Sunil Soni

Anish Sharma
Anish Yanduri
Aditi Upreti
Romit Sanghvi
Vismay Shah
Sanket Kaleshwarwar

Company overview
Founded in 1993 in St. Louis, Missouri by Gareth
DeRosa.
Shift in market segment Quality & Authenticity.
Product line : Standard pastas such spaghetti, rigatoni
& shells.
Specialty Pastas with blended ingredients such as
artichoke, spinach etc.
One of the First companies to offer 60% & 100% whole
grain pastas.
1998 Developed loyal regional following,
mainstream supermarkets carried TruEarth products.

Product Development Process
Informal & Intuition driven.
Experimenting with new products & limited
edition variations on core recipes.
Now, followed a four step process :-
1. Idea Generation.
2. Concept Screening.
3. Product Development & Testing.
4. Quantification of Volume.

Consumer Trends
Three major Trends :-
1. HMR Home Meal Replacement
a) Fully prepared
b) Semi prepared

2. Refrigerated Fresh pasta

3. Whole grain awareness & avoiding Bad
Carbohydrates



Question 1:
Why was Cucina Fresca pasta
successful?





Shorter cooking time, Consumer perception of
better Quality ( No Unhealthy Carbohydrates).
First Mover advantage.
Variety of choices.
Right Size of Portions.
Simple instructions for cooking, along with best
sauce options.
Convenience & Feel Good .
Taste.


Question 2:
How would you compare Pizza
opportunity to that of pasta?
Pros
33% people interest in
whole grain pizza crust.
Major chains offered whole
grain crust.
Opportunity to prepare
something fresher &
healthier.

Cons
Indulgence factor.
Major competitors like
Nestle & Kraft.
Pizza
11 % of sales i.e. $5.8 billion
(30% bigger)
Incremental investment
substantially less
Heavy duty competitors
33 % people with strong
interest
Less pressure on recovering
cost
Revenue from extra topping
Customization of taste

Pasta
$4.4 billion market

More investment
First mover advantage
76% positive purchase
intent
More pressure on
recovering cost
No topping product
No customization in taste


Whole grain Pizza
Question 3:
How would you compare the actual
product development process for
pasta as well as pizza?
Idea Generation
Pasta
Market shift away from mass
produced ,highly processed
foods toward greater quality
and authenticity.
Home Meal Replacement
trend started in USA.
Growth of refrigerated fresh
pasta.
Awareness of whole grains in
the diet.
Pizza
Larger market than pasta.
Pizza demand in key
demographics had been hurt by
health concerns and people
desired less carbohydrates in
diets.
33% of people from survey of
restaurant goers showed a
strong interest in whole grain
crust.
Lack of gourmet pizza with
healthy, whole wheat crust and
high quality ingredients.


Concept Screening
Pasta
85% of people in favour of
whole grain pasta when approx
300 survey test carried across
several cities.
Results indicated 76% positive
purchase intent comprising
definitely or probably.
At 35% gross margin there was
a$14 to$24 million opportunity
for TrueEarth at wholesale
prices.
Pizza
33% people had strong
interest in whole grain crust
according to survey.
The store bought pizza market
totaled $5.8 billion making it
larger market than refrigerated
pasta, which was approx $4.4
billion.
Product development and Testing
Pasta
TruEarth test kitchen developed
fresh whole grain pasta line
dubbed Cusina Fresca with a
full range of choices:cut pasta,
tortellini and accompanying
sauces.
Concept was tested with focus
groups which gave positive
feedback.
The team then decided to
conduct a market study to
estimate Frescas potential sales
volume.
Pizza
Developed a pizza concept to
test which consisted a basic
kit(crust plus separate packet of
cheese and sauce) and a line of
separate, complementary
toppings:
1.3 extra cheeses
2.sliced mushrooms
3.Hormone free chicken
sausage-crumbles.
They conducted 300 mall
intercept interviews after
testing with focus groups.
Quantification of volume
Pasta
BASES Completed 300 concept
tests across several cities.
BASES I Study concluded with
85% people in favour of the
concept.
BASES II Created 3 scenarios
and estimated repeat based on
its experience with other food
products.
Pizza
BASES I conducted interviews in
seven cities, interviewing
consumers over age 18.
The concept test consisted of
photographs and description of
the quality ingredients.
In Bases II study, interested
customers were given sample kit
for home test.
After 7-10 day period customers
were called to gather after-use
feedback.
Question 4:
Using the given forecast model for
pasta, what is your forecast for the
demand for pizza?
THANK YOU