"Good 5 Cent Cigar"----Student newspaper at the University of Rhode Island

    Can a new marketing program potentially turn around troubled Interstate Bakeries Corporation?  Yes, it can, but Bottom Line Communications' principal John Landsberg cautions that the company should not simply introduce new brands at and ignore its highly recognized core products such as Wonder Bread, Twinkies and Ho Hos.

    What's interesting is that Sarah Lee has new TV commercials for breads that briefly shows customers tossing "Wonder Bread" away.  While IBC tries to introduce new brands its old brands are under attack.

http://www.bizjournals.com/industries/business_services/marketing/2006/01/02/kansascity_focus2.html

 

IBC marketing chief is eager to revitalize iconic brands

Richard Seban readily acknowledges that his new role as chief marketing officer for troubled Interstate Bakeries Corp. will be a challenge.

In fact, that's why he took the job.

"What I really enjoy doing is working on problems and figuring out how to solve them," Seban said. "I looked at this company being in Chapter 11, and I looked at their great brands, and it was an opportunity that just got my juices going."

Kansas City-based IBC (OTC: IBCIQ) filed for Chapter 11 protection in September 2004 and continues to work through the restructuring process.

Seban, 53, joined the company in August, bringing more than 30 years of experience in sales, marketing and new product development to the manufacturer of Wonder Bread, Twinkies and Ho Hos.

But Seban said marketing through a crisis really isn't much different than marketing 101: "Find gaps in the market you compete in, and then attack those gaps."

Pursuing that strategy will come against a backdrop of closing bakeries, laying off employees and working to streamline operations throughout the company's 10 regional profit centers. Seban said the bankruptcy has created legal and financial distractions.

In response, there is a heightened sense of urgency throughout the company. Time is too valuable for meetings that don't lead to decisions and results. Also, employees are writing fewer memos.

Instead, the hallways are alive with activity as people make decisions and move forward much more quickly.

"It really forces you to focus on the big things," Seban said. "When you're in bankruptcy and going through restructuring, there really is a results-driven culture that evolves. You don't have time to piddle around with bureaucracy."

Clayton Reid, president of Kansas City-based MMG Worldwide, said it was a healthy sign to see IBC invest in marketing. He said marketing campaigns helped boost slumping numbers for some of his travel and tourism clients after 9/11.

"I think the initial reaction by many companies (in trouble) is to shut down -- assume they have to close the marketing department," he said. "But my feeling is that if you stop marketing to your customers, you run the risk of losing market share."

Before and during the bankruptcy, the market category in which IBC's brands compete wasn't growing, Seban said. And within that stagnant segment, Interstate was losing ground. That left marketing officials facing crucial questions.

"Twenty years ago, kids bringing Hostess Twinkies in their lunch box was a common idea," he said. "How do we make that true again?"

Some proposals took shape even before Seban arrived. Jacques Roizen, an official with New York-based turnaround firm Alvarez & Marsal LLC, which is guiding Interstate through bankruptcy, served up fresh ideas as the interim chief marketing officer.

To energize Wonder Bread, Interstate is test-marketing two new products. One, called White Bread Fans, offers all the nutritional benefits of whole-wheat bread but looks and tastes like white bread. The other is Wonder Kids, a vitamin-enhanced white bread. And last year, Interstate entered the "super premium" bread category with Baker's Inn.

Interstate is attempting to break into the growing Hispanic market with Las Delicias de Hostess.

"There's been a lot done in the last year already," Seban said. "My job is to continue that and to expand."

Jeff Yowell, CEO of Westwood-based Datacore Marketing Inc., praised the company for targeting marketing efforts toward women, children and Latinos.

"Successful marketers learn how to not always focus solely on the products but focus on the customer channels and where the greatest opportunities are," he said.

John Landsberg, who has taught marketing courses at the University of Kansas and Baker University, said Interstate shouldn't overlook baby boomers.

"They need to connect with the people who grew up with those brands again, and that's going to be the challenge," said Landsberg, principal of Bottom Line Communications, based in Leawood.

Seban was quick to note that the company wouldn't abandon its core.

"Twinkies and Ho Hos are the foundation of the Hostess brand," he said. "We're not going to dig up the foundation of the Hostess brand. We're going to build on it."

To help contemporize the company's snack cakes, IBC has collaborated with movie studios on promotions, including green Twinkies with "Shrek" and purple-and-green cupcakes with "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

Seban said he hopes a new sponsorship of three professional women race car drivers -- dubbed the Hostess "Racing Divas" -- will help connect the brand with women. And Hostess is overhauling its packaging for the first time in a quarter-century.

"It's not Twinkie the Kid so much anymore," Seban said. "I think it's time we start getting in touch with the new century."