The End, My Friends

I’m done with Annie’s. I’m sure I was thorough enough, but of course if you have any lingering, burning questions, I have an inbox. I just wanted to throw out a few thoughts on the future of Annie’s:

Environmentalism isn’t going away anytime soon, not with the threat of climate change permeating society, but as the company grows it does risk losing focus and allying itself with someone, maybe another company or investment firm, who uses less savvy practices. For example, if Annie’s was bought out by Kraft, suspicions about its new corporate overlords could destroy the company.

Annie’s recently hired a marketing firm, TDA, a brand new step from the marketing strategy that was devised by Withey herself and was very successful. It is surviving the recession relatively unscathed, so Annie’s will be around in the near future, but as it continues to grow many opportunities and pitfalls will appear – it just has to watch out and pick the right ones.

USA

Today I looked into how the government supports Annie’s, if at all.

Annie’s doesn’t receive any government help per se, as there aren’t subsidies that work with companies or anything. It does get regulated by the FDA and USDA and displays their seals of approval. This provides their products with a sense of credibility, so consumers can have faith in what they’re buying. This also contributes to the price increase since the Federal government does not subsidize organic farming, so they have to pay full price for premium ingredients. (Dimitri, C. "EU and US Organic Markets Face Strong Demand Under Different Policies.") 


Annie’s does use marketing to its full advantages. Ann used to do the marketing herself, a very low key approach by simply writing letters on the back of the food boxes and even responding to customer messages personally. The company’s clearly grown since then and she can’t do that anymore – in fact, they recently hired a marketing firm, TDA. Many of their marketing approaches, like the color, mascot, grassroots approach, “telling it like it is” – all work together so that they are perceived as genuine. They even do market research to gather consumer input and check that their strategies are working. According to Laurie Demeritt, president of The Hartman Group, a consumer-research firm, “Organic is not really enough anymore--it's the baseline of what you need, you have to do more to tell the rich emotional story behind it.” Withey's tales, told from the back of macaroni and cheese boxes, build emotional connections with consumers. People feel as if they know this manufacturer - and therefore can trust its brand and products ("From organic goods to sustainable ones: a saturated market for organic packaged goods has sprouted a new demand: sustainability." CRM Magazine).

I find this approach to marketing to be much better than in-your-face commercials and fake models smiling from their very pores. I can definitely see this approach working wonders on their target audiences - mothers and college students. They are the most in need of convenience type foods, are concerned with health and the contents of their food, and would be most likely to agree with the company’s principles.

Ugh, Kraft

“Annie's and its valued employees treat consumers, customers, suppliers, shareholders, and each other, with the same high degree of respect, fairness, & honesty that we expect of others.”

Direct quote from the Annie’s website! I’ll stop doing that after today, but seriously, that is a mighty fine message. It’s rare to see a food company that cares about more than profit. Speaking of profit, it appears that Annie’s can charge high prices not only because they need too (quality ingredients) but because they’re in a niche. The higher quality organics and packaging all contribute to the +20% price over their competitors, but the success indicates they have found the right consumer base willing to pay ("Deal should help natural Mac & Cheese maker boost presence in supermarkets." The Food Institute Report). Their only competitor is Kraft, which to be fair is a gargantuanly massive company, but one that doesn’t sell the same kinds of organic and natural products.

After finding out Kraft was their only major competitor, I looked into it a little bit which confirmed every suspicion I’ve had about that company since I stopped liking EasyMac. KRAFT IS EVIL. It pretends to be all green and sustainable when it’s not at all. It has completely greenwashed its marketing. Since it’s popular now to be seen as a tree-hugging, down to earth business who puts the people first, it makes sense Kraft would go the greenwashing route to attract as many people as possible. Indeed, Kraft was #1 in The Green Life’s (an education based non-governmental organization) 2002 “Don’t Be Fooled” Report, which names the top 10 companies guilty of greenwashing across the globe. But they have other shady business practices too - Kraft is a huge company that owns over 40 smaller companies, mostly through intense acquisitions. 

Sum up: while Kraft clearly dominates Annie’s in terms of size, variety of products, and profit, they lack severely in sincerity, environmental friendliness, and product healthiness.

More Annie's Awesome - Philanthropy and Education

Pulled an all nighter last night. It was really uncomfortable. I just wanted to fall in bed and never move ever ever again. Unfortunately no one was around to make me food, so that had to happen - which leads to more Annie’s info!

Besides selling awesome food, the company has a charity called Cases for Causes which donates cases of food to nonprofit organizations that help women and children. This, and the twenty five annual Environmental Studies Scholarships awarded to college students are how the company demonstrates its values of corporate social responsibility. It’s very pro education and has a program called “Growing Naturally” that is aimed at teaching children about organic farming by teaching them to plant their own herbs. Cool stuff. It’s really nice that although some impacts on the environment by this company are unavoidable (i.e. trucking the products cross country, manufacturing plant emissions, electricity, etc) they still do their best with recycling, organics, philanthropy, and education. It’s rare you see a company that committed to its message.

Ponder this –
Annie’s Core Values

· Annie's is real, authentic, and trusted by consumers. As a company we strive to build upon this legacy with every decision we make.
· Annie's only makes products that taste great; they delight our consumers
· Annie's uses only simple natural and organic ingredients, no icky additives or pesky preservatives.
· Annie's sources only from places and people we trust, with high emphasis on quality, as well as agricultural and environmental sustainability. We believe in transparency.
· Annie's is a socially responsible company, and through our actions and programs, we spread awareness and act as a positive role model for consumers and other businesses to do the same.

(annies.com)

Short Today

Interesting: someone PMed me and was all “Why you wanna talk about this company so much? It's weird,” and so first of all, this is my blog: I do what I want, and second I AM interested in this stuff, so too bad. I’m studying the environment right now and a large part of that is business and incentivizing the public to be “green”. It’s a growing field, one I hope to work in one day.

Moving on from that not-at-all distressing encounter, Annie’s puts a lot of effort into making all their packaging recyclable, purchasing carbon offsets, and wind credits in order to reduce its “bunny footprint” (cute!). Some of their pastas are rather creative, like noodles in the shape of peace signs, bunnies, and carrots, which is rather awesome. The company likes to promote vegetarianism as well, such as providing a soy alternative in a canned spaghetti and meatballs product. (annies.com) All this special stuff makes it rather expensive, how does that work? Next time, dear readers.

Of Lucky Charms and Greenwashing

I swear, the only good thing about Danforth is the unlimited Lucky Charms. (Danforth = largest dining hall on campus). If it were not for fake marshmallow deliciousness, friends wouldn’t be able to coax me in there with a pound of chocolate. Ok, maybe they could. I really like chocolate.

Annie’s! I’m sure you were all in suspense for the next installment. So, Annie’s sells the white cheddar mac and cheese, but also a whole bunch of other prepared foods, cereal, snacks, and condiments. Everything they sell is organic or “all natural” – which honestly sounds rather sketchy, but everything I’ve read indicates this is not greenwashing. [Greenwashing is defined as: “Disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image” (Oxford English Dictionary).] Organic food production is much better for the environment, through reduced use of pesticides, fertilizers, GMOs, and selective breeding. By buying only organic, and from animals raised with fewer chemicals, Annie’s consumers are helping to create more demand for these things through success of their product. (annies.com) Win!

My favorite so far is the Creamy Deluxe variety, because you don’t have to deal with milk, and it’s delicious. Yeah, some of the prepared foods require assembly, about 1/3 cup of milk and a bit of butter if you want, but it’s not a big deal. I wish they sold the cheddar bunnies crackers and soup here, they sound really good, and I’m totally sick of Ritz crackers. Those things you eat only at Thanksgiving when older relatives are in charge of the appetizers. Yuck.

The Origin of Smartfood

Sorry about the delay, school got in the way. Classes are such a pain! It would be so awesome if I could just write about whatever I wanted all day. Who cares how much pressure is inside a hot air balloon at STP? Not me.

The research is going well! I found out the founder of Annie's is a woman named Ann Withey, and while she no longer runs the company, she started it by designing her own recipes out of her Connecticut farmhouse (fun fact – I’m from Connecticut). You know that delicious white cheddar popcorn, Smartfood? She made that, around fifteen years before Annie's, but sold it to Frito Lay for 15 million dollars. Turns out this was a good call, as she used that money to start the new surprisingly successful company. It grew at an accelerated rate – by 1995, the company had its first Direct Public Offering, raising investment dollars recorded at $3.35 million and is featured in something like 52% of supermarkets nationwide. (http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Annies-Homegrown-Inc-Company-History.html). Damn! 

Companies (like Solera capital, never heard of it) are investing to help Annie’s become more of a presence in mainstream supermarkets and persuade natural food stores to carry a broader range of their products ("Deal should help natural Mac & Cheese maker boost presence in supermarkets." The Food Institute Report). Oh yeah, Annie’s sells way more than mac and cheese! I’ll have to talk about that later because lab report lab report lab report.

Idea!

So, while the internet wasn’t particularly helpful, I was hanging out with a friend of mine when she suddenly realized she was hungry and offered to make us ‘Annie’s’. I kid you not, this may have been the most important day of my life (/exaggeration). Annie’s is a less instantaneous but far more delicious variety of macaroni and cheese, made from natural ingredients and no artificial colorings at all. It wasn’t fluorescent! The noodles weren’t see-through! It. Was. Amazing. A real revelation. Apparently what we ate was the standard variety, "Shells and White Cheddar". It comes in a purple box and you should check it out from my highly detailed description. The only downside is it’s a bit pricey – I wonder why that is?

I know! This begins my new blog project! I am going to research Annie’s macaroni and cheese and determine what makes it magical, and you, dear reader, are going to find out with me.

The Beginning

Hello! If you’ve stumbled across this blog for the first time today, my name is Alanna and I’ll be your host for as long as you’ll have me. I’m a college student with way too much stuff to do and an affinity for the environment, especially how it relates to business. I occasionally ramble, but I like to post interesting things about what I happen to be researching at the moment. For example: Easy Mac.

After classes today I went to make EasyMac for what is easily the 5th time in the past week. Immediately after my first bite, it suddenly tasted like the horrifying, over processed, instantaneous crap that it was all along. It could no longer fool me with its deliciousness! Basically, it just tasted horrendously awful, and while I managed to get it down because I was seriously hungry, I knew we would never cross paths again. Problem: I love macaroni and cheese. EasyMac is really simple to make, and a good after-class snack pre-dinner snack. So friends of the internet, what can I replace it with? Ramen is not an option. Some things are not worth dying over.