Marketing in the News: Chex Mix ft. Sir Mix-A-Lot "Bagel is Back"

     

    For this week’s “Marketing in the News” blog post I had chosen a Chex Mix advertising campaign for the revival of their bagel chips. Now, personally, I am a fanatic for food and snacks. So when I saw this specific advertisement a week ago I was a little intrigued. The main component to my intrigue with Chex Mix’s advertisement was the song in which they remixed and incorporated in the commercial.            

   Delving deeper, the article that I had chosen was written by a reporter for the site “Marketing Dive”, Chris Kelly. The article entails a brief summary and insight of Chex’s marketing strategy for this specific advertisement. As Chex Mix has decided to incorporate and remix Sir Mix-A-Lot’s 1992 notorious hit song “Baby Got Back”, with him in it. After 30 years after its release, Sir Mix-A-Lot and Chex Mix reworded certain aspects of his song “Baby Got Back” into “Bagel Is Back”. As previously mentioned, Chex Mix is reviving its old snack, the bagel chip. The bagel chip was last produced around a decade ago. Chris initially writes about how the Chex Mix brand, and its parent company General Mills, is tapping into and utilizing the nostalgia of the late 80’s and 90’s to spark intrigue in the market. If you have been paying attention to marketing campaigns over the past couple of years, this tactic of using previous decades nostalgia is something that many other companies/brands have been utilizing. Though Chex Mix had decided to also incorporate it with the re-emergence of their bagel chips. Which if I remember correctly was quite good.

  

 I believe Chex Mix, or more specifically General Mills value proposition is to sell broadly to as many people as possible. General Mills products, like Chex Mix, is a relatively healthier snack, compared to the other chip products in the market, while still retaining a pleasant taste. Another example is in their branding/marketing as they don’t take too much risk, having a more “plain” or “generic” brand image. Though they compensate for that with a more frequent and broader advertising campaign.

    A challenge that Chex Mix/General Mills is facing is that they are fairly generic. Though I do believe that it perfectly suits the brand and the image of Chex. However, I believe that this is somewhat of a double edged sword. Specifically in the case of branching out and obtaining/retaining new customers. Even though Chex is one of the big name snack products there are more popular, healthier, and or better tasting products in the market. I believe that they are trying to “stand out” in their own way with advertisements that hone on the nostalgia aspects of pop culture and the product history.

    This advertisement campaign was honestly fairly generic and quite unimaginative. To further my ideas, this type of advertisement where companies have used older nostalgic songs with a new/revived product have been done before and are getting quite frequent. While the video Chex Mix and Sir Mix-A-Lot had produced was fairly tame, only slightly changing the words/theme. I believe that they could have gone off the deep end and been even more creative in their video.

    If I was the brand/product I would go towards a Lay’s approach where they have a variety of flavors, while incorporating new flavors quite frequently. Lay’s also has many athletes/influencers who are incorporated with the products. My personal favorite is the Jayson Tatum Flamin' Hot BBQ chips. Though I would not shoot for the array of products that Lay’s has, as there is only so much you can do with Chex Mix compared to potato chips. I would, personally, add 2 or 3 new flavors like a sweeter chocolate coated product and a spicy version. I do understand that Chex Mix as a product/brand is very successful and was cultivated in a specific direction. Despite this, I think if Chex steps out of the box a little more they could gain even more recognition.

    In doing this assignment, I had been more cognizant of the marketing strategies that companies partake in.

Kelly, Chris. “Chex Mix Remixes 'Baby Got Back' for Bagel Chips Revival.” Marketing Dive, 10 Jan. 2023, https://www.marketingdive.com/news/chex-mix-baby-got-back-bagel-chips-marketing/639983/.