The competitive landscape for meal delivery kits is heating up! Both Blue Apron and Hello Fresh are planning new advertising campaigns to help drive sales and differentiate themselves from their competition.

Initially, marketing efforts for the home delivery meal kits focused on educating consumers about what the product was, the convenience it offered, and the need that the company hoped to fill. In particular, they promised to eliminate consumers’ need to shop at a grocery store or visit a restaurant. Rather, they would make people’s lives easier, by delivering tasty, fresh ingredients and easy-to-follow instructions for home cooked meals.

Today though, both of these key players in the market are seeking to expand on this narrative and create advertising campaigns that differentiate their specific brands from competitive options. But they still need to keep wooing new customers who might be seeking the convenience of home delivery meal services. Accordingly, Blue Apron has adopted a new “Better Food, From Scratch” campaign that highlights the company’s close relationship with its suppliers and family farms. In response, Hello Fresh has developed its own new “Get Cooking” campaign, which highlights how its meal kits can make cooking fun for busy families.

Even in their short product lifecycles, historical trends in the meal delivery kit industry suggest that companies enjoy a boom each year shortly after the holidays, as families settle back into their normal routines and face the busy pace of modern life. Although together, Blue Apron and Hello Fresh currently deliver more than 11 million meals each month, increased consumer awareness of the meal delivery kit products are pushing these competitors to take steps forward. Their advertising goals are shifting; not only do they seek to inform consumers about what they offer, but they also attempt to establish who they are as a brand.

Discussion Questions:

1. Is it too early for Blue Apron and Hello Fresh to change their marketing strategy to emphasize brand awareness?
2. How might each company judge if its strategic transition is a success?
3. Cooking dinner is typically seen as a chore. How can these companies persuade people to cook at home instead of visiting a restaurant?

Source: Jessica Wohl, “Rivals Whip Up New Pitches as Meal Delivery Kits Gain Ground,” Advertising Age, January 16, 2017