Campbell Ready to Add More Excitement to Chunky Soups Category for Greater Customer Engagement

Denise Morrison, President and CEO of Campbell Soups, realizes the company needs to add some more spark and excitement to its Chunky soups category to drive enhanced customer engagement and greater brand loyalty.

During the company’s fiscal third quarter, Morrison saw a challenging consumer environment.

“In the U.S., consumer spending remains cautious,” she said during the May 20 earnings call, according to Seeking Alpha. “Shoppers are making more frequent trips than a year ago, but they are purchasing less per trip. As a result, consumer takeaway of total food and beverage has softened, compared to both short and longer term comparisons. This has exerted top-line pressure on both retailers and manufacturers.”

Morrison plans to address those things within company control for the next soup season.

“Namely, we intend to do a better job of driving demand, particularly for Chunky ready-to-serve soups,” she explained. “We’ll have a more robust marketing plan that fully leverages our NFL sponsorship. We also recognized that we need to bring more excitement to the category and we have new on-trend product innovations planned for fiscal 2017. We’ll discuss these plans in greater detail at our Investor Day in July.”

Third-quarter organic sales declined 2%, which was below expectations. Key factors that led to the decline included softer than expected soup category performance, weakness in V8 beverages, and product shortages in our Bolthouse Farms carrot business.

“There were several bright spots within Soup and Simple Meals,” Morrison said. “Sales of Swanson broth, Slow Kettle, and Campbell’s Organic Soup all grew, also Campbell’s condensed soup gained share. Beyond soup, Prego continues to perform well, driven by strong merchandizing and growth in white sauces. We also began shipping Prego Farmers Market, our new premium Italian sauce with a clean label. Additionally, we drove double-digit sales gains in Plum.”

V8 beverages continue to struggle with sales declines in V8 Red, V-Fusion, and V8 Splash.

“In the past, we’ve had success with advertising that reminds consumers of the benefits of V8,” Morrison explained. “We’re also building on a successful launch of V8 Veggie Blends with new varieties and expanding our V8 +Energy carbonated beverages into the grocery channel. We recognized that these short-term actions are not the complete solution. That said, V8 is a great brand and we believe we have a solid platform to build upon going forward.” 

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