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Uncover the Love: Weber Grills

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CHALLENGETraditionally, women have been expected to cook for sustenance and nourishment. Contrarily, men are allowed to cook professionally or as a luxury. Grilling — a type of cooking performed with the luxury of time and the pleasure of gathering — is one of the cooking luxuries that is afforded to men.

Weber, the leading market share owner in grilling adheres to this stereotype, despite the fact that the target audience in now almost exhausted. Subsequently, Weber grills experienced a decline in sales post the pandemic grilling boom which they are yet to recover from.


NEEDWeber must re-evaluate its outdated ideologies as grilling a deeply gendered activity is losing relevance in culture today. It needs to grow out of marketing to idealistic nuclear family structures, and reevaluate it’s communication strategy.

METHOD
  • Primary and Secondary Research
  • Historical, Cultural and Social Brand Audit
  • Audience Identification
  • Strategic Positioning
  • Verbal and Visual Identity Design
  • Creative Marketing Strategy

SOLUTIONA new strategic positioning was formulated, which was accompanied by a refreshed visual identity, new verbal identity and marketing activations including a manifesto and product launch to bring the brand strategy to life.

IMPACTThis strategic revamp is aimed at retaining Weber’s age old legacy while creating new menaing for what it can stand for today as a brand that is relevant in culture. By elevating customer engagement, the brand will reclaim market share and drive sales growth.





HUNTING, GATHERING, GENDER & GRILLINGThe ways in which early humans procured food to be cooked — hunting and gathering — engendered different roles for the individuals in the group. Although now debunked, the common understanding was that men hunted and women gathered, influencing gender roles. This created social structures within communities for centuries to come.

The harnessing of fire allowed us to cook food. It also made our ancestors more social. Gatherings around the fire gave us an opportunity to connect by cooking and eating together. Grilling: cooking food on an open flame or on grill grate with direct heat, was one of the first forms of cooking that humans engaged in. 





GRILLING AS A RITUAL As society evolved, and humans began to build shelters, grilling slowly began to shift from everyday nutrition to a form of gathering resrved for special occasions.

‘Barbacoa’ daily cooking for the Taino tribe
Less frequently: Grilling with the Turnspit dog
Ox roast barbecues as celebrations
Today: Tailgating, an event-based ritual








SUBURBAN TOWNS & THE COMMERCIALISATION OF GRILLING
The widespread domestication of the ritual of grilling began in post-World War II America with the introduction of the iconic Weber grills — a product that capitalized on the shifting social structures of the time: the creation of the suburbs, the time for leisure that came with a life in the subrubs, and the defined gender roles in the nuclear families that lived there.

“The grill emerged as a home food space for men, where they could simultaneously perform masculinity and familial domesticity.”
- Our Association of Masculinity With Grilling Is Just One More Under-Discussed Facet of Diet Culture by Michele Ross
A suburban nuclear famil
The Weber Kettle grill





CULTURAL INFLUENCES: GRILLING IN POPULAR MEDIA
To investigate the deep-rooted nature of the idea that ‘women don’t grill,’ we went back in time to find evidence of the fact in film and television. In examples from 1958 to today, popular media is filled with the notion that a woman cooks in the kitchen, but as soon as the cooking comes to the backyard, it becomes the man’s luxury.






WEBER MESSAGING: PAST
Weber's success was aided by its advertising which reflected the culture of the time. It primarily featured the white, suburban family man. Women were rarely shown at the grill - and when they were, they were usually depicted in the background reading instructions, preparing sides, setting the table, or assisting the man "in charge."






WEBER MESSAGING: PRESENT
Weber's portrayal of family today is nearly identical to their portrayal of family in 1959. 

There has been a 30% decline in the number of nuclear family households since 1970, yet Weber continues to perpetuate the gender roles of 1950s suburban America in their communication today.
Weber Ad: 1959
Weber: Today






THE NEED FOR CHANGE
The definiton of family has changed since the 1950s. Today, apart from a traditional nuclear family, families can also consist of same-sex partners, mommunes, friends, and pets. Individuals are even getting married and having kids later in life.

WEBER ISN’T SELLING ANYMORE

With the decline in nuclear families, Weber’s market share has also declined 32% since 2020. They were also delisted from the stock market in 2021, as stock prices fell by 50%.

In 2022, Weber also reported slower retail traffic in stores and online ‘in all key markets’ while net losses hit $51 million.

In a dynamically evolving world, the current audience that Weber has been targeting cannot sustain its business.




SOLUTION: NEW BRAND POSITIONING & MARKETING ACTIVATIONS





WEBER’S AUDIENCE: SPIRITED CONNECTORS 


Spirited Connectors are those who seek bonding experiences with the people they love.

Those who may not be white suburban fathers, but those who do cherish bringing the people they love together.

Spirited Connectors evolve how people gather around food and fire, taking the focus away from the ‘grillmaster father’ and shifting it to the experience of gathering and bonding.






WEBER’S POSITIONING




For Everyone - No matter their gender, sexual orientation, or race
At Anytime - Be it in middle of the night, or in the midst of a hailstorm
Anywhere - Be it on a beach, on your roof, or deep in a forest





WEBER’S SPIRIT 


Weber’s new spirit and personality is:
  • Sturdy - Weber's focus in creating long-lasting products, and relationships
  • Warmth - Imbued in everything Weber does
  • Cheeky - A nod to the mischief that goes alongside bonding with your loved ones
This will be used to guide visual and verbal language.

With phrases such as, ‘Let It Drip,’ ‘What’s Under the Hood?’ and ‘Leave Your Table Manners at The Door,’  the language will focus on the emotion of the grilling experience on a Weber, rather than the features of the grill.







CAMPAIGN PLATFORM 


To bring this positioning to life, Weber’s new campaign will celebrate its strongest equity: its covered grill, which revolutionized grilling as we know it today, andit’s new purpose to create moments of shared experience.

This campaign platform will be called ‘Uncover the Love’and will encourage audiences to express their love to those they treasure the most. It is a statement that attests to the brand's ambition: to be the centerpiece around which all kinds of families gather and bond.
The campaign will show celebrations between actual weber owners, and the memories they have created while sharing a meal - mess and all - over a weber grill.





CAMPAIGN: VIDEO MANIFESTO The campaign will be launched with a social-friendly video manifesto that will encapsulate all the campaign idea and highlight the fun, love and messiness that it shared around a grill. It will invite the Spirited Connectors to ignite the ritual of grilling for their loved ones.






CAMPAIGN: PRODUCT LAUNCH 
To celebrate yet another way of uncovering the love, for Weber’s 75th anniversary in 2026, we will launch an all-new chrome Weber Kettle called the Sputnik.





With this new brand positioning and campaign launch, everyone will be able to picture themselves at the grill, uncovering the love with the ones they love.








TEAM
Chanel Gilcrease, Marisa Goldberg, Vidisha Agarwal, Yunis Ni



ADVISORS Debbie Millman, Melinda Welch and Dr. Brad Davidson