Our series of great branding or marketing examples continues this week with Frosted Flakes (Facebook). Raise your hand if you just said that in Tony the Tiger’s voice. Now look around. Are you the only one with your hand up? Of course you are, silly. You’re the only one reading this at the moment.
We’ve talked before about nostalgia in marketing. Our subject this week doesn’t so much employ nostalgia as create, nurture, and sustain it. Tony the Tiger is easily one of the world’s most recognized mascots. The last generation to grow up without him as a part of the breakfast table was the Greatest Generation. Tony was created in 1951, and while he’s evolved with the times, what hasn’t is his trademark, “They’rrrrrrrreeee GRRRREAT!”. (Raise your hand again if you said that in his voice.)
There’s a number of reasons we chose Frosted Flakes. It’s truly rare to create a brand and have so little about the product and the marketing that surrounds it change so little over the course of 60 years. Remarkable really doesn’t cover it. With two words and a cartoon tiger, you’re transported back to the days of your youth when a sugary snack qualified as a healthy breakfast. When Saturday morning meant cartoons rather than getting the kids packed up for the day’s activities.
We love Tony the Tiger and Frosted Flakes. They are a prime example of a brand adjusting its strategies and imaging over the years, but not its branding. And that is something to behold.
