Kraft, CPK Cut Bigger Slice of Pizza Market - California Pizza Kitchen, Kraft Pizza partnership, marketing - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Brandweek, June 4, 2001 by Sonia Reyes

Buttressing a strategy to partner with leading foodservice brands, Kraft Pizza is continuing the eastward expansion this month of its California Pizza Kitchen frozen pizzas into Boston and Philadelphia.

Support will include outdoor and print ads, via FCB, Chicago, that will tout the pizzas coolness factor. FSIs and instore sampling also support.

A cross-couponing program with the CPK chain and at retailers will offer customers free coupons for pizzas.

The CPK line tops Kraft Pizza's three-tier frozen pizza brands that include the value-priced Tombstone line and first-place player DiGiorno at mid-tier giving Kraft a 37.4% share of the retail market.

However, Kraft spent only $446,000 on advertising CPK in 2000 versus $26 million for category leader DiGiorno, per Competitive Media Reporting.

The line rolled out in 1998 under a licensing deal with Kraft to market frozen pizzas at grocers to reflect the unique varieties sold at CPK Restaurants. The line of entree pizzas is now available in San Francisco, Chicago, Hawaii and Arizona.

The effort reflects a growing consumer trend for restaurant-quality foods as home meal options. Popular flavors borrowed from the chain's best-selling dishes feature self-rising crusts and hearth-baked pizzas that are baked in the oven at home. They retail for $4.99.

Kraft enjoys similar partnerships with other merchants, including Starbucks and Taco Bell.

The CPK line faces competition from such deep-pocketed players as Tony's Pizza Service, which launched a TV/print push for its Freschetta Pizza in March, as well as DiGiorno's current "Fooler" TV/print campaign that shows how undistinguishable DiGiorno frozen pizzas are from their restaurant counterparts.

Though a relative newcomer to the $2.4 billion frozen pizza category, CPK pizzas are being welcomed by retailers due to Kraft's distribution and marketing clout and CPK restaurant's presence in major markets nationwide.