Short Essay:More than a cookie brand – Oreo is changing its classical brand image

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Changing a brand image is a difficult thing, especially for those who have already built a strong brand impression for a long time. It’s a choice full of risk, as well as opportunities.

Recently, the world’s No.1 cookie brand “Oreo” wants to challenge it. On Feb 8^th, Oreo launched a new campaign “Oreo Dunk Challenge” in the U.S., which aims at stimulating consumers’ creative ways to dunk Oreo cookies in milk. According to news coverage, the sales of Oreo product line has declined by 8.9% in last few months. Oreo want to boost their sales through this new brand campaign.

Oreo has brought us lots of successful branding cases along the history, I think this time they still choose a wise way to renew the brand impression. but the effectiveness of the new campaign to change brand image remains uncertain

The distinguishing characteristics of Oreo branding

When people think about Oreo, I think there are at least three features Oreo brand has that distinguish it from other cookie brands.

1) Create the eating way “Twist Lick Dunk”. When other cookie brand advertises taste, packaging, or well-selected materials, Oreo open a new direction to teach customer how to eat cookies, which has attracted children for generations.

2) Have personality. Few cookie brands could have much personality, but when you look deep inside Oreo, you will feel it’s like an innocence child who always loves to play, loves to find more fun, adorable moments in the world.

3) Always inspire imagination and creativity with the product. Oreo always insists on connecting customers with the product itself, to play with cookie itself and endow it with more vitality and possibilities.

(To celebrate 100 years of Oreo Cookies in 2012, Oreo have produced a brilliant set of adverts celebrating key events that have happened within the last 100 years, with the centre of attention for each poster on the Oreo cookie using it to recreate the key event.)

When “Twist” , ”Lick” is gone

Corporate logo is core for brand image. No one would not know the famous brand logo of Oreo “Twist Lick Dunk” (扭一扭 舔一舔 泡一泡). This how-to-eat ritual has become the signature way to enjoy this iconic cookie in many different cultures around the world, which has also formed its unique brand equity. But in the newest campaign, it abandons the former two steps “Twist” and “Lick”, and focuses on “Dunk” only. Oreo has invited three high-profile celebrities to replay the iconic dunking ritual typically, including International Recording Artist Christina Aguilera, Brazilian football star Neymar da Silva Santo, Jr. and Basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal.

In the released TV spot, Christian Aguilera is riding a bike through a tightwire, then suddenly does a headstand to dunk the cookie in milk; 

Neymar jumps on a trampoline to dunk; 

O’Neal even performs an acrobatic feat, rolling and twisting in the air, to dunk the cookie.

Oreo customers or fans can share their Oreo cookie dunk pictures or videos, using the hash tag in response to an Oreo Dunk Challenge on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Lucky ones can get the chance to meet with O’Neal and Christina Aguilera.

I think in this new campaign, Oreo finds a wise way to re-intensify its brand image, which combines inheritance and innovation. On the one hand, Oreo doesn’t abandon the most classical brand logo to build a new fishable one, but chooses to carry on the eating way, but more emphasize on “Dunk”, the most pivotal step, which can easily evoke people’s memory of childhood time when they were eating Oreo cookies by using the iconic ritual, thereby to motivate the desire to play it again; on the other hand, the creative part is to create diverse fun way to dunk cookie. Oreo cookies and milk are always delicious dunking duo, Oreo wants to dig out a larger imaginary space in this playful moment, which also fits the brand spirit of childlike wonder. 

Just as Justin Parnell said, Global Brand Director, OREO, “When you dunk an OREO cookie in milk, you’re releasing a bit of childlike wonder from within, and it’s those types of moments that our brand was built on. We’re thrilled to inspire fans to dunk OREO cookies on a global scale and inspire more moments of play and wonder around the world.”

But I’m still little inclined to be skeptical about whether the campaign will create a leap in value for branding or save the sales downturn. The most important brand spirit of Oreo is to see the world with childlike wonder, that is what the Dunk Challenge aims at, too. Although it’s fine to add some overstated elements into advertising to attract audience, the three dunkers in the TV spot all do skilled movements with high difficulty before they dunk the cookie in the milk, which may be too exaggerated for ordinary people to do the similar things. I don’t think it’s down-to-earth to promote people involvement. Besides, the three famous celebrities all dress up well in the TV spot, giving performance on stage, which is a little bit far from normal life and lack of childlike fun.

(This is what a fan posted on Facebook. Such difficult movements are not popular among ordinary people. )

Reference:

1.     Official website of “OREO Dunk Challenge”

https://mondelez.promo.eprize.com/oreodunksweeps/?affiliate_id_sw

2.     Oreo puts new spin on iconic dunking ritual with launch of Oreo Dunk Challenge

https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8031651-oreo-dunk-challenge-shaq-christina-aguilera-neymar-da-silva-santo-jr/

3.     The story of Oreo: How An Old Cookie Became A Modern Marketing Personlity

https://www.fastcocreate.com/3037068/the-story-of-oreo-how-an-old-cookie-became-a-modern-marketing-personality