Case
FRANK’S® REDHOT® Cayenne Pepper Sauce The Frank’s® RedHot® team was in its fifth hour of its strategic initiatives meeting. Mike Power, who had recently joined Reckitt Benckiser as the Category Marketing Director on the Sauces and New product Development business scratched his head and said, “Okay team, we’ve been at this for a while, let’s take a fifteen minute break and re-group.” The spirited debate continued in smaller groups as the team headed out into the hallway.
This was an especially important meeting as the team was trying to decide on a way forward with the Frank’s RedHot brand. The team knew all too well that for the Food Division to make its numbers for the year, it was essential for Frank’s to grow its market share. While the brand had been growing in step with the category, the team knew that to really win in the category Frank’s growth had to outpace the hot sauce category. So far, the team had debated three possible strategies which could deliver the desired results. They were:
1. Focus on a specific region of the country and compete aggressively to steal share 2. Attract new users by driving hot sauce category penetration 3. Innovation to attract users in the Mexican style segment of the category
The brand had enough resources to pursue only one growth strategy. Which approach would create the best chance to grow?
Background
The first bottle of Frank’s RedHot sauce emerged from Estillette’s pickling plant 87 years ago in 1920. In 1964, Buffalo wings were born at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. Frank’s RedHot (FRH) was the secret ingredient in these original Buffalo wings. In 1996, Frank’s RedHot developed a pre-made buffalo wing sauce to make preparing wings even easier.
In 2007, Frank’s:
- was the category volume leader with 15.2% share
- had No. 2 dollar share with 16.6%, only 3 pts behind Tabasco
- was the wing segment leader with
This was an especially important meeting as the team was trying to decide on a way forward with the Frank’s RedHot brand. The team knew all too well that for the Food Division to make its numbers for the year, it was essential for Frank’s to grow its market share. While the brand had been growing in step with the category, the team knew that to really win in the category Frank’s growth had to outpace the hot sauce category. So far, the team had debated three possible strategies which could deliver the desired results. They were:
1. Focus on a specific region of the country and compete aggressively to steal share 2. Attract new users by driving hot sauce category penetration 3. Innovation to attract users in the Mexican style segment of the category
The brand had enough resources to pursue only one growth strategy. Which approach would create the best chance to grow?
Background
The first bottle of Frank’s RedHot sauce emerged from Estillette’s pickling plant 87 years ago in 1920. In 1964, Buffalo wings were born at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. Frank’s RedHot (FRH) was the secret ingredient in these original Buffalo wings. In 1996, Frank’s RedHot developed a pre-made buffalo wing sauce to make preparing wings even easier.
In 2007, Frank’s:
- was the category volume leader with 15.2% share
- had No. 2 dollar share with 16.6%, only 3 pts behind Tabasco
- was the wing segment leader with