Cheetos Ethnography
Transcript of Cheetos Ethnography
Objectives
• What is Tween life about today? – Developmental issues that pertain
to snacking behavior • What does Cheetos represent to
kids? – What separates Cheetos from other
macrosnacks? – What is it about Cheetos they love?
• What is the value of Chester to Tweens?
• How do moms think about snacks?
• What is the value of Cheetos to moms?
What we Did
• 6 ethnographic interviews of Tweens with buddy
• 6 interviews with Moms/gatekeepers
• Two geographic locales – OC, California – Baltimore, MD
• Homework assignment – Day in life of me, what
Cheetos is and is not • Tour of room, pantry,
cupboards, outdoor activities
Tweens psycho-social stage
Key developmental phase creates tension Leaving childhood, beginning adolescence
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!– Separating from parents – Attaching to friends – Demonstrating skills to succeed in life
Individuality group affiliation
Parental attachment
Tweens psycho-social stage
• Stage is characterized by – Fantasy/imagination vs. real
world limits – Learning individual skills and
expressing “likes” vs. accept what is given to them
– Peer group affiliation vs. alone/family
• Clinical name: Individuation and Industry
• “Being Industrious and expressing likes involve doing things with others who share similar interests and skills”
(Erik Erikson)
Industry
• Building Mastery in life • Characterized as world of learning
appropriate skills • Not only physical but psychological
– Testing physical limits => expanding boundaries of self
– Testing limits in videogames (violence, excessive force, “smashing things”)
– in sports – skateboarding, dirt bikes, biking, football
– in food choices, ways of eating foods
Individuation
• Tweens build a ‘separate’ life – Separate skills and likes apart from parents,
siblings – Doing things at school parents don’t know
about – Enjoying music outside of parents tastes – Eating snacks that mom may find unappealing
• For tweens, snacks are their choices, while food equals meals under parental control – Parents want you to eat your vegetables – Compared to freedom of snacking behavior – Cool food = snacks – Not cool food = meals (because of parental
associations)
Attaching to Friends
• Tension between wanting to be like others and wanting to be yourself – Normal part of early adolescence
• ‘Sameness’ is important – Safe to be like others
• Who eats Cheetos? Tweens say ‘our friends’, ‘kids like us’, ‘kids, not old people like our grandparents’
• Yet, there is desire to prove oneself against peers – Assert uniqueness
• E.g., who is stronger at arm wrestling, who can run the fastest, who can do more tricks on a basketball court
Individuation and Industry
• Friends = people like me • Shared physical and social skills
– Do the same things, share the same interests
• Specific sports, music, clothes, food, etc. – Like same things, share same values
• ‘You can tell a friend and keep a secret.’ (female tween)
• ‘A friend is always there, goes through things with you.’ (male tween)
• Authenticity = ‘sameness,’ apart from parents – ‘Cool’ is what I like and what my friends
like • ‘If everybody thinks it’s cool, then it is. You
ask your friends and people who are cool.’ • ‘Snacks that our friends like are usually
the same as us, but it’s what they like.’
Snacks in the Tween world
• Tweens differentiate snacks by functional categories – Snacks that require preparation vs. ready to eat
• E.g., Grilled cheese sandwich, Soup at Hand, Bagel Bites vs. chips, cookies, ice pops
• Also means snacks mom makes vs. snacks I get myself
– By time of day eaten • Mostly determined by Time bound factors
– E.g., Pop-tarts for breakfast – Jello, chips, Twix after school – Cookies, popcorn after supper
Snacks in the Tween world
• Also differentiate snacks on sensory dimensions – Gushers = gumminess, slimy – Oreos = creamy middle – Popcorn = buttery, salty – Pudding = cold, smooth,
chocolaty • Salty vs. sweet are not
orienting categories – Tweens don’t divide snacks
into salty and sweet when choosing what to eat
– They choose by cravings • ‘What I feel like now’
Snacks in the Tween world
• Tweens eat a wide variety of snacks – Seeing is a key motivator
• Go into kitchen, ‘check out what we have’
• See commercial on TV, see in store • Sight inspires desire
– Often crave specific brands • If craving for Cheetos and there are
none to be found, choose something else usually outside chip category
– E.g., ramen noodles, popcorn • Cheetos are not replaceable
– Cheetos are recognized as popular • Important to tweens • ‘Sameness’ in relation to friends (early
adolescent
Snacks in the Tween world
• Snacks are world of tweens – Skill set they actively pursue and
share with peers • Always want to try new snacks
– Actively explore different snacks • Notice ads for new snacks on TV • Go to store with Mom and check snack
aisle • Observe/sample what other kids bring
to school • Look at newspaper for new snacks
– Experiment with new brands and flavors
• Typically once a month – Aware of new Cheetos flavors
• “News” they spread to friends, schoolmates
Why Tweens Like Cheetos
• Tweens perceive world of snacks as a sphere of independence
• Source of mastery, empowerment, “their turf” – Few parental rules about snacking – Free to snack on what they like at any time
• Snacks are perfect for demonstrating individuality and sociability
• Cheetos lets them demonstrate individual skills and collective “likes”
Cheetos: Testing Sensory Limits
• Tweens bring total sensory energies to Cheetos
• Eat through heightened sensory acuity • Taste
– Cheetos taste is catalyst for challenges • Extreme Cheesiness
– “Dangerously Cheesy” • Spicy, Flamin’ Hot
– Daring the other to hold out – Drinking with water so the fire inside
‘explodes’ • Inspires cravings
– ‘Tongue drooling for Cheetos’ – Boast in stories about quantity consumed
• Eating multiple bags at one time • Parents taking to doctor for eating too much
Cheetos: Testing Sensory Limits
• Sight – Shapes and texture conjure imagination, fantasy
• ‘Cylinders with bumps’ • ‘Torpedoes’ • ‘Alien’
– Exploration and adventure in each Cheetos bag • Never know what shape is next • ‘Fat or skinny, they’re all different • ‘Look at this one, 2 are stuck together, weird shape.’
• Smell – Aroma evokes long distance acuity
• ‘If somebody opens a bag of Cheetos downstairs, I smell it.’ • smell = feeding frenzy
– ‘It’s like a shark attracted to blood.’
Cheetos: Testing Sensory Limits
• Hear – Crunch sound is loud
• ‘It’s fun to make noise.’ – Emphasize crunch sound with eating patterns
• E.g., bite off small bits of a Cheetos rapidly ‘like a beaver’ • E.g., put in mouth and use teeth to crunch, crunch, crunch
• Touch – Gets messy
• ‘Cheesy fingers’, ‘fingers get red’ • ‘Lick ‘em’, ‘suck ‘em’ • ‘Gets all over you’ • ‘A lot on your fingers means you’ve eaten a lot of Cheetos.’
Eating Cheetos: Total Sensory experience
• Demands full absorption of self in the moment • Creates an experiential world, ‘right now’ activity
– Not a food you simply “graze” (e.g. chips) • Brings heightened awareness of self
– E.g., don’t eat Cheetos while doing homework but afterwards when relaxing
– Intensity of being in the moment – Authentic self – A moment apart from the everyday routine
Safe Danger: Power of Cheetos to Tweens
– Cheetos plays with boundaries through extremes -- (tastes, shapes, aromas, sounds) – It’s not a neat, in-the-box type of snack – but is loud, messy, odorous, irregularly shaped,
textured • This is attractive to kids, making it potentially
dangerous (in a safe way) – “Danger” (matter out of place) is power to kids – At least, kids think this, apart from mom
Chester as Tween Icon
• Chester is not just aspirational image or badge
• But extension of their selves – ‘Same as us’
• ‘He likes Cheetos, just like we do’ – ‘He does what we do’
• Rides bikes, skateboards, plays basketball, etc.
– Can imagine him interacting with friends, self
• ‘He’d jump on top of the school building and say watch this.’
Chester as Tween Icon
• Shares their values, extremes, and behavior • ‘Cool’ because he’s… • Crazy/Wacky
– E.g., does skydiving and other Xtreme sports • Funny
– ‘The way he talks and acts on ads’ – ‘Ads with ice sculptures and he melts them with
hot Cheetos’ breath
Chester as Tween Icon
• Imaginative – ‘Always invents a new flavor’
• Active, on-the-go – ‘Always doing something new, like changing
tongue color to green or purple’ • Authentic, genuine
– ‘Always acts who he is’ • High recall of Chester ads
– Enjoyment of humor – Topic of discussion among friends
Chester as Tween Icon
• Moms like Chester too – Cute character – Age appropriate – Appealing personality
• ‘Not your average animated character’ • Funny • Active • Mingles with humans
– Recognize that kids identify with him • “He’s like the friend every kid wants to have in his
group”
Why Moms like Cheetos
• View Cheetos as a “good snack” – Potentially “healthy”
• Has ingredients they want their kids to eat
– Cheese – Corn – Complements milk or juice for “good
snack”
– Satisfying • Kid’s enjoyment of snack + ability to
‘fill you up’ • Other snacks (especially sweet
ones) don’t fill up kids, so not satisfying (for moms)
• Feel less guilty than serving other snacks
Why Moms like Cheetos
• View sugar as ‘bad’ element – Snacks with sugar are not valid
choices for moms • Worry about leaving kids
hyperactive • Worry about their teeth
– Sweets are not as substantial as snacks
• Not ‘filling’ like corn puffs, other snacks
• An ‘empty snack’ that leaves you hungry again in 10 minutes
Why Moms like Cheetos
• For Moms, it’s all about pleasing their kids – Buy what tweens want, what they will eat
• Tweens shop with Mom or put specific snacks on shopping list
– Stock a variety of snack items kids enjoy • Fruit, yogurt, string cheese, peanut butter crackers
– Cheetos shopping patterns vary by Mom • Some load up every week (3 bags) at supermarket • Others go to a club store, get a big box that lasts a
week • Others buy a 48 variety pack every week
Why Moms like Cheetos
• Reward for Mom – Giving pleasure
• ‘The kids are gonna be happy when I get home.’
– Satisfaction of watching the enjoyment • ‘I’m glad they’re happy.’
– Pleasure tied to their own enjoyment • Memories of eating Cheetos since
childhood • ‘My Mom used to pack tuna fish
sandwiches with Cheetos in the middle.’
• Sense of universal enjoyment: ‘everybody loves Cheetos’
– Variety of Cheetos flavors allows individuation
• “Everyone can have their favorite”
Summary
• Snack is individuation activity, not just food – To be played with, not eaten
• No rules – “it’s me and my bag of Cheetos”
– Play fosters active imagination • Dimensionalizing who you are though product
– Adventure in every bag – Don’t know what to expect
• Sensory experience plays out for kids – Messy, loud, colorful, textural, odorous, = extending
boundaries to self, safe play with danger
Summary
• In snack world, Sugar is the villain – Strong role for Cheetos
• “Substantial” is key word in consumer lexicon – Filling, satisfying, guilt free
• Not sugar – Bad for teeth, hyperactivity
• An air of “Healthy” – Cheese, corn
• Mom becomes hero – Cheetos is the “right” snack – Kids are always satisfied – Fun food they enjoy
Implications
1. Keep Chester edgy – Chester is loved for doing slightly crazy things – Appealing to tweens in their ambiguous state
• Early adolescence, separating from parents, attaching to friends
2. Incorporate change as product benefit – Boredom comes quickly to tweens – Continue to invent new Cheetos flavors – Continue to use new advertising material – But retain Chester’s character – tweens identify
with Chester as ‘authentic’ character
Implications
3. Play on early adolescent identity theme, ‘different but same’
– Chester continuing to do typical tween things – ‘Sameness’ is important to tweens – Safe to be like others when in the process of
individuation 4. Incorporate total sensory experience of
Cheetos – Chester’s adventures in eating Cheetos – Challenges, surprises, like eating Cheetos
• “Never know what’s next”
Implications
5. Develop specific messages for ‘gatekeepers’ • Reinforce mom as hero • Cheetos: A “satisfying” snack
– Key word: satisfying, substantial, aura of healthy – Not sugar, which is viewed as unsubstantial, unhealthy – Doing a good job, feels good about her role, as kids are
happy, satisfied • Cheetos is the right choice
– In pantheon of snack options, it’s not Cheetos vs. other salty snacks (which is limiting)
– It’s Cheetos among entire macro-snack category