In 1876 a new partnership with his brother and cousin “H. & J Heinz Company” came into being, that year they launched tomato ketchup. It arrived in the UK in 1886, when Fortnum and Mason began selling it, but it was not manufactured here until 1946. It achieved mass popularity in the late 1900s, when Henry J Heinz hit on the then novel idea of guaranteeing that his products did not contain artificial additives. It may be hard to believe, but Heinz's Ketchup has always been free of artificial colourings.
Tinned beans were added as a product in 1895, then in 1896 the slogan ’57 varieties’ was coined, it was suggested to Heinz by an advert in a shoe shop window whilst on holiday in New York. Tomato soup first appeared in 1910.
Today Heinz is the world's largest tomato processor, with the famous ketchup bottles in over half of UK’s households.
The Marketing Mix
The Marketing Mix is made up from the four P's:
Product- what the customers want to buy.
Price- this must be one that the customer thinks is good value for money.
Promotion- this is to make potential customers aware of the products existence.
Place- this must be positioned conveniently for the customer to buy the product.
If Heinz gets the four P's correct then they will be successful as it will be easy for them to attract customers.
The product I am writing about will be Heinz Ketchup. Heinz Tomato Ketchup is available in different packs and bottles:
Sticks 11g
Sachets 15g
Plastic 250g, 460g, 700g, 1kg, 1.35kg
Top Down 570g
Glass 200g, 342g, 570g, 855g, 1.14kg
Heinz Ketchup does not contain any animal products, and never has in the more than 125 years since it was introduced. "Natural flavouring" refers to herbs and spices that are derived solely from plant sources.
In addition, the FDA has set a standard of identity for ketchup that does not permit the use of any animal products. Any deviation from this standard of identity would mean that the product could no longer be called ketchup nor sold legally under the name, ketchup.
Promotion is used by Heinz:
To make customers aware of new products.
To remind customers about existing products.
To persuade customers to switch from rival products.
To improve the image of the business.
The ultimate aim of these points is to sell more products.
The places Heinz will advertise from depend on three things, their target audience, the size of their market and the size of their advertising budget.
Forms of Advertising and their advantages and disadvantages
The prices that the products are to be sold at should be at a level which the customer will believe to be value for money and not just cheap, as this may sometimes be thought as a reflection of the quality of the product they will receive influencing their final decision on whether or not they will purchase it.
Heinz could use one of the following pricing strategies to sell their product at depending on the market:
Penetration Pricing-is where a firm charges a very low price when the product is new, and is used to increase the interest from customers.
Skimming-is when firms charge a high price to make the product seem desirable to customers who have a larger income
Destroyer Pricing-this is when firms charge prices which they know are unprofitable for their competitors, driving them out of the market. However this is illegal.
Price Discrimination- this is charging different prices to different customers for the same product e.g. Students, OAP's.
Competition Pricing- this is where firms charge very similar prices as other firms. Usually this happens where there is very little product differentiation e.g. Petrol.
