Peter Drucker once said that all business is either marketing or innovation. One privately-held company floating just beyond some radar screens is excelling at both. In a recent interview with Brand Connections CEO Brian F Martin, Jelly Belly marketing director Robert Swaigen shared his definition innovation and explored the ways it’s actively applied everyday within his organization.
While some consumers think of jelly beans as a seasonal product, the Fairfield, Calif., -based candy maker is changing minds. The company’s creative flavor engineers have launched 50 “official” flavored jelly beans, in addition to numerous concept taste teasers. Jelly Belly boasted more new product introductions in 2006 for the category than Nestlé, Mars or Hershey. A no-holds-barred attitude has helped nurture such creativity.
“Innovation is really why I’m here,” according to the Director of Marketing. “This is such a fun place to work because there are very few barriers to at least exploring ideas that may not even see the light of day at other companies.” He also emphasizes the positive role of the company’s private ownership and a corporate attitude that values long-term growth over quarterly sales success. Swaigen praises the collaborative work environment and intermediate company size for giving Jelly Belly employees significant resources, interactivity and flexibility.
Jelly Belly is the clear jelly bean category leader, but the greater challenge is to increase its overall market share of the non-chocolate category. “Our product is really a year-round product and we get a nice sales spike at Easter, but it’s not a one-shot pony,” he says. From a fuzzy financial foundation, Sport Beans went on to exemplify the company’s innovative energies.
“This was an opportunity to actually create a new category. It’s not a line extension, it’s not a bigger package, it’s something brand new.” And it immediately vaulted the company into a sports performance market where traditional candy had been largely taboo. “Real athletes know that sugar has a place in terms of sports performance. We looked at that and said ‘Hey, I wonder if there’s something here?’” recalls Swaigen. “We saw an opportunity to take what was sort of already happening in that inner circle of elite athletes and make it work better.” Sport Beans’ proven effectiveness, portability, durability, ease of portion control and taste made it fast friends with many athletes.
On the other end of the functionality spectrum, Jelly Belly recently unveiled its Bean Boozled line – complete with flavors including Baby Wipes and Skunk Spray. “It was an opportunity to almost create a kind of game out of a box of jelly beans… It’s a risk that a lot of more conservative, publicly-held companies may not be willing to take, but that’s the freedom, and that’s the opportunity [that comes from] working for Jelly Belly.”
Swaigen and the jelly bean giant aren’t content with merely debuting innovative products. The company also embraces a complex media mix that varies from product to product. “Jelly Belly has really built the brand in a non-traditional way,” Swaigen recounts. Though the company is nearly 110 years old, it was President Ronald Reagan’s affinity for the product that truly launched it into the spotlight. “There wasn’t a meeting that took place in the oval office [during the Reagan era] without a bowl of jelly beans nearby. He definitely got us on the map.” This public relations lesson from the Great Communicator himself is something Jelly Belly will not soon forget.
The firm’s simultaneous one-to-one marketing and product sampling push during the 1980s was also critical. “With Jelly Belly Jelly Bean, there really is no substitute for tasting it,” says Swaigen. The company still embraces a wide variety of venues for distribution, from 200 college campuses to various sports events tied to Sport Beans. He also points to in-store promotions and a strong web presence as key brand and sales drivers.
The recent rise of the media investment company is also altering brand management. “Media planning has really come to the front seat, I think, and probably is even more important than some of the account side of the business,” he believes. “I think with the complexity of the media today, the amount of money that’s spent there, and all these new frontiers on the media side, media planning has really come into its own.” The challenge, he believes, lies in determining how and where your efforts are best rewarded. “That’s fairly easy for more tactical marketing programs, like an eight-week promotion. It’s a lot harder to do with more brand-building umbrella tactics, like print media for example.” Requirements that marketers show a measurable return on investment and embrace the green movement will continue to be factors, he says.
Swaigen made his initial foray into the agency business as an assistant media planner, an experience he says prepared him for a successful career. “I can tell you, at least when I was there, it didn’t pay much – but it’s certainly paying off now,” says Swaigen. “I think it’s a great way to kind of get a foundation and exposure to marketing, especially to the math and quantifiable side of marketing, and I still use that experience today.” For today’s up and comers he stresses the need to approach your job as though running your own business. He also sees a need to seek out new opportunities while learning from both successes and failures. Understanding the math behind the metrics, Swaigen stresses, is a final key for successful marketing.
