Central to the development of this brand identity was the purchase and
renovation of the original villa in Sansepolcro, Tuscany where the
company was founded. The interior of the villa was remodelled so that it
could serve as a research centre focused solely on the Buitoni brand (a
Nestlé first). The villa also housed a public relations office, kitchens and
hotel-style accommodation.
Activities in the research centre included research studies on new frozen,
refrigerated, dehydrated and sterilized products. There was extensive
experimentation with new Italian recipes and products. A group of experts
on Italian foods that consisted of food writers, chefs and home economists
formed the Buitoni appraisal panel, which gave advice, tasted and tested
the new products.
A picture of the Casa Buitoni was taken and became the logo of the
brand. The picture’s headline became ‘Dalla Casa Buitoni – 1827’ on all
products. Packaging was upgraded and the new brand logo was added. It
was hoped that the modernized brand logo encapsulated well the heritage
of the brand and provided a statement of the company’s Italian roots. In
addition, the logo served as a seal of quality for all Buitoni products.
Building the brand
As far as Buitoni’s marketing strategy was concerned, the company took two
directions that led eventually to the launch of the Casa Buitoni Club. First,
the brand was extended into different categories and product forms, and
second, a database was built via different forms of communication media.
The year of 1992 saw the launch of Buitoni Risotto, the first branded
risotto in the £96 million UK rice market. Il Risotto included three rice
dishes. Rice happened to be a very popular dish in the Northern part of
Italy.
There was also the launch of Buitoni Fresco in autumn 1992, a fresh pasta
range that had been in a three-month test market. The Fresco brand came
to the UK via Switzerland. It was owned by Hirz Frischprodukte, a Swiss
dairy products manufacturer which had been acquired by Nestlé a few
years earlier. Buitoni was considered the first major brand in the fresh
pasta market, which had been mainly served by small producers such as
Rossi and Pasta Reale and private labels. Because of the need of frequent
store delivery of the six pastas and three ready-to-serve sauces, Nestlé dis-
tributed the Fresco range via its Chambourcy chilled dessert division.
In addition to these major launches, there were numerous additions of
pasta types and varieties in every sector of the market. In the fresh pasta
market, there were four additions of shapes of pasta as well as sauces in
1993, which expanded the Buitoni range to a total of ten. The dry pasta
market had seen the introduction of a range of short, high-egg content pasta
The customer market domain: Managing relationships with buyers 71