It’s enough to make some food marketers turn green with envy.
Even before “The Hulk” opened in movie theaters, you could fill a grocery cart with packages of edibles featuring the character’s menacing mug. Boxes of mini Ritz crackers that sport silvery, collectible holographic Hulk stickers. Chocolatey Hershey’s syrup that has been colored green–for a limited time–in honor of the movie. Oreo cookie packages that hide green cookie game pieces worth cold, hard cash. Tri-colored Popsicles that pay homage to the Hulk and his Marvel comic buddies, Spider-Man and Captain America.
The list goes on and on.
Popular personalities on products–real or fictional–are nothing new to foodies. Emeril Lagasse has spices and pots and pans; Ming Tsai hawks knives and gourmet items; Paul Newman’s face is on dressings, salsas and other foodstuffs; SpongeBob SquarePants shills for cereals and frozen treats; and a tram-load of Disney characters are commonly found on food labels.
And, of course, all can be purchased now with The Hulk limited-edition MasterCard.
“Marketing plans are built on the latest and greatest things,” said Harry Balzer, vice president of The NPD Group, a company that tracks and analyzes sales and marketing information for a wide range of industries. “It’s all about the power of the license. It’s taking a gamble on what we think–or really, what we hope–will be the next big thing.”
Hawking `Hulk’
As licenses go, “The Hulk” is no slouch.
“There are about 300 licenses across all categories (of products) worldwide,” said Debbie Jackman of Universal Studios Consumer Products Group.
Licensing translates into a lot of cha-chings at the supermarket. The Hulk’s current competitor in the marketplace is Nemo, an overly curious, orange-and-white striped clown fish. “Finding Nemo,” which was created by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by the Walt Disney Co., has grossed more than $277 million, according to Nielsen EDI. And “Finding Nemo’s” star is certainly not lost on the food world.
“We recently bought Nemo cereal and popcorn,” said Cindi Kirkley, a Maitland, Fla., mother of two children, ages 5 and 8.
Cha-ching.
“I don’t always buy what the kids want, but if they are in the store with me, right now they are drawn to anything with Nemo’s picture. Of course, we’ve been to McDonald’s several times to get the Nemo toys.”
Cha-ching. Cha-ching.
Kirkley and her husband are still deciding whether “The Hulk” would be too intense for their children, but even if the kids don’t make it into the movie theater, they’ve already been caught up in the edible hype.
“I bought the [Hershey’s] green syrup,” Kirkley admitted.
Cha-ching. Cha-ching. Cha-ching.
Cart before the horse
“In many cases we find that the products promote the movie better than the movie promotes the products,” said Leslie Spencer, director of consumer relations and strategic communication of Publix Super Markets.
Like other food retailers, Publix was prepared for the movie hype. Before the film reels started spinning, Publix bakeries were gearing up by offering Hulk-themed cakes in its bakeries.
“We don’t track just Hulk cakes,” but there were quite a few Hulk sales in Publix bakeries before the opening, Spencer said.
Does an action figure or beloved animated character have magical powers over how we shop? Will the Hulk’s face on a box of Nilla Wafers really help Nabisco sell more cookies?
The display is the thing
“It’s really on an item-by-item basis,” Spencer said. “But what really drives the sale of these particular products is the display of them and the promotion of them.”
And, she added, it helps that the items are generally marketed to a very specific demographic that will buy into the hype: “These kind of characters or caricatures on the cereal boxes, or wherever you find them in the store, tend to be more for children’s or family movies.”
If the movie proves to be unsuccessful over the long term, said Balzer, stores will be sitting on a lot of unsold product.
Jackpot winners in recent times have been “Spiderman,” “The Lion King,” “anything Harry Potter-related, `Toy Story’ and `Star Wars’ or any of its ilk,” Balzer said.
Veteran cereal hucksters Pumbaa, the “Lion King’s” spokes-warthog, and motormouth Timon, couldn’t be reached for comment, but you can bet your Hulk Pez dispenser the grocery cart will continue to be pushed by the next big thing.