Marketing in the News Blog Post

 The ad I chose to analyze is the “Cracker Jill” campaign by the Frito Lay brand. I was interested in this campaign advertisement because I am an athlete and woman myself, and I think we need more representation of women's sports. 

The article I found about Frito Lay’s Cracker Jill campaign discusses how the company Frito Lay is producing limited-edition bags of Cracker Jack snacks called “Cracker Jill” which has new women characters to show the demographics of women in the United States. There are five different bags showing diversity in women and these will be sold at baseball games starting the opening weekend. The snack will also be available with a $5 donation to the Women’s Sports Foundation. This article also discusses how the Frito Lay brand teamed up with Normani (a famous musician) to sing a new version of the “Take Me Out to The Ballgame” song. This article also draws attention to how women's sports face problems like lack of exposure and unequal pay. This product is celebrating 126 years old and they’re hoping it’ll also boost their involvement with baseball. Frito Lay is very popular and its parent company is PepsiCo. Under Frito Lay is the Cracker Jack snack brand. 

The Value Proposition of Cracker Jill is to bring to life the representation of women across sports. 

The marketing relevance in this article is Cracker Jack coming out with Cracker Jill bags for this season of baseball is helping signify the change in our current times politically and socially. The company is promoting Cracker Jill by having Normani sing a new version of the “Take Me Out to The Ballgame” song only with slightly different lyrics to promote Crack Jill. In the song, she sings “buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jills” instead of “buy me some peanuts and cracker Jacks” and also ends the song with “it’s a new ballgame”. The song can be interpreted as representing the change in sports and how Crack Jack’s brand is there to support and change with it. The change is the involvement of more women athletes and needing more attention in the media along with needing equal pay. The limited-edition Cracker Jill bags are the first time Cracker Jack has changed their mascot. I think using Normani as a celebrity spokesperson for the brand helps bring more popularity to it. She is a famous musician who is a woman of color and supports equality. She has a lot of fans who look up to her and this campaign would be drawn to them through Normani. 

The challenge that Cracker Jack is trying to overcome is that there still isn’t an equal representation of women's sports as there is in men's sports. What makes their job more difficult is that there is still a lack of exposure even with their ad campaign. To help it, in addition to their representation they are also making it so people can donate to the Women’s Sports Foundation in addition to buying a Cracker Jill snack. One of their competitors is “Crunch ‘n Munch,” and they haven’t had many changes with their brand since their beginning. The only time they have changed their cover is to promote marvel. I think Cracker Jack is the lead brand between the two caramel popcorn companies. Cracker Jill is going to help Cracker Jack to continue to be more popular.  

The marketing approach is unique because instead of just one design of a woman on one bag, they have created five different designs on their bags. Usually, companies will have campaigns with only one new design, but Frito Lay has decided to create five different Cracker Jill bags to show the diversity of women in the United States. I also think having Normani do a remix of an old American classic song is showing change and representing the change in society. In the article, it says that Cracker Jill and the Normani version of the “Take Me Out to The Ballgame” helps demonstrate Cracker Jack’s support in the change of sports and society with women's representation. It also said this is the first time Cracker Jack has changed their mascot. I think this marketing approach helps appeal to the buyer persona of older people who love the classic Cracker Jack snack, younger audiences who love Normani, people who are into the limited edition products of Cracker Jack, and people who want to show their support of women in sports.

I think the marketing solution was good but I think they should do something in addition to just the Normani ad for the Cracker Jill bags. I think it would be good to try and connect more younger audiences to the product through social media. I checked and Cracker Jack doesn’t have an Instagram, only Frito Lay does and they only made one post about this campaign. I think it would be a good idea to create multiple social media posts or accounts to help draw in younger audiences. I think they did a good job promoting the “why” they are doing what they’re doing but not as much effort to get more attention drawn to it. I think using celebrity branding with Normani helps but isn’t enough. I didn’t know this was a campaign until I heard about it from my teacher in my marketing class but if it was more social media platforms or advertised more I would have earlier!

If I was the brand/product manager I would try to get smaller tik tok celebrities or social media influencers to promote Cracker Jill. Using Normani was good but having multiple and even younger Gen Z influencers promote this campaign would help bring even more attention to it. A lot of Gen Z people believe in equality with women and I think getting them on board to buy and doing some advertisements could help bring more attention. I would have the Gen Z celebrities make posts or post pictures of them with Cracker Jill bags and educate the importance and meaning of the campaign. This would help bring more awareness to the representation importance of women in sports. 

From this assignment, I learned how to take recent news and advertisements and use a marketing lens to analyze and think like a marketer. I was able to notice the use of celebrity branding and figure out their value proposition. I also learned about Cracker Jack’s amazing campaign of Cracker Jill that will help bring attention to women in sports and how the Cracker Jack brand supports the change. 

Link to article: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/cracker-jack-cracker-jill-mlb-opening-day/621573/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202022-04-06%20Marketing%20Dive%20Newsletter%20%5Bissue:40893%5D&utm_term=Marketing%20Dive

Link to Normani’s remix of the song: https://youtu.be/1Swj-DFkDak

Link to Frito Lays’ Cracker Jack page: https://www.fritolay.com/products/cracker-jack-original-caramel-coated-popcorn-peanuts

Link to the Women’s Sports Foundation: https://www.womenssportsfoundation.org/