The Gist: Ladies already love Doritos, but their strong opinions on the brand overall could put its favorability in jeopardy.
Doritos created some noise this week, and we’re not just talking about the crunch. In a case of misunderstanding PepsiCo CEO, Indra Nooyi alluded in an interview that the brand was developing snacks with women in mind. The internet ran with it, coining the term “Lady Dorito.”
Predictably, the internet went nuts, and so did the brand’s favorability.
Favorability of Doritos has fallen almost 10 full percentage points in the week since Nooyi’s interview. Although the story was misinformed overall, PepsiCo knew the party snack was in peril.
We already have Doritos for women — they’re called Doritos, and they’re loved by millions.
— Doritos (@Doritos) February 6, 2018
Good move on Doritos’ part, because women are ever so slightly more likely to be a fan of the snack than men. They’re not wrong.
However, women are more likely overall to have an unfavorable view of the brand. Compound that with the Lady Doritos comment, and the brand could have a challenge on its hands when it comes to female favorability.
Luckily for the brand, lovers of Doritos are heavy social media users and are more likely to spend at least an hour a day on social platforms. This means they’ve likely seen the (pun intended) dust-up over Lady Doritos and in turn the brand’s reaction to it.
Where else can you find Doritos’ fans? Watching sports, of course. Doritos lovers are more likely to be fans of both the NBA and NFL.
In fact, the last time the brand suffered a large dip in favorability was after the 2016 Super Bowl and the tepidly received Doritos “Ultrasound” commercial. Favorability rebounded, but that was in the case of an odd commercial.
So a quick save by Doritos by acknowledging its core customer, but did the save come fast enough? We’ll continue to track Doritos’ favorability moving forward.
