News item just in from my brother in Sacramento, and it’s not good.
My first job out of college was temping for my Dad at a chemistry lab shadowed by that Campbell’s plant in south Sacramento, and I have a nostalgic attachment to the area. I really liked that there were a lot of Mexicans around. I started learning Spanish by going to Spanish mass and reading the goofy cartoon books they sold at the convenience store. Later, all that helped me land an assignment in Spain after I started working for a computer company.
Sacramento was once a beacon for great jobs as Silicon Valley companies realized land was cheap and skiing was close. Apple, Intel, Hewlett Packard and others shifted operations there. Today the B2B industry there has collapsed. And what little money is left goes to law-breaking students. Oh well, at least they have bus money to get to Texas and find a real job.
One bit of advice for Campbell’s execs given that they’re closing the plant to revitalize its brand. CHANGE YOUR NAME. Campbell’s will never mean anything but awful, canned soup.
Buying Godiva doesn’t make Campbell’s better, it makes Godiva worse.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Gregg-
I read your entry on Campbells Soup. It is always sad to see a plant close.
However, a name change? It has been around since the 1800′s and has been part of our culture as a country. Ronald Regan pitched the soup company and even Andy Warhol did pop art silks as well.
Part of the value of the firm (whether you like it or not) is brand identity.
The correlation from plant closing to you not liking the soup to changing brand makes little sense.
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Hi Joe…agreed, no correlation. What got me going on the nam changes wasn’t so much for the soup. If they stayed concentrated in soup, “Campbell’s” would be fine.
The fact is though that the company is running away from the soup category without changing its name which stains it like tomato soup a white shirt. Godiva competitors use the owned-by-Campbell’s way to besmirch the Godiva brand.
I was in New York the other week and my wife and I stopped in various chocolate shops. One, Neuhaus, was quite convincing in saying that they had stayed true to their principles of fine chocolate while Godiva which “by the way is owned by Campbell’s” lowered their quality levels as part of its adaptation to the Campbell’s brand.
I
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I also don’t understand how a company that decides it wants to move out of a terrible business climate like Ca. is somehow lowering the quality of the soup. Maybe I missed a relevant piece of info. The comments seem politicaly charged. If so this blog is going to be more degraded by that type of commenting than anything Campbell could do.
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I didn’t understand it to be that moving would impact the quality of the soup, but rather the implied quality of the soup would impact their business as a whole.
Branding:
If Godiva = Fine Chocolate
and Campbells = Cheap Soup
Godiva + Campbells = Cheap Chocolate
And this is just another blow for CA and Sacramento in particular. Days before Campbell made it’s announcement, Comcast Cable announced it would be moving nearly 1,000 jobs out of state. Both companies admitted that the cost of doing business here was too high.
Hopefully this will have an impact on the CA ballot measures for tax increases, but I’m not holding my breath.
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Exactly Steve. I should have used the mathematical equation approach like you.
I hadn’t heard that about Comcast, but another major employer, California Vision, is seeing little option but to leave: http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/09/19/major-vision-insurer-threatens-to-leave-california-taking-2k-rancho-cordova-jobs/
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Hi Andrew…since you’re the second one to call me on it, I’ll take it as a given that the two parts of my post went together like a fine Godiva truffle cake topped with cream of mushroom soup.
Campbell’s has been implementing a strategy to revitalize its brand. That strategy includes buying premium brands like Godiva and closing down the plants that made its old style soup.
But this strategy makes no sense with its current name. It may seem right inside the walls of Campbell’s headquarters, but as Steve explains below, its name is inexorably linked to cheap, canned soup, a fact that negatively impacts the premium brands that it has been acquiring.
You’re right that the company’s decision to move out of California reflects a poor climate for business.
Well Gregg…thanks for the note but in your defense I should have read your post more clearly. On the re-read your truffle was topped with a non “Godiva quality” sauce but topped appropriately none the less.
On a better note, this exchange gave me an opportunity to read more of your staff’s posts as well as your own. I found them interesting and poignant.
Ps.. We have been using TempWorks for about 4 years and after the learning curve it has worked well for us.
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Really cool of you to share that here Andrew. Thanks.
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