It’s great when marketing development works.  An article in Fast Company magazine provides a great example of how research + insight = effective marketing.

Sales of baby carrots were down, and a major producer was looking for ways to reverse the decline.  They contacted ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky.  Market research found that people were buying regular carrots instead of baby carrots to save money in the recession, and then forgetting about them in the vegetable drawer.  They also learned that, after customers open a bag of baby carrots, they dry out.  And the agency knew that advertising that tells people to eat their vegetables for health reason tends to be ineffective.

The insight: instead of marketing baby carrots as an antidote to junk food, they decided to portray baby carrots as junk food. The baby carrots were repackaged in individual snack packs made of brightly-colored crinkly plastic that look like a bag of chips.  They launched an ad campaign called “Eat ‘Em Like Junk Food” in two test markets, and even installed baby carrot vending machines in a couple of high schools.  See the website http://www.babycarrots.com/ to get a feel for the campaign.  The result: sales in the test markets were up 10%-12% over the year before, compared to virtually no improvement in other markets.

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Sources: “The New Junk Food,” Fast Company, April, 2011; babycarrots.com