mixed appropriately to control each shade. Furthermore, those natural ingredients come with added concerns around contamination and food safety that dont accompany their sterile synthetic counterparts. Any color but brown Making matters tricker is that processed foods add dyes in part because they oxidize, turning food brown over time. Thats specifically a concern for Welchs, which are mostly oxidation-prone fruit thats been stabilized in gelatine (which is less color-dependable than drier processed foods due to its water content). The team clarifies that not all products are as tricky to update with natural dyes as their own productRamani notes that hard candies, for instance, should be much easier, as desiccant sugars and corn syrup keeps colors more stable. The other unique challenge facing Welchs is that this fruit creates acidity, and acids, too, will break down natural colors. Each different colorlike the yellows in its orange snacks, and the reds in its strawberryhad to be developed on its own. The company also created a new, proprietary process to add its natural dyes to its puree on the assembly line at a precise moment, using just the right methodnd it updated its own packaging to tweak the exchange of oxygen. Even still, to validate each color, they didnt want to simply simulate the effects of heat or humidity. So they created the snacks and let them sit on the shelf, analyzing them each month for 18 months to see if the color shifted. The tests involved dozens of different natural dyes to find those that worked best. There were times where we’re at, you know, six months, seven months, and we didnt like the way the color had held up, says Ramani. And so then we got to start over again, right back at one month. Yellow was the first color Welchs solvedin 2015, concerns of yellow dyes spiked with research linking them to cancer triggersand in what the team deemed to be relatively easy fix, it replaced its synthetic yellow with turmeric and annatto (both popular natural yellow dyes Kraft used to update their macaroni and cheese around the same time). Its other colors are only coming to market now and over the next several months. The new red is made from purple carrot, red grape, and anthocyanins. Of all of the colors, its most difficult update was blue. Despite it filling our oceans and sky, blue is actually one of the worlds rarest colors. The company found its solution in South Americas huito fruit, which looks something like jackfruit crossed with a lime, but develops blue tones when exposed to air. Alongside a little spirulina, it created just the right color. Trying the new version After hearing so much about Welchs commitment to a perfect color switch, as I open two packs of Welchs Fruit Snacks side-by-sideone with artificial dyes and one with naturalI am surprised that I can definitely see a difference, as can my kids (who do both partake in Welchs now and again). The naturally dyed snacks are undeniably less saturated, with slightly less rich reds and oranges. Scientifically there will never be complete parity between artificial and natural colors, Ramani concedes. We conducted side-by-side visual and sensory panels internally and externally . . . most consumers either couldnt tell the difference, or preferred the new colors knowing they came from natural sources. If I werent looking at them side-by-side, Id never know myself. But I do swear the new snacks taste a little less sweet. Its something my son notes, too, unprompted and unaware of research pointing out just this phenomenon. If we were blindfolded or in a dark movie theater, would we have noticed? Wed need to set up a larger blind taste test to know. That said, there is no shortage of sweet treats on the market if your only concern is a sugar blast. And as a consumer who has loathed unnecessary artificial dyes for yearsperhaps the one health topic on which RFK Jr and scientifically minded liberals agreeIm only more likely to buy Welchs now. And watching my kids eagerly nosh on my remaining press samples, it doesnt seem theyre sweating the changes, either.
Category:
E-Commerce
What does Krogers brand sound like? Until recently, no one knew. And then on June 25, the grocery behemoth (which includes regional chains like King Soopers, Fred Meyer, Ralphs, and Pick’n Save) launched its first-ever sonic identity. Theres a succinct sonic logo (think Netflixs tudum), a full brand theme song, and moreso as it turns out, this is officially what Kroger sounds like: Its an upbeat earworm youre going to be hearing a lot of in grocery stores, on TV, and everywhere the Kroger family of brands reaches. But its no mere jingle, and theres a surprising amount of strategy and craft behind such an audio signatureand real financial impact as well, notes John Taite, EVP of global brand partnerships and development at Made Music Studio, which created the work. People think about what they see, but they feel what they hear, he says. And it’s apropos, because, well, there’s always an emotional element to any sort of purchase decision. THE SOUND OF ‘KROJIS‘ The work comes at the tail of a five-year brand revamp at Kroger, the largest U.S. supermarket chain by revenue. Its family of brands across the U.S. had essentially operated as independent entities from a marketing perspective, but around 20192020, the company decided to begin uniting them in a more intentional way. Tom Duncan, Krogers VP, head of marketing, says the initiative began with the launch of the brands animated Kroji characters (a portmanteau of Kroger and emoji), and continued with the debut of the fresh cart logo in 2021, which like the Krojis was rolled out to all Kroger markets and sub-brands. Now, the sonic identity is the latest tool in Krogers bid to unify everything under one marketing roof. We believe that this makes our advertising work harder to drive more traffic and sales, Duncan says. In a holistic system standpoint, creating consistent, distinctive assets and engaging more of the customers senses are a way to make it work harder for usand be more memorable over time. FINDING THE INEVITABLE Taite says that in Made Musics competitive analysis, they found that grocery as a category was lacking or inconsistent when it came to sonic logos. No one was embracing sonic design in a truly comprehensive way, so in a cluttered marketplace, that presented an opportunity. The development process of the new work took around a year, and Taite says his team began with a deep immersion. I don’t want to say we become musical detectives, but we almost become like method actors. We have to live and breathe and really experience the brand, and that’s why spending a lot of time with the team members, looking at the places where the work will live in the world, and understanding the brand’s place in culture as well is a really important starting point. Duncan adds that everyone from store managers to Krogers comms and marketing teams were involved, and the process was deeply collaborative. As Made Music worked to absorb the brand, they began to build a foundation to work towardto find the almost inevitable sound of a brand, as Taite puts it. They seized on notions of fresh, friendly, relatable, and playful, and envisioned Kroger a bit like a weddinga space thats a multigenerational gathering point, with music elevating the experience. And from there, they began to give dimensionality those notions with sound. Contrary to what you might expect, Made Music does not start by making the core sonic logo of a few seconds, but rather the larger brand theme. Even though consumers might not ever hear it, Taite says it offers the blueprint for all of the subsequent campaign materials, including the logo, which is a distillation of the longer piece. When it came to translating Krogers brand values into audio, we know exactly what types of sounds can stimulate particular emotional responses, Taite says, citing the companys decades of experience. Here, that translated to an uplifting track with welcoming rhythms and jazz vibes, where the sound of all the instruments working together mirrors the notion of inviting everyone in. (Theres a bit of an Easter egg, too: Kroger is synonymous with the color blue, and the sonic identity features a blue note, which in music is essentially a note at an alternate pitch.) ART + SCIENCE Similar to disciplines like brand naming, all of this might seem a bit subjective and nebulous. How do you know if youre actually on the right track? Taite says Made Music has worked with the market research firm Sentient Decision Science for a number of yearsand this project rated the highest of any sonic identity his company has ever developed. Per Duncan on the Kroger side, There’s an element of art and science hereand obviously, the science part gives us confidence. After being presented with options from Made Music, the Kroger team seized on the winning concept right away. Given that Kroger had involved so many stakeholders throughout, Taite says, there was a sense of pride and enthusiasm around the work, which he adds has yielded one of the fastest rollouts in the organizations history. That little earworm melody that we created, the more you hear it, the more you think it’s always been there, Taite says. That’s the lightning-in-the-bottle moment that we’re always, always searching for.
Category:
E-Commerce
In May of 1995, the video game industry hosted its first major trade show. Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) was designed to shine a spotlight on games, and every major player wanted to stand in it. Sega believed it had figured out how to command that spotlight. Riding high on the success of the Sega Genesis, the company unveiled the Sega Saturn at its press conference. After a quirky segment that resembled one of Sega’s off-the-wall commercials, Tom Kalinske, CEO of Sega of America, delivered a bombshell announcement. “Since I began my remarks with an announcement, I might as well finish with another: We started our rollout of the Sega Saturn yesterday,” he said. “We’re at retail today in 1,800 Toys “R” Us, Software Etc., and Electronics Boutique stores around the U.S. and Canada.” Sega hoped it would be a mic drop moment. Instead, it marked the beginning of the end for the companys hardware business. What the press conference audience didnt know was that Kalinske had strongly opposed the early launch. He had argued fiercely with Segas Japanese leadership, pointing to his past success with the Genesis in the U.S. and warning that a surprise launch without a proper marketing ramp-up wouldn’t work. But his objections were overruled. This story is part of 1995 Week, where well revisit some of the most interesting, unexpected, and confounding developments in tech 30 years ago. “[I] didnt understand why this was occurring,” he told TimeExtension in 2022. “I was forced to introduce it. We didnt have enough hardware. We didnt have enough software. And then, to make matters worse, we were forced to introduce it five months earlier than we wanted.” Segas announcement turned headsbut they quickly turned again when Sony held its own press conference later that day. After showcasing the PlayStation and a long list of development partners, Olaf Olafsson, head of Sony America, invited Steve Race (formerly Segas own marketing chief) to the stage. Race approached the podium, put down his notes, and simply said: “299,” then walked away. That one number undercut the Saturn and every other console on the market by $100. By the time Sega abandoned the Saturn just three years later, it had sold fewer than 2 million units in the U.S. The company would release one final systemthe Dreamcastin 1998 in Japan and 1999 in the U.S. But the Saturns mishandled launch had already altered Segas trajectory forever. A Doomed Launch “The Saturn was dead before it came out because of the poor decision-making Sega had made,” says Chris Kohler, a video game historian and editorial director at Digital Eclipse Entertainment Partners. When it came out in Japan, Sega was also launching 32X, an add-on for the Sega Genesis. . . . All it ended up doing was completely confusing consumers. They had no idea what to buy.” Despite that confusion, the Saturn had a decent launch in Japan. Its game lineup appealed to local tastes, especially with a home version of Virtua Fighter, a massive arcade hit. But American gamers were harder to win over. While titles like Panzer Dragoon and Clockwork Knight have dedicated fanbases today, they werent enough to justify a $399 console (about $842 in todays dollars). I tried and tried to get the launch pushed back so that we had some actual software to support it, Kalinske told TimeExtension. I was not successful. I had four glorious years where Sega Japan pretty much let me do whatever I felt was right, and then that stopped. One of the Saturns most glaring missteps was the lack of a Sonic the Hedgehog gamenot just at launch, but throughout its entire lifespan. At the time, Sonic was at the height of his popularity. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 had sold 4 million copies the year prior. He also starred in a Saturday morning cartoon and the CGI-animated series Sonic Boom on Cartoon Network. Launching a Sega console without Sonic was like launching a Nintendo console without Mario. The surprise launch strategy also backfired on Sega in another way. “Essentially, they kneecapped themselves,” says Kohler. “They can only ship it to certain retailers, so the retailers that don’t get those early shipments get burned and they don’t want to stock Sega products anymore. . . . Consumers didn’t have the ability to get excited or put down preorders. It hit the market without any buildup.” An Unexpected Fight Sega knew Sony would bring the PlayStation to the U.S., but didnt initially view it as a serious threat. By the mid-1990s, lots of big, non-gaming focused companies had tried to step into the videogame world. Magnavox had released several versions of the Odyssey in the 1970s. Philips had released the CD-i a few years prior to the Saturn’s introduction. The Neo Geo was already on the market and the TurboGrafx-16 had just been discontinued. But Sony was different. Aggressive and well-prepared, its $299 price point stunned the industry. “We didnt know they were going to do it, and when they did, we were like: ‘We are screwed here,'” said Kalinske. “We werent making money at $399, so we had a problem. Consumers responded immediately. Retailers increased orders, and developers rushed to work with the PlayStation. “All of these big hardware makers were coming into the video game industry and falling on their face,” says Kohler. “Sony, of all of them, comes in and is not only successful but outrageously successful.” Executive Departures Kalinskes frustrations continued after the Saturn launch, and in July of the following year, he resignedthough he remained on the board. Bernard Stolar, who had been instrumental in launching the PlayStation, took over at Sega. His first move was to abandon the Saturn. When I got to Sega I immediately said, We have to kill Saturn. We have to stop Saturn and start building the new technology. Thats what I did. I brought in a new team of people and cleaned house. . . . I took the company down to 90 employees to start rebuilding, Stolar, who died in 2022, once told GamesBeat. That team created the Dreamcast, which performed well in the U.S. but not well enough to restore Segas dominanceespecially as Microsoft prepared to enter the market. Lacking the resources to compete with Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, Sega exited the hardware business. Today, Sega is part of Sammy Corp. and focuses solely on software, with franchises ranging from Angry Birds to Total Warand of course, Sonic, who now stars in a successful film series. Still, it’s hard not to ask, What if? What if Sega had waited until September to launch the Saturn, as originally planned? What if it had a stronger launch lineup for the U.S. market? There are no answers, only the reality that the Saturns missteps reshaped the industry. “In a lot of ways, it was Sega’s to lose and they just fumbled it,” says Kohler.
Category:
E-Commerce
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