Heinz' Mayomix
Or what's wrong with globalized marketing
Heinz launched a new sauce in Belgium. The mayomix. A mixture of ketchup and mayonaise. Hmm, sounds familiar.
I wrote about this product before on LinkedIn. But in the meantime I ended up buying and tasting it, so this post is a bit more elaborate.
It’s cocktail sauce!
A combination of ketchup and mayonaise is something what we call in Belgium and a handfull of other countries: cocktail sauce. When I first wrote this I got some shit from purists, because we tend to make our cocktail sauce with a dash of Whiskey (some even say Cognac). But this is apparently a tradition not followed everywhere. What unites it however is the combination of mayonaise and ketchup, seasoned to the taste of the local market. So as far as we know, Heinz just launched a cocktail sauce is Belgium. A sauce they already had in their portfolio (and not in the Netherlands for example).
No it’s not!
The problem with cocktail sauce is that in the United States, cocktail sauce is a different product. Known from the shrimp cocktail, it’s a mixture of ketchup, horseradish and then some additives. Heinz a version of “our” cocktail sauce (mayo + ketchup) however and call it mayochup. The generic name American gives this combo seems to be: fry sauce.
Sitenote: people in the states don’t like mayonaise. Remember Pulp Fiction? So Heinz pulled their mayonaise out of the market before.
Globalized Marketing.
If you’re in marketing for long enough you see the trends of centralization and decentralization taking turns every 5 to 10 years. Right now I believe we’re in the middle of a centralization wave. In such a wave the local markets have less say and decisions are being taken internationally. Local markets just have to implement.
A centralization wave is noticeable because the market is flooded with 1-size-fits-all commercials, typically lacking local connection with culture or even language. BTW: I was hoping technology would have improved this by now, because a lot is possible nowadays, but we’re not there yet. But now centralization and globalization not only have their effect on the messaging, but also on the products itself. I’m not going to say this is a first, but for me it’s at least a remarkable one.
I guess the Mayochup sauce is selling well in the states, so someone must have thought: let’s push this to Europe! Unaware that the mere existence of that sauce probably once was an American implementation of a local European sauce that seemed to do well at the time. Interesting, no? As if Christopher Nolan made a movie on sauces.
In researching this, I found out the product was launched as a result (or so they say) of a Twitter poll in 2018. A very popular one, pushed by the agency VLM Ignite.
What should they have done?
I believe, at least for the Belgian (and then some) market they should have called it cocktail sauce. Or since that sauce already exists, don’t launch it at all or launch it as a cocktail variation. They have one mayor USP: it’s made with real Heinz Ketchup. This is a very strong brand here, and they are the only cocktail sauce on the market that can claim this.
The proof of the pudding
So how does the Mayomix taste? It took me a lot of effort to actually find the sauce on a shelf, so when I did I of course bought it. We took it for a tasting. Here are the tasting notes from my wife: it’s like cocktail sauce with too much Ketchup added. I think she nailed it :)
