Why Hidden Enemies Transcend Regular Pitches
Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2025 9:01 am
When customers like you close your eyes and picture what a jar of hazelnut spread looks like, you don’t think Kraft. You think Nutella.
So how did Kraft decide to take on the king of hazelnut spreads? They picked an enemy. One they felt would polarize the market. But instead of picking one of the usual suspects and competing on factors like nutrition value, price, or taste, they dug deeper and invoked a hidden enemy that most consumers have likely been overlooking for years.
Take a look at Kraft’s 15-second ad below.
Kraft is invoking the controversial use of palm oil in Nutella as their enemy. Indeed, Palm oil is the second ingredient in Nutella after sugar.
So is palm oil really that bad? Research from Harvard Medical School reveals that consumers shouldn’t be especially concerned with the health implications of consuming it. Rather the controversy around palm oil lies primarily in the environmental impact of its production. Of course, consumers watching this commercial aren’t likely to question the nature or veracity of Kraft’s argument. Rather, they’re more likely to recall the negative connotation associated with this ingredient the next time they walk down the supermarket aisle and make an emotional decision about which product to choose.
The power of invoking a hidden enemy goes beyond the pakistan telegram data emotional reaction to the enemy itself. After all, Kraft could have positioned their competitive product touting that it’s available at half the cost, has a richer taste, or that it comes in three different flavors. But one of the key drivers of the emotional response to hidden enemies lies in simply teaching the customer something new!
In the bestselling book Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds, author Carmine Gallo talks about how teaching someone something they didn’t know ignites a spark:
“The human brain loves novelty. An unfamiliar, unusual, or unexpected element in a presentation intrigues the audience, jolts them out of their preconceived notions, and quickly gives them a new way of looking at the world”
So how did Kraft decide to take on the king of hazelnut spreads? They picked an enemy. One they felt would polarize the market. But instead of picking one of the usual suspects and competing on factors like nutrition value, price, or taste, they dug deeper and invoked a hidden enemy that most consumers have likely been overlooking for years.
Take a look at Kraft’s 15-second ad below.
Kraft is invoking the controversial use of palm oil in Nutella as their enemy. Indeed, Palm oil is the second ingredient in Nutella after sugar.
So is palm oil really that bad? Research from Harvard Medical School reveals that consumers shouldn’t be especially concerned with the health implications of consuming it. Rather the controversy around palm oil lies primarily in the environmental impact of its production. Of course, consumers watching this commercial aren’t likely to question the nature or veracity of Kraft’s argument. Rather, they’re more likely to recall the negative connotation associated with this ingredient the next time they walk down the supermarket aisle and make an emotional decision about which product to choose.
The power of invoking a hidden enemy goes beyond the pakistan telegram data emotional reaction to the enemy itself. After all, Kraft could have positioned their competitive product touting that it’s available at half the cost, has a richer taste, or that it comes in three different flavors. But one of the key drivers of the emotional response to hidden enemies lies in simply teaching the customer something new!
In the bestselling book Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds, author Carmine Gallo talks about how teaching someone something they didn’t know ignites a spark:
“The human brain loves novelty. An unfamiliar, unusual, or unexpected element in a presentation intrigues the audience, jolts them out of their preconceived notions, and quickly gives them a new way of looking at the world”