All is Fair in Love and Marketing
It’s officially summer time and that means — backyard BBQs, trips to the beach or pool, and camping! Whether you are staying local just to get out of the house or you are just itching to travel across the country I can already guess what is packed in your trunk right next to your cooler. SNACKS!
Personally, I like to switch up my snack options depending on what catches my eye in the grocery store aisle. However, my options usually revolve around the same four core flavors just in case my mood changes during my trip. I have to have my salty, sweet, a healthy option, and of course, a spicy flavor! Typically this would entail going to the candy aisle, the chips aisle, and the healthy options section. But what if a brand offered all four flavors?
“Junk food without the junk!”
Peatos was created in 2011 and with Nick Desai recently taking the helm of the company as CEO; the company has grown exponentially in the past few years. Peatos claims to be a healthy alternative to the chips everyone knows and loves. Swapping out corn for a pea-based chip, it offers 4g of protein and 3g of fiber per serving in a variety of flavors with fun packaging.
Peatos has seemed to really latch on to friendly competition and centers their branding around “us vs the other guys” — even offering a chart comparing Peatos chips to their main competitors: Cheetos and Funyuns on their website.
Most of their brand content centers around this exact idea — Peatos chips is better than their competition. So much so that initially in 2019, Peatos had a tagline “Tigers live longer than cheetahs” calling out Cheetos’s brand mascot, Chester the Cheetah. Then, Cheetos responded with a cease and desist letter to remove their tagline calling it “confusingly similar”. Scandalous but it’s one way of garnering attention.
How Peatos uses their website to tell you more:
When you visit Peatos.com you’re welcomed by their new tagline and a family picture of all their products. As you scroll down, you are greeted with pictures of people of different ages enjoying the product, a way to earn a discount by subscribing to their newsletter, and a moving banner of brief testimonials from internet celebrities and popular athletes complimenting the product. Peatos strategically uses their homepage as their version of a cover letter and resume, offering you an easy way to add a bag of chips into your cart, more testimonials (from regular people this time — thanks Julia from Miami!), and a list of verified media outlets such as Vogue and Today they were featured in.
If miraculously you were able to scroll all the way to the bottom of their homepage without a bag of Peatos in your hand already, a quick look at the top right hamburger menu gives you a quick way to find the nearest retailer that sells Peatos, an FAQ section, and my favorite — a chart explaining why they are better than Cheetos and Funyuns. Overall, the website gives me a quick overview of what the brand is and makes it easy for the user to purchase and learn more.
If you switch to a mobile view, Peatos successfully employs a responsive design making the website easy to navigate whether you’re discovering through a mouse trackpad or your finger. Although Peatos has yet to implement AI customer service, there is an easily discoverable link to reach their customer service via contact form.
A new way of marketing: Internet trolling
Peatos has taken on this persona as the new 2.0 version of chips, even going as far as aesthetics and design. Their website is colorful but uses mainly black as opposed to a white background illustrating they are the opposite, mysterious, and different from their competitors. We love it when companies troll each other on a public stage. It grounds the company in a way that reminds audiences that they are personable and humanizes them. It fascinates us and makes us wonder — how does it compare? It also doesn’t hurt that it adds a comedic effect to who the brand is!
And hey @Peatos, since we’re in the business of trolling. Please fix the information on your homepage that boasts 4g of protein and 3g of protein when you mean 3g of fiber. And no, please don’t be like HBOMax and blame the intern.
