By Bernice Hurst, Contributing Editor, RetailWire
Campbell has decided to - cautiously - update some of the recipes on its cans in line with American's more refined gourmet tastes.
In a recent article, the Wall Street Journal explains, "America's increasingly sophisticated palate, influenced by TV cooking shows, celebrity chefs and gourmet ingredients, presents a problem. Food companies need to figure out how to update their recipes to entice today's more ambitious cooks to use products that might otherwise sit on the shelf for months. The recipes must make cooks feel like they're doing more than just adding eggs to a mix, but not use so many ingredients to require a special trip to the store. If they get too trendy, they risk alienating their core consumers."
One new dish, Chicken With Sun-Dried Tomatoes, will start appearing in August.
Jane Freiman, who oversees the Campbell's HQ test kitchen, says that it "pushes gently…We are looking for familiar, with a twist." Campbell's development team believes customers want simple, reliable, recipes without too many "unfamiliar ingredients or techniques."
It is estimated that 85 to 95 percent of cream-of-mushroom soup sales are used for cooking each year with some 30 million used between Thanksgiving and Christmas to make the Green Bean Casserole recipe created in 1955.
The move comes as Campbell reported American sales of its soups fell 8 percent in the fourth quarter.
While other manufacturers agonize in the same way over formulas that strike the right balance, Hellmann's has an entire website devoted to its Real Food Project. Designed to help mothers produce every day and special occasion meals for their family consisting of "simple, delicious" foods, an assortment of recipes, tips and videos is presented by chef Bobby Flay. A combination of celebrities and real people explain what they consider to be real food and how mayonnaise can be used to create it.
One way and another, cooks are being encouraged to get into their kitchens and add a twist to what they find on supermarket shelves, flavoring their meals with a sense of achievement.
Discussion Questions: Are consumers ready for trendy new recipes on cans? Will it encourage them to be more adventurous and buy other ingredients that may not be in their store cupboards?