One thing wasn’t fairly proper concerning the hen soup.
The workforce at Manischewitz had gathered within the take a look at kitchen on the firm’s headquarters in Bayonne, N.J., final yr to style the newest model of one among their new choices. However it wasn’t hitting the notes they have been aiming for.
“We have been tasting it in opposition to our grandparents’ and saying, ‘No, that’s not it; it’s simply not like our Friday night time hen soup,’” mentioned Shani Seidman, the chief advertising officer for Kayco, which owns Manischewitz.
Extra greens. Extra hen. Just a little salt.
“Lots of instances you consider enchancment and innovation as additional or fashionable,” Ms. Seidman mentioned in an interview this month. “However we’re going again to go ahead.”
And hen soup is simply the beginning of it. Would your bubbe like a aspect of merch with that gefilte fish?
Manischewitz, the 136-year-old model that has been a staple in American Jewish households for generations, is trying to transcend Passover, which begins on Monday night, with a top-to-bottom rebranding and an enlargement of its product vary.
Cans are out. Resealable luggage are in. New merchandise embody grapeseed oil; frozen, gluten-free knishes and frozen matzo balls (don’t inform your mom!).
There’s a new model id, with a shade palette that leans closely on the corporate’s signature orange, meant to evoke the looks of its matzo ball soup. It features a customized typeface with Hebrew-inspired particulars, Yiddishisms (“There’s bupkis prefer it!”) and eccentric doodled characters, harking back to Jewish cookbooks and prayer books from the Fifties, that are supposed to invite everybody into the tent.
The concept, Ms. Seidman mentioned, isn’t just to focus on “culturally curious” gourmands. Additionally it is an try to tee up a brand new technology of hosts: millennials.
“Whenever you host somebody, you wish to give them healthful meals, issues that you’d cook dinner,” she mentioned. “We wish to present the subsequent technology of shoppers meals they’d be proud to serve.”
In doing so, Manischewitz faces the troublesome balancing act of preserving its legacy as a trusted model and probably the most recognizable title in Jewish meals, whereas dusting off a status that even its prime executives acknowledge had develop into, properly, dusty.
Amanda Dell, the vice chairman of growth and communications on the Jewish Meals Society, mentioned that many Jews connect with their cultural id via the meals they share with their households. “My hope,” she added, “is that this rebrand can instill a brand new sense of delight in Jewish meals.”
From Humble Beginnings to a Family Title
Manischewitz was based in 1888 by Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz, a Prussian immigrant who scaled a small matzo bakery in Cincinnati into a big, standardized operation with a gas-fired oven and mechanized conveyor belt system. Manischewitz grew to become a family title amongst American Jews and, by 1990, when the corporate was offered to a non-public fairness agency, it managed 80 % of the matzo market in the USA.
Kayco, whose holdings embody Sabra, Fox’s U-Wager and Kedem, is among the many largest kosher meals distributors in the USA. When it purchased Manischewitz in 2019, it was seen within the kosher world because the equal of Common Motors buying Ford.
“To us, we all the time regarded as much as Manischewitz as this legacy model which had a lot historical past in it,” mentioned Charles Herzog, the president of Kayco, which was based in 1848.
Mordy Herzog, the chief government officer of Kayco and Royal Wine, felt that the Manischewitz model “type of drifted” below its earlier homeowners.
“Their philosophy all the time was to modernize the model, to make it extra interesting to American shoppers,” he mentioned. “We wish to do the identical factor, however our method of doing it’s by doubling down on who we’re.”
To revamp its look, Manischewitz turned to Jones Knowles Ritchie, a branding company that led redesigns for different legacy firms, together with Dunkin’ and Budweiser.
JKR convened focus teams, consulted culinary specialists and combed the Manischewitz archives. They determined to lean into, and amplify, the orange shade that had been a staple of Manischewitz’s packaging for many years, mentioned Lisa Smith, JKR’s international government artistic director. Phonetic spellings (“laat-kuh”), have been added to the packaging to welcome new shoppers.
The rebranding additionally features a new collection of drawn characters, together with a household gathering round a dinner desk and a determine hugging a cup of soup, that are supposed to evoke illustrations from The New Yorker, she mentioned. They’ve been featured on billboards in New York Metropolis and on digital screens in its subway system.
Jake Cohen, a Jewish cookbook writer, was struck by Manischewitz’s new look throughout a current go to to Entire Meals, evaluating it favorably to different kosher manufacturers that he mentioned suffered from “an aesthetic that’s so previous.”
“The rebrand slot in so significantly better with the remainder of the aesthetic of the common grocery retailer,” he mentioned, “versus old-school Manischewitz branding, which regarded prefer it belonged in a D’Agostino’s.”
At Manischewitz, there was a recognition that kosher meals as a class was “typically in decline” at the same time as shoppers have been displaying extra curiosity about various kinds of meals and experiences, Ms. Smith mentioned.
“It feels the cultural tailwinds which can be occurring appear to be aligning with the correct time” for a brand new look and strategy, she mentioned.
Nonetheless, it was very important to maintain the essence of the model, Ms. Smith mentioned.
“You’ll be able to’t make one thing stylish and cater simply to particular up-and-coming generations,” she mentioned. As an alternative, she mentioned, JKR and Manischewitz centered on “savoring our traditions” and “pausing to understand and take note of the meals.”
That meant leaving some issues as they have been. Recipes for core objects like matzo, gefilte fish and borscht will stay the identical.
“If it labored for 130 years, it will be ridiculous to alter it,” Charles Herzog mentioned.
(One other factor Manischewitz received’t be touching is Manischewitz wine, which the corporate doesn’t make. It has licensed its title to a separate wine producer since shortly after the repeal of Prohibition.)
The workforce at Manischewitz doesn’t must look far for suggestions. Their focus teams are sitting at their dinner tables.
“What we eat on Sabbath is what we promote,” Mr. Herzog mentioned. “If we all know that the matzo doesn’t style good, it’s not from a research, it’s on the desk.”
Past Passover, Mr. Herzog mentioned the main focus shall be on increasing the corporate’s attain to emphasise that Manischewitz isn’t just a kosher model, but in addition a Jewish meals model whose merchandise will be loved by anybody year-round. Suppose franks and blanks (a tackle pigs in a blanket, however with beef) for the Tremendous Bowl, mini potato puffs and cheese blintzes as a handed appetizer, or babka and (frozen) challah at brunch.
Manischewitz will roll out a brand new line of soups — hen, tomato and vegetable — this summer season, earlier than the autumn Jewish holidays. Manischewitz, which makes its matzo in Israel, will make the soups in a brand new manufacturing facility it has constructed there.
“It’s opening the gates,” Mr. Herzog mentioned. “You don’t must be Jewish to take pleasure in a superb bowl of hen soup. You don’t must be Jewish to take pleasure in matzo balls.”
