Jell-O has been a popular and favourite dessert amongst North Americans for decades. It’s even the official state snack of Utah in the U.S. They come in a variety of colours and flavours, such as strawberry or lime.
But did you know, that in the 1960s, in attempt to capitalize on the popularity of healthy eating, Jell-O came up with a new product. Jell-O noticed the trend of consumers increasingly shifting to healthier food options in the 60s, especially gravitating towards salads and hence came up with this gem. The product came up in flavours such as ‘seasoned tomato’, ‘mixed vegetable’ and ‘celery’ (ugh).
The product has since been discontinued but based on past articles and advertising, it appears that the way to consume this vegetable flavoured Jell-O was to throw in various vegetables into the Jell-O mix, chill it and then serve.
What perplexed me was whether this was an example of the broadening or deepening of Jell-O’s product line. In essence, this was merely a different flavour of Jell-O produced. I first concluded that this should be an example of the deepening of a product line. Upon further thought however, the way the product was consumed and marketed was different from the rest of its products which consisted mainly of sweet and fruity flavours which was meant to be consumed as a dessert or snack. Vegetable Jell-O, on the other hand, was savoury and meant to be consumed as part of one’s meal.
Yum?
Unable to come to a conclusion, even after discussion with some of my Marketing classmates, Maggie and Nicole, I consulted the instructor, who advised that one should not merely focus on the new product, but the complete spectrum of products offered by the company to determine if this was the broadening or deepening of a product line.
As Jell-O mainly offers gelatin and pudding based products, it would seem reasonable to conclude that the offering of vegetable Jell-O was the broadening of its product lines. However, if Jell-O were to offer a wide variety of product including say chips, and other snacks, this would be the deepening of its geltain product line.
Therefore, when confronted with similar issues, one should look at the new product relative to all the products the company offers.
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