K&N’s is one of a kind in Pakistan and has come forward with a new perspective about frozen food in our society. K&N’s has shown sensitivity to the Muslim requirements of halal food products and introduced its Deli Line so that the people have no more doubts and are comfortable consuming the skinless sausages, cold cuts and smoked meat. The company implements the marketing strategy with immense skill and understanding about the Pakistani society and is therefore successful amongst the masses that it targets.The four P’s of marketing are incorporated without a hitch and the products of Deli Line are easy to use, reliable and easily available with great taste and reasonable prices. It has to be kept in mind that Deli Line products are only aimed towards the social classes A+, A and B and so K&N’s is successful and quite popular.
Upon conducting a research it was identified that the brand name of K&N’s has become so strong that advertising on TV is not only the reason for the purchase of the products.It is all dependent on the marketing strategies that were employed at the time when K&N’s penetrated the consumer food items market. K&N’s started in 1964 as a supporting pillar for the Pakistani poultry industry. It emerged with a single-minded purpose to provide better nutrition for the health and happiness of the nation.
With its poultry expertise and commitment to food safety, K&N’s has integrated all poultry production on one platform and is bringing safe and healthy chicken. This is done by managing and controlling all stages of production. History of K&N’s:In 1964, Pakistan was a young and independent nation escaping the difficult past and trying to attain self sufficiency in food production. Malnutrition was a huge problem with infant mortality rate high and children being affected with diseases due to the deficiency of protein, vitamins and minerals.
Poultry production was identified as the quickest and least expensive way to bridge the protein gap and overcome malnutrition. It was high time that backyard poultry farming had to move to a more professional level. Khalil Sattar, while still a college student, had the vision to see he need to establish a poultry farm. He started a small broiler farm with a thousand chickens which was the foundation of K&N’s today. This was how K&N’s was inspired with the objective of providing better nutrition for the health and happiness of the nation. With all production activities under one roof, K&N’s strived to ensure quality and food safety by its meticulous control and management of all production stages and introduced to the Pakistani market its first range of branded frozen chicken products including the ready-to-cook products in 2001.
Today K&N’s is the first and only HACCP certified company in Pakistan making chicken products. All over the world, safety of frozen products is very essential and is known to be one of the most difficult targets to achieve. This is because the operational requirements differ with the difference in microbial contamination to be handled from region to region. K&N’s is on all time alerts when it comes to poultry industry. KFC, one of the most popular franchises, is supplied by K&N’s and this achievement is one of the main reasons why K&N’s has become the choice of the consumers.
Brands of the Year Award One of the main things that customers look for is quality in frozen foods and is reflected in the consumer surveys, where quality is rated as the highest amongst all other factors. When it comes to frozen foods, if quality is not acceptable and all the other parameters are being met, there is no use for the product because it can be fatal for its consumers. K&N’s is equated with top quality and has hence become one of the most acceptable brands. Brand familiarity is rated as high which indicates effective marketing, sales and advertising efforts.
Affordability is another factor that comes after quality and familiarity. There have been some price concerns but many are aware of the input requirements of a frozen food industry and the delicacy of such matter and would justify the prices that K&N’s have set. Brands of the Year Award Availability comes after this, indicating the resources that have to be added to the transportation and distribution network. For the frozen products, there availability requires proper freezing equipment, vendor quality assessment and training and education to handle these products. Assessment f sales potential at a retail outlet and the logistic support that has to be provided when needed is also essential. Therefore, for K&N’s, improving the availability and strict quality control of its outlets has led to it being favoured by the customers.
K&N’s presents to its customers with various advantages every now and then. Free membership is offered with which customers can collect points and gain benefits. Every time they shop at any K&N’s Chicken Store in Pakistan, they earn rewards which on redemption provide great rewards such as free K&N’s products, privileges, discounts and special offers.They currently offer Member (White), Silver, Golden & Circle (Black) with different status level, bonus and award points, discount vouchers and other benefits. Launch of K&N’s Deli Line: Deli Line was launched in July 2009. Since then the company has achieved success and appreciation in the market as it was the only Pakistani company producing Skinless Sausages.
The general public believes that the skin of the sausages is made from animal’s intestine which is why they are reluctant to consume such products because for them it becomes an issue of Halal and Haram.However, K&N’s deli line’s sausages are skinless and made from 100% Halal ingredients. It was due to this religious perspective that initially the company faced some challenges in educating the masses and creating space in the market for themselves. The other competitors who were already playing the market were offering chicken and beef sausages. K&N’s entered the market with a wide range of chicken based products, from plain sausages to cheese and jalapeno filling, from cold cuts to smoked meat.
This provided the consumers with multiple options for breakfast, lunch or tea. Deli line was launched with massive TV and print advertising. They also set stalls at different leading supermarkets, distributed booklets that contained information about the products and offered free tasting of all their products. “It was risky. Deli line consisted of alien products.
Initially people were reluctant to accept this. We had to educate the masses about these products. However, the response we received was better than expected” said Ms.Mariam, Manager Marketing K&N’s. She added, “We’re trying to increase our sales by penetrating the product in the market. However, currently it’s only for the niche market.
” K&N’s Deli Line-a complete range of fully cooked premium skinless sausages, cold cuts and smoked meats-produced with K&N’s safe and healthy chicken. K&N’s wholesome Deli Line products will fit perfectly in your active lifestyle, as they are brought to you with the goodness of safe and healthy chicken, just as you expect from your favourite brand of chicken.K&N’s target women who are usually busy with their office or routine work and also young teenagers who want to save their time and eat healthy food that fulfills their daily nutrients requirement. All of them can benefit from K&N Deli Line’s fully cooked range that gives them plenty of options and saves their time and serve as a complete diet for the whole family that is safe and healthy. According to Ms.
Mariam, “Our target market consists of young couples, working woman, children and people aspiring for a healthy lifestyle. The pricing of K&N’s suits the lifestyle of the working people as it is affordable for them. The marketing manager told us that they cater to SEC A+, A and B. Marketing Strategies: K&N’s uses the marketing concept as its current marketing technique for its deli line products to cater to the needs and wants of its target customers. Through this tactic, it ensures that the products are delivering the desired satisfaction better than its competitors and the organizational goals are being met. This in turn increases the organizational efficiency and retains the confidence of the customers.
K&N’s incorporated the following marketing strategies for the promotion of its deli line products: * Product concept: According to this concept, the consumer favors the products that offer the most in quality and taste. Since quality is the very first priority of K&N’s, it devotes its entire energy in making continuous product improvements in its deli line products which makes K&N’s able to sustain healthy and profitable relationships with its customers. * Selling concept:This concept entails the fact that consumers will not buy enough of the firm’s products unless it undertakes a large scale selling and promoting effort. Since K&N’s approached with a massive and aggressive advertising for its deli line products, there are greater prospects that consumers’ demand for deli line will boost. To make its valuable consumers aware of the launch of their deli line products, K&N’s employed the preceding marketing tactics.
They created awareness amongst the masses on a large-scale by utilizing all the best promotional means available. Television and radio ads were at the first priority, billboards at the best locations or different areas, newspaper ads and tasting at the super-markets were at the second.Other than these promotional strategies, they ensured the availability of their deli line products in access at all K&N’s outlets and the departmental stores and bakeries. When it comes to the packaging, K&N’s uses vacuum packed boxes to ensure the hygiene, freshness, and flavor of its deli line products, which further guarantees that the products reach their customers in the best possible and finest condition. Pricing Strategy: The K&N’s is very particular about its pricing strategy.
Since the products they are offering are eatable ones so it ascertains that its prices are not too high and are attractive in the eyes of its customers. When it comes to the deli line, the company is using the market penetration pricing strategy in view of the fact that deli line is a recently launched product and still requires a brand awareness amongst the general masses so initially keeping the prices low or on average will attract a large numbers of buyers and will increase the market shares. Penetration pricing is most commonly associated with a marketing objective of increasing market share or sales olume, rather than to make profit in the short term and is mostly used when a product is newly introduced in the market, as in the case of deli line. According to Ms.
Mariam, the prices of deli line are generally based on the cost of all ingredients used, and other overhead expenses (such as transportation, refrigeration or preservation, since the products are frozen). In a recent survey, 72 % of the people rated deli line products as average priced, which shows that the prices of deli line are within the means of quite a large number of people and hence, satisfactory.Research and Survey: Since the report is about the success of Deli Line and the marketing and pricing strategies employed by K&N’s, it seemed natural to conduct a survey to find out the customer satisfaction and the brand loyalty they have towards the products by K&N’s. People who have tried the products were surveyed through a qualitative questionnaire. The sample included 30 people (females and young adults) because they are usually aware of cooking and the ease that comes with the frozen food products.
The questionnaire findings were to identify the success of the brand’s new products amongst the existing users of the product. The questions were all close ended and to the point for the products users. Analysis: After the survey was conducted, the data was analyzed and percentages were calculated to find out the popularity of Deli Line amongst the existing customers of K&N’s. Around 84% of the sample population responded that the brand image is good whereas the remaining rated it as average; there were no bad responses.Even though 68% of the customers have seen the advertisements of Deli Line, only 36% responded that the advertisements affect their buying behavior. This implies the fact that the brand image is already very strong and marketing strategies do not necessarily come into the scenario.
100% of the sample surveyed responded as the Deli Line products being convenient and easy to use. 68% rated the products as being highly popular at their home, 20% replied as the products being used occasionally whereas the remaining 12% did not think the products were that popular.When it came to prices of the Deli Line products, 72% responded the products as being average priced whereas the remaining 28% believed the products to be overpriced. Sausages were the most popular products (44%), followed by cold cuts (36%) and smoked meat (20%).
When it came to the impact that the introduction of this new product has had on K&N’s image, 64% gave positive answers and 24% said that the image of the brand is already associated with improved quality. As for the product availability, 92% responded that the Deli Line is easily available.Under these survey findings, it can be perceived that the brand is already popular and associated with quality and introduction of Deli Line and the buying behavior towards the new product is because of the brand familiarity and customer satisfaction associated with K&N’s. Conclusion: K&N’s is a strong brand name and the introduction of Deli Line has improved its position even more. Now the brand has attained the confidence and loyalty of many of its customers because it is the dominating name in the frozen food industry.The industry is a sensitive one because of the delicacies of the process and the issues related to frozen food.
Hence, it can be concluded that the success of the new products under Deli Line can be attributed to the existing strong brand name of the company and the reason that it had gained market share once it was introduced in 2001. It was a welcoming change for the Pakistani people and they welcomed the items of frozen products because of the quality and taste ensured by the brand.
