BRIM is a coffee brand that hit the shelves in the early 1960s (1961, to be exact). It was one of the early decaf coffee brands launched by General Foods Corporation.

General Foods:

General Foods is a company whose direct predecessor was established in the USA by Charles William Post as the Postum Cereal Company in 1895. The name General Foods was adopted in 1929, after several corporate acquisitions. In November, 1985 General Foods was acquired by Philip Morris Companies (now Altria Group, Inc.) C.W. Post established his company in Battle Creek, Michigan, having lived there since 1891. C.W. Post was an astute businessman who believed that advertising and aggressive marketing were the keys to a successful enterprise. Post's first product, introduced in 1895 was a roasted, cereal-based beverage, Postum.

Postum Cereal Company lost its founder in 1914. His daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post, had literally been raised in the business and was familiar with virtually every aspect of its operations. She assumed control of the Postum Company and managed its affairs for the next eight years. Her second marriage, in 1920, was to a man, E.F. Hutton, who was a major force on Wall Street.

Starting in 1925, under the leadership of financier (and at one point, son in-law to the founder), E.F. Hutton as chairman and Colby M. Chester as president, Postum Cereal made a series of acquisitions which included Jell-O, Igleheart Brothers, Inc, chocolate-maker Walter Baker, coconut-maker Franklin Baker, Log Cabin Products and of Richard Hellmann, Inc.

1n 1927, Postum Cereal began selling its first coffee product, "Sanka”. A Dr. Roselius had developed the decaffeinated coffee in 1906. The formula was bought by Postum Cereal and they began selling the product by the name of ‘Sanka’ in the U.S. in 1923.

In 1929, the company changed its name to General Foods. By far the most important acquisition of 1929 was of the frozen-food company owned by Clarence Birdseye, called General Foods Company. (Following this acquisition Postum, Inc. changed its name to General Foods Corporation.) It was the founder's daughter, Marjorie Merriweather Post who first became excited about the prospects for the frozen foods business. In 1926 she had put into port at Gloucester on her yacht, Sea Cloud, and was served a luncheon meal which, she learned to her amazement, had been frozen six months before. Despite her enthusiasm it took Post three years to convince General Foods' management to acquire the company. GF paid $10.75 million for a 51% interest and its partner, Goldman Sachs, paid $12.5 million for the other 49%.

In 1985, the company was acquired by Philips Morris(now known as Altria Group, Inc). Altria also acquired Kraft foods at the time, which had the brand Maxwell coffee. General Foods" was dropped from the corporate name in 1995

Figure 1: The original General Foods Logo

Figure 2: The Latest General Foods logo

and now exists only as part of a brand name for a flavored coffee-based beverage, General Foods International.

Brim Coffee:

The first decaffeinated coffee to be launched by General Foods was ‘Sanka’. General Foods was extremely enthusiastic about the product and spent a hefty amount on its launching and marketing as it did with all its new ventures. First marketed in the United States in 1923, Sanka was initially sold only at two Sanka Coffee Houses in New York, but it soon was brought into retail. Only after a couple of months, it was obvious that it would be a major brand.

With the success of Sanka came the awareness of the hazards of caffeine. This, plus the revenues that Sanka brought in from all over the world, lead General Foods to believe that it would be a good idea to launch another decaffeinated coffee brand which would focus more on how similar it was to taste to other leading caffeinated coffee brands. The main difference between Sanka and Brim was where Sanka focused on difference between simple and decaffeinated coffee, Brim would focus more on how the two are similar. The core competency of Brim was how its taste was almost the same as that of leading coffee brands.

General Foods spent tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars from 1961 to 1991 to get Brim to a position where it had a sizeable market share in the decaffeinated coffee market. A series of

electric ads were launched as well as a respectable ad campaign in the print media. In addition to this, Brim was involved heavily in the 1976 Olympics which were held in Montreal. This was done with a separate and through ad campaign. Two video ads were launched which had a high viewership and contributed heavily to an increase in revenues of Brim.

The initial tag line of Brim was ‘Taste so good, you’ll have to see the cover to know its decaffeinated’. The message was pretty apparent that Brim was so similar to taste with all the other leading brands that it was virtually impossible to know that it was decaffeinated without seeing the label of the coffee which stated otherwise. The major ad in this campaign can be pinpointed as the ad with a couple engaged in moving furniture. The man is offered coffee by the woman after they’re done and is consequently surprised to find out its decaffeinated when he reads the label.

The second tagline opted by General Foods for its brand was ‘Fill it to the rim…with Brim’. This had a more concealed message. It implied that only

because the coffee is decaffeinated can you fill it to the rim of the cup. By this time, its ads had become more aesthetically appealing and somewhat measure up to the standards maintained today, overlooking, of course, the visual quality. This helped build Brim’s equity to very admirable level. The brown and orange logo had successfully associated with itself a brand image that screamed ‘Brim is the decaffeinated coffee to choose’. In the 70s epoch, it was a common household name and a favorite of thousands of content customers all over the US and internationally, as well. Even today, Brim’s second tagline, ‘fill it to the rim…with Brim’ holds retention and recall in the minds of many.

Ultimately, the decaffeinated brew was shelved (or rather un-shelved) when creator General Foods got gobbled up in a series of mergers which eventually landed it in the bowels of Altria. That behemoth also bought Kraft, which controlled Maxwell House. Maxwell House itself was a retail coffee force and certainly a stronger brand presence than Brim. Hence, Brim was pulled off the market because Altria felt that one brand, Maxwell, should be enough to cope with the demand. Still, Brim is remembered by many.