Thread by @kevinleeme

1/ When Kraft first came up with the concept of Pizza Lunchables (those cold trays with customizable sauces & toppings), it tested terribly with focus groups of mothers. Moms everywhere said "This is an awful idea, a really awful idea." The concept got the worst score in history.

2/ But when the prototype was shown to kids, they loved it. Adults are used to using their mouths to eat and focus on taste, while kids use their eyes and judge by looks. When they saw the cold Lunchable pizza trays, they saw food in the funnest form possible.

3/ The customization was key - kids got to make their own mini pizzas at school and it brought a feeling of power to their lives. Kraft doubled down on this adolescent psychology with marketing messages around self-empowerment.

4/ Saturday morning cartoons started carrying Kraft commercials with messages that said, "All day, you gotta do what they say. But lunchtime is all yours."

5/ "Lunchables aren't about lunch. It's about kids being able to put together what they want to eat, anytime, anywhere. Kids like to build things and play with food" -Bob Eckert (former CEO of Kraft).

6/ With these new marketing efforts, Lunchables propelled itself to generating more than $1bn in annual sales and created its own CATEGORY. More than 60 varieties of Lunchables popped up over the next few years.

7A/ There are a couple interesting insights here:

If the Kraft team had listened to the original testing results, Lunchables would have never seen the light of day. This is a case where listening to the end user vs. the purchaser was the right decision.

7B/ While consumers generally desire more convenience vs. less, food can be one of the rare industries where adding back "work" for the consumer can be a psychological advantage. Kraft could have pre-made the pizzas in the Lunchables trays but kids craved the customization.

7C/ Many people know this story, but General Mills faced a similar situation with their Betty Crocker brand. The original cake mixes came with everything you needed (including milk and eggs in powdered form). All you needed to do was add water and mix.

Sales were terrible.

7D/ General Mills brought in psychologists and realized that customers were feeling guilty from how easy the cake mix was to make. They were used to spending hours baking and the newfound convenience made them feel like they were deceiving guests.

7E/ General Mills relaunched the product by simply removing the powdered egg and added the slogan "Add an Egg."

Adding a tiny bit of extra work added ownership, fulfillment, and meaning to the cake mix process.

Sales soared.