A venerable brand known for decades as "that heavenly coffee" is coming out with a campaign that, to quote Harry Nilsson, guesses the Lord must be in New York City.
The brand, of course, is Chock full o'Nuts, a regional mainstay that calls itself "New York's coffee" because it was started in the city in the early 1930s by William Black when he converted his chain of nut shops into stores that sold a sandwich and a cup of coffee for a nickel.
PHOTO: THE NEW YORK TIMES
Always linked to its city of origin, as evidenced by its checkerboard, black-and-yellow packages evocative of the old Checker cabs, Chock full o'Nuts is now seeking to strengthen that affiliation in a campaign carrying the theme "Full o'NY flavor."
With a budget estimated at US$2 million to US$3 million as it starts in metropolitan New York, the campaign is composed of traditional advertising (print, outdoor and radio) created by BBDO Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group; promotions, samplings and other events; sponsorships; a Web site (chockfullonuts.com); and Gotham-centric marketing that includes posters on buses and at subway stops and signs atop taxis and on water towers.
In addition to the new theme and localized media buys, there is a new flavor, New York Roast; a plan to update the taxicab look of the packaging; and the expansion of a franchised chain of coffee shops in the Northeast called Chock Cafes.
The campaign is focused overall on associating Chock full o'Nuts with quintessential New York qualities like assertiveness, boldness and robustness. That is partly to reinforce the loyalties of longtime buyers and partly to attract younger shoppers, known as urban flavor-seekers, who are drawn to more intensely flavored foods and beverages.
Keeping current customers while appealing to new ones is one of the trickiest tasks in marketing.
"If you look at this brand, there are tremendous connections to consumers," said Ed Dubin, director of marketing and innovation at Sara Lee Coffee and Tea in Harrison, New York, a division of the Sara Lee Corp, which has owned Chock full o'Nuts since 1999. "And a lot of it is tied to the fact it has such strong New York roots."
"This brand is authentically New York, which has a really powerful equity for us," Dubin said. "But we want to know, how does that resonate today" with the "new, younger group of consumers who want an alternative to the huge, Goliath-type brands" like Starbucks.
(Those with long memories can recall when there were about as many Chock full o'Nuts shops on Manhattan streets as there are Starbucks shops today. It appears that being the "first mover" does not provide an advantage forever.)
To demonstrate how Chock full o'Nuts is "full o'NY flavor" that all New Yorkers can love, many of the print ads, posters and signs feature the work of a photographer, Eugene Richards, who captures local residents -- real people, not models, Dubin promised -- at work and play.
They are seen outside a factory in the Meatpacking District, in a diner, in front of a hot-dog stand, schlepping a cello up the front steps of a brownstone, on the Coney Island Cyclone roller-coaster, at Gleason's Gym and on a roof in Hell's Kitchen.
Each ad carries an appropriate caption. The meatpacker, with a stern look and surrounded by carcasses, is labeled "Chock full o'Attitude." A harried waitress in the diner is labeled "Chock full o'Strength." Boxers at Gleason's, striking poses, are labeled "Chock full o'Character." And the packed roller-coaster is labeled -- what else? -- "Chock full o'Nuts."
"Getting strong, flavorful personalities for a strong, flavorful coffee was the key," said Marty Orzio, executive vice president and chief creative officer at the Chicago office of BBDO.
Wait a New York minute. The Chicago office? What is the BBDO New York office, chopped liver?
Although the Sara Lee division for which Dubin works, the one overseeing Chock full o'Nuts, Chase & Sanborn and other coffee and tea brands is based in Harrison, a New York suburb, Sara Lee's corporate headquarters is in Chicago. But Orzio, formerly with two New York agencies, Lowe & Partners and Merkley Newman Harty, hastened to note that he is a native New Yorker.
"I grew up with Chock full o'Nuts," Orzio reassured a reporter. "I can remember my aunt saying, `It's the only coffee that when I brew it I can smell it from the living room.'"
Returning to the campaign, Orzio said that in tests, consumers approved of the strategy of "positioning the brand as a strong, flavorful coffee for a distinctive place."
"Who thought Seattle would become known for coffee?" Orzio asked. "Of all the places in the country that can compete with that, New York has the best potential, because of the strong personalities associated with the city."
At the same time, Orzio said, "we don't want to lose what's real with these people and we don't want to make them into cartoons." That is why the photographs by Richards are shot in a realistic, journalistic style and the radio commercials are narrated by an announcer in a documentary format.
The campaign, which began last month, will run through early March "full strength," Dubin said, pun intended, with an eye toward expanding it in the future to major Northeast markets like Boston and Philadelphia. It is to be augmented in the new year with elements like a promotion titled "Chock Loft Live," offering consumers a chance to win tickets to a concert in a SoHo loft.
Speaking of music, no discussion of Chock full o'Nuts can ignore its famous jingle, adapted from a song called That Heavenly Feeling and sung for many years by Page Morton Black, the wife of the founder. The jingle was the subject of a promotion last year with local radio stations, which asked listeners to sing it to win prizes, but it is not part of the current campaign.
"We're looking to do something updated with the jingle in 2004, its 50th anniversary," Dubin said. "It's not the most modern; people don't say `heavenly' anymore. But we should never take it for granted."
For those eager to sing along, here are the lyrics:
"Chock full o'Nuts is that heavenly coffee,
Heavenly coffee, heavenly coffee
Chock full o'Nuts is that heavenly coffee,
Better coffee a millionaire's money can't buy."
New Yorkers with really long memories may recall the last line as "Rockefeller's money," which was changed after the Rockefel-ler family complained.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique