Heinz uses a fake number to keep his brand timeless

(CNN Business) — Heinz has been associated with the number 57 for more than a century. The company’s “57 varieties” slogan was a key part of its initial strategy to attract consumers. It still shows up on the bottles of ketchup Heinz and is central to the brand identity.

But that famous number is completely made up.

There weren’t 57 varieties of Heinz when the Pittsburgh business magnate, H. J. Heinz, first invented the catchphrase in 1896. Neither did when Heinz 57 Ketchup was introduced soon after. There is no 57 now. There are, in fact, hundreds of varieties of Heinz.

Heinz’s 57 is more than the right place to hit the bottle and make the ketchup come out at 0.04 kilometers per hour. That number has stood for 126 years because it reinforces Heinz as a distinctly American, nostalgic food brand: the relish you put on your hot dog at a baseball game or a burger at a summer roast, food experts say. marketing.

In the early 1890s, HJ Heinz once described by a biographer as a “marketing genius,” he sold horseradish, pickled cucumbers, pepper sauce, and ketchup—introduced by the company in 1876 spelled “ketchup” in English and soon changed to “ketchup” to distinguish the product—among 60 others foods. Pickles were Heinz’s biggest hit at the time, and he became known as the “King of Pickles.”

Visiting New York City in 1896, Heinz saw an advertisement for “21 Styles” of shoes. He found it memorable and thought that attaching a number to his own brand would help it stick with consumers.

There are several theories as to why he chose 57.

Ashleigh Gibson, brand director for Heinz, said in an email that the company’s founder felt there was something “mystical, magical and memorable” about the number 57, which was A combination five, his lucky number, and seven, his wife’s lucky number.

But Heinz’s personal secretary, who wrote one of the first biographies of his boss, said that when Heinz was counting the number of varieties the company sold in 1896, the number seven caught his eye.

“Seven, seven, there are so many illustrations of the psychological influences of that figure and its appealing significance to people of all ages and races,” said Heinz, according to the biography. “58 Strains or 59 Strains didn’t appeal to me at all because they were equally strong.”

Within a week of seeing the shoe ad, the “57 varieties” slogan was appearing in newspapers and on billboards, Heinz wrote. in your diary. The company carved 57 into the hillsides for train passengers to see and “57 Good Things for the Table” appeared on the first electric billboard in New York City in 1900. The sign was six stories tall, had 1,200 light bulbs fluorescent lights and included a flashing 13-meter Heinz pickle, according to the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.

“I myself didn’t realize how big of a hit it was going to be as a slogan,” Heinz said.

“Good Luck Charm”

Today, the “57 varieties” message is placed on top of the neck of the bottles of ketchup Heinz octagon-shaped glass tomato sauce. In the center, “57 Varieties” is printed in small gold letters above a dangling tomato plant on the trapeze-shaped label inspired by Heinz’s home state. 57 also appears in Heinz’s Baked Bean, Mustard, Mayonnaise, and Ketchup Soup.

The tagline is used as a branding device to convey a “sense of timelessness and authenticity” to consumers, Kelly Haws, a marketing professor who studies consumer food choices at Vanderbilt University, said in an email.

Gibson said the tagline has become “a brand asset,” similar to the company logo, cornerstone and glass bottle design, reminding consumers of the Heinz story.

Heinz and his association with 57 have also served as minor footnotes in American history.

When Joe DiMaggio’s record hitting streak ended at 56 games in 1941, the Yankees star supposedly told him to a teammate who had missed out on the $10,000 Heinz promised him if he matched his tag.

According “demagogue“, a 2020 biography of Senator Joe McCarthy, McCarthy once told a reporter “probably in jest” that when he claimed he had a list of 57 names of communists who worked at the State Department, he came up with the number of a bottle of Heinz ketchup It’s even a plot point in the 1962 movie “The Manchurian Candidate.”

Then there’s the Heinz 57 sauce for steak, chicken and pork, which was remembered for Jimmy Buffet’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise”: “I like mine with lettuce and tomato, Heinz 57 and fries.”

Noel Geoffrey, who led the division of ketchup at Heinz from 2008 to 2011, said 57 was “like a good luck charm” at the company. The phone number for the main switchboard at its previous home — the Heinz 57 Center — was, of course, 57. In 2001, the company paid the Pittsburgh Steelers $57 million over 20 years for the naming rights to the stadium.

“It was everywhere,” Geoffrey said, “and it was part of the company’s DNA.”

Innovation in food marketing

It may seem commonplace today, but the “57 varieties” idea was a significant innovation in food marketing at the time. In the late 19th century, packaged and processed foods were a new concept to the public.

“The big change was trying to create a consumer population of prepackaged foods,” said Rita McGrath, a Columbia Business School professor who has studied the rise of major food brands. “Before that, food was not marketed.”

HJ Heinz also had to convince consumers that its products were safe during a time before food regulation. One way he tried to convey quality was to sell his products in glass jars, so customers could see what was inside.

His choice of the word “variety” was another attempt to signal that Heinz had expertise in a range of products, suggesting to customers that they could trust the brand.

“Variety has always been something that Americans love,” said Ken Albala, a food historian at the University of the Pacific. “They want to choose. Even if it’s flavors of the same thing.”

At the beginning of the 20th century, Heinz was the largest manufacturer of ketchup from the United States. The brand represented approximately 70% of the market for ketchup last year, according to data from Euromonitor. Hunt’s, its closest competitor, had 8%.

“Comfort in the familiar”

The famous number has endured for more than a century of different advertising campaigns and Heinz packaging changes.

It also outlived different corporate owners. In 2013, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway and Brazilian private equity firm 3G Capital bought HJ Heinz. Two years later, Kraft Foods and HJ Heinz merged and the company was renamed Kraft Heinz.

“There’s a comfort in the familiar,” McGrath said. “Once you have something like that that sticks, people are resistant to change because of the brand association.”

In 2009, Heinz changed the design of its tomato sauce label for the first time in more than 60 years. replacing the pickled cucumber which was under the words “ketchup” with a tomato on a branch. Noel Geoffrey, who oversaw the redesign, said removing 57 from the label was never considered.

But Emily Ruby, curator of the Senator John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh and author of “57 Servings from Heinz’s Table,” said she was surprised by the change because Heinz “held on to these symbols of the past for so long.”

When Kraft and Heinz merged in 2015, there was fear in Pittsburgh that the link between Heinz and the city would be lost. Kraft Heinz has joint headquarters in Pittsburgh and Chicago.

“There is a feeling that the company is no longer tied to history and region,” he said. If Kraft Heinz were to drop 57, “I think people would be really upset because they like the connection.”

Whenever Ruby gives local talks about HJ Heinz or the history of the company, she is always asked about the origins of the number. People even offer their own theories about its meaning.

“There’s still a lot of curiosity out there,” Ruby said.