Americana Group 1

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AMERICANA CASE STUDYByGroup 1


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Americana Recipe Vegetable

(A) Case A : Name Test


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The case

Objective:

Decide the geographic or regionalnames for the Americana line of

productsContext:

Green Giant test markets new frozen

vegetable product called TasteAmerica

To avoid succumbing to competition

General Foods decides to launch


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General Foods corporation

Packaged grocery foods

400 items and 30 brand names

Grocery products division

Beverage and Breakfast foods

Food products

Maxwell house

Pet foods


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US Frozen Vegetable market

Production in US grew from 10.8 billionin 1960 to 17.4 billion pounds in 1970.

Average frozen vegetable growth rate of5 percent during 1965-72.

Two segments Retail segment- Grocery stores and

convenience stores

Institutional segment- Restaurants,cafeterias, etc

Birds Eye constituted 54% of marketshare compared to 21% of that of Green

Giant


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Background

Americana concept was tested in 1970 Scored well as concept but not as new

product concept

Resource allocation issues Green Giant turns the heat with a similar

line called Taste America.

General Foods Americana Recipe

Vegetables Division to launch 5 varietiesof the product

Names based on location. What are thenames to be chosen?


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How the Selection was done

Step 1:The average rank was calculated between theusers and nonusers to find the impact on bothsections.

Step 2:The deviation of the number of respondents inthe user and non user category was calculatedwith respect to the total respondents.

Step 3:The better rank with the least deviation isselected.


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Criteria to choose the name

Names with greatest breadth ofappeal

Avoidance of duplication

Choose names which are mostdifferent and most appealing withineach cluster


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Decoding

6 = Creole Sauce

25 = New England Sauce

31 = Pennsylvania Dutch Sauce

38 = Texas Ranch Sauce

39 = Virginia Plantation

41 = Wisconsin Cheese CountrySauce


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Possible Flaws in Name SelectionProcess

The time crunch (only 3 4 months instead of 1 year)

Profile of the women tested (someone from New Yorknot knowing how Texan food tastes)

Names prepared by a so called jury of experts

Texas part of Southern States

Southern Style was similar to 6 others and ranked low

Western Style was ranked as low as 8


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Americana Recipe

Vegetables (B)

Case B: Concept test


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Should they go forward?Why? Yes, because..

Definitely Would Buy + Probably Wouldbuy is equal to GF Standard Value (73%)

and is also quite near the Rule of Thumbvalue of 80%

Number of Products to be launchedshould be selected based on Better than

Average results in the post trial product

Appeal (Exhibit 10) and Ability to Satisfy

Expectation (Exhibit 11)


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Which Versions of the Lineshould be put into production? Choose only one recipe from each style Choosing the product name codes that

have better than average appeal (basedon Exhibit 10 and 11):

Southern #447 Wisconsin Cheese Country # 452 Pennsylvania Dutch # 505

New England # 504 Texas Ranch # 497 Western # 446


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Changes to be Made(Tolerance Limit of 5%)

Southern Style (Code: #447) Take off Spinach

Modify the Directions

Wisconsin Cheese Country Style (Code: #452)

Vegetables to be pre-cooked more

Modify the Directions

Pennsylvania Dutch (Code: #505)

Add more Cheese Flavor to Topping

Make Vegetable pieces more Chunky


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New England (Code: #504)

Remove the macaroni

Pre-cook the vegetables more Modify Directions

Texas Ranch (Code: #497)

Remove the Onions

Remove the Beans

Pre-cook vegetables more

Modify Directions

Western (Code: # 446)

Remove Zucchini

Remove Onions


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Directional Specific Attributes(Across all Products)

Amount of Vegetables should beincreased

Vegetables should taste more like

Fresh Vegetables Consistency should be thickened

Color can be slightly darkened


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Directional Specific Attributes(Across Specific Products)

Southern Style (Code: #447)

None apart from General Suggestions

Wisconsin Cheese Country Style (Code:#452)

Vegetables can be made Slightly Soft

Pennsylvania Dutch (Code: #505)

Vegetables can be made Slightly Firm


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New England (Code: #504) Vegetables can be made Slightly Soft

Sauce can be slightly more spicy

Texas Ranch (Code: #497)

None apart from General Suggestions

Western (Code: # 446) None apart from general Suggestions


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Cannibalization

Market share of General Foods(BirdsEye) in Prepared Vegetable category is54%

In the concept (pretrial) test, 54% usersview Birds Eye a similar to AmericanaRecipe

Cannibalization is prevented by

positioning it differently (not similar toBirds Eye)


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Positioning Statement The Authentic Flavour of every

region

We are positioning it as frozen

prepared vegetables that are authenticto every region


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Market potential

Prepared Food market has grown15% between 1965-1972

Frozen Food market was estimated to

be 19.4 billion pounds in 1972


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Estimation of PLC

PLC estimation can be done by usingCoefficient of decay and not byCoefficient of Contagion.

Why NOT Coefficient of Contagion?Only refers to cumulative users, no

attention to brand switchers.

Considers only fixed pool of users, which isnot practical.(S shaped curve) Expansion ofthe group is not considered.


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Why Coefficient of decay-

General Foods is interested in capturing

as well as sustaining market shareWhen inter-purchase times are shorter,

repeat purchases are important

In frequently purchased goods, decayacross depth of repeat classes occurs

LRR needs to be considered


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PRICING

From Exhibit 13 49.42% users expected selling price less

than 49 cents and 28.72% expect it at 49-53 centsStyle Average

expected price

Difference in

DWB whenpriced at 53c and49c (%)

Southern #44749c 18

WisconsinCheese Country #452

47c 7

PennsylvaniaDutch # 505

47c 1

New England #504 49c 4


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Uniform Pricing v/s Product Pricing

Pennysylvania Dutch and NewEngland Consumers willing to pay53 cents

The remaining flavors, optimumpricing at 49cents

Decision to go ahead with differential

pricing for the different product lines By this one can leverage on the extra

profit that can be obtained from the 53

cents products


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Beta Testing used when

Users are heterogeneous

Potential applications of the product are not fullyunderstood

Alpha testing is unable to guarantee a bug-freeproduct

Product complexity limits the potential sample sizein product use tests

The DMU for a purchase is complex, so theopinions of a variety of people within anorganization must be understood

Opinion leadership phenomenon is operative


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FMCG Beta Testing

Produce a physical prototype or mock-up Test the product (and its packaging) in

typical usage situations

Conduct focus group customer interviewsor introduce at trade show

Make adjustments where necessary

Produce an initial run of the product and

sell it in a test market area to determinecustomer acceptance


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Beta Testing for Americana Recipe

To validate the product concept Determine usage patterns

Determine positioning

Determine price


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THANK YOU!

Documents

Americana Group 1