THE WORLD’S FAVORITE KETCHUP™ Heinz’s U.S.business will advertise many of its brands in print and onradio and television this year.This will include one of the largest TV campaigns behind the flagship Heinz® Ketchup brand since the “Anticipation” spots of the 1970s.
An aggressive in-store initiative also will feature displays in meat departments and frozen potato cases, plus cross-promotion for Fridge Door Fit™and Top Down™ bottles on food service ketchup packets, generating a billion consumer impressions.
POUR IT ON Extensive research reveals that consumers love pouring Heinz® Ketchup on everything. But when the contents run low in the traditional sizes, they ration the ketchup. The new Fridge DoorFit™ bottle, in 46- and 64-ounce sizes, gives consumers more of the thick, rich taste they want. Heinz is rewarding their loyalty with the best value on larger sizes.Interestingly, research shows consumers repurchase the bigger bottles as often as the traditional sizes, meaning the more ketchup they have, the more they use. Consumers prefer the new bottles by a 70/30 margin.
HIGHLY TARGETED ACQUISITIONS
Last year, Heinz strategically acquired the
internationally beloved Lea & Perrins® and HP® sauce brands. We have added equally powerful
brands in our emerging markets, including ABC® soy and chili sauces in Indonesia, Picador®
in Russia, and Pudliszki® in Poland. The global Heinz® brand resonates in all of these markets
where, over time, we will seed our other strong brands. Heinz® Ketchup is growing in both retail and
foodservice channels in Russia, the world’s second-largest ketchup market, where we recently reached a
partnership agreement with McDonald’s, adding to similar agreements with restaurants worldwide.
Listening to our consumers
The most frequent visitors to the Heinz Global Innovation and Quality Center are consumers. Although we learn a lot through market research, we want to know even more about how our varieties fit into consumers’ everyday lives, and how Heinz can better anticipate their wishes for Good Food, Every Day.™
Heinz marketing and research experts do this by visiting people in their homes, an approach that sparked the idea for our successful Top Down™ ketchup bottles. We discovered consumers often store their ketchup upside down so they can squeeze out every last drop. Similar insights sparked the creation of our next generation easy-to-store and use FridgeDoor Fit™ bottle (inset and opposite page, upper right).
When we invite consumers inside our IQ Center kitchens, we want to learn how they use our brands. Director of Market Research for North American Consumer Products Soledad Miguel (above, far right) partners with Research & Development in a consumer session on Classico® sauce. Our Classico® team needs to know the many ways, for example, consumers cook with a basic sauce, like Tomato & Basil. Do they add a little cheese? Garlic or olive oil? With such insight, we’re creating new recipes for Classico® beyond its use on pasta, such as for chicken. And the team is watching closely how consumers will pour on these new sauces.
Thinking outside the bottle
OWNING THE TABLE
The Lea & Perrins® and HP® brands have proven to be popular additions to both retail and
food service channels. Research shows that Heinz® is the preferred table sauce brand for 70 percent*
of consumers, more than four times that of our nearest competitor.
*NPDGroup consumer study 2005
Heinz has expanded both the overall ketchup category and its U.S. market share since 1998, reversing several years of decline. We have launched more than 25 new ketchup varieties over the past five years. These newest products today represent 43 percent of Heinz’s U.S. ketchup sales. Heinz grew its U.S. ketchup business at a compound annual rate of more than 7 percent in the past three years, and is ready with more ideas to grow The World’s Favorite Ketchup.™
Concurrent with the launch of the FridgeDoor Fit™ bottle, we led the effort to restage the store shelf
to give consumers a better shopping experience. Larger bottles now anchor the shelf in the eye-level “sweet
spot” and better highlight our Top Down™ varieties located just above. Lifestyle varieties – such as
Organic, One Carb, Hot & Spicy Ketchup Kick’rs® and the new Reduced Sugar – crown the very top.
All promotions are now geared to these new varieties.
More efficient use of trade promotion dollars with our customers has helped our entire U.S. Consumer Products business reduce the amount of trade spending as a percentage of sales by 4.3% over the past four years. We have achieved this while at the same time increasing sales, volume and profit.
DISCERNING TASTE Few tongues in the world are more finely tuned than those of the Heinz Sensory and Insight Panel. Their palates must discern minute differences in food attributes ranging from saltiness to sweetness, to texture to mouth heat, and many more, on a 15-note scale.The panel provides Heinz product developers with an objective flavor portrait for any given recipe.
This blueprint delivers value to consumers, growth to our customers and improved profits and cash flow to Heinz. This in turn fuels our new product engine.
