My Role
Inventor and Product Developer
From Fruit Snack Segmentation
to National Ad Campaign
In the mid-90's I worked in Brand Management for Frito-Lay on the Tostitos brand.
Specifically, for Tostitos Santa Fe Gold® I did the following:
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Identified the "yellow-corn" problem and the innovative solution (see more below)
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Created and trademarked the name of the product
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Designed the initial package
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Spec'ed the formulation of the physical product
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Supervised the launch of the product into the first regional market
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The subsequent full national rollout was managed by the then Brand Manager, Mike Munro (LinkedIn Profile)
Status
Launched 1995
30 Years and Still in Market*
Up to $9B in revenue
*Santa Fe Gold® was in market by that name for 10 years with second-gen and third-gen GOLD® versions still in the global market today.
While it is impossible to accurately define the impact of this innovation, a reasonable estimate is that "Gold" variants have made up 15-30% of the total mix of Tostitos over the last 30 years. With Tostitos being a billion dollar a year brand it is reasonable to assume that this "Gold" innovation has yielded $4.5-9 Billion in "real gold" revenue. Of course, it took an army of Frito-Lay people to make that happen.
Details
The Problem:
In the mid-90's I worked for Frito-Lay as an Asso. Brand Manager on Tostitos. At that time 100% of Tostitos revenue was based on premium white-corn products which Tostitos had pioneered in 1991. At that time white-corn stood for the premium segment of tortilla chips. In contrast, the yellow-corn tortilla chips made up the very bottom of the entire chip market. Since yellow-corn tortilla chips are now popular, it is hard to recall how low-quality they were in 1995. They were derisively called "hockey pucks." However, in blind taste tests a solid half of the population actually preferred the taste of yellow-corn to white-corn. So, Tostitos was leaving millions on the table because yellow-corn was too downscale to fit the upscale brand.
The Solution:
One day while I was showering and puzzling over this dilemma, I had an epiphany. I realized that while Tostitos shouldn't sell yellow-corn, maybe we could sell upscale "GOLD" corn. No one had ever called yellow-corn "Gold!," but duh, why not? That very day I drew up the package idea with magic markers (I still have that original paperboard). My R&D team produced prototypes following this design and we sold-in a test market to senior management. Our team launched it within months in the Southwest Region where yellow-corn was the most popular.
The Result:
It was a success and went national where it remained for 10 years. Santa Fe Gold® eventually evolved into the simpler Tostitos GOLD® and Santa Fe® was used internationally and today evolutions of the original product are still sold. A reasonable estimate is between 4.5 and $9 in sales have resulted.
Link to Launch History, Historic Picture. Product listing until 2005/2006.
Title of Picture
Brad has an "instinct for creating great new products"
Brock Leach
from LinkedIn Recommendation by Brock Leach (read)
Second and Third-Gen GOLD® and Santa Fe® Products
Tostitos Gold® Advertising
Tostitos Gold®
with Little Richard
Tostitos Gold®
with Jay Leno & Smashmouth
With many SKU's for different sizes and accounts and many yellow-corn SKU's branching off.
1
New Product Invented
Below are historical website captures archived by the Internet Archive project.
Tostitos Santa Fe Gold® in Market for 10 years followed by at least 20 more years of Tostitos Gold® and a number of yellow-corn variants born after Tostitos Gold®.