You can learn a lot about branding from Procter & Gamble!  First rule of marketing is finding what your customer needs and then meet that need!  Pringles shows us the P&G way to a tee!   

But, boy, have things changed since Pringles were first introduced to the marketplace!  In the late 60s, P&G saw a way into the lucrative potato chip market.  They didn’t just come up with a new chip –in fact, Pringles aren’t technically chips at all (more on that below!)— they came up with a concept that would eventually meet a need.  Initially, though, they hit a lot of resistance from their biggest competitor, Frito-Lay.  The good folks at Frito-Lay went after Pringles for its ingredients and its taste.  To be honest to this day I can’t eat a Pringle because I’d much rather have a potato chip, broken or not, than an unbroken Pringle.  Which means I was never in P&G’s target market for Pringles, because…

The trademark Pringles container isn’t about looking different, it’s about delivering a snack that wasn’t broken by the time it reached the consumer –breakage was the big problem that P&G identified in other potato chips.  It was their way into the potato chip market!  In the process, they took care of another problem with their re-sealable lid.  Something I could care less about— but again that’s my point!  Tantillo is not the target market here!  P&G never had to worry about satisfying my needs when it came to Pringles … just the needs of the people who cared about the things that Pringles took care of!!!

P&G never knocked Frito-Lay out of the Number 1 chip-making spot with Pringles, but they did establish a 1 billion dollar a year global brand and they did it by listening to the needs of a particular group of customers!

And did you know that Pringles is a crisp –not a chip?  Yes, to make their “saddle-shaped” snack, P&G had to invent a potato dough that they could shape … rather than use sliced potatoes.  Those P&G guys are so thorough about their research that they even used supercomputers to figure out how aerodynamic a Pringle was so they wouldn’t go flying off the assembly line.  I kid you not!!!  Learn from their passion for brand research, but you can probably skip the supercomputer when it comes to your brand!!!
And, remember, it’s always easier when you keep marketing in mind!

Here some more links on Pringles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pringles

http://www.brandpackaging.com/content.php?s=BP/2004/03&p=5

http://scriblerus.net/kunkelfruit/index.php?title=Pringles_Potato_Chips

And now Frito-Lay’s finally rolling out some Pringle’s competition:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2003-08-14-stax_x.htm