Lender's Bagels - Marketing

Marketing

Lender's marketing promotions put bagels into the public consciousness. He was traveling throughout the United States marketing Lender's Frozen Bagels to a country which was disdainful of frozen foods and unfamiliar with bagels. In response to observations that March was the slowest month for sales of frozen foods, Murray Lender led an effort to declare March as Frozen Foods Month, raising sales dramatically. In recognition of his contributions to the industry as a whole, he was elected chairman of the National Frozen Food Association, nominated to the Halls of Fame of the International Deli-Bakery Association and the Frozen Food Association, and named "Man of the Year" by the Frozen Food Association of New England, the National Prepared Frozen Food Association, and the Connecticut Food Stores Association. In response to the public's growing consciousness of health foods and the drop in popularity of white bread, he began to stress bagels as more natural baked goods, and Lender's Bagels became one of the first products to voluntarily include nutritional information on the package.

Murray Lender appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He created green bagels for Saint Patrick's Day, oval bagels for President Lyndon B. Johnson to be photographed eating in the Oval Office, and "bagel heads", miniature decorated bagels, in the likeness of the world leaders attending the 9th G7 summit in 1983. On March 21, 2012, Murray Lender died from the complications of a fall in Florida.

A 1997 New York Times article described the difference between those demanding fresh bagels and those that accepted frozen as opposite sides of the "Lender's Line."