Repackaging a 30-Year Brand

My bologna has a first name, and went through one of the longest-running marketing campaigns in history. It’s O-S-C-A-R

Born in 1973, that jingle kept bologna flying off the supermarket shelves.

Until it didn’t. By the mid-80s bologna sales slowed and Kraft Heinz asked why people no longer thought Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A. So they did what any business does, they asked customers. They created focus groups. They borrowed ideas.

Out of that came a prepackaged lunch for working adults. Fashioned after TV dinners and called On-Trays, it was a new use for that delicious bologna.

But it flopped.

For adults at least. Oscar Mayer rebranded their On-Trays for adults as Lunchables for kids.

Created in 1988, Lunchables was an instant hit and continues to own 84% of the market for prepared lunches. Oscar Mayer’s insight - accidental or not - was that parents bought something their kids wanted, would eat, and was easy. And kids love stacking the meat, cheese, and cracker combo.

It’s hurried parents not working stiffs that love to eat it every day.

We’re sorry about getting this song stuck in your head for the day.

We’re not sorry about the timeless lessons. Iterate and test. Talk to customers, and do what they want. Find new uses for old products. Serve the market what it wants, not what you’ve made.

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