Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 14, 1990 TAG: 9003142556
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
She's out on the driveway playing a little one-on-one with her 9-year-old - and she's giving the kid no quarter.
She fakes. Goes up. Shoots. The ball hangs on the rim and drops. She jams her fist in the air. Sweet - low-cal, high-nutrition - victory.
This scene, from a Weight Watchers advertising campaign, is appropriate to the frozen dinner business these days.
No longer does No. 1 Stouffer Foods Corp. have the $3.2 billion frozen dinner business sealed tight like a boil-and-serve bag. These days it's a frozen food fight.
"I think they (Stouffer) were a little spoiled," opines Alan Miller, who tracks grocery store sales figures as a consultant for the frozen food industry. "Now they've got serious competition. Things are really mixed up."
As Weight Watchers was launching its new "Health Watchers" commercial - aimed directly at Stouffer's Lean Cuisine - Kraft General Foods Group last month was laying siege to Stouffer's "red box" line of frozen entrees with a new campaign for its own "blue box" frozen dinners.
The Kraft ads - which aggressively compare the ingredients in Kraft's dinners to those in Stouffer's - have rankled Stouffer executives.
Stouffer last fall launched a new line of low-cal, low-sodium and low-cholesterol entrees called Right Course - spending $15 million to advertise the line - and crafted a new campaign for Lean Cuisine, replacing spokeswoman Barbara Mandrell with commercials with mom, dad and the kids, and the line "Lean on Lean Cuisine."
Initial sales for Right Course have been encouraging, says Miller, but it's still too early to say whether the line will restore the momentum Stouffer lost last year when Lean Cuisine sales slipped 19.5 percent, and its "red box" line slumped 12.7 percent.
"You can get somebody to try it for the first time, and maybe a second time," says Miller, "but if you don't get them the third time - that's the question. There's an awful lot of (brand switching) in frozen dinners."
Not only are companies trotting out new lines - ConAgra, the maker of Banquet and Morton products, plans to begin shipping the latest, Healthy Choice, this week - they're also looking for new angles.
Where once diet was the selling point, these days frozen food companies are as hooked as oat bran marketers on the "health" craze.
"People are still trying to control their weight," says Doug Haines, general manager of marketing for Weight Watchers Frozen Foods. "But they're also trying to eat right, eat sensibly - watch their fat, sodium and cholesterol intake - and stay out of fad diets."
Weight Watchers' market share grew from 9.9 percent of the market to 10.5 percent last year. It hopes to accelerate its momentum by continuing to reformulate its line, changing recipes and adding new entrees. "We want to be the technological leader," says Haines.
If Weight Watchers doesn't grab a bigger piece, somebody else likely will. Analysts predict frozen dinner sales will increase 15 percent next year. And much of that will be in the low-cal, high-health category - following aging baby boomers.
"Under 35, most people aren't concerned about nutrition," says Susan Schiffman, a professor of medical psychology at Duke University. "Over 35 they start worrying."
Schiffman predicts the next frozen food fight may take place at the rest home. "That's the next market," she says. "Food for the elderly."
by CNB