The most popular cornbread mix on the market is Jiffy, and even though homemade is still the top choice of cornbread loves, it is a close second. It isn't the only cornbread mix on the market and in the last year, after very stagnant sales of muffin mixes - including cornbread - Betty Crocker decided that it was time to try and revamp their product to compete with Jiffy. The problem for them was that, even though they had a good product and Jiffy only advertised through word of mouth, they had a hard time driving up sales.
A General Mills executive decided to do a little in-house research with the help of some of the company's African American employees, based on the fact that African Americans account for more than one third of all cornbread sales in the US. What he found was that they didn't buy Betty Crocker either. One employee even said "I'd never eat Betty Crocker cornbread because it's not for black people."
With the feedback from the employees and not much else, the company tweaked the packaging to feature skillet cornbread, rather than corn muffins, and approached B. Smith for endorsement and to be a spokesperson for their healthy-eating "Serving Up Soul" campaign. The endorsement of a respected, award-winning chef and restaurateur gave the rebranded cornbread a little more credibility, and sales got a boost - rising almost 25% in the last year.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-24-2006 @ 8:53AM
Adriane said...
It's crazy what marketing can do! The only reason I buy jiffy over B.C. and the like is because Jiffy is DIRT cheap in comparison- by at least a dollar or more!
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11-24-2006 @ 12:36PM
MJ said...
This is crazy.Use to make jiffy.dont like sweet any more! The best mix I buy is house of autry buttermilk cornbread mix, Just like homemade. Homemade just takes a quick minute. My mom made a big pan once a week and cut into squares and wrapped in foil for each day. Use to hate cornbread,because thats what we had everyday!I will use jiffy to make other recipes like, mexican cornbread or brocolli cornbread! Thanks mom for feeding us well from scratch for all those years!
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