Marie Callender's Heads to Shelf-Stable Aisle
Everybody wants a little touch of home at work, don't they? Marie Callender's® thinks so. That's why the brand is extending its reach from the frozen aisle into the soup and pasta aisles to bring consumers the taste of a home-cooked meal at work, with the launch of new, shelf-stable Home-Style Creations™.
Six satisfying varieties are available in stores now:
- Traditional Stuffing & Turkey: gravy, white-meat turkey and herb dressing
- Classic Stroganoff: creamy sauce with mushrooms, pasta and beef strips
- Garlic Herb Chicken: garlic sauce with peppers, white-meat chicken and pasta
- Creamy Parmesan Chicken: Parmesan sauce with white-meat chicken, mushrooms and pasta
- Meatball Lasagna: tomato sauce, pasta, Italian-style meatballs
- Sweet Sesame Beef: sesame sauce with Asian vegetables, rice and beef strips
As the name implies, Home-Style Creations capture the homemade flavor Marie Callender's is famous for in a convenient, shelf-stable meal that stores easily in a pantry or desk. Like Healthy Choice® Fresh Mixers™, Home-Style Creations use the company's proprietary tray-in-tray steaming technology to ensure that the fresh taste of each ingredient comes through.
Quality Ingredients Key to Fresh Taste
To duplicate the home-cooked taste of Marie Callender's in a shelf-stable format, the Research, Quality & Innovation (RQI) team leveraged the expertise of the Culinary Centers of Excellence and used quality ingredients, such as whole beef strips, real cheese, wine reductions and herb and spice blends from Gilroy Foods & Flavors™.
"Consumer testing scores for Home-Style Creations were exceptional," said Karen Black, RQI manager. "Marie Callender's consumers are looking for the same quality and premium flavor they're accustomed to with the brand's frozen meals, but in a convenient, portable fashion. The RQI team really hit the mark with Home-Style Creations."
A Little Touch of Home for Lunch
Marie Callender's is raising awareness for its new line of microwavable meals through an advertising campaign with the moniker "A Little Touch of Home for Lunch." The television ads launched on Oct. 5, and are accompanied by digital media, couponing and in-store signage to reinforce the idea that when people bring Marie Callender's Home-Style Creations to work, they feel like they're eating a home-cooked meal they made themselves.
"Consumers are used to seeing Marie Callender's in the frozen aisle," said Conchita Lockhart, senior director of advertising. "So a big part of our marketing efforts is directed at using in-store elements that guide them to the soup and pasta aisles to find Home-Style Creations."
Public relations efforts also are underway through media outreach to make consumers aware of Home-Style Creations and drive home the in-store location message so they can discover how to experience a little touch of home for lunch, even when they're at work.
Marie Callender's Home-Style Creations are available at the suggested retail price of $3.49 each and can be found in the pasta or soup aisle. For more information, please visit www.madewithloveandcare.com.
