Campbell's Designers Deliver on Promise of New Healthy Options

By Ron Romanik

In the history of Campbell's Soup Company, Dr. John T. Dorrance was most famous for the monumental invention of condensed soup in 1897. However, Dorrance, a chemist who trained in Europe, also used his knowledge and passion of science and culinary expertise to influence the foundation of the Icon flavors we know and love today—Chicken Noodle, Cream of Mushroom, and Tomato soups. These three Icon soups are grounded in the culinary aspects of French Velouté and Béchamel sauces, traditional Tomat, and the cooking base known as Mirepoix.

Campbell's, whose headquarters are in Camden, NJ, is in the midst of a far-reaching transition to offer consumers more low-sodium and healthier options than ever. For instance, Campbell's kids soups were reformulated—without too much fanfare—during the company's first sodium reduction phase in 2006 when the sodium content was reduced 25% on average. The current reformulation to 480 mg sodium per serving represents an additional 20% average sodium reduction to these kids' soups. As in the first phase, the labeling on these kids soups will not advertise the reduction.

Of course, Campbell's currently offers a number of soups labeled under lines of 25% Less Sodium and Healthy Request (45% less sodium and 98% fat free). All these products benefit from a natural sea salt that adds enough taste that using it allows Campbell's to have substantially reduced sodium content in their soups. Campbell's developed the proprietary formula for the natural sea salt from a proprietary source. The sodium reduction technology leverages natural flavor enhancers and a range of sophisticated blending techniques to create great-tasting soups.

The next step in this progression is the rebranding of the entire Select Healthy Request line to Select Harvest, which will also be reduced to 480 mg sodium per serving. The package design will be radically different, going from a red label to a white label. The other radical change afoot in 2008 for Campbell's is the rebranding of their restaurant-style premium Select Gold Label line to Campbell's V8 soup, which will benefit from the wellness reputation of V8 products.

Becoming more selective

While Campbell's is one of the most trusted brands with over 200 SKUs of soup currently on the market, the product development and package design teams realize that even the most loyal customers are moving targets these days. Darralyn Rieth, director global design at Campbell's, explains that today's consumers are looking for high quality and taste, looking to be healthier, eat healthier, have healthier habits, but not with great adventure. "They're really looking for ways to do it in areas that they trust," Rieth explains.

"Our biggest drivers are meeting consumers' need from a multitude of levels," says Rieth. "Directionally, what we did was to take a step back and talk to the consumers." What they found is a desire for wellness overall, in a broad sense. Consumers are looking everywhere they can to be a little better health-wise. Like the portion control trend in packaging suggests, consumers are looking for incremental gains in the healthier variations of familiar and trusted products.

The FDA has several requirements for a product to be labeled "healthy," such as low sodium content, low fat content, no MSG, etc. Though Select Harvest won't have "healthy" in the name, it will likely have a benefit message—in the familiar green and yellow—that reads "Healthy Sodium Level."

John Faulkner, director, brand communications at Campbell's, explains that the reformulations are considered with extreme care, as are the brand messages. "Using sea salt has enabled us to deliver a healthier product that our customers are looking for without forcing them to sacrifice taste, " Faulkner says. "Our goal is to deliver a healthier soup that tastes every bit as good as the original."

Harvesting the gains

"In order for us to be successful, we have to deliver on taste as well as nutrition, " stresses Rieth. "The goal is to communicate healthy in a new and meaningful way." Campbell's hopes the Select Harvest package designs are welcomed as a breath of fresh air in the soup aisle, with the white background indicating a wholesome, natural product to the consumer.

"We really wanted a way to gain shelf impact and differentiation," Rieth explains, noting that the current Campbell's portfolio is notable for its intense reds, greens, and golds. She views Campbell's package design as a conversation between the company and the consumer, and the current topic is wellness. Rieth pushes her designers to answer fundamental questions, such as: "How do we best communicate that healthy point of difference?" and "What is relevant to the consumer?"

Rieth says the design ideal is to "bring what's inside the can to the outside of the can," to "showcase the food, show what they're getting in every bite." The Healthy Request line elevates the impact of the actual hot soup and ingredients as never before seen on Campbell's labels.

Rieth explains that different consumers have different needs, which makes the label messages more complex to execute. Of course, some items on labels speak for themselves, such as the nutrition information numbers, the USDA seal, the American Heart Association, but benefit messages should be kept to a minimum—and short and concise. "Certainly it's easy to overwhelm the consumer," Rieth emphasizes.

V8 flexes its muscle

One of the boldest moves this year will be the fast transition from the red and gold labels of the Select Gold Label line to the new green-dominant V8 soup packages. Faulkner explains that this new line will combine the taste credentials of Campbell's soups with the vegetable wellness credentials of V8, shifting the focus from premium to health and wellness.

"V8 communicates 'vegetable nutrition' almost telepathically," says Faulkner. This is powerful when combined with soup, which itself has a healthy halo with most consumers. To this end, the soup package reiterates the familiar V8 brand promise of "A Full Serving of Vegetables."

Rieth explains that the new packaging had to take advantage of and build on the vegetable goodness of V8, to "make sure the brand is delivered in a very strong way." The V8 circle is central and dominant, but the package also had to emphasize "soup" because of consumers' mental expectations of the V8 brand. Though the word "soup" is relatively small, the soup bowl—with aroma rising with steam over the soup—is also dominant. "The bowl was critical to the communication," says Rieth.

Rieth explains that there are many emotional triggers that help deliver the characteristics of taste and quality in this new line. She is especially pleased with the way the green background, the logo, and the "veggie bouquet" work together, with a spotlight effect on the veggies. "It really brings a sense of glow—or liveliness—to the package," Rieth says.

Searching on the shelf

Campbell's looks to their packages to communicate in every way possible, and the visual translation of those messages should be as clear and direct as possible. Package designers speak about the moment of truth at the retail shelf. Campbell's believes that this moment is shrinking even more than previously thought, decreasing by almost half over the last 10 years. Consumers considering a purchase will now spend on average only three-and-a-half seconds of critical "decision time" inspecting a product and package compared with six seconds only a decade ago.

Campbell's uses eye-tracking research to find what slight variations in design will help their packages communicate better and faster. The research aims to determine how consumers are viewing a package; what communications get across, what communications are skipped over, and what is the order of consumers' attention. "We can help to communicate benefit information more efficiently," says Rieth. "We know through research that consumers look for benefits in certain areas."

Campbell's has also recently expanded its retail gravity-fed rack system options to its retailers. The successful installation of thousands of racks across the nation helped consumers shop the soup category, find the variety they were looking for, and discover new varieties that they had not tried before. This surprise bonus of increased sales in lesser-known varieties was a result of their proximity to the consumers' favorite variety in the well-organized rack system.

One of the clearest rules at Campbell's is the power of the red and white logo at the top of every package.

Faulkner is confident that offering new, healthier varieties is one of the best ways to expand the brand at retail. "People had been leaving the soup segment because of concerns over sodium," explains Faulkner. "Today, they are coming back to the franchise because we are providing a range of great tasting soup options. " Campbell's recent sodium reduction initiative also reduced the sodium in V8 vegetable juice by 19% (to the "heart-healthy" level), introduced Prego Heart Smart pasta sauces with 25% less sodium, and reduced the sodium by 25% in "Campbell's SpaghettiOs" pasta.

Rieth remarks that there is often a tug-of-war between what the marketing department wants and the rules of design effectiveness. "It's our job to push back a little—to be clear," says Rieth. One of the clearest rules at Campbell's, though, is the power of the Campbell's logo at the top of every package. Campbell's design strategy still refers back to the Icon cans of red and white that have built the foundation of trust, and are instantly recognizable. "To me, that's really powerful." Rieth says.