Sunday, August 19, 2007

Oh Henry! vs Oh Henry! Pro


To advertise a product successfully, there has to be an exchange between the merchant and the consumer. If you buy my product, then you get this benefits out of it. If you buy certain detergent, you get the cleanest clothes. If you buy certain brand of cat food, your cat will have the best digestive track in the neighborhood. Sometimes the product cannot offer you a clear benefit (like the cleanest clothes or the best digestive track for your cat), marketers then associate the product with certain groups that are popular within their target market. Oh Henry! Pro happens to be a perfect example of the latter. Oh Henry! Pro is being advertised as "high protein candy", the TV ads show a group of kids doing some (extremely cool) mountain biking and they look confident and they are having fun (because they are pros) So the message going out to the public is " If you buy a Oh Henry! Pro, you will be part of the extreme-pro-sports crowd. Oh! and tell your parents that it is healthy because it has 12 grams of protein" To further reinforce the message, Oh Henry! Pro has a website where kids can go and play the "Oh Henry! Pro Big Air Snowboarding Game" But how different is the new Oh Henry! Pro? Is it really a better option than the regular Oh Henry!? Let's compare ( In a little segment I'd like to call: Oh Henry! vs Oh Henry! Pro)

Taste: Oh Henry! is definitely the sweetest. The sweet taste seems to linger for a while after you eat the chocolate. Oh Henry! Pro is not nearly as sweet, this is partly due to the fact that it does not have as much nougat as a regular Oh Henry!.

Packaging: Oh Henry! Pro is a smaller bar, it weight 2.5 grams less than a regular Oh Henry! bar. However, the packaging is designed to make it look bigger (because this chocolate bar is a Pro!, and well it has to look bigger than an average chocolate bar) There are two reasons why the Oh Henry! Pro looks bigger: first, the carton inside the wrapping is larger (making the whole thing look bigger) The second, the right side of the wrapping is dark blue, which creates a contrast of colors that "tricks" the eye, making the chocolate look bigger than what it actually is.

Nutrition Facts: Oh Henry! Pro has to 12 grams of protein. There are different types of protein, some better ( better = your body can absorb them more easily than other proteins) and some worst. We do not know what type of protein the Oh Henry! Pro has. Furthermore, the regular Oh Henry! has 6 grams of proteins. So really, 6 extra grams of protein is no big deal.
When it comes to fat, The Oh Henry! Pro has 21 grams of fat! Which is 4 more grams than a regular Oh Henry! And both of them have .1 grams of trans fats!
Carbs: This is the biggest difference between the two bars. As I mentioned before, the regular Oh Henry! was sweeter than its Pro! Counterpart. This is reflected in the carbs, a regular Oh Henry! bar has 36 grams of carbs, where a Pro! bar has only 25 grams.

As you can see, both bars have pretty questionable nutrients. The main difference between the two bars is that the Oh Henry! Pro is not as sweet as the regular Oh Henry! Besides that, the two of them are pretty much the same thing. So how do you make these two bars different? Easy, throw a bigger wrapping, add a little color and emphasize the only benefit that will not hurt the image of the other brand: Oh Henry! Pro has 12 grams of protein! They will never advertise the fact that the Oh Henry! Pro has less carbs than the regular Oh Henry! (11 grams less to be exact) If they were to do that, some people would stop eating the regular Oh Henry! and switch to the Oh Henry! Pro. Which would cannibalize the sales of the regular Oh Henry! And nobody wants that!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Fascinating! Perhaps I can use this as a protein supplement...or not...