When was the last time you thought about the baked beans you purchased? Like, really stopped to think about which kind and brand? There’s the 800lb. gorilla in the category of Bush’s, and then everyone else.
That was the challenge we were facing when agency friends of ours asked us to help drive the creative strategy for the U.S. launch of Clark Beans, a Canadian company that’s been around for over 144 years. Clark knew they couldn’t go head-to-head with Bush’s and needed a very unique and different approach. Luckily, they were planning to launch with truly unique flavors (like root beer, jalapeño bacon, and buffalo style) to carve out a distinct position within the category.
We started by holding a Creative//Destruction Workshop, our proprietary approach to dig into the history and competitive advantages of the company, dismantle assumptions and barriers in the category, and dive deep into the mind of the consumer.
What we found in the workshop, and through additional research, was that people crave BBQ, but baked beans are often viewed as an afterthought, or even boring. When was the last time someone said, “I’m really craving baked beans right now”?
The irony (and our insight) was that in the world of BBQ, the flavor choices are endless (meats, sauces, rubs, spices) — except for baked beans. The difference in flavor choices in the BBQ sauce aisle compared to the baked been aisle is drastic. And the more unique the flavors, the more craveable food often becomes.
With that, “get people to crave the flavor" became our single-minded goal. Our creative strategy, then, was to show how Clark Beans has flavors so craveable you’ll want to serve them even if you’re not BBQing. And if baked beans were often a boring afterthought with consumers, we would show how you simply can’t stop thinking about Clark Baked Beans — and have some fun with beans and their historic founder along the way.
This drove our development of creative territories, as well as a brand and social media guide for the launch in the U.S.
It’s just the beginning for Clark’s U.S. launch, but we already have a craving for more.
