Dietary Frozen Foods, Essay Example

Healthy Choice is the brand name of a line of convenience foods that meet the government guidelines for health (healthychoice.com, 2009). They offer a selection of refrigerator and frozen meals, as well as a broad array of side dishes, cold cuts, canned soups, ice cream, bread, pasta sauce, and popcorn. All products are certified by the American Heart Association and promise to be low in both fat and sodium.

The company is owned by ConAgra Foods, one of North America’s largest packaged food companies. ConAgra also owns brands such as Hunt’s, Orville Redenbacher’s, PAM, Egg Beaters, Kid Cuisine and Peter Pan Peanut Butter.  Overall, ConAgra has 80 brands, 25 of which record annual retail sales exceeding $100 million. Healthy Choice reports retail sales of around 1 billion dollars (Hoovers.com, 2009)

According to the company website (2009), the Healthy Choice brand came into existence in 1985 after Charles “Mike” Harper, Conagra Foods C.E.O., had a mild heart attack.  After making a full recovery, Mr. Harper decided there was a need for foods that ‘satisfied both his taste and health needs’ (Healthychoice.com, 2009) and went on to develop the Healthy Choice line.

The social factors involved in marketing a brand such as Healthy Choice, involve positioning themselves as a company that can be trusted to offer healthy meal alternatives.  Having a certification from the American Heart Association, a group that is felt to be a dependable authority on defining what is ‘healthy’, is a key factor to allow the company to utilize this social network.

The AHA, in this instance, is positioned as influencer to the buyer, since their advice is highly trusted. In this same manner, healthcare professionals, whom encourage healthy eating habits work as initiators for the buyers initial search for healthy products.

Healthy choice is able to market its products as meeting the government’s ‘guidelines for health’. By complying to the government’s regulatory guidelines of what is considered ‘healthy’, the brand adds them as an important influencer in the buyer’s decision. Economically,  it is important for Healthy Choice to offer tasty, healthy products at affordable prices. This is a very important part of their marketing strategy since there are many other competitive ‘healthy’ products on the market.

ConAgra Foods has global operations in approximately 25 countries and more than 200 operating groups and plants around the globe. It has foreign offices located in Hong Kong, Korea, Mexico, Taiwan, and Tokyo. By utilizing these foreign offices the company is able to better market their product lines to the local market. In some countries Healthy Choice is owned by completely different companies. For example in Canada it is a brand of Beatrice Foods Canada Ltd. and McCain Foods in Australia (hoovers.com, 2009).

Healthy Choice foods target several select markets. Their first major market are dieters. They target dieters by appealing to their desire to have tasty meals that are healthy and low in fat. Their next major target is those looking for convenience foods that are also healthy. This might include busy families, business people or even college students. The line targets all geographic areas, however they most likely focus most highly on the suburban and urban markets.

The Healthy Choice line positions itself as a healthy, good tasting convenient

alternative to consumers who might not have time or skill to make their own healthy

foods. When the brand began in 1987, their original positioning target focused on heart attack survivors (Hughes, 2007). ConAgra therefore, began marketing the brand as ‘heart healthy’. Soon, the company soon realized that there was a untapped market for people looking for low-fat products. By focusing their positioning platform on the the fact that their products were low in fat, they were able to market to a larger group of consumers interested in a healthy, low-fat alternative convenience meal.

Healthy Choice was the catalyst for what is now a 10 billion dollar industry of ‘low-fat’ foods (Hughes, 2007). They were ahead of all competitors on this platform from the beginning, and thus have been able to maintain their place as the front runner in the low-fat food industry. The company also continues to expand the brand and product line, in order to reach out to a broader and broader constituency of consumers. In this way they is able to remain one step ahead of their competitors.

A consumer in this market is going to focus first on the calorie and fat content of a product. They will also most likely look for products that are certified by the American Heart Association, since the AHA has become a king influencer for the low-fat and healthy food focused consumer.

After a group of food products have been isolated that meet these ‘healthy’ criteria, the consumer will make their final decision based on taste. For this reason Healthy Choice works to taste test all of their foods before introduction and do everything in their power to make them taste as good, if not better than, full fat brands (Hughes, 2007). In 2008, Healthy Choice partnered with celebrity “Food Network” chef,

Robert Irvine, to promote their ‘Cafe Steamers’ line. Irvine’s service as a spokesman, helped to further promote Healthy Choice as a good tasting product (meatingplace, 2008).

After falling slightly in revenue and market saturation, Healthy Choice decided to launch a rebranding campaign, featuring Julia Louis Dreyfus, of Seinfeld fame. The campaign began in April 2009, and focused, not only on reintroducing the brand, but also promoting the addition of a new line of All Natural Entrees. Healthy Choice spent between $90 and $100 million on a multimedia campaign that included commercials, print and web advertisements and new packaging designs (Elliot, 2009).

The rebranding campaign also introduced now packaging and logo. Healthy Choice kept it’s trademark green colored packaging but updated their logo to include a exclamation mark and fresh, energetic look. The company also developed packaging that supposedly enhances flavor by cooking with steam while the entree is being microwaved (meatingplace, 2009).

Healthy Choice products are sold exclusively in grocery stores. You can find the products in the freezer case, refrigerator case and on store shelves. Depending on the grocery store set up, Healthy Choice products will be categorized either with the similar types of foods (i.e. frozen dinners with all other frozen dinners) or separated in the ‘organic’, ‘all natural’ food sections.

References

Hughes, Steve. (2007, Feb. 19). Sidestepping Obsolescence. Advertising Age. p. 1-2

PREPARED DINNERS:Category players upped the ante with cooking innovations, healthier offerings and celebrity star power, but it wasn’t enough to thaw stiff   sales last year. (2008, May). meatingplace. p. 48

Elliot, Stewart. (2009, April 3). Healthy Choice Tries a Humor Campaign. The New York Times. p. B9

ConAgra Foods (2009). Company Profile. Retrieved Oct. 8, 2009. http://media.conagrafoods.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=202310&p=aboutus

Healthy Choice. (2009). Nutrition. Retrieved Oct. 8, 2009. http://www.healthychoice.com/nutritional-benefits/