HEB Grocery to Sell Whataburger Products

ALERT! ALERT!

Coming Summer 2013 to an HEB near you! A new product line will hit the market. It already has a loyal fan base, with people counting down the days until its launch. Up until this point, these products have been offered free to consumers. Now people cannot wait to pay money to place this product in their pantry.

What is this product, you ask?

A line of KETCHUPS and MUSTARD for Whataburger.

Yes, that's right -- condiments from Whataburger! The online community can't seem to get enough of the news, announced yesterday by both of the San Antonio, Texas based companies. Regional grocery store chain, HEB, will begin to sell the line of condiments and Whatafries, a potato-chip version of the Whataburger french fry to customers this summer.

I know there are others who are far more excited about this news than I. Don't get me wrong, I am thrilled and will definitely be buying some of all 3 condiments (Fancy Ketchup, Spicy Ketchup, and Original Mustard). I am just not one of the incredible diehard Whataburger loyalists who think this fast-food joint makes the best burgers known to man (coughIN&OUTBURGERcough).

This partnership makes so much strategic sense. Both companies have diehard loyalists. Both companies are based in San Antonio. Both primarily only operate in Texas. HEB is known for promoting local brands and products. Whataburger is known for accommodating their customers' wishes by bringing back popular seasonal items. I could go on and on.

It is my belief that both companies will benefit from this partnership. HEB will continue to build a relationship with their shoppers by showing how they understand their customer and find innovative ways to fill their needs. Whataburger will continue to foster brand loyalty within their regional market and potentially gain awareness in new markets. In addition, Whataburger could be one of the first successful entrants in the fast-food to grocery crossover business. Of course, it helps that Whataburger has developed a differential product in its spicy ketchup, but that aside, other businesses might try to piggy-back off Whataburger's success. Time will tell.

Regardless, I am thrilled for this unique partnership. I eagerly await the summer launch! Count me in for some fries and ketchup come summertime!

Social Media & The American Spirit

This past week has been hell for a lot of people. Lives altered. Innocence lost. 2 cities broken and changed forever. As the people of West, TX and Boston, Mass. pick up the pieces and try to make sense of the catastrophes to hit their communities, I have been making note of the ways in which our country has evolved into a more caring, unified, compassionate, genuinely GOOD society since our innocence was shattered on September 11, 2001.

I have never been more proud of our great United States as I have been this past week. Our sense of community, the "your brother is my brother" mentality, the outpouring of generosity from complete and total strangers to the victims of these two horrific events has been nothing short of extraordinary. To me, this is the purest symbolism representing everything that is wonderful about America. Sure, we have a cut-throat, dog-eat-dog mentality in business, and sure we have probably more than our fair share of violence, but holy crackers -- when someone impedes on our ability to join in celebration with people who are accomplishing one of the biggest milestones in their life, an event where there is so much joy and triumph over struggle, we as a nation really shine.

Social media is a wonderful tool to help develop a sense of community with those who are hundreds or thousands of miles apart. Through the internet and social media platforms, I was able to check on a family friend who was running the marathon, able to connect with a friend who lived in West (who as it turned out, lost everything but their lives), able to participate in the relief efforts for West, able to donate to The One Fund Boston, and most impactful of all, be in mourning with everyone else across the country. It is paramount that in times of grief and sorrow people have a sense of community around them to help them cope through things that just do not and probably will never make sense.

I was riveted for an entire week, glued to anything with a screen hoping for positive news developments in both disasters. On Thursday, when video was released of the suspects, it spread like a wildfire over cracking ground. Within a few hours, hundreds of millions of people across the nation suddenly had a watchful eye out for 2 very dangerous men. When the dramatic events started to unfold on the campus of MIT later that night, social media once again proved critical. Suddenly people were streaming police scanners over Ustream (which is by the way something that I don't agree with, but I won't get on my soapbox right now. We would be here a while), live blogging the events from their homes just mere feet away from the activity,  and tweeting/retweeting any nugget of information to keep their neighbors, whether literally or figuratively, safe from harm.

Social media is a powerful tool. People complain about privacy and about raising an overly-egotistical generation. What is so often overlooked is the good that social media can create. I currently reside in College Station and am a current and former student of Texas A&M University. Aggieland Outfitters, an A&M spirit store, led a joint effort of local businesses and student organizations to collect a donation of items to send to West, TX. The alert was sent out a few short hours after the explosion online, via texts, and through local news outlets. The following morning, the organizations began taking donations from local students and residents. Here is a link to an Aggie's experience being a part of the traveling caravan from College Station to West on Thursday evening (24 hours after the explosion). Below is an excerpt of his testimony. It is one of the many reasons that no terrorist, no hateful organization, and no amount of fear will ever shake my faith in humanity.

"In a joint effort orchestrated by over 15 local businesses with Aggieland Outfitters as the lead, 3 student organizations, 200 plus aggie volunteers, and countless generous donators, we delivered approximately 226,500 pounds (Over 113 Tons-equal to the weight of Boeing 757) of supplies in two 53’ Semi-trailers, two 35’ Trailers, three 15’ moving vans, one RV, one moving trailer, and convoy of personal vehicles. We also delivered over $15,000 in cash donations to the town leaders. You want to know the most amazing part? We had delivered all this within 24 hours of the accident. There is no other way to classify this extraordinary effort other than to just say “There’s a spirit can ne’er be told.” -Cameron Salome ‘07

I pray that this world becomes more peaceful and that terrorists seek to exist. Will that be reality? --Probably not. But I feel safe and content knowing one simple thing: The generosity and support in response to events such as Boston and West show why we will always win in the end.

Dove: Real Beauty Sketches

The "Real Beauty" campaign that the company launched in the early 2000's was a truly groundbreaking piece of marketing. Never before had such a global company made such a bold statement regarding body image, beauty, the trend towards "magazine beauty," and the damage that these negative thoughts are having on the female mind today. Full-figured women were shown in their underwear, smiling and confident in their skin. Other women were shown on billboards across the country with a simple question. Is she "oversized" or "outstanding?" The ad was even somewhat interactive (which was rare back then). Passersby could vote by calling a phone number dove had provided. The entire campaign was a smashing success and has won almost every award given in advertising today.

Welp. Dove is at it again, y'all. Here is the new Dove ad - Real Beauty Sketches - shown below. If you haven't seen it, I highly, HIGHLY recommend it. Go. Watch it below, and then we can analyze it together.

Insane right? Insane in how genius that marketing is. Insane in how true that experience is with women describing their beauty. Just... insanely awesome basically.

Here lies the true genius behind Dove's marketing:
Dove has been able to position themselves as the company that genuinely cares for you as a person. Sure, they make products that they want you to buy. The products are supposed to make you look prettier, and that's great. But what Dove has been able to achieve with the consumer is enormously more profitable than buying a bottle or two of lotion every couple of months. Dove has earned the customer's trust. Women trust Dove with their most precious assets -- their confidence and self-worth. Through ads like the one shown above, women are beginning to feel more empowered, stronger emotionally, and more confident expressing the fact that we are all uniquely beautiful. We are not  "magazine beautiful" nor should we strive to be. Magazine beauty only happens in a magazine. I mean,  have you seen Kim Kardashian without makeup? Doesn't look the same! And that's just it. Its not the same. Its not reality. Dove has managed to release non-traditional advertising and have it be incredibly successful. I understand that a good chunk of the reason that this advertising methods can be so successful is because it is so unique in marketing today. Not many other companies are advertising with heavier women (although it is beginning to not be as taboo to do so), so Dove has been able to maintain a first-mover advantage in that respect.

Do I think that other companies will start to market with fuller-figured women to play off of Dove's success? Yes. Do I think that it will become a new norm? I do not. I think that as a society, marketing with thin, photoshopped women is something that will not change, at least in my lifetime. I can only hope that more companies start marketing towards our self-esteem and self-worth.

Be the change you wish to see in the world.
-Ghandi