74 Relationship Marketing
arrangements to the villa for cookery weeks, and invited to provide input into
the new product development efforts at the research centre. Even those
members who could not visit the Casa Buitoni villa had the opportunity to
voice their opinions. They could participate in pre-market tests of new prod-
ucts from the convenience of their home. Members could also suggest their
own events and services as part of the club. In this way, Buitoni hoped to
develop a sense of ownership of the club among the members.
Buitoni in Europe
While the Casa Buitoni Club experiment was off to a good start in the UK,
Buitoni was running two steps behind Barilla and local competitors in
Europe’s individual country markets. Barilla was spending significantly
more across Europe than Buitoni. For example, in the year ending in June
of 1992, total television ad spending of Barilla was $237 million versus $19
million for Buitoni in Europe.*
The marketing strategy of Buitoni in Europe seemed to be shaped by the
strategy of Barilla and other local competitors in Europe. Buitoni’s propor-
tion of above the line spending was significantly higher in the rest of
Europe than in the UK. But even though the spending pattern differed,
Buitoni had harmonized many of the other key features of its European
strategy. There was no adaptation of the product to local tastes. All mar-
keting communications carried the essential elements that expressed and
translated the Buitoni brand identity to the consumer: the Buitoni colours
and brand logo, the musical theme, the emphasis on conviviality and the
Italian love for food and authenticity.
There were also Casa Buitoni Club members from other parts of Europe,
but these consumers had called and written to Buitoni in the UK for the
membership kit. Management from Germany and France closely moni-
tored the developments around the Casa Buitoni Club for possible adop-
tion in the future.
Meanwhile Nestlé chose the one-to-one relationship marketing route as
the best approach to stimulate the primary demand for pasta among con-
sumers, competition had begun to form some sort of advertising alliances
with the same objectives. In Spain, for example, the manufacturers Gallo,
La Familia, Barilla, Rivoire Carret, Grupo Fló (El Pavo) and Oromás pooled
some of their advertising resources for a generic ad campaign. They hoped
to increase consumption in the Spanish market from 3.9 kilograms to 5.0
kilograms of pasta per person per year. In Germany, three leading Spätzle
manufacturers formed the Spätzle venture to develop further the market
for this German pasta speciality and, more importantly, to stem off compe-
tition from Barilla and Buitoni.
*These advertising budgets were reported in Campaign, 27 November 1992.