Imagery

All research consistently showed that the imagery of the new product was the key to success. The consumer already had a very distinct image of pizza, so just reproducing this imagery ran the risk of replaying the stereotype. However, viewing this problem as an opportunity, the new brand could create a point of difference in its imagery. As a result, Italian and US images of pizza were examined closely, and the US images of friends, beer, the dinner culture and the deep pan provided the basis for the 'difference' that was needed. From this image and brand research the brand strategy was defined-the new brand was positioned as The American Pizza', and the brand identity was created to achieve differentiation, appetite appeal and shelf appeal.

Target market

Goodfella's targeted households with children and young adults. Informal focus groups showed a positive response to advertisements among this segment.

Goodfella's success

Armed with this information, October 1993 saw the launch of Goodfella's American Style Pizza into the highly competitive frozen-food sector, both in the Republic of Ireland and in Northern Ireland. The appeal of Goodfella's has successfully tapped into a latent demand for quality frozen pizza and its launch has subsequently led to a massive growth in demand for pizza. Green Isle Foods is currently the market leader in pizza, commanding over 70 per cent of the Irish market. To continue the growth of the Goodfella's brand, it was launched successfully into the UK market in February 1995, where it has remained a permanent fixture within the top-three deep-pan frozen pizza brands.

Goodfella's continues to be an Irish product, manufactured in a state-of-the-art pizza plant in Naas, one of the largest pizza manufacturing facilities in Europe. The plant produces 11,000 pizzas per hour-enough to satisfy the total UK daily consumption. The success of Goodfella's to date is largely attributed to a textbook marketing campaign. Quality and high value are an unbeatable combination for any new product, as O'Rourke well knows, and Goodfella's has both.

Questions

1. What do you consider to be the key to Goodfella's success story?

2. What types of research design were mentioned and/or used in the case study, and how do you think they contributed to the success of Goodfella's?

3. If you were marketing director of Green Isle Foods, how would you approach researching the potential of the frozen-food market? What research design(s) do you think would obtain the necessary information to enable you to confidently make the decision to enter or withhold from entering the frozen pizza market?

4. What consumer trends were identified by research carried out in the marketplace? How has Michael O'Rourke capitalized on these trends in the marketing strategy guiding the launch of Goodfella's pizzas?

Chapter 5. Market Segmentation and Positioning Marketing Spotlight

When South African Breweries (SAB) bought Pilsner Urquell, the Czech brewer, from Nomura in 1999, it wanted to develop a global beer brand to compete with the likes of Heineken, Budweiser and Becks. Pilsner Urquell makes five brands of beer, but the one that takes the brewery's own name is its best known. It was first brewed in Plzen, Bohemia, in 1842 and is still a source of regional passion. It has been praised by international beer writers and boasts a unique 'triple decoction' brewing method.

However, even the best product needs to be associated with a brand; so, armed with an almost blank sheet of paper, SAB set out to sell Pilsner Urquell to the world. SAB defined the target market as 25-40-year-old 'transitional consumers' who are neither 'promiscuous' in their brand allegiances nor yet hardened in their ways. They then set about exploring six 'brand positionings' for the beer. Their choices included: an emphasis on Czech heritage, which denoted 'depth, intrigue and discovery'; The Best Always Costs More', which had connotations of 'understatement, self-confidence and inner strength'; and a Czech lifestyle option which sought to fuse the two images of Bohemia by presenting hedonism, creativity and spontaneity as distinctively Czech qualities. Short advertising videos for each of these options were created and shown to people in the company's target market. For example, the Czech lifestyle option featured lots of footage of people leaping around in the rain with no umbrellas, cycling down flights of stairs and generally being 'Bohemian', in the modern sense of the word. However, audiences did not think these images rang true. Czechs were baffled by the free spirits who were supposed to be their compatriots while, outside Europe, many of those viewing the tests missed the point because they were unaware that Bohemia is a real place, believing instead that it was like 'Atlantis'.

So instead, SAB chose a more truthful image derived from Pilsner Urquell's status as the original 'golden beer' (it had created the pilsner beer category). This was developed into a theme called 'Inspired Originality', which aimed to tap into a consumer's aspirations to be mould-breaking, charismatic and uncompromising. This concept was tested on several thousand customers and it was a hit. The packaging was redesigned to make it more attractive and new lighter bottles were introduced to make overseas shipping easier and cheaper. Early indications are that the new positioning is working well. Sales have broken the million case barriers for the first time in the USA and overall exports of the brand have doubled since SAB took over. However, though it sees itself as having more to offer than the neutral internationality of Heineken, the trendiness of Corona and the cold efficiency of Becks, Pilsner Urquell still faces a huge challenge in establishing itself as an international beer brand.

The Pilsner Urquell example described above indicates that marketers need to give a lot of thought to how they market products and to whom they should market them. Very few products or services can satisfy all customers in a market. Not all customers want, or are prepared to pay for, the same things. For example, airlines such as British Airways and SAS recognize that business and pleasure travellers are different in terms of their price sensitivity and the level of service required. In the watch market, the type of person who buys a Swatch is very different from the type of person who buys a Rolex; their reasons for purchase are different (fashion is status) and the type of watch they want is different in terms of appearance and materials. Therefore, to implement the marketing concept and satisfy customer needs successfully, different product and service offerings must be made to the diverse customer groups that typically comprise a market..

The technique that is used by marketers to get a hold on the diverse nature of markets is called market segmentation. Market segmentation is defined as 'the identification of individuals or organizations with similar characteristics that have significant implications for the determi­nation of marketing strategy'.

Thus, market segmentation involves the division of a diverse market into a number of smaller submarkets that have common features. The objective is to identify groups of customers with similar requirements so that they can be served effectively, while being of a sufficient size for the product or service to be supplied efficiently. Usually, particularly in consumer markets, it is not possible to create a marketing mix that satisfies every individual's particular require­ments exactly. Market segmentation, by grouping together customers with similar needs, provides a commercially viable method of serving these customers. It is therefore at the heart of strategic marketing, since it forms the basis by which marketers understand their markets and develop strategies for serving their chosen customers better than the competition.

There are a number of reasons why it is sensible for companies to segment their markets. Most notably, this allows companies the opportunity to enhance their profits. Many customers are willing to pay a premium for products or services that match their needs. For example, first-class air travellers regularly pay thousands of pounds for long-haul flights though the additional costs of catering for these customers are relatively very low. In recent years some carriers have sought to offer significant additional benefits to their first-class customers (see Marketing in Action 5.1). Second, through segmenting markets, companies can examine growth opportunities and expand their product lines. For example, the manufac­turers of shampoo have significantly expanded the range available based on the benefits sought by customers, such as whether the shampoo is for greasy hair, dry hair, fine hair and so on. Finally, in many competitive markets, companies are not able to compete across all segments effectively; by segmenting markets, companies can identify which segments they might most effectively compete in and develop strategies suited for that segment. For example, Waterford Crystal has built up a global repu­tation as a leading manufacturer of hand-cut crystal; its products are only available in luxury stores, and command premium prices.

5.1 Marketing in Action