As leaders in the snack manufacturing industry worldwide, Frito-Lay decided to buy Cracker Jack in order to expand into the sweet snacks market. Additionally, Frito-Lay is also a leader in the marketing of snacks, offering a variety of salty snacks that are sold worldwide. In 1996, Frito-Lay held 54% of retail sales in the chips market (Kerin, p. 254). Their brands have well-known names, and include Doritos, Tostitos, Cheetos, and a variety of other salty snacks. Their expansion into the market in the 1990s was largely contributed to their introduction of “’better for you’ low-fat and no-fat-snacks (Kerin, p. 255).
Frito-Lay emphasizes marketing as their main strategy for selling their products. They focus heavily on the advertisement and
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Their strategy consisted of three main objectives. The first strategy was to introduce single-serve bags that could be distributed through vending machines and to Sam’s Warehouse Clubs, and they projected sales to be about $2 million in 1997 (Kerin, p. 265-266). This was also a strategy used by Frito-Lay with their products, which as previously mentioned, accounted for 8 percent of their sales. The second strategy was introduced in January of 1997 and consisted of a 6 percent price increase, (Kerin, p. 265). Cracker Jack wanted to achieve this goal by replacing their shared Borden sales force and broker/distributor network with a direct-store-delivery (DSD) sales force (Kerin, p. 266). They believed that this would help them with product placement on the shelves of DSD snack aisles. The third strategy was to focus on their new line of healthier and fat free products, stating, “’Cracker Jack, the sweet and crunchy fun snack you remember, has surprisingly less fat than you thought,” (Kerin, p. 266). This also could be related to Frito-Lay because it was around the same time that they tapped into that market (and also happened to be around the same time that Frito-Lay decided to purchase them in