Today’s guest post is from Mom Central team member, Anne-Marie Nichols, who edits Mom Central Food and runs Mom Central Blogger University.
When I found out that I’d be representing Mom Central at the Kashi Mom Blogger event last month in San Diego, I was thrilled. Not only had I spent half my life in San Diego, but I had been eating Kashi for as long as I could remember. My dad was a health food nut and used to buy Kashi at a small, funky health food store in the Hillcrest section of San Diego. In more ways than one, with this trip I was returning home… and bringing the kids with me. (Yes, Nathan and Lucie were invited, too, and stayed with caregivers at the hotel while I was at the event.)
Yoga at the beach and more
We stayed at the La Jolla Shores, right on the Pacific Ocean. The hotel was another trip down memory lane for me. My family and I used to stay there while my parents looked to buy a home in San Diego. (We eventually moved from New Jersey to El Cajon, about 30 minutes inland from La Jolla.)
The first morning, I got to meet all the bloggers in the lobby:
- 5 Minutes For Mom and Say It Face to Face – Susan Carraretto
- Alpha Mom – Isabel Kallman
- BabyCenter’s “MOMformation”/ Mrs. Mogul / Mogul Baby – Lisa Estall
- Hot Moms Club – Michelle Fryer
- Mommy Tracked and lizziebtv.com – Lizzie Bermudez
After handing over my kids to the caregivers (Lisa brought her family, too), the people from FormulaPR (Kashi’s PR firm) and several employees of Kashi met us for yoga on the beach, including David DeSouza, General Manager of Kashi. (If you ever get the chance to do yoga in the sand, do it. It’s a much more forgiving surface than wood, since you can really dig your toes in.) What a great way to start the day!
Afterwards we had breakfast back at the hotel and noshed on Kashi cereals, bars and waffles. While we ate, we watched a presentation about Kashi’s history (there original office used to be practically down the street from the hotel), the background behind the name, and the story behind the 7 grains.
Most importantly they touched on their philosophy (“Kashiness”) and corporate culture:
- They want everyone to live a healthy lifestyle.
- Do good first. Doing well will come later.
- Consumer needs come first. People fuel their mission.
- They love healthy, enjoyable, natural food.
- They’re guided by their roots.
- Measures of their success are holistic.
- They connect people to their company by using stories from their employees.
You can read more about Kashi’s mantra here.
Then they gave a brief overview of all their brands. We’d be covering this more when we got to their headquarters.
Kashi U – organic, sustainable packaging
- TLC – taking care of yourself while you’re snacking
- GoLean – first company to use protein in a cereal. Great initial response from people doing the Weight Watchers plan.
- Heart to Heart – heart health
- Vive – digestive health
- Good Friends – for older people
- Mighty Bites – for kids
- Organic Promise cereals – not all the seven grains, but totally organic
We found out who is eating Kashi:
- Those who are on a journey to better health. Either the people who are very aware of health issues and shop at health food stores (“Disciples”). Or the “Managers and Investors” who are more mainstream and buy Kashi at regular grocery stores and club stores. Kashi has been aimed towards both groups as neither has to be convinced to eat healthier.
- Traditionally Kashi has been marketing to women and those in their 20s and 30s. Now they want to expand more to families and kids and are starting campaigns aimed at moms. This is the main reason they had us out and asked for our feedback on advertising copy and packaging.
- Kashi is not about what they don’t put in their cereals (fat, additives, salt) but what they add to their cereals (fiber, protein, 7 grains, plant sterols, antioxidants, etc.) They believe that their products provide a physical and emotional sense of fulfillment. They want to be seen as good stuff to eat that’s more mainstream. However, they don’t believe in making healthy versions of Oreos or Pop Tarts – that’s not Kashiness.
Some Kashi stats:
- More new customers are reached through PR than via other marketing efforts.
- 400,00+ people involved in Kashi.com community
- 3.7 million people have heard about Kashi and were convinced to purchase through a viral Kashi consumer.
We also met with their natural lifestyle and food expert, Keegan Sheridan, DN. She’s currently featured in Kashi’s “Do What Comes Naturally – Easy Ways to Live Naturally at Work” ad. (Kashi mostly uses employees in their ads.) Keegan is a licensed doctor of Naturopathic Medicine and Kashi’s Natural Food and Lifestyle Expert. (You can learn more about her at health.com/kashi.) Keegan explained her mission was to define what natural means at Kashi.
Keegan was a great source of information. For example, she told us that just because a product says it’s made from a whole grain, doesn’t mean that it is made with a whole wheat, soy or oatmeal grain. It could have the endosperm from barley the bran from wheat. This is called reconstituting grains. I had no idea that this was done by food companies. However, Kashi doesn’t do this.
She also told us that Kashi:
- uses evaporated cane juice when the product isn’t sweet enough naturally from fruit or grains and add just enough to make the product palatable to consumers.
- uses expeller pressed oils.
- cannot go completely organic – though they’d love to – because all their grains aren’t available organically in quantities and qualities needed.
- only fortifies their cereals with extras like phytonutrients, antioxidants and heart healthy additives like folic acid. They aren’t replacing nutrients that were removed during manufacturing and replacing them like traditionally fortified cereals.
Off to Kashi HQ and to shop with Keegan
We then took a ride to Kashi’s headquarters and got a tour of their offices. It’s a rather small HQ with only 55 employees, a big kitchen and several meeting rooms. We had a lunch of Kashi pizza and several of their frozen entrees, plus salad and bars and cookies for dessert. Several product managers joined us.
This was the first time I had ever tried their frozen food and I was impressed. It was delicious and I know my kids would love their pizza.
While we ate, we learned about Kashi’s frozen entrees and pizza:
- They created a frozen food line because Kashi customers felt that frozen food was a necessary evil in their lives. Kashi wanted to help meet their needs by providing a healthy but convenient alternative.
- Many consumers said that frozen entrees usually left them feeling hungry, so Kashi made sure their entrees were packed with fiber, nutrition and their famous grains so you feel satisfied.
- They have six vegetarian dishes.
- Kashi entrees and pizza are lower in sodium than other brands’ similar frozen entrees.
- They believe in sustainable packaging. Kashi is working on reducing packaging weight and using 100% recycled cardboard and soy inks.
- Kashi uses Kellogg’s R&D department to help develop entrees. (They’re a wholly owned subsidiary of Kellogg’s.)
- While their products are almost twice the price of other frozen entrees. However, they feel it’s a good price since they consider their product to be higher end. (Kashi’s average retail price is $4.09 while Healthy Choice by ConAgra retails for $1.67 at WalMart and up to $2.50 at grocery stores.)
After learning about their frozen entrees, we got a more in depth look at their cereal and bar brands:
Simple Taste brands – appeals to the whole family. Not as crunchy/hard as their other brands.
- Granolas with 7 grains – Cocoa Beach is a big seller.
- Go Lean – positive nutrition that keeps you feeling full. Biggest selling brand.
- Heart to Heart – second biggest selling brand. Uses plant sterols, grape seed extracts, Vitamins C&E, green tea, white tea, etc. – fortified with things that are good for your heart.
- TLC – redesigning packaging to make the food the hero in the photos.
- ashi U – addresses 5 systems (heart, immune, digestion, bone, and mind). Uses sustainable packaging and printing. Printing offset with wind power.
Coming soon to a grocery store near you:
- In 2010 – a superfood bar!
- Packaging team looking for recyclable wrappers. Currently using Terracycle to reuse packaging that isn’t recyclable.
After lunch and the presentation, we left for an in store tour at a local Ralphs supermarket with Keegan. The group visited the produce, dairy, cereal/bar and frozen entrée aisles and discussed labeling, healthy foods, organics, product placement, and what to look for when you want to shop for healthy foods.
After our tour, we were driven back to the hotel to relax. In my case, I spent some time with the kids resting in bed and watching Spongebob Squarepants. Later that evening, I dropped them off with the sitters, and went out to dinner at Ristorante Piatti, an Italian restaurant within walking distance from the hotel with Kashi and FormulaPR personnel. If you ever have a chance to go there, beware the bread dipping oil. It’s delicious, but be prepared to keep a tin of breath mints nearby for a few days – oh that garlic!
Then it was a short walk back to the hotel to grab the kids. Nathan was asleep in our room with one of the caregivers. Lucie was asleep in the daycare room and had to be carried all the way to the other side of the hotel and down a few floors. After a heavy meal, carrying a 40 pound sleeping child while wearing her backpack was a workout!
After tucking her in, I soon joined my kids knowing that we have a full day ahead of us including a hike in Torrey Pines with the Kashi crew!
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