The art of selling dinner

Food marketing is the battle between peanut chicken and chicken with creamy peanut sauce.\nThe Nestle Prepared Foods Company turned to the Bloomington Cooking School Tuesday night to help recruit students from the Kelley School of Business to fight these battles.\nRepresentatives from Nestle, the company that owns Stouffer's and Lean Cuisine, invited about 20 Kelley students to the Bloomington Cooking School for the opportunity to meet Nestle representatives, learn more about packaged food marketing and watch a cooking demonstration by Bloomington Cooking School co-owner Matt O'Neill. Following the presentations, they enjoyed a dinner together.\n"We invited the students to give them an idea of the work we do at Nestle," said Jeff Delonis, a representative who earned his MBA from IU in 2003. "We wanted to give them a good deal of background information on what life is like in brand management."\nDelonis said they chose to recruit at IU because of its rich marketing talent.\nKevin Holmes, one of the guests, is not only a second-year MBA student at IU, but also a former Nestle intern.\n"No other company has really done something like this," Holmes said. "It gives the students a different aspect of what the packaged food business is really like. There's more of a social aspect to this."\nThe students began the evening with a lesson on wine from Jack Baker, director of facilities at the IU Chemistry Building. Next, O'Neill taught them how to purchase, cook and present a salmon dinner.\n"We chefs have been forced into the entrepreneurial mode with the way things have developed in the last few years," O'Neill told the students.\nAfter the demonstration, Nestle marketing manager Harry Jones presented a marketing case study, the introduction of Nestle's new packaged food product, Spa Cuisine. He showed the students marketing strategies that Nestle had considered, and explained why they did or did not choose each one. Their challenge, he said, had been determining a marketing strategy that showcased the product's nutritional value as well as its taste.\n"We always have one top standard, and that standard is taste," Jones said. "We can't have anything that makes it look like it doesn't taste good."\nWhile they ate dinner, the students completed exercises on product claims, names of dishes and advertisements. They learned about one of Nestle's market research strategies -- consumer surveys.\n"It was really interesting to see how they went about choosing the different names for the different entrees," said Robert Bozzi, an MBA student.\nJones said Nestle surveyed consumers on preferred names of the Spa Cuisine entrees. In one study, those surveyed said they'd be more likely to buy "Chicken with creamy peanut sauce" than "Peanut chicken," even though they were the same product. Consumers sided with the former by a 3-1 margin.\nThe students said they accepted their invitations because of the possible job opportunities and their interest in the topic.\n"I was interested in the case study," said Minling Chuang, an MBA student. "I wanted to learn more about brand management, and it's good to learn more about Nestle."\nAt the end of his presentation, Jones urged the students to pay more attention to packaged foods marketing.\n"My challenge to you is to look around," Jones told the students. "See what products are saying and see what kind of messages are out there"