Planters: Rare great product marketing

I usually find myself complaining about product marketing but every once in a while you find a rare moment of genius. We are a family of nut eaters, we always have peanuts and cashews and almonds sitting around. We have largely bought the same amount of nuts in our family for about 15 years.

Recently, I have been noticing these little cans of nuts in the kitchen, on the counter, everywhere. They are small (and expensive) but really good.

My favorite is the chocolate covered almonds. The other day I was thinking about this, basically planter's took a nut (which they have a lot of), covered it in chocolate, put it in little container and they sell it for 3 times as much money as anyone else selling candy. Also, for some reason you kind of believe it's good for you. The other day the "nut*rition almonds" showed up. They have granola and dried cherrys, and they are great also. The can's a little bigger but basically it's the same recipe.. Take something they have a lot of, mix in stuff that's less expensive (but good), put it in a smaller can, attach their Brand and sell the hell out of it.

We still buy all the same nuts we bought before, but now we buy these little margin packed cans as well. Planters figured out how to make us spend 3x what we used to on nuts.

Years ago someone told me the Honda story – Their company mission was/is to put 3 Honda's in every garage. Honda wanted to own the small engine market so basically every product they launch is simply a vehicle to sell more engines.