Brannigan Foods:

Strategic Marketing Planning

GROUP-9: PARTHENON
KUMAR SHRINGAR SAH -28
MANISH RAJ -30
MAYANK KHANDELWAL -32
NAND BHUSHAN -35
SURBHIT SHARMA-50
VINAMRA NANAVATI-55
Introduction
 Brannigan Foods is a 100 year old company.
 Brannigan Foods Soup Division - 40% of the firm’s revenue.
 Steady decline (3 years) - divisions of sales, market share, and profitability
 Reverse the decline - increase the growth back to 3-4%
 It has the following products
• RTE soups
• Fast & Simple Meals
• Heart Healthy
• Dry-mix soups
• According to consumers, Brannigan is perceived to be behind on the following
• Health trends
• Diet Claims
• Convenience offerings
• Flavors
• Seasonal products
• Retailers think that while Brannigan is the
• category leader , not innovative and least profitable.
Soup Consumption Trends in U.S.
Soup Consumption in U.S.
Sales ($ millions)

READY TO SERVE WET CONDENSED WET DRY SOUP READY TO SERVE REFRIGERATED SOUP FROZEN SOUP DELI SOUPS
SOUP SOUP BROTH

2010 2011
US Soup Market Share

Market Share

Private label
16%

Other Branningan's Foods

13% 40%

Unilever
7%

General Mills
24%

Branningan's Foods General Mills Unilever Other Private label

Consumer Segments and Behavior

 Baby Boomers (born between 1946 – 1964)

 the largest and most loyal brand segment
 Leaning toward healthy soups (low sodium, fiber enriched)

 Working mothers
 Fast, simple yet healthy meals

 Young consumers
 Average consumption per household: 1.4 cans per week
 Age group 18-24: 2.1 cans per week – 48% dry soup & 78% wet soup
 86% of consumers are most likely to eat soup when its cold outside.
Distribution Channels

 Retailers and Supermarkets provide adequate channels to reach

consumers
 Unwilling to provide Branningan more shelf-space.
 Maximize profits by selling private label products.
 Intolerant toward new products with short life cycles and lower sales
& profits
 Stocking/Slotting fee, returns and other charges were a constant
factor.
Branningan US Soup Division:
Current Product Lines
Rising Stars Question Marks
•Heart Healthy
•Fast n Simple

Cash Cows Dogs

•RTE – Wet Soups
•Condensed Wet
Soups
•Broths
Problem Statement
 Bert Clark,VP & GM Branningan Foods’ soup division needs to evaluate
options for future investment.
 Maturing soup industry was leading to decline in sales and profits of
Branningan’s US soup division.
 Annual state of soup industry report by analyst Julian DeGennaro
pointed shift in consumer trends.
 Four investment options proposed by Clark’s trusted managers
 Decision Factors
 Volume vs profit, Short term vs Long term
 Brand equity vs constraint
 Category trend vs performance
 Health, convenience
 Strengths, Risk, opportunities, limitations
 Competition
 SWOT Analysis
Strength Weakness
• Brannigan is the current market leader with a high mark • Decrease in sales over the past three years
et share. • A poor job in targeting new segments of the
• It has high brand awareness and withholds very good r market derived from changes in society’s behavio
esults in the top of mind. rs and values.
• Condensed and Ready to Eat soups are a part of • Internal teams of Finance, Marketing and Sales,
the American culture and is consistent in the all-- R&D, and Simple Meals units are not integrated
‐around American diet. with each other; this might derive form a lack
of communication between the teams.
Opportunities Threats
• Innovate with new products that are in line with consu • Private labels grow steadily 5% per year and retailer
mers needs and that will boost sales up to a 3-- s seek new shelf space for their products, reducing
‐4% increase. the shelf space availability for Brannigan.
• Generate creative solutions with retailers to create win- • New competition is entering the market with disr
‐win situations uptive and incremental innovations that threat Br
annigan’s leader position and that have eroded
its sales
• A lack of coherent targeting, segmentation and
positioning has created a gap between the prod
uct offerings and what consumers really want.
Option-1: Tipha: Invest
in growing sectors

 Proposal: Increase advertising

& promotion expenditure in
dry soups, Fast n Simple, Heart
Healthy and new dry mix
flavors
 For achieving sales of 2954
million in 2013, Heart Healthy
and Fast n Simple categories
will have to grow by 21.5%,
compared to previous years’
12%; which seems
unreasonable to expect even
with increased promotion of
$18 million
 Net profit growth target of 3%
is not being achieved.
Option 2: Mackey :
Acquire Product lines
to complement core

 In both scenarios, expected

net profit is decreasing in the
near future, as compared to
the target of growth of 3%
• Maintaining Brannigan Brand
name: Less promotion cost,
shelf space lost, more
cannibalization suffered
• Maintaining acquired
company name: More
promotion cost, 90% shelf
space retained, less
cannibalization loss
Option-3:Invest in Organic growth
internally
Option 4: Invest
in the Core