3. Table of Contents
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8
9
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11
13
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Brand History
The following
paper analyzes
and compares two
sister companies
under the brand
name Frito-Lay.
The purpose is to
determine which
of the two has an
overall better
social media
strategy. By
studying each
brand’s approach
within individual
social media
platforms, a so
called winner can
be established.
Twitter
YouTube
Social Summary
Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest
Conclusion
6. Doritos History
Originally produced at the Casa de Fritos at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, Doritos, were made using
surplus tortillas fried and seasoned with a unique dry seasoning resembling Mexican chilaquiles, As a
result of their local popularity, Frito-Lay decided to sell them as a stand-alone product. After a short time of
regional sales, Doritos production was moved Frito-Lay’s in house Tulsa plant.
Doritos were released nationwide in 1966 as the first tortilla chip nationally launched in the US.
Doritos is the number one seller in corn based tortilla chip, second leading seller behind Lay’s Potato
Chip.
In 1994 a two year market-research study resulted in a $50 million product redesign of Doritos making
them 20% larger, 15% thinner, and with rounded edges. The new and improved Dorito chips were
released in four flavors starting January 1995.
In 2005 the company saw a 1.7% drop in US sales. The increase sales in 2006 the company launched
new flavors, a new label, and more bilingual advertising.
In February 2013, the Doritos logo was changed again and the slogan “For the Bold” was adopted.
Fun fact: “Doritos” is derived from the Mexican
Spanish word doradito, meaning “little golden one.”
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7. Lay’s History
In 1932, Herman Lay opened a snack food joint in Dorset, Ohio. A few years later in 1938 he bought an
Atlanta, Georgia potato chip manufacturer and renamed it H.W. Lay Lingo & Company. Mr. Lay traveled
across the United States selling the snacks out of the trunk of his car.
In 1944 Lay’s became the first snack food manufacturers to purchase TV commercials; Bert Lahr was their
first celebrity endorser.
In 1961, Lay’s merged with the Frito Company to become the largest snack food manufacturer with over
$127 million in annual sales.
Shortly after the merger, Lay’s introduced the “betcha can’t just eat one” slogan and began selling its
product internationally.
In 1965, Frito-Lay merged with Pepsi-Cola to form PepsiCo, Inc. and a new flavor of Lay’s was born:
barbecue! It wasn’t until the early 90s that Lay’s introduced a new chip formulation along with wavy lays.
One decade later, the Lay’s offerings continued to expand with the kettle cooked brands and Lay’s stax.
In 2012 Lay’s introduced their “Do Us A Flavor” campaign which has since led to the creation of many new
consumer-produced flavors.
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9. Social Mention
Lay’s Social Mention averages suggest that the
company is well liked and has a fair amount of
customer loyalty. However, the strength and
reach are very week. With that said, Lay’s has a
big media presence thanks to Lay’s branded
posts, but lacks interaction from customers. This
is specifically proven with their Twitter statistics
shown in the table above.
Doritos’ average results on Social Mention
illustrate that they are often talked about, and
generally well-liked but also negatively
mentioned on certain websites. Examples of
this negative sentiment as found on Facebook
are available on page 13. Overall Doritos’
social presence is statistically much more
successful
43%
strength
43%
reach
19%
passion
24:1
sentiment
3.5%
strength
22%
reach
14%
passion
27:0
sentiment
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*
*not specifically merntioned in this report
6,780,003 likes
10. YouTube A
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Figure 2YT: In February 2014,
Lay’s made a series of videos with
comedian Wayne Brady singing
custom improvised shout-outs to
fans using flavor submissions as
inspiration. This was an effort to
help launch Lay’s “Do Us A
Flavor” contest. The idea was
clever and essentially well
executed; however, the social
media placement was not done
well. The videos lacked tags and
were not shared through any other
channels. Although they were
personalized shout-outs, there was
no way to connect the actual
contestant to an online profile this
deteriorated the “sharing” factor of
these videos.
Figure 1YT: Every year, Doritos
hosts a “Crash the SuperBowl”
contest. The contest asks participants
to submit a funny Doritos
commercial for a chance to win air-
time during the SuperBowl, $1
million, and a contract job with
Universal Pictures.
This year Doritos received over
4,900 submissions from 29 different
countries. 4,900 free commercials
and 4,900 fresh ideas all of which
were produced at no cost to Frito-
Lay. That is a lot of free advertising.
Through this “Crash the SuperBowl”
commercial contest, Doritos
undoubtingly took full advantage of
YouTube’s capabilities. This is an
idyllic example of how a small effort
can go a long way. The reach that
resulted from the contest
announcement was immense; each of
the top ten video submissions had
over half a million views!
11. YouTube B
Doritos overall YouTube presence is very
widespread. Although their YouTube
profile is well set up, it comprises only a
fraction of the videos featuring Doritos.
Most of the results found for “doritos”
were Super Bowl commercials as a result
of their “Crash the Super Bowl”
commercial competition.
Something interesting to note about the
Doritos YouTube presence is that most of
their “views” come from videos posted
by other users. Most of the videos posted
by the Doritos brand profile have less
than 40,000 views, which for the
“average Dorito commercial” is very few.
Doritos does a great job of putting its
fans to work, and in doing so has had
great success on the YouTube platform.
Lay’s has recently focused most of their
social media interaction efforts on the
Taste Spuds, Marvin and Duncan. On the
Lay’s Brand YouTube profile all you see
are videos of the spuds. If you explore the
playlists the brand has created you
discover that Lay’s also used celebrity
comedian Wayne Brady to help with the
kick-off of the “Do Us A Flavor” contest
(See Figure 2YT).
Aside from their branded profile page,
Lay’s search results yielded three main
results: “How it’s made” footage, Taste
Test fan submissions, and Do Us A Flavor
submissions. As a user, I was not
captivated by any of these videos; whereas
with Doritos, simply the titles of the
videos tempted me to sit on YouTube and
watch funny commercials all day.
YouTube is free online media
placement. If a company or
brand effectively uses
YouTube’s capabilities, a
small budget or effort can go
a LONG way.
12. 11
Firgure 4TW:
Doritos partnered with SouthWest airlines and #MiddleSeat to promote their product using the
pay with a tweet method. Through encouraging customer engagement, Doritos also gave
consumers a free experience with their product.
Firgure 5TW:
Doritos also partook in some friendly Twitter interaction with their competitor, Tostitos. The
Tweet was tweeted during the SuperBowl and tagged with the #SB50 hashtag providing it
with great reach. Because Doritos initiated the interaction, the brand personality appeared
outgoing and fun to Twitter viewers.
13. Doritos’ Twitter profile is well organized and managed.
They stay relevant with current events and holidays.
Doritos does an outstanding job of creating mini-
campaigns to promote their brand and introduce new
products. A great example of this is their new Doritos
Jacked 3D St. Patrick’s day product launch. The tweet
displayed in the image above—Four leaves. Three
dimensions.—illustrates the brand’s ability to create “in-
the-moment,” catchy, and effective content. Doritos also
uses relationships with other companies for creative
promotions (See Figure 4 & 5TW).
Doritos uses Twitter to interact with consumers mainly
through contests and giveaways. Most of the response
tweets Doritos makes are related to contest rules,
specifically reminding participants that they must be
followers before they can receive any of the promised
Doritos gift boxes.
Their Twitter page ultimately serves as a driver back
to its YouTube page.
Lay’s Twitter approach was not nearly as varied as
Doritos in regards to content; however, astonishingly
Lay’s has almost ten times as many tweets as Doritos
whose profile is in fact 7 months older than Lay’s. This
is due to Lay’s extremely high response rate. Almost
every “Do Us A Flavor” submission receives a reply
tweet. Lay’s responses are each unique and
personalized with more than just the @twittername
which makes the brand more personable.
Overall, Lay’s twitter focuses mainly on their “Do Us
A Flavor” contest. This gives the page an organized
sense of unity, but it also seemed to be a little bit boring
and redundant.
There could have been more efforts in mini-sweeps or
more time-relevant posts.
Twitter’s “micro-blogging” ability gives users a chance to say what is going on at one
specific moment in time. Doritos takes advantage of this time stamp factor and tailors its
tweets to fit the moment. Lay’s instead maintains a constant and timeless theme
throughout all of their posts not making optimal use of the platform’s main feature.
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14. Facebook A
Although Facebook is a great place for companies to post about their company, it is also a great site for consumers to
post about their opinions on the company. This can cause huge drawbacks and negative publicity. As can be seen
above, Doritos has received a lot of bad reviews in relation to product quality, social responsibility, and advertising
techniques, and as I mentioned before, no evidence of response was found. In respect to Facebook, Lay’s Facebook
quality has managed to surpass Doritos’ Facebook skills.
As a public company, Facebook has financial responsibilities
to its stakeholders. As a result, Facebook has become an advertising
channel in addition to the social media channel it is known to be.
Facebook advertising has immense potential but the results it can
produce can be both negative and positive. Most Facebook users get
annoyed by ads, but if the content is worth their time, or simply
entertaining, most consumers barely notice that the ad is in fact a paid
product promotion.
Neither Lay’s nor Doritos seemed to invest in paid Facebook
advertising, which in the case of a snack product does not seem to be a
drawback.
Rather, both companies use Facebook as a contest platform and a
channel to share new products.
(See figures 1-3FB)
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15. Facebook B
Unfortunately, Facebook users
tend to post complaints on
company pages. It was
interesting to see, however, that
there were also some posts with
great feedback.
(See Figures 6FB & 7FB).
One thing that neither of the
companies did well on
Facebook was social listening.
Although I am sure they
appreciate all of the personal
data they receive from the
contest submissions and app
downloads, neither of the two
companies had ANY personal
interaction with the Facebook
users. Unlike on other social
media platforms, there were no
responsive actions taken on
Facebook, which is where most
of the negative attention was
seen.
It is imperative that companies
show their consumers that they
are listening. Creating that
relationship with consumers
helps build brand loyalty. And
this is not to say that a
company needs to have a
personalized relationship with
everyone who posts about
them, but as a consumer I find
it respectable when a brand
responds to a complaint. This
demonstrates that the company
“cares.”
Figure 6 & 7FB:
These posts taken from the brands’ Facebook pages illustrate both
positive and negative feedback; regardless, these posts prove that the
brands are being mentioned. It is interesting to see that someone took
time out of their day to post a comment for Doritos. Hopefully,
someone reads the comment about the seasoning that could be a great
new product for Frito-Lay to offer!
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17. Pinterest
Pinterest is a place for people to “curate content.” Generally speaking Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board where
users can digitally post, sort, and share pictures. However, from a user perspective, Pinterest is so much more.
Pinners use the site for ideas and inspiration.
Although Doritos did not have a Pinterest profile, their name did come up on many pins and user boards. Lay’s, on the
other hand, did have a profile set up. Yet, their page was very misleading and clearly not “pinner-oriented.” Pins are
meant to be links to outside sources; Lay’s lamentably failed to acknowledge this.
As of January 2013, 11% of pins are in the
Food & Drink category, making it the most
popular category on the site (wishpond.com).
Illustrated above are two different Pinterest profiles: an effective profile and an ineffective profile.
Ritz, also a snack food brand, has done an awe-inspiring job with setting up their profile. They have
boards categorized by theme or event and hundreds of recipes including their product, which engages
customers and also promotes conversions. Lay’s too has boards set up, but none of them motivate the
users to action, they are essentially just advertisements. Also, unlike Ritz clickable pins, it can be
seen that the Lay’s click-throughs ultimately lead to media-cache pages which are of no use to the
pinner. Contrastingly, Ritz Crackers’ pins link users to useful websites such as AllRecipes.com.
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19. Although Lay’s has some great ideas, their execution lacks response among online users.
Overall Doritos’ social media content was far more entertaining than Lay’s. Do Us A
Flavor is a great idea, but it is not enough to keep users interested for extended periods of
time. Lay’s needs to focus on creating more time relevant content that appeals to their
customers.
When compared side by side, Doritos’ overall
campaign ideas and viewership were by far superior.
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