2 The marketing manager also wants the new salesforce to be incentivised to ensure a good product launch. She recognises the importance of the sales budget in motivating and controlling the salesforce. Advise on the best way of setting sales quotas or targets for salespeople for the relaunched brand and how these might be used as a yardstick when measuring achievement Until Dr Oetker entered the UK market with the launch of its flagship ‘Pizza Ristorante’ frozen pizza brand, few in Britain knew of the company that is one of Europe’s leading food manufacturers. So, who is Dr Oetker?
A pharmacist from Bielefeld, Germany, Dr August Oetker founded the Oetker Group in 1891. Today the group has grown to become one of Germany’s largest family-owned companies with an annual turnover of more than £3.5 billion. And the key to this success? A simple philosophy – that ‘Quality is the Best Recipe’, both in business and its products.
Quality is the best recipe Pizza Ristorante was launched in Britain in 2002 and surprisingly was the first venture into the United Kingdom for this huge German food and beverage conglomerate. Promising an authentic pizzeria taste, that’s exactly what consumers got. Pizza Ristorante was soon a huge success – research indicated that 76 per cent of consumers preferred Pizza Ristorante to its competitors. It is now a well-established and thriving brand in the United Kingdom.
Recipe for success Dr Oetker has plenty of experience when it comes to launching into new markets, and is market leader in many of the 23 European countries in which its pizza brands are available. The company experienced similar success in the United Kingdom. In line with the company’s philosophy, Pizza Ristorante was prepared from the finest ingredients to satisfy consumer demand for a quality frozen product. In addition, the company always carefully considers the needs of the particular market it is entering and the nature of the competition. In the case of the UK pizza market at the time of launch, the Thin and Crispy sector was dominated by own-label, and the company felt that the introduction of a branded product offering true quality at a competitive price could only add value. The aim was to stimulate a static market by encouraging consumers to revisit the frozen pizza category by sampling the uniquely authentic pizzeria taste Pizza Ristorante delivers.