Quaker Oats, one of America’s great venerable supermarket products, staged a complete relaunch of its brand over the last two months.  The campaign has won kudos both for its general positivity in these otherwise dark times – sick of bailout-themed ads yet? – but also for the way that it reframes oats as a “power food.”  That is indeed a new, compelling USP for the brand and subtly introduces the idea of value as a ‘bang for the buck’ food. 

A closer look shows something else: a new emphasis on ‘bang for the buck’ marketing.  By bringing all of its product lines under a single campaign, however big or expensive, Quaker must be saving here, there and everywhere on its promotional and internal costs.  The most obvious way is the now-gone requirement to discretely support each of its panoply of Quaker Old Fashioned Oats, Quaker Quick Oats, Quaker Instant Oatmeal, Quaker Oatmeal Squares and on & on.  It also means potential reductions in tmarketing personnel, in-store marketing, graphic staff (fewer executions), agency support, and so forth.  One wonders once the initial advertising launch blast is over with where the savings will go: into the product (reaching consumers) or simply as a hedge against falling revenue.  

Either way Quaker looks smart.  The company gets a new convincing USP out there, it cuts costs and – as James Surowiecki points out in this week’s New Yorker – finds a way to keep innovating and marketing in the throes of the recession. 

…a major study, by the Strategic Planning Institute, of corporate behavior during the past thirty years found that reducing ad spending during recessions did improve companies’ return on capital. It also meant, though, that they grew less quickly in the years following recessions than more free-spending competitors did.

The Quaker Oats campaign may be a bellwether for the overall marketing economy. As long as we see only one campaign for all its many products – I count 30 currently on its web site – we’ll know that US brands are still in cost-cutting mode.  But when the company starts to support its individual brand lines again – especially though general advertising, not just couponing and in-store marketing – then we can surmise that it’s sufficiently confident that spending is rising again.