Kristen Wagner & Hannah Larkin
Joanne Mundorf
Com 210 MWF 1-1:50
November 18, 2013
Doritos
In 1964 the popular American based snack food company Frito-Lays produced
Dorito’s, a corn based tortilla chip. These chips were made primarily from ground corn,
vegetable oil and salt, but were characterized by added seasoning and unique flavors such
as “Nacho cheese” and the wildly popular “Cool Ranch”. The idea for the brand
originated from California’s Disneyland theme park at the Frito-Lays owned restaurant
Casa de Fritos. The restaurant was using extra tortilla’s to make the traditional Mexican
chip, totopos, but adding basic dry seasonings. Taking advantage of the chips popularity
Frito-Lays Vice President of marketing, Arch West decided to begin mass producing
these chips, calling them Dorito’s, the name being derived from the Spanish word
“doradito” literally meaning “turned golden or crisp”. In 1966, the Dorito’s were released
nation wide, making them the first nationally launched tortilla chip in the United States.
With an open marketing field, Dorito’s took off, becoming what is today a four billion
dollar product sold globally. The popularity of these chips is not only due to the assorted
flavor varieties (twenty one flavors available in the United States and Canada alone) but
can also be accredited to the genius advertising techniques and persuasion strategies used
by the Frito-Lays company. Taking a closer look at Dorito’s ad’s one can see the
strategies such as liking, authority, social proof, reciprocation, commitment and
consistency and scarcity.
The fan base behind Dorito’s is very diverse. Amongst them are children and
adults, mothers, fathers, students, the health conscious, sport enthusiasts, people of every
race, class, and nationality across the country and across the world. However the brand
did not initially target such a broad audience. In the 60’s Doritos were packaged in beigeorange bags matching the colors in their logo. Printed on the back of these bags were
idea’s on how to enjoy the chips, weather it be “with other foods” “with dips” or “with
recipes”(Dorito’s package, 1968). These recommendations were meant to target mother
figures, because during this time period in the United States they were primarily the ones
making meals and preparing food. Their demographic during these years was more
confined than today. They broadcasted to Americans, as the product hadn’t launched
globally yet. With a small price tag they appealed across the classes as a cheap and
delicious snack. As time progressed and the brand grew they began to target different
audiences. In the 80’s Dorito’s began to target teenagers with an advertisement, which
aired on television featuring Jay Leno, the popular host of the Late Night talk show.
Three similar commercials were released. In each commercial Jay Leno appears casually
in a bare room enjoying a bag of Doritos chips. In one commercial he reassured viewers
that the crunching noise made when eating the chip was not as loud to others as it sounds
in your head. In another of the commercials he is in a kitchen where there is a note on the
fridge written in a child like-manner that simply reads “Hey Ma Doritos”. Ironically, Mr.
Leno stands next to the note and reminds kids to ask their parents politely to buy them
Dorito’s chips. Each commercial ends with the tag line “Crunch all you want, we’ll make
more.” This tag line can also be seen in a printed ad released at the same time. By
featuring funny-man Jay Leno, the company put authority and liking to good use and
targeted teenagers affectively. Because Leno was well liked by this age group he had a
halo affect on them and was the perfect spokesperson. Teens who saw ad’s featuring
Leno began to associate the chip with Mr. Leno and started to like Doritos because they
liked Jay Leno and Late Night, or they thought he was funny and that the commercials
were funny. Being a celebrity who was older than his fan base made Leno an authority
figure as well, which made teens trust him and in turn trust in Doritos. In just twelve
weeks after these ads were released Dorito’s sales rose an impressive six percent, proving
the campaign a success. Clearly the sale of Doritos relies heavily on successful marketing
and advertising. The Super Bowl is the prime advertising time for Doritos. They have a
campaign called “Crash the Super Bowl” that they started for Super Bowl XLI which is
unique from other companies strategies and uses the influence of commitment and
consistency. Crash the Super Bowl is a contest for Doritos consumers to create their own
commercial. Five finalists are chosen and then the general public goes on the Dorito’s
website to vote for their favorite. The winning commercial gets aired during the Super
Bowl and this year they will also receive one million dollars along with an opportunity to
work with Marvel on the set of Marvel’s The Avengers. Having a consumer submit a
commercial is essentially having them commit to the company. Because the person who
creates a commercial is putting in effort and time and throwing themselves out there for
all the other fans on the internet to see and judge, they have to believe in what they are
doing. They have to commit to that commercial and that contest if they want to win the
million dollars and get their fame. Other fans voting for their favorite commercials are
committing to Dorito’s as well. They are likely going to follow the progress of their
favorite commercial in hopes that it wins. In many cases people will promote their
personal favorite commercial, or the one that they created as to stay true to their
commitment and be consistent in their opinions. For Dorito’s this creates a “buzz” around
their product, further promoting it. In the case of Super Bowl XLI the votes for the top
commercial were so close that Doritos ended up airing two commercials at the last
minute. Both of these ranked high in Super Bowl commercials due to their comedic
appeal. A lot of the non-winning fan-generated commercials also became popular
because they were so funny. For Super Bowl XLIII, the winning commercial was called
“Free Doritos” and it was about an office worker who claimed he could predict the future
with his crystal ball, which was actually a snow globe. In the future he saw that everyone
in the office would get free Doritos. He ends up throwing the snow globe into a vending
machine filled completely with Doritos, making his vision reality. This commercial won
best commercial of the year by USA Today. That year they also aired two commercials;
the second one also was placed into the top five commercials according to USA Today,
called Power of Crunch. This commercial shows a guy walking on the street in a city,
when he finds out that with each bite of a Dorito whatever he was dreaming about would
come true. One bite, the clothes of an attractive female came off, the next money comes
shooting out of an ATM, until he finishes the chips, resulting in him being hit by a bus.
The benefit of allowing the fans to create the advertisement is that the commercials will
undoubtedly be what the fans are interested in seeing. This genius idea also saves them
time and resources since they do not have to create the ads. The Crash the Super Bowl
campaign is a perfect example of social proof. When viewers are watching one of the
commercials they are aware that a consumer designed the commercial and that it was not
a Doritos executive. As they are watching it they feel as though they can relate more
since someone who is similar to them made it. They are more inclined to think that it is
funny and like the commercial because someone they can relate to thought it was funny
too. This campaign also exemplifies scarcity. Anyone can submit an advertisement to the
contest, but, only five are going to be voted on, and only one of those will be the winner.
Since the number of winners is scarce it creates excitement around the campaign and
product. The creators of this campaign are playing on the American behavior of
“dreaming big”, as people know their chances of winning are slim, most will submit a
video despite this and will follow the campaign whole heartedly, until they are inevitably
let down by defeat. However, because the general public votes the commercials on, they
won’t hold hard feelings towards the company but will see their defeat well deserved.
Doritos newest campaign called “For The Bold” hit shelves March of 2013. This is
Doritos first global campaign. Having product in thirty-seven different countries safely
labels Doritos as a big name company and with the use of social media high and rising,
cross country communication is easier than ever. So while it used to be acceptable, it no
longer makes sense for such a large company to have a different logo, slogan and image
in each country. “For the Bold” is giving Doritos a consistent look across the boards,
featuring a new bag along with a new logo. Along with this campaign, a commercial
called “Best Summer Job” was aired. It was about a college-aged male who worked as a
valet, he was given the keys of an expensive sports car and told to be careful, after eating
a couple of Doritos chips, he feels like he has the power to drive it and feels unstoppable,
until he gets pulled over. But, crisis it averted when he offers some of his Doritos to the
police officer who then joins in on his fun. The commercial was aired in the U.S. and
similar commercials were aired in Mexico, UK, Canada, Spain and Turkey. Another
monumental marketing occurred in 2012 after the fast food chain, Taco Bell, celebrated
their 50th anniversary. To celebrate, Doritos and Taco Bell partnered together and created
the Doritos Locos Taco. The taco comes in its traditional Taco Bell fashion, however, the
shells are made of Nacho Cheese Doritos or Cool Ranch Doritos. By these two
companies partnering up they are showing the persuasion strategy of liking. Consumers
who normally enjoy Doritos will want to go to Taco Bell to have the new tacos, and
people who normally enjoy Taco Bell will try the tacos since it is a new menu item, and
if they enjoy it, they will go out and buy Doritos. It is a win for both companies and
proved so fiscally as Taco Bell surpassed the one billion dollar mark in sales of the
Doritos Locos Taco, naming it the biggest launch in Taco Bell history. Since the tacos
were so popular, Doritos in turn launched the Doritos Locos Chips with Nacho Cheese
and Cool Ranch in 2013, to match the Taco Bell campaign.
Aside from the ever-popular Dorito’s commercials, the company has carved a
path through all other media channels as well. From spreads in magazines and papers, to
billboards Dorito’s brand has invested millions in print advertisements. Although with
modern technology their main means of advertising is in television and social media sites,
such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. On their print ad’s Doritos will provide the
address of their Facebook or twitter page, or direct people to the Dorito’s website. The
company takes full advantage of cross media promotion. They even apply cross-social
media promotion, for example, on their Instagram they provide a link to their Facebook
page where they have links to all of their social media sites as well as links to the FritoLays page’s.
In their beginnings Dorito’s were known mostly for there bold taste and addicting
crunch. They used these characteristics to market the chip in their advertisements.
However, as time progressed and Dorito’s became a household brand advertisers worried
less about marketing the flavor and more about marketing the brand itself. This shift in
focus proved to be very beneficial for the company. Today they have a four billion dollar
product, which is loved across the world. They are well liked and greatly respected for
their humorous commercials and advertisements. Dorito’s is a brand, which consumers
feel they can rely on and are connected to. By skillfully implementing liking, authority,
social proof, commitment and consistency and scarcity they are able to grasp there target
audiences effectively. Thanks to their advertising successes Doritos is a brand, which will
have continuing popularity into the future and will be a model of advertising and
marketing mastery to which other companies will aspire to reach.