Fish Story

You missed your chance.

For one week at the end of October, the fish were running. Had you dipped your rod in before they swam past, you would have had the chance to catch a Patagonian toothfish, a cold-water species well-loved in the kitchen. While you have likely had that fish at a restaurant at one time or another, you might not know it by that name. That's because back in 1977 wholesaler Lee Lantz rechristened it to make it more attractive to the American market, and the US Food and Drug Administration bought into the change in 1994 when they allowed it to be known as the Chilean seabass.

If it worked once, maybe it will work again. In a bit of viral marketing, that name was reappropriated at the end of last month. That's when the Campbell's Company (itself a rebranded Campbell's Soup Company since April of this year) slapped that moniker on a different type of fish, the orange kind. And so had you been fast enough to cast your line over to their web site, you could have snagged a bag of cheddar flavored Goldfish Crackers that had been rechristened as Chilean Sea Bass Crackers.

The goal was to help goose the snacking market after a pandemic peak. Partly due to inflation at home (less buying power per dollar) and shrinkflation at the store (less snacks per bag), people have been buying less chips, crackers and other salty snacks. According to research from Bank of America, that has meant a 0.5% decline in sales during the third quarter of 2024, with volume down 1.1% over a year ago. 

Manufacturers are trying a variety of strategies to gain back that lost ground. They are reversing course and packing more chips into a bag without increasing the price, marking them as "bonus bags" to make sure consumers notice. They are adding new, healthier snacks to try and jump on the wellness bandwagon. And they are adding different form factors and flavors to try and appeal to jaded shoppers. Chicken and Waffle Protein Chips, anyone? (And no, I'm not making that up.)

Or you can try what Campbell's did. Take an old existing favorite and give it a new name, even if only for a little while. Manufactured originally by Swiss biscuit manufacturer Kambly in 1958, Goldfish Crackers were created by company founder Oscar Kambly to celebrate his wife, who was a Pisces. Pepperidge Farm founder Margaret Rudkin tried them on vacation, and liked them enough to bring them to this country in 1962. It took until 1977 for the company to add a smile to the cracker's face, which today appears on about 40% of the school swimming in your bag.

A perennial favorite, they are produced at multiple plants, including one in Willard, Ohio which churns out about 50 million a day. While they were a solid performer with great name recognition, they were locked for years into a consumer base primarily of little kids. Seeking to broaden that, four years ago the company rolled out a strategy to try and capture more adult hooks. That included more sophisticated flavors (Frank's Red Hot, Old Bay Seasoned), a larger size (Mega Bites, which are 50% bigger) and last December a version based on potato vs. flour (Goldfish Crisps). All of that has made a difference: Goldfish is the fastest-growing cracker brand in the category, with dollar sales up 33% during the past three years.

But in this era of internet buzz, a new flavor and form will only get you so far. You need something different to stand out. And so they hit on the idea of, for a limited time, rebranding of the product with a more adult name. No other changes, just the name. As it says on the bag "If you like these Chilean Sea Bass, you'll love Goldfish. Because that's what these are. They're Goldfish. Somehow the fancy name makes them taste more adult." 

Not really, but consumers took the bait. Sold only online for a week, each day the allotment was sold out by 9AM. Today if you want a bag of tiny orange Chilean Sea Bass, you will have to point your boat to EBay, where a bag goes for about $40.  Or you can just go to Target and get them under the original name for $3.49 for the same thing. 

They're not the first product to change their name to try and better connect with consumers. Datsun became Nissan, Opal Fruits became Starburst, and Bib-Label Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda changed its name to 7 Up. But in each case they stuck with those new appellations. Goldfish became Chilean Sea Bass, then Goldfish again. It remains to be seen if that will make them standout among the rest of the fish in the sea. 

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Marc Wollin of Bedford loves to snack but tries not to. His column appears weekly via email and online on Blogspot and Substack as well as Facebook, LinkedIn and X.