Journalism Teaching Note Homework Discuss the consumer decision making process for a product such as canned tuna and the response hierarchy model that is most likely to applicable in the purchase of this product

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Chicken of the Sea International

The Jessica Simpson Spokesperson Decision

Teaching Note

Case Overview

This case examines Chicken of the Sea International (COSI), one of the major competitors in the

canned/packaged tuna and seafood industry, and the decision facing the company’s senior vice president

of marketing as to whether the he should hire pop star Jessica Simpson as a spokesperson. COSI received

her make a surprise visit to its annual sales meeting in October 2003.

The case focuses on whether COSI should try to capitalize on the publicity and hire Simpson as a

spokesperson. There are a number of factors that Don George, the senior vice president of marketing

must consider in making this decision including whether the company can afford to hire her, how her

image will fit with the brand, and how 25-54 old women who comprise the company’s core target market

might react to her as a spokesperson for the brand. It can be used with Chapter 6, Source, Message and

Channel Factors, as it focuses on the use of a celebrity as a spokesperson and issues to consider in

This case should be of great interest to students since many of them are familiar with Jessica

Simpson and are probably aware of her famous fish or tuna faux pas. Many will feel that COSI should

take advantage of her gaffe and hire her as an endorser. However, the case be used to show that the

decision to hire a celebrity endorser requires the consideration of a number of factors. Classroom

Discussion Questions

1. Discuss the consumer decision making process for a product such as canned tuna and the

response hierarchy model that is most likely to applicable in the purchase of this product.

Canned tuna is a very good example of a product that is a low involvement purchase decision for most

consumers. Tuna is essentially a commodity product with very little differentiation among the various

brands. While the three major brands (StarKist, Chicken of the Sea, and StarKist) all claim to have

superior taste, most consumers do not perceive significant differences in taste and quality among them.

The low involvement response hierarchy is likely to be applicable in the processing of

information and purchase of canned tuna. As discussed in Chapter 5, this hierarchy views the consumers

as engaging in passive learning and random information catching rather than active information seeking.

Consumers are likely to engage in peripheral processing of advertising messages and may focus more on

elements such as music, characters, symbols, and slogans or jingles than actual message content. These

peripheral cues become salient when the consumer is actually in the store and making a purchase decision

among the various brands. All three of the major tuna brands appear to be marketed with the low

conclusion. First of all, the three national brands (StarKist, Bumble Bee and Chicken of the Sea) account

for 82 percent of the market share in the tuna category. If tuna was indeed a commodity, one might

expect that private label brands would have a greater share of the market. A second important point is

that there is strong brand loyalty in the canned tuna category. Figure 4.5 of the text shows that 44 percent

of consumers indicate that they are loyal to one brand of tuna. Moreover, brand preference for tuna is

also somewhat regional as Bumble Bee does very well in the Northeast and Florida while StarKist and

2. Discuss the role integrated marketing communications plays in the marketing of

canned/packaged tuna for a company such as Chicken of the Sea. How might the company use

the various IMC tools as part of its marketing program?

Integrated marketing communications plays a very important role in the marketing of canned/tuna as the

various companies use all of the IMC tools, although to different degrees. Media advertising is used to

create and maintain brand awareness and to help differentiate a brand. The major product attributes that

are emphasized in media advertising are taste and quality. As noted in question 1, given the low

involvement decision making process for tuna, the companies use peripheral cues in their ads such as

catchy slogans and jingles as well as personality characters and symbols. Media advertising is also

very good example of a promotional trap which is discussed in Chapter 16 and shown in Exhibit 16-8. It

will be very difficult for the competitors to break out of this trap unless they agree to cut back

promotional spending. However, they are afraid to do so because of a fear of losing market share to other

national brands and/or private label brands offered by the retailers.

While sales promotion and media advertising are the IMC tools used the most by the marketers of

canned/packaged tuna, they also used direct marketing, the Internet, publicity/public relations and

personal selling. Direct marketing is used by periodically sending target direct mail pieces that contain

coupons or premium offers to consumers. COSI is also beginning to do direct marketing through email to

consumers who join its Mermaid Club. Publicity/public relations is also an important part of the IMC

program of the various companies. Each company regularly issues new releases dealing with health and

Brand Week as well trade publications such as Progressive Grocer, Grocery Headquarters and Food

Engineering. Another type of public relations activity that is used by the competitors in the tuna category

is event sponsorship. For example, Chicken of the Sea sponsored the U.S. Synchronized Swim team that

competed in the 2000 Olympics and used its sponsorship to offer a sweepstakes whereby consumers

could win a trip to games in Sydney, Australia.

3. Discuss how Chicken of the Sea’s marketing personnel and advertising agency might evaluate

the appropriateness of using Jessica Simpson as a spokesperson for the company and whether

she is a good fit for the brand.

This question provides the instructor with the opportunity to apply the information in Chapter 6 that

discusses the use of celebrities as endorsers. There are a number of ways Chicken of the Sea International

marketing personnel and ad agency can evaluate how well Jessica Simpson might work as a spokesperson

for the company. One basic consideration is whether she might overshadow the product and the

problem to COSI. The company must also consider whether there is any risk associated with using

Simpson as an endorser. In general this should not be a problem since she has a wholesome image and is

not as controversial as other young female pop stars such as Brittany Spears or Christina Aguilera.

However, Simpson has become known for her ditzy behavior and comments on The Newlyweds MTV

audience. On the other hand, younger consumers may be more receptive to Simpson as a spokesperson

since she is very attractive and popular celebrity. The information from the Marketing Evaluations/TVQ

study supports this argument as Simpson has a Q score of 23 among 12-17 year olds but only a 9 among

those 18-34 and a 10 among those 25-49. It is also important to note that the percentage of those familiar

with Simpson is very high among the 12-17 year old group (72%) as well as the 18-34 year olds (76%).

this is the image that COSI wants to have transferred to the company and/or brand. Students should be

asked to discuss the meaning/image of Simpson and how it was acquired. They are likely to note that her

image originally was that of a young, attractive singer with somewhat of a wholesome image. However,

her meaning changed dramatically as a result of her role on the MTV show Newlyweds as she became

known more as a “ditzy blonde” who often says and/or does dumb things. COSI must consider if they

want their brand associated with this image as it might be a turn off to older women in their core target

4. Discuss the pros and cons of Chicken of the Sea International hiring Jessica Simpson as a

spokesperson for the company. Can the company afford to hire her and spend the money on

TV advertising to use her effectively?

Many of the pros and cons of COSI hiring Simpson as an endorser have been addressed in the answer to

the previous question. However, it still may be helpful to have students make a list of reasons why the

company would benefit from having her as a spokesperson as well as why this would not be a wise

decision. Arguments in favor of hiring her include the opportunity for COSI to build on the favorable

publicity that has resulted from her famous fish or chicken faux pas. Using her as an endorser may be a

There are, however, a number of arguments that could be made against using Simpson.

One of the primary arguments against using her is that the 25 to 54 year old women in COSI’s

core target market may not respond favorably to Simpson and may even be turned off by seeing

her in ads for the brand. This group purchases most of the tuna and may not be influenced by

Simpson because of her ditzy blonde image and or lack of relevance to the product. Another

5. What would you do if you were Don George? Would you recommend that the company hire

Simpson as a spokesperson? Why or why not?

The ultimate decision Don George and COSI must make is whether to hire Jessica Simpson as a

spokesperson. As noted in the case, COSI will probably have to pay her more than a million dollars which

$800,000 in profits for each share point gain. Based on these figures, Simpson would have to help the

company increase its share of the canned tuna market by a little over one point to cover the costs of using

her. However, Simpson could also be used to endorse other COSI canned seafood products so the cost of

using her could be allocated across these items as well. Of course there is no guarantee Simpson will help

the company move the sales needle as increases in advertising and brand awareness do not always result

in sales increases. While it is important for COSI to analyze this decision from a financial and ROI

perspective, there are other considerations that factor into the decision. One of COSI’s goals is to try to

company any money. George was also concerned as to how retailers might react if COSI retained

Simpson as they might view this as evidence that the company had marketing funds available and thus put

more pressure on them to provide more trade promotion dollars. Since the time of the case, Jessica

Simpson has gone on to become a major celebrity as she has starred in several movies including Dukes of