Something about the chicken soup just wasn’t right.
Manischewitz’s team gathered in the test kitchen at the company’s Bayonne, New Jersey, headquarters last year to sample the latest versions of new products. However, it did not reach the pitch they were aiming for.
“We were sampling it with our grandparents, and we were like, ‘No, that’s not it. It’s not like our Friday night chicken soup,'” said Keiko’s chief marketing officer, who owns Manischewitz. Director Shani Seedman said.
More vegetables. More chicken. A little salt.
“Improvements and innovations are often thought of as special or modern,” Seidman said in an interview this month. “But we will return to move forward.”
And chicken soup is just the beginning. Does your mom want those gefilte fish goodies?
Manischewitz, the 136-year-old brand that has been a staple in American Jewish households for generations, is undergoing a complete brand makeover and expansion of its product range beyond Passover, which begins on Monday night. We aim to expand.
The can came out. Introducing resealable bags. New products include grapeseed oil. Frozen gluten-free knives and frozen matzo balls (don’t tell your mom!).
There’s a new brand identity, with a color palette focused on the company’s signature orange color, meant to evoke the look of matzo ball soup. This includes custom typefaces with Hebrew-inspired details, Yiddish (“There are bupkis like this!”), and whimsical graffiti letters reminiscent of 1950s Jewish cookbooks and prayer books. is included and is intended to invite everyone into the tent.
Seidman said the idea isn’t just aimed at “culturally curious” foodies. This is also an attempt to embrace a new generation of hosts: Millennials.
“When you’re entertaining someone, you want them to eat healthy food, the kind you would make,” she says. “We want to provide the next generation of consumers with food that we can be proud to serve.”
In doing so, Manischewitz faces the difficult balance of maintaining its heritage as a trusted brand and the most recognizable name in Jewish cuisine, while also shaking off a reputation that even management admits has dusted off. are doing.
Amanda Dell, vice president of development and communications at the Jewish Food Association, said many Jews connect to their cultural identity through the meals they share with their families. “My hope is that this rebranding can instill a new sense of pride in Jewish cuisine,” she added.
From humble beginnings to undisputed fame
Manischewitz was founded in 1888 by Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz, a Prussian immigrant who expanded a small matzoh bakery in Cincinnati into a large, standardized operation equipped with a gas oven and a mechanized conveyor belt system. I did. Manischewitz became a household name among American Jews, and by the time the company was sold to a private equity firm in 1990, it controlled 80 percent of the American matzo market.
Kayco, which owns Sabra, Fox’s U-Bet, Kedem and more, is one of the largest kosher food distributors in the United States. When it bought Manischewitz in 2019, it was seen in the kosher world as the equivalent of General Motors buying Ford.
“For us, Manischewitz has always been a traditional brand with a very long history, and we have always respected it,” said Charles Herzog, president of Keiko, which was founded in 1848.
Maudie Herzog, CEO of Keiko & Royal Wines, felt the Manischewitz brand had been “kind of adrift” under previous owners.
“Their philosophy has always been to modernize the brand and make it more appealing to American consumers,” he said. “We want to do the same thing, but the way we do it is by doubling down on who we are.”
To update the look, Manischewitz turned to Jones Knowles Ritchie, a branding agency that has led redesigns for other legacy companies such as Dunkin and Budweiser.
JKR convened focus groups, consulted culinary experts, and researched Manischewitz’s archives. Lisa Smith, JKR’s global executive creative director, said they decided to take the orange color that has been a staple of Manischewitz packaging for decades and expand on it. To welcome new consumers, a phonetic symbol (“laat-kuh”) was added to the packaging.
The rebrand also includes a series of new drawn characters reminiscent of New Yorker magazine illustrations, including a family gathered around a dinner table and a figure hugging a bowl of soup, she said. These are featured on billboards and subway digital screens in New York City.
Jewish cookbook author Jake Cohen was struck by Manischewitz’s new look during a recent visit to Whole Foods, comparing it favorably to other kosher brands that suffered from “too old-fashioned aesthetics.” did.
“Compared to the old Manischewitz branding, which looked as if it belonged in a D’Agostino store, the rebrand fit much better with the aesthetic of the rest of the average grocery store,” he said. Told.
In Manischewitz, there was a perception that kosher food as a category was “in general decline,” even though consumers were showing greater curiosity about different types of foods and experiences, Smith said. he said.
“The cultural tailwinds that are happening now feel like the timing is right for a new look and approach,” she said.
Still, Smith said it’s important to maintain the essence of the brand.
“You can’t make something trendy just for a certain up-and-coming generation,” she said. Instead, JKR and Manischewitz focused on “tasting tradition” and “stopping to appreciate and pay attention to the food,” she said.
That meant leaving some things alone. The recipes for key items like matzo, gefilte fish, and borscht remain the same.
“If it’s worked for 130 years, it would be foolish to change it,” Charles Herzog said.
(Another thing Manischewitz doesn’t mention is Manischewitz wine, which the company doesn’t make; it has been licensing the name to another winemaker since shortly after Prohibition ended.)
Manischewitz’s team doesn’t have to look far for feedback. Their focus group is sitting at the dinner table.
“What we eat on the Sabbath is what we sell,” Herzog said. “If we know that matzo doesn’t taste good, it’s because it’s on the table, not in research.”
Herzog will expand the company’s reach beyond Passover to emphasize that Manischewitz is not just a kosher brand, but a Jewish food brand whose products everyone can enjoy year-round. He said he would focus on that. Think franks and blanks (a version of pigs in a blanket with beef) for the Super Bowl, mini potato puffs and cheese blints as a passed appetizer, or babka and (frozen) challah for brunch.
Manischewitz plans to launch a new soup line this summer, featuring chicken, tomatoes and vegetables, in advance of the fall Jewish holidays. Manischewitz, which makes matzo in Israel, plans to make the soup at a new factory it has built in Israel.
“The gates are opening,” Herzog said. “You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy good chicken soup. You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy matzo balls.”
