With Chips, It’s Always Form Over Function
Setting The Stage
Picture this. A warm summer afternoon with your friends at the park– you reach into a picnic tote bag to unravel a six pack of crisp, hard apple cider, hand it out to your friends one by one right as the person sitting to your right starts shuffling a pack of cards as the squad enters yet another heated round of Rummy. You take one sip of your cider, followed by a nail-biting moment where you spot an opportune sequence that’ll determine your fate for the rest of the game, followed by the classic anxiety-ridden tummy growl. It is officially time to attack the snack bag. Enter, Kettle Brand.
Kettle Brand has been the maker of the finest kettle-cooked potato chips since 1978, offering a myriad of commonly liked flavors and chip formats (classic, crinkle cut and organic). The firm and distinctive chip traces its origins back to Salem, Oregon where Cameron Healy, the founder of Kettle Brand, was inspired by the idea of potato crisps fried in a bucket and eaten fresh while on holiday. Ever since, Kettle has earned its household moniker of being the chip company that hunts out high quality potatoes from its partner farms, and makes chips that only use the best ingredients with no added MSG, artificial flavors or food coloring.
So does a chip brand really need a website?
You bet it does. Every business needs a digital storefront, and in the case of Kettle Brand, the real crunch lies in the information shared with the world. The brand’s website has everything one would expect from a snack company’s landing page bar– product variants, the origin story, sourcing information, a product locator tool and a contact section.
While the UI is intuitive on both a desktop browser and phone (the same website is formatted for both devices), Kettle stands out with its engaging content. For starters, their aesthetic is visually appealing, vibrant with banner images of the uniquely colored bags on each section of the website, outstanding use of typography for a memorable tagline; ‘Extra In a Good Way’. The website employs a tone of voice in its content that’s youthful, light and approachable to absorb for all its users. The design elements employed are novel, vivid and eye-catching.
Initially, the website’s use of color may come across as blaring and cluttered. However, upon further rationalizing, the brand itself stands a testament to the diversity in flavors that are offered. The website also has a ‘pairing’ section that gives visitors interesting pairing info, on what flavors pair best with what kind of beer. I thought this was the most innovative and insightful section on Kettle’s website.
Let’s face it, the most desirable expectation from a snack website is to elicit hunger by using the most effective visual anchors, and I believe that Kettle Brand is succeeding in that domain, whether it’s the name of the chip flavor, the aesthetic elements incorporated or what kind of beverage goes best with a different flavor! Furthermore, another base expectation from snack companies that users (such as myself) hold is the sourcing story, and Kettle’s website does not fail to deliver on that front either.
The ‘Tater Tracker’ provides information on partner farms and spells out their passion for potatoes, not to mention the full transparency in the supply chain. Witnessing a brand speak so confidently of its passion most naturally excites consumers, ultimately resulting in a positive association and increased brand confidence. The most fascinating aspect of Kettle’s UI and UX is the geniality in the verbal and visual narrative.
But…
There’s always a but. Many of the images on the company’s website are used repetitively, and there are low-quality photographs under a few sections such as ‘Tater Makers’. Regarding Kettle’s sourcing practices and information, the names and accompanying photographs of farms are all the same, and they show no distinction between the farms listed. I personally would have loved to read and grapple onto more visual aids for the farms, especially because the brand upholds its sourcing culture as one of its biggest strengths. Additionally, the website has no AI, chatbot or interactive features except the add-on chip locator tool for relevant zip codes.
Having said that, all of this comes down to form over function. Unlike other food and beverage categories, the snack world is ultimately about the end-user’s consumption experience as opposed to giving consumers a gratifying online presence and identity. For a snack group like chips, it becomes more about its actual, tangible form. Was that chip overcooked? Was the seasoning uneven? Why is this chip not bite-friendly, and shaped like an actual potato? At its core, a chip’s function is to satiate one’s need for a crispy treat, balance your palate with the right amount of salt, sugar and fat, and reward your pleasure centre of the brain!
