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A healthy history: Campbell Soup's longevity in wellness continues to benefit consumers.

Article Excerpt
Immortalized by the late Andy Warhol, the iconic red and white cans of Campbell's Soup live in American consciousness as a part of our country's food fabric. So when Campbell Soup Co., Camden, N.J., undertakes an innovation that impacts nearly 40 of the company's soups, including new versions of the three top-selling SKUs--Chicken Noodle, Tomato and Cream of Mushroom--there must be a good reason.

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And there is. In alignment with the company's dedication to fostering wellness, Campbell is significantly lowering the sodium content in a breadth of soup products, thereby garnering the "healthy" label claim for many of them and addressing consumer concerns about salt.

Moreover, the lowered sodium soups are part of a larger movement within Campbell Soup. Other recent new products that fall under the wellness umbrella include a new beverage within the V8 brand--V8. Fusion offers a full serving of fruit and a full serving of vegetables--and a litany of whole grain products within the company's Pepperidge Farm division.

Although this new product activity might appear as a new direction for Campbell Soup in the consumer perspective, the company's formidable history reveals that Campbell's soups, the V8 brand and Pepperidge Farm have been steeped in wellness and health for many years. In fact, the decades of development and manufacturing experience with healthy products enabled this new innovation and the resulting great-tasting healthy products. Consumer interest in health has reached new levels, and this prodigious timing allows for the newest health-oriented products from Campbell Soup to debut at the perfect moment for the company's long-standing history of wellness to finally have its day in the sun.

Talking soup

Consumers have become familiar with the slogan associated with Campbell's soups as "M'm! M'm! Good!" The other correlation that receives less publicity but is just as deeply entrenched in consumer perception is that Campbell's soup can be "M'm! M'm! Good!" for you. Health and wellness have been a critical part of the Campbell Soup Co. for the company's entire 137-year history, and this latest effort to reduce sodium levels maintains the company's pledge to help consumers eat healthfully.

"Our products have always had a terrific health benefit; soup is a wholesome food and consumers know soup is good for them," says Lisa Walker, business director, new business development, soup, Campbell Soup Co. "When you ask consumers what they are most concerned about today, sodium ranks among the top five, with the American population continuing to age and the incidence of hypertension increasing. Lowering sodium levels in...