Nestle Gives Carnation Instant Breakfast a $10M Energy Boost

Brandweek, Dec 14, 1998 by Stephanie Thompson

In an effort to dust off its Carnation Instant Breakfast brand for a more contemporary consumer, Nestle is repositioning the line beginning this January with a $10 million national TV campaign, a reformulation of the powdered varieties and a distribution drive that offers retailers account-specific marketing programs in exchange for taking on new SKUs.

Looking to capitalize on the trend toward grab-and-go products, especially at breakfast, Nestle is looking to pump new life into $75 million Instant Breakfast, sales of which have been flat. Nestle will return the brand to TV after a long hiatus with a campaign, via McCann-Erickson, L.A., that concentrates on the energy boost and newly improved taste of the line. The campaign, which begins in January, will reach 90% of the population 20-plus times, according to sales materials.

New packaging, print advertising and in-store brochures will highlight the new taste bent for the product by offering smoothie recipes.

The restage, marketing for which runs Jan. 1-April 30, builds off the 'Rise and Shine" promotion earlier this year in which the sleepy brand enjoyed a sales boost of 307% in the promotional period, according to a source close to the company.

Nestle is offering retailers a free display shipper that contains 96 sachets of Creamy Milk Chocolate and French Vanilla flavors. Additionally, retailers will be offered promotional perks in exchange for taking on additional powdered or ready-to-drink SKUs, among them 10-packet boxes, no sugar added flavors and six-packs of ready-to-drink cans. Nestle will offer instant redeemable coupons for 75 cents off boxes of Carnation Instant Breakfast as well as additional trial-generating programs including danglers touting cross promotions with milk, fruit or yogurt products.

For the year ending Nov. 8, sales of powdered Carnation Instant Breakfast totalled $71.4 million, a 92.8% share of the $77 million instant breakfast category in which the only other player is private label. Ready-to-drink SKUs had sales of $4.8 million for the same time period, according to Information Resources Inc.