Many Oreo consumers follow the Twist, Lick, and Dunk practice

Oreos Case Questions

Case Study: Twist, Lick, and Dunk! Does it Make Oreos Taste Better?

Many Oreo consumers follow the “Twist, Lick, and Dunk” practice, which is an example of a food ritual. One study found that these food rituals may actually enhance our enjoyment of the food we eat. Mondel?z, the maker of Oreos, has invested heavily in promotional activity designed to help us remember how to eat its cookie, including TV and social media ads.

CS 14-1. What other food categories or brands have rituals associated with them? If you are a participant in one or more of those rituals, do you agree with the study referenced above that this ritual increases your enjoyment of the food?

CS 14-2. Choose a food brand without an apparent ritual and come up with one that could be used in a promotional activity. (No dunking allowed.)

CS 14-3. How could Oreo assess the impact of the twist, lick, and dunk ritual? Create a simple experiment that could provide Oreo marketers with data to judge the role that the ritual plays in some marketing metric of interest (e.g., brand loyalty, likely increased frequency of purchase, or differentiation from competitive offerings).