Case study: FritoLay

FritoLay, which is owned by PepsiCo, always wants to know what is on their customers’ minds
and tongues. In 2015, FritoLay conducted their latest “Do Us a Flavor” contest, asking fans to
submit flavor suggestions for new potato chips. The four winning flavor combinations were
gyros, Reuben sandwiches, biscuits and gravy, and truffle fries.
Then January 2016 brought not just the beginning of a new year but the beginning of
Frito-Lay's next market research venture, Flavor Swap. This time, instead of asking fans to submit flavor ideas, the campaign paired a current flavor of Lay’s potato chip against a new flavor. Fans were asked to vote for their favorite of each pair, and the winners would remain part of the company’s permanent flavor lineup.
To increase interest before the contest began, Lay’s took to social media. They tweeted out emoji riddles for followers to guess the new flavors. For submitting a guess (even a wrong one), Lays offered one person per day a chance to win $1,000. As happens with all ventures into social media, the guesses that came in were both positive and negative. While some fans were
able to correctly guess “smoked gouda,” others submitted “goat fart” and another unsavory flavor
guesses.
FritoLay also roused attention by sending the media samples to taste in the form of eight different single-serving bags. The bags were simply labeled “Flavor 1,” Flavor 2,” all the
way to “Flavor 8.” This created hype as the company had announced that there would be only four new flavors.
After a week of fielding guesses from the media and the public, Lays announced the real
flavors. In the Flavor Swap contest, the contenders for the “heat” flavor swap were Flamin’ Hot
vs. new Fiery Roasted Habanero; for the “cheese” flavor swap were Cheddar & Sour Cream vs.
new Smoked Gouda & Chive; the “barbecue” flavor swap featured Honey Barbecue vs. new
Korean Barbecue; and the “spice” flavor swap pitted Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper
against new Kettle Cooked Olive Oil & Herbs.
From February 21 to March 8, 2016, customers were asked to try the new flavors and vote for their favorite at FlavorSwap.com. Voters were entered for a chance to win a $1,000
daily prize or the $250,000 grand prize.
It took Lays only a month to determine the winners, and they announced the “Flavor
Swap” winning lineup at the end of April. Flamin’ Hot, Cheddar & Sour Cream, Honey Barbecue,
and Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper (the four flavors already in the company’s traditional lineup) earned their permanent places in the lineup.
“We heard our fans loud and clear and we are keeping the classic flavors around for
them to enjoy,” Jeannie Cho, Frito-Lay’s VP of marketing said in a statement.
ANSWER QUESTIONS
Describe the market research methods from Chapter 9 that FritoLay, a division of PepsiCo, used
in the Do Us a Flavor competition.
How did this strategy incorporate consumer engagement?
If you could do market research for SPU, how could apply a similar “gamified” or contest-based
a market research strategy to engage middle and high school students?

Sample Solution