How To Sell A Commodity...Like Chewing Gum

A brand that caught my attention is Stride Gum. Chewing gum is a boring, undifferentiated category. So how do you create a distinct brand? Create a personality that targets a clearly defined audience and let them know what problem your product solves for them. And their marketing mix is creative for a chewing gum, and not dependent on coupons, inserts and tv spots.

The Target: Stride's audience is 18-30, for sure, and based on their ads and web marketing, it is focused on young men. I am not exactly in the demo myself, but they got my attention.

The Personality: They have a new ad campaign that is very funny. "Office Park" is my favorite spot of this year. These ads will get them noticed.

They also have a clever viral campaign that on the face of it seems only tangentially related to the brand, but is actually central to their brand strategy. Stride is on to it...get others to spread the word about your product and you immediately get more from your ad spend. They sponsored the travels of Matt, an ordinary guy who travelled the world filming himself dancing with average people in dozens and dozens of countries.

It sounds dumb, until you watch it. Then it becomes a bit addicting and you start asking all sorts of questions. He is featured on their website under Matt's Place. He also has a website that tells his story, no college, doesn't like to work, wants to travel, dances like a goof and found someone to pay him for it. Not inspiring, but funny to the right demo.....high school and college aged guys, perhaps?

The Problem To Solve: Television brand advertising can be a colossal waste of money, but it can also be very effective if you have a strong creative brief that clearly outlines your audience, your business objective and the consumer's problem to be solved. The folks at Stride seem to be trying to solve three issues at once with their new spots: 1) attract new customers and encourage trial with strong creative that breaks through the clutter and gets Stride noticed, 2) the promise of a gum that is exciting and has long lasting flavor and 3) encourage existing customers to chew more gum.

Keep your eye on these guys. They are creative marketers.