Smokin Chili ColeSlaw and the Power of Marketing to Women
By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna’s Promo Talk
Yesterday I again joined my ladies golf league to play nine holes together which I’ve been doing on Tuesdays during the season now for the past six years! We got a great group of women who love the game, but more importantly we love just getting out and having a few cocktails and a bite to eat together after we play. Some women have played on the league way before I joined, and others are brand new this year. So there’s always something new to talk about.
Last night after a picture-perfect day to play a round of golf, we settled in around the table to view the menu (which most of us now know by heart) and order. I found the conversation leaning towards food and who cooked what over the Memorial Day weekend. I stared sharing with the ladies this great new recipe for coleslaw that I tried for the first time which my adult children and their friends loved! It has quite the kick to it though I warned them and is rightly named Smoked Chili Cole Slaw. I continued to tell them that the recipe came from Hellman’s and is part of their Real Food Project campaign I was recently introduced to through an email message from the brand.
So here goes the power of women listening to another woman’s recommendations. I wrote this post a couple weeks ago, New study on marketing to women shows online product reviews and coupons highly influential which again proves the importance of word of mouth. Now in no way have I been compensated by Hellman’s, or the parent company Unilever, to write or speak about this. I just happen to be a true advocate of the brand (either Hellman’s or BestFoods depending on where you live in the U.S.) I will not, never, ever buy any other brand of mayo, no mater the price difference. I buy mostly the light version and sometimes the fat free version, but very rarely the regular mayo.
The Real Food Project has it own dedicated website which is targeted to us women in America. The overall objective of the campaign is to help “moms” create meals that offer simple, delicious foods. So the site features recipes, tips and ideas which are communicated through videos from celebrity chef Bobby Flay. Visitors can easily print out the recipes as well.
They’ve added a fun interactive promotion to the campaign as well where visitors can play a “Wheel of Real” instant-win game and enter a Real Food Sweepstakes with prizes that include a “food essentials bundle,” Flay’s “Grill It” cookbooks, and Hellmann’s and Best Foods products. I’ve spun the wheel a few times now and haven’t won yet. You can play the game once a day, so it encourages you to go back to the site.
Overall I think the campaign is great and has some good content. However the one criticism that I will give it is their coupon offer. I was very excited to see a $.75 off coupon for a jar of mayo, but when I clicked on the link it told me that all coupons where gone. So why send an email blast that promotes the coupon and then tell me I can’t have it? This never made sense to me why any marketer would go through the expense of a program like this and then give limited funding to the coupon redemption budget. So I wrote to them. I had to fill out a form with all my contact info just to send a note. They did respond and said they’d mail me a coupon.
Anyhow, if you like your food simple and with a little spice, try the coleslaw which you can find the recipe here. A few of my golf lady buddies are going to give it a try. And remember to spread the word and tell your friends you heard about it from Donna on the Lip-sticking Blog!
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