Friday, December 01, 2006

Campbell's Chunky Soups To Go

I didn't have time to make myself a lunch, nor did I have bread or lunch-making materials, so I stopped by the local Teeter and grabbed a bowl of Campbell's Chunky Soup to take to work with me. It was extremely unsatisfying and vile, and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to consume any more of their canned soups.

The offender: Grilled Chicken with Vegetables and Pasta
Not only did I think it was overpriced (I was in a bind, but normally I would NOT pay more than 2 dollars for a can of ubersalty soup.), it was just gross in general.

Complaints:
1. Of the approx. 17 pieces of "white chicken meat", only one(1) piece was free of gristle and/or fat. They even drew brown "grill" marks on the meat to make you think that you're eating a cut up piece of grilled chicken breast. What they didn't realize is, you can't grill chicken fat, and if so, the fat is still not going to have "grill" marks on it.

2. The addition of "smoked" flavor (check the label, it really is one of the ingredients) makes the already unbearably salty soup even more bitter than they intended it to be.

3. The label says the soup only contains 2% or less of chicken fat, but the liquid itself is basically homogenized chicken fat. If you set the plastic lid down on the table after microwaving the bowl, all you get is a ring of beta carotene-dyed chicken fat. MMMMM...delicious! gag.

4. After your sodium levels spike and you're regretting that you even bothered to get a soup with meat in it, all you want to do is shoot Douglas Conant, president and CEO of Campbell's soup. Their #2 or 3 business objective is to consistently "improve the packaging and quality" of their products. What a load of crock. Maybe the packaging has been getting better. The quality of Campbell's soups has definitely been on a dedicated quest to crap on itself in the lowest of low craters on the face of this planet.

I disapprove, and do not recommend this or any other Campbell's canned soup products to anybody who is 1) not suffering from sodium deficiency or 2)living with disfunctional tastebuds.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I agree and respect your point of view about the microwavable soup of being bland. As you pointed out about the Campbell’s objectives about the improvised packaging but Campbell make sure that the packaging fits well with the content. Thus, Campbell concentrates more on the packaging by neglecting the taste of the soup. They have sacrificed taste for convenience and mobility. The soup at hand can be eaten anytime and anywhere just by heating for 75 seconds with a normal microwave.

Our wants and needs are changing for more simplification and therefore Campbell are targeting ‘on the go’ consumers such as us. This difference in needs might drive the purchasing of the product. Depending on how customer would react towards the taste. Some needs are more powerful than others, For example, it will take time for them to cook a proper soup as opposed to the soup at hand regardless the taste and freshness of the soup.

There are things that we need to put into consideration about Campbell’s soup at hand being overpriced. Firstly, the brand itself has been in the market more than 100 years, which shows how stable they are in the market. Thus, the branding itself has an expensive price tag. Secondly, to produce the new innovative packaging is not cheap.

From Complaint #1, the part of the grilled chicken fat is because of the modification to fit the plastic sipping cap. They made it gluey so that the small pellets would not disintegrate during packaging and heating. This may have resulted in the texture of the chicken to be gooey.

Recently, Campbell had just announced that they have improved their soup for greater tasting for it to be pleasurable rather than just to satisfy our biological needs. They have also reduced the sodium content as to show their support to a healthy community. (http://my.packexpo.com/NST-5-50191409/Campbell-Expands-Low-Sodium-Soup-Offerings.aspx)