Marketing Campaign for Barilla

The author of the report is a German student who is studying science of communication and public relation in Austria (Paris-Lodron Universität Salzburg) and who came to England with the European Erasmus programme. As the language knowledge might not be at the same level of other English students she excuses herself and hopes that the ideas will nevertheless be understandable.

The assignment will deal with the foundation of a campaign for a new product line of Barilla, an Italian company which produces several pasta, sauces, bread and bakery products and distributes them all over the world.

The product line “Essere Sapore & Salute” was introduced in 1995 in Italy and was one of the major reasons for the fina ncial success of this year.

The author visited the archives of Barilla in their headquarters of Parma (Via Barilla

3- Parma) on Friday the 21 st April.

Even if the responsible Mr. Gianfranco Gonizzi could give some technical information about the products, the researches for detailed figures about the German market were made by the author himself.

Mr. Gonizzi mentioned that Barilla had the intention of introducing the product line “Essere” in the German market.

The author considered it an interesting task to precede the company’s intentions and to have the possibility in the future to control whether the suggestions and ideas were transformed into action.

Even if more complicated and “time-consuming”, the author found this task more appealing than analysing the campaign of “Essere” in Italy.

The report contains the following key-points in order to give a comprehensible structure and consequently a good communication plan of the product line “Essere”:

• Situation Analysis

• Marketing Analysis

• Campaign objecti ves

• Campaign plan

• Campaign costs

• Campaign evaluation The situation analysis gives an internal and external view of the chosen company and provides the reader with a general knowledge to understand the marketing analysis and the campaign plan.

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1. . H H i is s t to o r r y y o of f B B a ar r i il ll l a a a a n n d d “ “M Mu u l li i n no o B Bi i a an n c c o

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Barilla was founded in 1875 by Pietro Barilla. The bread and pasta shop in Parma produced 50 kilos of pasta every day. 33 years later he grounded an industry with 80 people and a production of more than 80 metric tons of pasta per day. In 1952 the production of bread was given up to focus on pasta and to increase its quality.

The campaign of the sixties with the slogan “Con Pasta Barilla é sempre Domenica” (with Barilla pasta it is always Sunday) won the price “Palma d´Oro della Pubblicitá” and made the brand popular all over Italy. A wide distribution net with relative low prices brought Barilla in almost every household. In 1971 the American multinational W.R. Grace & Co of New York bought the majority of shares of Barilla. The American company wanted Barilla to commercialise its products and to diversify from other brands. The new products should:

• have a low possibility of competition

• have a possibility of a high income and of growth equal to the pasta Barilla

• be made of corn as their main source

• use the strength of the companies logistics, selling and marketing methods

• use the distribution channel of the pasta Barilla In the end of the year 1973 the American company agreed with the introduction of bakery products and of a new brand name. This name should be kept also for other product lines such as grissini, crackers, cakes and snacks. As one of the aims of Barilla was to produce traditional, almost “hand made” biscuits, the name had to evoke a traditional picture. Several analysis came to the conclusion that a name with a traditional logo and package could keep the image of “hand made” biscuits. A poster of the 70ies which showed the “farina Bianca Barilla” (white farina of Barilla) used the slogan “…fresca di Mulino” (fresh from the mill). The union of the two concepts finally made the name “Mulino Bianco” (white mill).

In 1979 Barilla was rebought by the Italian family and since 1993 the company is led successfully by the three Barilla brothers Guido, Luca and Paolo Barilla.

(logo mulino bianco) (mulino bianco products) (Barilla products)

1 Il caso della Barilla. Dal panificio all´impero. (1999) IN: Gente Barilla Nr. 27. Parma, The Barilla Group House Organ, p.7

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2. . S S i iz z e e a a n nd d S Se e c ct t o

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The Barilla group consists of more than 30 companies all over Italy and in other countries with a total of 8.500 employees. Barilla directly manages 7 mills which supply 70% of all the raw material the company needs. The 2 most important brands of the Group are Barilla for pasta and Mulino Bianco for bakery products.

Other important brands are:

• Voiello, Panem, Pavesi, Tre Marie in Italy

• Rio in Spain

• Misko in Greece

In the bakery products sector the Group is the largest in Italy and the third largest in Europe with the brands Mulino Bianco, Panem, Pavesi and Tre Marie. From a market share of 28,5% (in Italy) in 1990, Mulino Bianco had a market share of 36% in 1996. Until 1999 the market share increased another 2,8%, even if some segments had a better dynamic: cereals of 12,1%, soft bread of 11,2%, snacks of 8% and biscuits of 5%.

This result was reached by eliminating some items which were no longer productive, by improving the main products (pillar products) and by launching new products. Barilla built a communication system which reintroduced the successful historical values and invested in media.

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3. . C C o om m p pe e t ti i t to o r

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The main competitors of bakery light products in the German market are:

• Schneekoppe, which is the leader with a market share of 43,3%

• Kraft with its products Lunchables and Handi Snack. Kraft has a market share of 5,1%.

• Reformhaus, where 11,6% of the turno ver were achieved with diet products. Reformhaus has a market share of 15,2%

• The others with a market share of 36,4%

laurea, Universitá degli studi di Roma, p.50

3 Il caso della Barilla. Dal panificio all´impero. (1999) IN: Gente Barilla Nr. 27. Parma, The Barilla Group House Organ, p.37

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As the report deals with the best way of mixing the communication tools for the

introduction of the product line “Essere” in the German market, the author decided to

focus only on these products. The report will therefore go only into information

concerning the above named product line.

4. . P P r ro o d d u u c ct t s s o of f P P r ro o d d u u c ct t l li i n ne e “ “E E s s s se e r re e S Sa a p p o or r e e & & S S a al l u ut t e e ” ”

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The product line “Essere Sapore & Salute” comprises many different products as:

• biscuits of rice and milk,

• merenda pan di spagna,

• frollini and cereals of malt,

• cereals of honey and fruits,

• sweets of cacao and crème of nuts,

• crackers,

• grissini,

• plumcake,

• cakes

All these products are characterized by a low level of fat and sugar and by new taste

combinations. The fat has been diminished by 30-50%.

Following the recommendations of the nutritionists, Mulino Bianco has developed

new knowledge and technological methods to fill the new needs of the consumer.

Attention has been paid to the package which illustrates the characteristics of

composition and the use of the product.

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The GEA, an Italian company of consultation, made a segmentation of the bakery market in Germany, analysing the consumer behaviour, the reason for their consumption and the preferred ingredients of the products. It resulted that 20% of the German consumers ate “frollini” (a biscuit type) or similar biscuits during the mid- morning.

Further researches (made by the journal “Food”) came to the result, that the advertising of Mulino Bianco is known to 9,5% and the brand itself to 21% of the German population. People between 14 and 24 (male 13,9%, female 18,2%) were those who achieved the best results. 4

Comparing this situation to the hierarchy of communication effects 5 , these people already passed from the stage of awareness to knowledge, liking and also to preference. The research didn’t consider whether the interviewees also were consumers and therefore at the stage of purchase, but presumably most of them did at least once.

Even if, according to the model “hierarchy of needs” 6 of Maslow aesthetic needs are at the end of the importa nce ladder, the market of diet products has been expanding over the past years as more than 20 Million people suffer from adipositas in Germany 7 . 20% of the German youth are overweight 8 . Every 5 th child has an overweight of more than 10% and every 11 th of more than 20% 9 .

Most women are influenced by advertisings showing models with “dream bodies” and start consuming products with less calories and fat.

The Mediterranean diet includes a high consume of cereals, vegetables, fruit and olive oil. The Italian breakfast with milk, coffee, bakery products and fruits is considered by many nutrition experts to be the best alimentary way to start the day.

Breakfast should contain 20% of the daily calories, as the body needs to recover from about eight hours witho ut energy. Analysis proofed that pupils performed better after an extensive breakfast, but still 1/3 of the children aren’t used to eat in the morning 10 .

The German breakfast including eggs, ham and butter has been criticised a lot over the last years because of the high amount of fat and animal proteins.

(1998) IN: Gente Barilla Nr. 22. Parma, The Barilla Group House Organ, p.3

5 Blythe, Jim (2000) Marketing communications. Great Britain, Financial Times Prentice Hall, p.3 6 Blythe, Jim (2000) Marketing communications. Great Britain, Financial Times Prentice Hall, p.15 7 http://www.adipositas-gesellschaft.de (10.5.2000) 8 http://www.insula.de/adipositas.htm (10.5.2000) 9 http://www.d-e-f.de/newshtml#Ernährung (10.5.2000) 10 http://www.reformhaus.de/wir_über_uns_presse_verb_4html (8.5.2000)

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