Robert Fliegel was craving a Hydrox. The 52-year-old

Robert Fliegel was craving a Hydrox. The 52-year-old computer consultant says he always liked the way the chocolate sandwich cookie, which he found crisper than Oreos, “stood up to the milk” when dunked. But Mr. Fliegel couldn’t find them in any stores near his East Stroudsburg, Pa., home. Only when he went online a few months ago to try to order some did he learn the truth: Hydrox is dead. Without warning or announcement, Kellogg Co. killed off the cookie after failing to gain ground against the dominant Oreo, one of the country’s best-selling snack foods. While aware that Hydrox cookies were becoming harder to find, many of their fans are learning only now they are gone.

For many years, the contest between Oreo and Hydrox was akin to that of Coke versus Pepsi, the Beatles against the Rolling Stones, dog people and cat people. It was not just a choice, but a declaration of identity. Eating Hydrox was “a badge of honor,” says 54-year-old Charles Clark. He remembers receiving a package of Hydrox cookies on his sixth birthday and sleeping with it under his pillow. “Oreo had all the advertising, but those in the know ate Hydrox.” Hydrox eaters tend to be independent-thinkers, favor underdogs and be skeptical of corporate marketing, he says. Even with Hydrox gone, they won’t switch sides.

He and others preferred Hydrox’s tangy, less-sweet filling. Many fans seem to remember that the cookies held together better than Oreos when dipped in a glass of cold milk. Some argue Hydrox cookies were more healthful than Oreos, which used to contain lard. The pork-fat difference also meant Oreo wasn’t kosher, while Hydrox was. The Hydrox name came from combining the words hydrogen and oxygen, which Sunshine executives thought evoked purity. Others thought it sounded more like a laundry detergent. Still, the biscuit gained a loyal following. In an informal taste test held in Manhattan by Advertising Age, 29 tasters voted for Hydrox, 16 for Oreo.

More damaging to Hydrox over the years was Nabisco’s far larger marketing budget, Hydrox fans believe. Sunshine also stumbled in 1991, when it tried to revamp its mascot, a glob of vanilla crème that morphed into a smiley figure named Drox. Pillsbury sued Sunshine, arguing successfully in court that Drox resembled the Pillsbury doughboy. Sunshine was forced to shelve the little fellow. When Keebler acquired Sunshine in 1996, Sunshine was a distant third behind Keebler and Nabisco. Keebler then replaced the original Hydrox with a reformulated, sweeter cookie aimed more at children, called Droxies. When they failed to make a dent in the Oreo, Kellogg, which had acquired Keebler in 2001, quietly stopped making Hydrox two years later. Kellogg acknowledges Hydrox still exists in “crushed cookie form” as a mix-in for yogurt and ice cream and in “ground cookie meal” for pie crusts.

a.) Relying only on information from this article, analyze Hydrox’s brand concept. Be sure to consider all relevant dimensions of the brand concept in your answer; label and discuss each dimension separately. (35 points)

b.) Based on your analysis in part (a), which brand concept dimension do you think is most responsible for Hydrox’s problems? Why? (15 points)