When Dunn became the CEO of Bolthouse, in 2008, he had 20 years’
experience in the soft drinks industry. If Coca- Cola could persuade
people to drink more than a billion servings of its soda every day, he
wondered, why couldn’t Bolthouse do the same for a vegetable? He and his
team decided to use some of the tactics of junk food companies, which
are experts in demand creation. “Eat ’Em Like Junk Food,” Bolthouse’s
multimillion-dollar marketing campaign, used tongue-in-cheek TV, print,
and digital ads to liken baby carrots to Cheetos, Doritos, and other
snack food favorites. The company put its products in vending machines,
used Sesame Street characters on its packaging, and sold through
retailers such as Walmart and 7-Eleven. It created carrot snack packs,
developed 27 varieties of juices and smoothies, and put veggie and fruit
purees in squeezable tubes. And it attracted the attention of
Campbell’s, which acquired Bolthouse in 2012. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]