Lessons in Innovation - How the Toaster Became Essential

The history of breakfast in America is fascinating. Today many people find their lives too busy for breakfast, but once upon a time breakfast was so essential it was thought of as medicine. After World War II, the end of sugar rationing began to change how we viewed breakfast. Previously, the producers of breakfast food had approached the meal as necessary nutrition. However, just as sugar was becoming more available, the television and the toaster were moving from luxury items to commonplace necessities of the home. Up until the breakfast wars of the 1960s, the toaster was a single-use item. But when the business rivalry between Kellogg’s and Post fueled a race to develop new breakfast categories, it would expand breakfast beyond cereal, open new revenue streams for at least one breakfast giant, and make the toaster indispensable. How Bad Boxing, Pastries, and Andy Warhol Make TheToaster Essential The first rule of boxing is to never telegraph your punch. In 1963, Post, one of America’s breakfast cereal behemoths invented a method of partially dehydrating foods to prevent spoilage. Initially, this innovation was used solely for dog food, but at the height of the breakfast wars Post needed every advantage to take on Kellogg’s and their inventive marketing machine. Kellogg’s had just launched Froot Loops and Post wanted their next big product to expand the breakfast table beyond just cereal. Since Post’s innovation allowed traditionally moist foods to last longer, the obvious choice was a breakfast pastry with the shelf life of a cereal. Additionally, just about every American kitchen now featured a toaster. A single-use item that was just begging for a creative food manufacturer to make it more versatile. And so it came to pass that in February 1964, Post announced they would soon release a toastable breakfast pastry named Country Squares. Unfortunately, the company didn’t yet have the ability to produce and distribute the product. Not only had they telegraphed their next big swing, but they also chose a terrible name for their product. Marketing something called “square” to kids and teens in the 1960’s wasn’t “cool”. And the reference to Country made the product sound like something your grandparents might enjoy. Despite the obvious marketing missteps, America was intrigued and so was Kellogg’s. Maybe if Post had done more research on their audience and noticed the rising popularity of Andy Warhol’s pop art they would have chosen a groovy name for their toaster pastry, something like - Pop -Tarts! The Knockout When Kellogg’s got a preview of what Post was planning they recruited a food technologist to help them develop their own toasted pastry. Like Post, Kellogg’s recognized toasters had become commonplace in America’s kitchens despite being a single-use appliance. They also saw a growing demand for quick, convenient breakfast options which they rightly anticipated could help their product become an anytime snack. The last piece of the puzzle was the marketing. Kellogg’s looked to Andy Warhol’s pop art movement for inspiration. The first prototypes were fruit filed rectangles heated in a toaster. At first, the filling was too runny, and the pastry shell too brittle. But after numerous trials and errors, they cracked the code and beat Post at their own game The Pop-Tart was introduced to the public in 1964 and was an immediate hit. The combination of a sweet, fruity-filled pastry toasted at home was something never seen before. Pop-Tarts were so cool they quickly sold out nationwide. The invention of the automatic pop-up toaster in the 1920s made toasting bread a quick and easy process. Forty years later, just as toasters were becoming affordable Pop-Tarts came along to make toasters a must-have appliance. If you wanted a Pop-Tart you had to own a toaster. The breakfast wars of the 1960s introduced various innovative products. Many of these were cereals that added sugar and color to create reformulated success stories from the ashes of underperforming flops. But Pop-Tarts were different. They made toasters essential, helped manufacturers discover technological applications for expanded shelf-life, and demonstrated how pop-culture marketing could help your product connect with specific audiences.