Bolthouse Farms - Shakedowns Site
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Todd Putman, Senior Executive from Bolthouse Farms introduces their newest product to Indianapolis residents as part of a multi-city trial. The company is the country's top producer of baby carrots, and for several years now it been working to get people to consider the baby carrot as junk food (it's orange, it's crunchy, it's sweet). The next big step in that effort is called Baby Carrot ShakeDowns - seasoned carrots in a single- serve bag.
The Baby Carrot ShakeDowns packaging features an internal seasoning packet that has one of three flavors - Ranch, Chili-Lime or Salsa. Consumers pinch then pull the packet to release the seasoning then shake it to cover the baby carrots - hence, ShakeDowns.
Each bag tops out at 25 calories so the thinking is to give the American snacker a quick, tasty burst of junk food goodness, but junk food that just happens to be good for you.
Bolthouse Farms, a premier producer of carrots, celebrated a milestone moment in the 26-year life of the baby carrot: shake-on seasoning. Fresh seasoned carrots, known as "Baby Carrot ShakeDowns," are now available in San Antonio as part of a consumer trial.
Baby Carrot ShakeDowns can be found in the produce and fresh snacking sections of San Antonio H-E-B and Walmart stores. The consumer trial is the latest stage in Bolthouse Farms' continuing campaign to make the baby carrot America's preferred snack. Baby Carrot ShakeDowns are sweet and flavorful, offering the appeal of junk food, minus junk food's calories, fat and sugar, according to a company news release.
Baby Carrot ShakeDowns are an innovation in fresh produce. Small quantities of natural seasoning - Ranch, Chili Lime or Salsa - are housed in a packet inside a single-serve baby carrot snack bag. A pinch pops the packet. A pull frees the seasoning. A shake covers the carrots and the snacking can commence. At $0.99 per bag, each ShakeDowns package tops out at 25 calories.
"You can't lecture people into eating healthy," said Jeff Dunn, CEO of Bolthouse Farms. "The best way to improve eating habits is to acknowledge that people tend to follow their desires when they sit down to snack. So we've started with that desire and worked backward - we've created desirable snack food that just happens to be healthy. We're in a good spot, because carrots already have built-in snack appeal: they're orange, they're crunchy, they're delicious. And now that they come with seasoning..."
By: Kristen
Want a little ranch seasoning on those carrots? How about salsa? Or chili lime?
In an effort to make baby carrots seem like junk food, carrot producer Bolthouse Farms has launched a consumer trial in Indianapolis of shake-on carrot seasoning. Fresh, seasoned carrots, known as "Baby Carrot ShakeDowns," are now available at Indianapolis Wal-Mart, Kroger and Meijer stores.
How do you make carrots taste like Doritos? A small packet of seasoning - ranch, chili lime or salsa - is tucked inside each single-serve baby carrot snack bag. Just shake the seasoning onto the carrots and voila: snack food-flavored carrots. Each single-serve package is 99 cents and has 25 calories.
But why try to make a carrot taste like a snack chip at all?
"You can't lecture people into eating healthy," said Bolthouse Farms chief executive officer Jeff Dunn in a recent release. "The best way to improve eating habits is to acknowledge that people tend to follow their desires when they sit down to snack. We're in a good spot, because carrots already have built-in snack appeal: they're orange, they're crunchy, they're delicious. And now that they come with seasoning, why bother with Doritos at all?"
Apparently, it's all part of a plan. In 2010, Bolthouse Farms spearheaded a campaign dubbed "Eat 'Em Like Junk Food." And according to the release, the consumer trial is the latest stage in the company's effort to make the baby carrot America's preferred snack.
Look for Baby Carrot ShakeDowns in the produce and fresh snacking sections of Indianapolis area Wal-Mart, Kroger and Meijer stores.
By: Jolene Ketzenberger
It's a quirky little marketing campaign, courtesy of Bolthouse Farms.
Get people to think of baby carrots as junk food. You know? Little, orange and crunchy - kind of like Cheetos?
This week, the California-based producer of baby carrots launched a trial test of its newest product in three markets. Indianapolis happens to be one of them.
The product is Baby Carrot ShakeDowns - a single-serving size bag of baby carrots with three choices of seasoning - ranch, chili-lime or salsa.
The product is being tested in just two other markets - Seattle and San Antonio. In Indianapolis, ShakeDowns can be found at Meijer, Kroger and Walmart.
The CEO of Bolthouse Farms, Jeff Dunn, used to be a top executive at Coca Cola so he knows how to market junk food. Now, he wants to make baby carrots just as popular.
"Baby Carrot ShakeDowns are intended to deliver the appeal of junk food, minus calories, fat and sugar," the company says. "Think of ShakeDowns as Cheetos without the empty calories, after-taste, or post-consumption guilt."
Couldn't have too much guilt. Each bag tops out at 25 calories.
By: Dana Hunsinger Benbow
Doritos, Cheetos, Fritos ... carrots?
If Jeff Dunn has his way, baby carrots one day will rival corn chips and cheese-flavored puffs as a snack food of choice.
Dunn is the CEO of Bolthouse Farms, a produce grower in Bakersfield, Calif., that sells carrots, premium beverages and salad dressings. To raise carrot sales, he's tapped into the marketing skills he honed in his former job as a top executive at Coca-Cola.
His tactic: Forget emphasizing the health benefits of carrots. Instead, market them like they're junk food.
"Just telling people to eat fruits and vegetables doesn't work," Dunn says. "People are so used to being marketed to."
Last week, I met with Dunn, who was in town for the launch of Bolthouse's newest product, Baby Carrot ShakeDowns. The single-serve bags of seasoned carrots debuted in San Antonio at H-E-B stores to kick off a multi-city trial (turns out San Antonio is a good test market for certain products).
Some background: Bolthouse's carrot sales soared when they started selling baby carrots made by peeling and cutting pieces of larger carrots about 25 years ago, which boosted consumption of the vegetable in the U.S.
To jumpstart sales again a few years ago, Bolthouse started marketing baby carrots as snack foods, positioning them not as a healthful alternative to junk food but as junk food. Carrots are bright orange and crunchy like Doritos and Cheetos, after all.
"Who says unhealthy food gets to have all the fun?" Dunn says.
Bolthouse's multimillion dollar campaign for baby carrots, "Eat 'Em Like Junk Food," included tongue-in-cheek commercials with extreme stunts and sexy women, display ads in grocery stores and sassy postings on social media networks, all portraying baby carrots as cool and fun to eat.
The award-winning campaign began in 2010 in test markets. Bolthouse saw double-digit increases in baby carrot sales during the test period but didn't launch the campaign nationally because other carrot growers weren't on board to support the effort financially, Dunn says.
Undeterred, Bolthouse spent about two years developing its next innovation, Baby Carrot ShakeDowns, packages of carrots complete with a sealed pocket of dry seasoning. Open the pocket and shake the bag to cover the carrots with the seasoning, which comes in ranch, chili-lime and salsa flavors. They cost about a buck per bag and contain 25 calories each.
Bolthouse hopes the product's brightly colored bags and the shaking component that adds "play value" for kids will appeal to consumers.
I brought samples of Baby Carrot ShakeDowns back to the office for my colleagues to try. The consensus: The seasoned carrots don't taste like junk food, but they are tasty (most of us liked the chili-lime flavor the best).
I'm just waiting for ad agencies to make broccoli hip.
By: Jessica Belasco
The ladies of San Antonio Living review some healthy options for kids' lunches. Baby Carrot ShakeDowns take center stage.