HelloFresh Goes all in for Pride Month marketing

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Among the realities of business success is reaching as wide a consumer base as possible. Marketing products that appeal to everyone, carefully focused advertising, and avoiding alienating any portion of the consumer base are essential. There are, of course, businesses that cater to niche clientele, where the usual tactics don’t strictly apply. Men, for example, aren’t going to buy many tampons, though these days, that’s not strictly true for guys pretending to be women, and it’s better not to contemplate what they might do with them.

One would think one such non-niche business is HelloFresh. They sell “meal kits,” delivered to homes, containing all manner of different recipes. It’s essentially a subscription service dependent on on-time delivery of fresh foods that are quick and easy to prepare for folks too busy to worry about making their own recipes, who’d rather not spend the time, or who just aren’t capable cooks or might be tired of fast food.

HelloFresh tells us 97% “say HelloFresh meals are delicious.” They don’t tell us 97% of what or who, but presumably, that’s 97% of the people who order from them. We’re also told 91% “feel healthier with HelloFresh,” and 97% “save time with HelloFresh.”

I’m a bit surprised HelloFresh doesn’t clean people’s socks and underwear and make them taller, fitter, and better-looking. Perhaps their PR firm thought that might be going a little too far?

How much does this cost? I plugged in five meals for four people per week, focused on protein, and HelloFresh has a special deal: not the usual $219.80, but only $109.77! That's about $20 dollars per meal. Why so relatively inexpensive?

We use less packaging and simple ingredients for delicious, filling meals that are easily doable. Our aim is to bring tasty value and convenience, not make you a chef.

That’s nice. They don’t mention portion size, and HelloFresh isn’t available everywhere, but it sounds attractive to a potentially wide audience. Full disclosure: I’ve never used HelloFresh and only heard about them when I stumbled across Robby Starbuck’s Tweet. My wife and I are reasonably accomplished cooks, and dealing with all the ingredients and recipes is fun.

And then HelloFresh made their Bud Light mistake:

Graphic: X Post

One can just imagine the marketing meeting where that came up:

Bob: “We're down about 12% for the quarter. How can we increase our sales?”

Susan: “Well, it’s Pride Month, so let’s appeal to people who have anal sex!”

Steve: “Uh, anal sex?” Everyone looks confused, even repelled. “How do we do that? We sell food, not medicine.”

Susan: “Well…” She blushes bright red.

Moonbeam: “I’ve got it! We tell them if you eat certain recipes, it will, uh, um, prepare their colons for anal sex?”

Bob: “What food does that?” Everyone looks confused.

Larry: “Who cares? Fiber stuff, maybe?”

Susan (excited): “Oo, oo, and we can give them discounts too!”

Larry: “We’ll call that a ‘BOTTOMS UP” code!

Bob and the rest: “Genius!” Applause and back slapping all around.

Now we see if HelloFresh has turned itself into a niche company that went too far in going too far and has to rebrand as: “HelloAnal.” Pride Month only lasts a month, after all.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, lifelong athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer, and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.