Simply Splendid Splenda Motivation

Overview

Sometimes, brilliant marketing is right there in front of you, and you don’t even notice it - or, more accurately, it hits you subliminally! It happened to me just the other day, even as one who seeks out great ideas to be able to share them with others in the world of business and beyond. A product that I had been using for a few weeks suddenly spoke to me - almost literally, and yes, their smart, splendid marketing move may have bought the company a customer for life - and yes, generated even more goodwill and potential sales as you read this article about my experience.

Source: https://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/marketing-quotes/

Seeing Marketing Genius in My Morning Coffee Ritual

There I was at “way too early o’clock” - summoned to begin my day both my biological clock that is “of a certain age” and the barking of our granddog who has decided that 5:30 a.m. is the perfect time to start her day! I was having one of those “modern problems,” thinking that my single-cup coffee maker was taking just a bit too long to make my first cup of coffee for the day. Now, I’m one who has to mask the actual taste of the coffee with way too much sweetener and creamer that basically makes my cup of coffee into a sweet, not bitter drink. So, sorry to all you coffee connoisseurs out there - maybe I don’t know my coffee, but I do need it every morning as a very practical, very effective caffeine-delivery advice that, yes, tastes good to me!

Now, not out of any conscious, strategic buying decision, but rather, due simply to the fact that our warehouse club switched the brand of artificial sweetener it carried, we had recently switched to a new brand - Splenda. And so on this morning, I became a Splenda person - I thought for at least until the next trip to the warehouse club. But a small, smart, and yes, strategic touch by the company’s marketing team may have well bought them my long-term loyalty as a customer. Yes, I saw marketing genius right there on my kitchen counter - before sunup!

Artificial Sweeteners: The Very Definition of a Fungible Good

At least to me, artificial sweeteners are what marketers like to call fungible goods, meaning that, in essence, they are commodity products that are basically interchangeable. So, let me apologize to the entire marketing teams, not just to “Team Yellow” (Splenda), but also to Team Pink (Sweet'N Low), Team Blue (Equal), and the various forms of Stevia that make up Team Green for what I am about to say.

When I am at home, I use what we have bought. But when I am getting coffee out, whether buying it at my local coffee shop or enjoying the free hotel coffee on the road (is there anything better?), I am pretty much brand agnostic when it comes to which sweetener I use to sweeten my morning drink of choice. I would wager to say that I am in the majority of artificial sweetener users as being brand agnostic. This means for us sweet coffee drinkers, if there are pink packets, blue packets, yellow packets, or green packets available to you, we simply grab what is closest to you to use.

Now, if they only have sweetener in blue packets, it’s not like I say, “I need pink or yellow packets!” No, I don’t pass on sweetening my coffee based on brand preference, or - the “sin of all sins” for those of us “of a certain age,” actually put sugar in my coffee! No, I simply roll with what is available to me and use the sweetener that is right there in front of me - for free! It’s an unconscious, easy consumer decision, at least for me, though I know there are indeed loyalists out there who may pass entirely on their morning (or afternoon and/or early evening) coffee if their Sweet'N Low, Equal, Truvia (Stevia), or yes, Splenda is not available to them.

My mental calculus, though, on which artificial sweetener I will be buying - and using - in my coffee, in my tea, in my oatmeal, etc. has changed now, and it did so really in an instant one recent morning! This is because I personally like - yes, I noticed, and I appreciated - a small little touch that the marketing folks at Splenda (created by Johnson & Johnson and now the featured brand of the Heartland Food Products Group) added to make their somewhat generic product less generic, their fungible good seem less fungible to consumers. And how did they do this? They did it with a few words - or rather, a few words on (almost) every packet of Splenda!

What did - or rather, what is - Splenda doing that is sheer marketing genius? They are doing something simple with their packaging that makes their sweetener stand out from their immediate, almost essentially interchangeable competition. What are they doing that is so remarkable, so genius, and yet, so simple? They are taking one side of their two-sided packet not to advertise their brand, but to add some much-needed positivity to their users’ days! And let's face it, in our stressful, dangerous, and too-often loud and angry world today, we could all use a little positivity with our morning coffee!

Splenda: Spreading Motivation and Positivity One Packet of Sweetener at a Time

So, if you haven’t noticed before now that your Splenda packet doesn’t just contain a sweetener, but a sweet - and positive - message to help start your day - or give you motivation with that much-needed afternoon cup of coffee, let’s explore the range of what Splenda’s packets are currently saying.

Now, by definition, each Splenda packet has two sides. On one side, you have the product name (yes, even though artificial sweeteners now have color branding, name recognition is still an essential part of their marketing mix):

But what Splenda does with the flip side of their packets is what is truly remarkable, and yet truly simple at the same time. Their marketing folks have used a series of short, positive messages (with most having no connection to coffee, tea, or sweeteners). These include:

“Make some coffee and own the day…”

“Add more smiles to your morning…”

“The perfect moment is now…”

“The best way to get there is to start…”

“Every day is a new opportunity…”

“Replace I wish with I will…”

“You got this! Be your best today…”

“Create your own sunshine…”

“Leave a little sparkle wherever you go…”

“Be happy! It drives other people crazy…”

“Find the sweet side in all things…”

“Life is short. Make it sweet…”

“Celebrate each day with a touch of sweetness…”

and

“Yes, you can!”

Now, I am a naturally skeptical and somewhat cynical person. However, even my “Inner Scrooge” started taking note of the positive, motivational messages that adorned my Splenda packets each morning! It became almost a game to me: Which positive message would I draw out of the sweetener container this morning? And for that message to break through before dawn and before even having my first sip of coffee, that means that their marketing worked! I must say, now I have a preference for Splenda. No, this is not because I could “taste test” a difference between Splenda and all the other artificial sweeteners on the market. Rather, it is a conscious choice, as I, for one, can appreciate the fact that the marketing folks at Heartland Food Products Group have used this valuable space on their signature product to spread a message of positivity in a world where we all could use some “good vibes” today!

Analysis and Recommendations

The point of this article is simple: If Splenda can make marketing magic with a few simple words on their packets of artificial sweetener, their inspirational messages can - and should - motivate you to strive to make your marketing - and your own personal messaging - better and more unique!

Think about it. We have examples all throughout our world where similar simple touches “work.” Think about the Chinese restaurant staple - the fortune cookie. What is inside every fortune cookie (well, except the 1 or 2 that slip through quality control at the fortune cookie factory)? If you said a fortune, that simple sentence or two of wisdom for your day, you’re right. That fortune - and maybe your daily lottery numbers as well, are just a nice little touch to end your meal from a Chinese restaurant (and yes, now they’ve become almost an expected touch!). It’s not personalized for you (well unless you believe a micromanaging God destined you to have that particular fortune or those particular lottery numbers to bring you a fortune!), but it is a nice touch - now, an expected, almost de facto one when it comes to dining out, carrying out, or getting Chinese food delivered!

Think about the waiter or waitress who adds a short, personalized “thank you!” and/or “Happy Anniversary!” or “Merry Christmas!” on your check. That is done out of kindness, a desire to have you come back to the restaurant, and maybe, just maybe, a wish for you to up that tip on the check or the computer screen from 15-18-20-25% or even more! Small touches do work! And yes, a few handwritten words - and a name - from your server goes a long way to help build that connection - even if it be fleeting and temporary. And yes, that small touch might just be the “tipping point” to make you satisfied enough with your restaurant experience to want to come back - and maybe even ask for that particular waitress or waiter!

So, what I am urging is not for every company to start adding inspirational words or quotes to their product’s packaging or on their invoice for services. No! No! No! Splenda did this uniquely - and it fits their product, seeing as much of it is used in the mornings and with coffee or tea. Stay out of their lane, folks!

Rather, I’d like to challenge you to think about how you can use Splenda’s splendid example as inspiration for what you can do to set your product, your service, and maybe even yourself apart in your marketing and your communications. Can you add a little - what we in Louisiana refer to as lagniappe - simply a little extra touch to what you offer? If you’re a restaurant manager, maybe offer customers a free dessert with their meal routinely, rather than just when the kitchen is having a bad night. If you are a consumer products or service company, maybe include a meaningful quote from your company’s founder or CEO on the product packaging and/or your letterhead and maybe even your invoices! As a company, maybe send out a small thank-you gift to your customers, rather than the omnipresent email or text survey asking about your customer experience. On a personal level, maybe send a thank-you card - yes, a hand-written one, to a customer or a client for their business, or even just to a prospect for the time that they afforded you for your sales pitch. Or maybe just make it a practice to add that one extra sentence to your emails and texts - wishing someone and/or their family well or even just simply adding “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” to your message. That extra touch can make a big difference in your success.

In the end, remember that these small touches can make a world of difference not just in your company’s marketing success, but in your success as well. As the author Richard Carlson famously put it: “Don’t sweat the small stuff – and it’s all small stuff!”

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About David Wyld

David C. Wyld is a Professor of Strategic Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, publisher, executive educator, and experienced expert witness. You can view all of his work at https://authory.com/DavidWyld. You can subscribe to his Medium article feed at: https://davidwyld.medium.com/subscribe.

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