Campbell's to Roll out Soups for Millenials

The Campbell Soup Co.’s condensed chicken noodle and tomato soups just aren’t cutting it with younger consumers, so the 143-year-old company plans to roll out 50 new varieties with heartier and more sophisticated flavors in the year ahead, according to an AP report that recently appeared in The Washington Post. Moroccan Style Chicken and Spicy Chorizo were just two of the new flavors named, with surprising ingredients such as tomatillos, coconut milk and shitake mushrooms.

 

What’s more, the new soups reportedly won’t be housed in the iconic steel cans; they will come in plastic pouches that are easy to open and heat up in a microwave in less than three minutes.

 

The article reported that last year, Campbell’s began a quest that led executives to a diverse group of “hipster hubs” including London, Nashville, and Portland, Ore. to figure out how to make soups that appeal to younger, finicky customers, otherwise known as Millenials (defined as those aged 18 to early 30s).

 

After eating meals with them in their homes and tagging along with them to trendy restaurants, the company came to the conclusion that cuisines once considered exotic —Thai, Indian, Brazilian — have become the norm. At the same time, years of dining out mean younger consumers aren’t as skilled at making meals from scratch, particularly when it comes to those very ethnic flavors.

 

“They can’t replicate the foods they enjoy when they go out,” says Darren Serrao, who heads innovation for Campbell, in the AP report.

 

That realization inspired Campbell’s Go plastic soup pouches; the new Go soups come in white pouches featuring colorful fonts and photos of expressive, young faces.

 

The new looks do come with a price, the article revealed. A can of Chunky soup costs about $2.30 and has a shelf-life of about two years; the new pouches will cost about $3 and are good for about half that time.

 

To read the article in its entirety, click here.