Kraft Takes DiGiorno on the Road
Kraft Foods hopes to give neighborhood pizzerias a run for their money when it rolls out DiGiorno Ultimate frozen pizza nationally in August. Until then, Kraft will prime consumers’ taste buds by delivering samples via a five-city mobile tour.
A traveling pizzeria will visit Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Minneapolis through April and May, serving samples of the upscale pizza. The vehicle is designed like a pizzeria on one end, and a family kitchen on the other to illustrate the pizzeria-quality taste and bake-at-home convenience of the frozen pizza. P-O-P, FSIs and door-hanger coupons support the tour, which expands to other, undisclosed markets in July and August. Momentum Worldwide, Chicago, handles the tour.
DiGiorno Ultimate launched in March in 12 cities, including Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Columbus, OH, Louisville, Grand Rapids and Des Moines.
Kraft first sampled DiGiorno Ultimate in Chicago last month, with a pop-up storefront near Michigan Avenue. The pizzeria-cum-family-kitchen served up 25,000 sample slices over three days.
A second TV spot breaks nationally in August. The brand’s first spot, titled “Closing Down,” has been airing since mid-March (through May) in the 12 launch markets. The spots shows a pizzeria owner who converts his oven into a Turkish bath after losing business to DiGiorno. Draftfcb, Chicago, handles the ads.
Kraft is banking heavily on the success of DiGiorno Ultimate as it strives to become a serious player against the $20 billion pizzeria business. Kraft has been competing with pizza chains like Pizza Hut since 1995; its brands’ combined $1 billion in sales account for a 25% share of the frozen pizza segment and a 19% share of the combined frozen/chain pizza industry, Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld told analysts in February (PROMO Xtra, Feb. 21, 2007).
Now Kraft tackles the broader pizzeria business with the goal of building its 4% share of the pizza universe, where frozen, chain and neighborhood pizzeria sales top $35 billion. That strategy of reframing product categories to compete more broadly is a cornerstone to Rosenfeld’s growth plan for Kraft.
