Folgers is trying to be cool — but it has a problem with its reputation

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Folgers is trying to be cool. As the biggest seller of ground coffee in U.S. stores, the brand has had to confront a painful realization. It is not so hot on the reputation front. NPR's Alina Selyukh reports on the coffee company's makeover.

ALINA SELYUKH, BYLINE: You know it's coming, so let's hear it.

(SOUNDBITE OF AD)

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UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Singing) The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup.

SELYUKH: This jingle is possibly the most famous thing about Folgers - an ad campaign so successful we're still singing it almost 40 years later - except it's almost 40 years later. Is Folgers the best part of waking up? When I began asking this, I got answers like Ayanna Jackson's.

AYANNA JACKSON: It's sludge in your cup. It's just not. Sorry, Folgers.

SELYUKH: Jackson from Maryland is a strong no.

LUKE SIMMONS: It's what my parents drank. It's what my grandma drank.

SELYUKH: Luke Simmons is proud to carry on the tradition.

SIMMONS: I've offered my friends coffee, and they've been, what kind is it? And I'll be like, good, old Folgers motor oil.

SELYUKH: So people have made fun of you.

SIMMONS: Oh, yeah, definitely.

SELYUKH: Simmons lives in Arizona and starts every morning with a cup or two of black coffee, usually Folgers.

SIMMONS: The first cup of coffee I ever had was a cup of Folgers coffee made in my mom's auto-drip.

SELYUKH: A carafe, brewed on a timer, shared with family before school and work - classic, right? That's a nice way to put it.

GEOFF TANNER: Candidly, many consumers were dismissing Folgers as their grandmother's coffee.

SELYUKH: That's the way Geoff Tanner put it. He is in charge of the brand as the head of marketing at J.M. Smucker, the parent company of Folgers.

TANNER: We had been losing market share for quite some time. The brand had been losing relevance.

SELYUKH: It's almost 170 years old, a throwback in a time of single-origin nitro lattes. Tanner says his team still found the product itself testing well, but its perception needed a wake-up. Along came a radical idea - an ad campaign that says, heck yeah, we're grandma's coffee.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BAD REPUTATION")

JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS: (Singing) And I don't give a damn 'bout my bad reputation.

SELYUKH: As Joan Jett rocks her '80s counterculture anthem, there's the crew of the company's roastery in New Orleans, some local female bikers, brass music star Trombone Shorty.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

SELYUKH: A mainstream brand attempting an earnest snub to coffee snobbery - Tanner admits he took some convincing to agree to this campaign.

TANNER: Who goes out there and says, well, we know some of you don't think we're that good, but we don't care?

SELYUKH: The hope was to appeal to millennials and the Gen X. Tanner says it worked. In recent months, data from research firm IRI showed Folgers gaining ground with those age groups faster than competitors. And right now, in the moment of high inflation, it's drawing shoppers away from pricier brands.

TANNER: We are seeing consumers trading down. Our hope and belief is that they're not seeing it as a trade down.

SELYUKH: OK. Ready?

MARY YANG, BYLINE: Yes.

(SOUNDBITE OF CUP SLIDING ON TABLE)

SELYUKH: I told my colleague Mary Yang about this story. At 22, she's the newest generation of coffee drinkers. She didn't associate Folgers with a bad reputation, but she'd also never bought it. I found an old Mr. Coffee machine in our office kitchen, and we did the thing.

(SOUNDBITE OF COFFEE PREPARATION)

SELYUKH: It's hot all right.

YANG: We definitely made it too light.

SELYUKH: You know too much about coffee.

Turns out I made old-school coffee for a former barista. She was kind and said she would totally finish the cup. Later, she confessed she did not. Pro tip - you got to drink it while it's hot.

Alina Selyukh, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF TROMBONE SHORTY'S "ON YOUR WAY DOWN (FEAT. ALLEN TOUSSAINT)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.