Campbell’s Skips the Soup

It’s just “The Campbell’s Company.”

After 150+ years, the iconic food maker wants to remove “soup” from its name.

During a recent Investor Day event, Campbell’s announced a plan to officially change its name to “The Campbell’s Company.”

The move sent shockwaves through the marketing and branding world.

From Andy Warhol to Jason Kelce, Campbell’s soup has had a special place in our culture for decades.

But the business is changing. Snacks, sauces, prepared meals and beverages are a bigger part of the company’s offering.

In March, Campbell’s bought the pasta sauce Rao’s parent company for nearly $3 billion. Meanwhile, Goldfish crackers became the company’s second product to cross $1 billion in net sales (after soup). The company predicts the snack will be its largest brand by 2027.

All of these shifts, plus a solid earnings quarter, point to the right time for a branding push.

No Soup for You

The sans-soup rename is garnering the most press coverage, but the full update includes a new strategy and a new mission as well as the new name.

For a company as large as Campbell’s, big rebrands like this aren’t just an announcement, they’re an argument. Campbell’s wants buy-in on the new direction. There’s the public’s response to the new brand. But it also needs literal buy-in — the new name is subject to shareholder approval in November.

The new mission is to set the standard for performance in the food industry, with five key pillars. In a LinkedIn post announcing the update, Campbell’s CEO Mark Clouse calls it “simple, ambitious, measurable.”

With a rename, Campbell’s hit on a way to draw attention to its rebrand. By removing “soup,” the brand has an excuse to talk about all the things it’s added to its offering.

Here’s Clouse in that same LinkedIn post:

“Make no mistake, we love soup and the Campbell’s Soup brand in the iconic red-and-white cans that you know and love will be on shelves same as always. Today, as a company, we are also so much more.”