Case studies
Rold Gold Pretzels
Semiotic analysis of the pretzel category in the US, aiming to enable client’s brand to recover lost market share by aligning relevant pretzel codes with the emergent meaning of healthy tasty snacking.
What was the challenge? Formerly a market-leading brand, Rold Gold had lost market share to competitors and felt out of touch with consumers.
What did we do? We examined current Rold Gold comms and the brand’s competitive set, along with the cultural meaning of the pretzel and of ‘healthy tasty’ snacking in the Northeast and Southwest USA. Using semiotics, we identified the gap between the brand’s desired effect and the actual message it was communicating. This particularly revolved around the idea of Rold Gold taking the pretzel back to its historic origins as a sacred symbol, which aligned it with the emergent cultural meaning of healthy tasty snacking.
– Residual: Sacred pretzels coded by connection to Pennsylvania Dutch heritage, religious symbol, earthy simple product e.g. like brown wood houses, basic baking production, simple ingredients and salt staple
– Dominant: Profane pretzels coded by transformation and adulteration of pure sacred pretzel into other snack/food forms e.g. cheese pizza, Mexican nachos, bagel, cinnamon swirl
– Emergent: Healthy tasty snacking coded by return to values of virtue, simplicity and naturalness perceived to have been lost in the modern age
Where did it lead? Our recommendations on the representation of the wheatsheaf and use of original Northeast US iconography enabled Rold Gold to develop new packaging and above-the-line comms, leading to a renewal of the brand in the US and an increase in market share, moving it back up to category-leading status.
