By David Gill
Bucking the trend of pulling back on marketing and advertising in a tough business climate, Cuisinart has launched what the company describes as “its most comprehensive marketing campaign to date.”
A Cuisinart statement said the effort features both “significant” amounts of advertising in print media and on television, and an expansion in activities on its Web site. It will focus on Cuisinart’s signature products, including the Fully Automatic Burr Grind & Brew coffeemaker, the Griddler indoor grill and the Premier Series of food processors.
The print ads are slated to appear in epicurean and lifestyle magazines, such as Gourmet, Bride’s, Cooking Light, Shape, InStyle and Food and Wine, among others. The TV component involves placements on nationally syndicated programs and prime-time appearances on cable networks. The TV ads will run from mid-November to the end of December.
Cuisinart is also planning to run its Griddler infomercial, which debuted in September, in national distribution through the end of this year.
The Web portion includes the recent launch of its “widget,” an online tool that acts like an application. The Cuisinart widget can be downloaded directly onto any Mac- or Windows-based computer desktop, and provides the user with access to Cuisinart’s podcasts, recipe box and videos.
Commenting on the broad extent of the new marketing campaign, Mary Rodgers, Cuisinart’s director of marketing communications, said it was smarter for the company, from a long-term perspective, not to cut back on marketing and advertising in a difficult economic climate.
“It is a well-known fact that those companies that contract marketing activities during tough times take longer to recover when the economy turns,” Rodgers said. “Well thought-out marketing strategies increase share gain when you are attempting to navigate the economic uncertainty that we are experiencing today.”
Focusing on the widget, Rodgers said, “This idea resulted from a need for quick access to recipes and ingredients when I was in the grocery story. I always wanted to send this information to my Blackberry so that I wouldn’t need an actual printed copy of a recipe.
“The company’s expanded Web activities will engage consumers and perpetuate the sense of family and community that customers have come to expect from Cuisinart,” she added.