It’s easy to reach me at the grocery store. Just have the best discount. I admit it – I’m cheap about commodity items like frozen dinners, toothpaste, shampoo, soup, pasta sauce, etc….if you drop your price for a special, I’ll buy it.
And so I was surprised at myself when I ran across the latest Doritos promo, and how I immediately put a bag in my cart.
First off, I don’t buy chips. I’m big enough – no reason to make it easy for the fat cells to win this battle.
If you look around the grocery store, you see thousands of packages that have been meticulously designed, researched, surveyed, evaluated, tested, focus grouped and rewritten so that every word, even the small print, succinctly and accurately explains the attributes of the products in the clearest way possible. Marketing folks around the country – folks not unlike me – make a living figuring out EXACTLY what should be on that package. They want the consumer to know what they are buying and why they want it so badly.
And then —– here’s Doritos with a bag that says, "Um, we’re not going to tell you what it is. Eat it and tell us what you think it tastes like."
GENIUS! I MUST HAVE A BAG NOW!
I don’t know what it is, but I am now all a twitter about the surprise I have just bought myself for $2.50. It could taste like an old shoe, but the simple fact that I’m driving home from the grocery store wondering what I bought makes me WAY more than $2.50 worth of happy.
I think they could have charged me $10 for this, and I’d have said, "Sure. I want, no I NEED, to try that black bag of X-13D’s."
So here I am on a Friday afternoon. My bag of chips in front of me. And I seriously think this may be the most exciting moment of my week. What will they taste like? Do you know?
Ok, opening the bag now…. it smells less pungent than your normal bag. Does this mean less taste? I hope not.
The chip has a lighter color than a normal one. I’m now worried. Is X13-D shorthand for "X-13 flavor, Defective"? Are these the chips that didn’t get enough Doritos sauce in the first batch? Am I about to eat a reject?
Time to taste…
Ah ha….no this is not a reject. It is unlike a chip I have had before. I think it has mustard in it. And I usually hate mustard so I never would have bought these. But I am oddly intrigued…..It’s mustard and…..something. I can’t place it. But I bet I eat this whole damn bag in the next 3 or 4 days trying to figure it out.
So, Mr or Ms Doritos Marketing person – I salute you and your mystery campaign. You are zagging when other people zigged. Nice work.
