Heinz cutting pickle from ketchup label
The H.J. Heinz Co. said Friday it is replacing the tiny green pickle on its iconic ketchup label with a larger-sized, vine-ripened tomato.
The Pittsburgh company has begun shipping ketchup bottles with the new label to retailers, minus the gherkin that's been there for 114 years.
"The tomato is what makes Heinz Ketchup so extraordinary, and so with all due respect to the pickle, which has served Heinz dutifully since the 19th century, we are shifting the spotlight to the tomato," Heinz CEO William Johnson said in a statement.
Heinz uses only tomatoes for its ketchup that are grown with its own seeds at a Heinz farm complex in Stockton, Calif. The HeinzSeed program supplies 6 billion hybrid tomato seeds a year, developed to produce disease-resistant tomatoes and a higher yield. In the United States, more than 1.6 billion bottles of Heinz ketchup will be produced with the new label in 2009.
Playing up ketchup's natural roots also feeds into consumers' growing desire for more wholesome, natural foods, analysts and the company said. The new label includes the tagline "Grown not made."
Lynn Dornblaser, a trend expert for research firm Mintel International, said the tomato image plays into modern, more educated consumers' desire for a better understanding of what they're eating, whether for health, safety or just knowledge's sake.
Heinz also said it is planning the largest advertising campaign it's undertaken since the 1980s, including print and television ads that will begin in the spring. It did not disclose how much it will spend on the campaign.
The gherkin isn't totally being kicked to the curb. It will remain on other Heinz products, including mustard, vinegar and chili sauce, the company said.
The little green gherkin has been part of Heinz since the 1800s. In 1893, company founder, H.J. Heinz used a pickle pin to attract attention to his booth at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The pins were popular, and the branding stuck.
"An image of the gherkin pickle has appeared on every Heinz tomato ketchup label since 1895," spokeswoman Jessica Jackson said.
The company says it still gets as many as 15,000 pickle pin requests a year through its Web site and a consumer hot line.
How will ketchup users take to the altered label?
"People definitely will notice the change," said Duquesne University marketing professor Audrey Guskey. "The ketchup bottle is such an icon, particularly here in Pittsburgh, where we're one of the largest ketchup-consuming areas."
Guskey said she always gets concerned when companies make even the slightest change to a symbol, such as the ketchup label pickle.
"You just wonder why when something is so successful, why they don't leave it alone," Guskey said.
