Popchips – Coming to a Store Near You?

by Susan Davis on 03/07/09 at 10:25 am

The New Healthy Chip

Have you seen (or tried) Popchips yet?  They’re supposedly the latest and greatest all natural, good-for-you, healthy potato chip-type snack food to hit the market. According to all reports, these tasty, popped, potato morsels are gathering a growing fan base that is slowly making its way eastward from the west coast, thanks to its viral marketing techniques and a hip, yet warm and fuzzy way of dealing with their customers.

Popchips are a new way of offering the public their fix of potato chips in a healthier way.  The process they use, a combination of pressure and heat – turns potatoes into “popped” chips.  The production process gives them the ability to claim their chips are better for you than chips that are fried, or even baked.  They’ve removed all the bad stuff (think trans fats and cholesterol) and are professing the purity of the product, while maintaining high flavor value.  Popchips also have half the fat of regular fried potato chips.

It sounds good, no?  Although Popchips debuted in 2007, they’ve only recently hit the ground running in a summer marketing campaign that includes rolling out new flavors and a mobile snack tour that is hitting major cities across the U.S. in the hope of creating lots of buzz.

Junkless Junk Food for the Masses?

A recent New York Times article investigated the evolution and marketing of Popchips, and described it as another entry into what amounts to selling “junkless junk food to the masses.”  Although Popchips are not the first “all natural” snack chip to hit the market, they have developed, perhaps, one of the more consumer-friendly campaigns.

Their direct appeal to the consumer on their Web page is based on logic and emotion.

We don’t fry it (unhealthy). We don’t bake it (undelicious). We take the finest ingredients, like wholesome potatoes, apply heat and pressure, and pop! It’s a chip. Then we use an artful blend of natural seasonings for a snack so tasty, crispy and dip-able, you won’t even notice it’s (we hesitate to say) healthier.

What’s out? More than half the fat of fried potato chips, trans fats, and cholesterol. All gone. For good. What’s popped in? Only what’s natural, tons of delicious, and plenty of crunch.

According to their Web site, they come in seven flavors:  Original, barbecue, sour cream and onion, cheddar cheese, sea salt & vinegar, Parmesan garlic and salt and pepper.

So Where are you Hiding, Popchips?

From all accounts, Popchips are as good as their hype.  There’s only one problem.  They’re not readily available, even in the stores they claim sell them.

That’s a shame, since I was looking forward to seeing if these new-fangled chips lived up to the reputation they developed.  But neither the Target or Whole Foods stores in my area had them on their shelves.

Keith Belling, founder and CEO of Popchips, told PR Week that the goal of their summer campaign is to “make snacking fun again” and includes a major market tour that is “tying everything together with a limited amount of targeted advertising, our PR, and our sampling campaign.”   The Popchips plan is to saturate the market with messages about their new product.  They’re already on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and will be giving away more than half-a-million samples during their mobile snack tour of 300 locations this summer.

According to the New York Times, the campaign is costing about $1.3 million.

“When we think about marketing, for us, probably what’s most important is getting Popchips into people’s hands and mouths,” Belling told PR Week. “We have a pretty broad sampling initiative.”

Mr. Belling, the people await you!

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Popchips Nutrition Information

Serving Size:  1 oz. (about 22 chips)
Calories:  120       Calories from Fat:  35
Total fat:  4 g
Saturated fag:   0 g.
Trans fat:  0 g.
Cholesterol:  0 g.
Sodium:  280 mg.
Total Carbohydrates:  20 g.

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