1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Campbell Soup Company’s marketing
information system?
-Campbell Soup Company have made researchers relied on good old paperand- pencil
surveys and traditional interviews to gain consumer insights for making ads, labels and
packaging, and the products themselves more effective. But Campbell’s experience with
such traditional marketing resrearch showed that traditional methods failed to capture
important subconscious thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that consumers experience
when shopping for soup. So instead, to get closer to what was really going on inside
consumers’ hearts and minds, Campbell researchers began employing state-ofthe-art
neuroscience methods. The biometric research methods revealed that the soup can labels
themselves were lacking—the big bowl of soup on a Campbell’s label was not perceived
warmly, and the large spoon filled with soup provoked no emotional response. The
Campbell’s logo is now smaller and lower on the shelf, minimizing the overwhelming “sea of
cans” effect. To further encourage browsing, can labels now fall into different categories,
each with distinguishing visual cues. Since making the changes the sales were up 2%.
2. What objectives does Campbell have for the marketing research efforts described in this
case?
-Campbell’s objectives are to capture consumers attention by changing the labels and
changing the nature of the consumer’s food tastes, preferences, and to enhance the
consumer’s overall food.
3. Compare the effectiveness of Campbell’s biometric research with its deep dive research.
-By employing deep dive marketing research methods, Campbell researchers have identified
six different consumer groups, each with an extensive profile. For each of these groups,
Campbell has created six fully equipped kitchens at its Camden, New Jersey, headquarters,
each designed to mirror the homes of consumers in the six groups. Each kitchen has a
unique design, with different appliances, different features, and, most importantly, different
food in the cabinets and refrigerators. And the biometric research is good at determining
consumer reactions to specific marketing mix variables such as the label and shelf
placement.
4. Describe how traditional marketing research could be integrated with Campbell’s research