Review of Product Sub-Category
This report will address the activities of Birds Eye Foods and its competitors in the frozen food industry. The frozen food industry contains many product sub-categories, but an area of particular interest is vegetables. I will seek to analyze and discuss Birds Eye’s frozen vegetables product line. Frozen vegetables has for a long time been a very popular product sub-category within the frozen foods industry.Products included are frozen peas, corn, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, mushrooms, and potatoes, amongst others. Direct competitors to Birds Eye Foods include Green Giant, Del Monte, and various in-store private label brands. The largest competitor brand, Green Giant, competes directly with Birds Eye Foods’ frozen vegetables on grocery store freezer shelves. Birds Eye began selling frozen vegetables in 1930[1] and Green Giant began in 1961.[2]Given Birds Eye’s role in founding this sub-category, the company naturally wields the advantage of experience over Green Giant. The following environmental scan outlines the frozen vegetable activities of these two companies.
Competition within the frozen vegetables sub-category of products is difficult to classify. Birds Eye Foods and Green Giant are the two major players in the field, however there are an unknown number of competitors that sell private-label products. Often, these products appear as store-branded frozen vegetables, and they often are a cheaper alternative to the two major national brands listed above. Because Birds Eye Foods and Green Giant dominate the market so heavily, they form an oligopoly-style of competition.
Frozen vegetables actually compete with fresh vegetables because of the technique used to preserve them. A flash-freeze process is used on the frozen vegetables through which freshness and moisture can be locked into them.Sometimes, the flash-freezing process can occur just hours after the vegetables have been harvested, meaning that when thawed, they are actually fresher than typical grocery store fresh vegetables, which have often been transported significant distances before reaching store shelves. With this knowledge, consumer attitudes about frozen vegetables have changed to a more positive understanding of the flash-freezing technique.
Despite recent developments in the economic forcessurrounding the United States, the sub-category of frozen vegetables has actually experienced slight growth.[3] A possible explanation for this could be consumers’ busy lifestyles. When they are busy, consumers don’t have nearly as much time to prepare home-cooked meals, and instead are looking for something easy and quick to prepare. This social trend pairs up well with the fact that many of Birds Eye Foods’ frozen vegetables can be prepared using a microwave oven.To capitalize even further on these changing consumption patterns, Birds Eye Foods and Green Giant have both introduced lines of frozen vegetable products with value-added features, including various flavors and preparation techniques. Consumers have the ability to prepare a plethora of frozen vegetable-based meals right in their original packaging from the store, using only a microwave oven. It is the convenience utility that consumers seek to fulfill when they purchase these products, and with limited preparation time required, it’s easy to see why purchases by busy people have boosted sales of these products.
Innovative new technologies, like the ability to steam vegetables inside their store-bag, has been keeping Birds Eye Foods and Green Giant very competitive for market share in recent years. Green Giant recently released a line of frozen vegetables in the steam-fresh bags that include sauce already on them.[4] An environment with this kind of competitive trend has forced Birds Eye to continue to innovate. A recent research and development success has been the use of special plastics in the line of frozen vegetable products which can be steamed in the microwave. Birds Eye and Green Giant both sell frozen vegetable products which steam inside a plastic bag when they are cooked in a microwave oven. Both companies have fueled this technological trend by making of use of plastics that are free of chemicals. This new evaluative criteria, safe microwaveable plastic bags, is slowly changing consumers’ beliefs about microwaving plastic bags for food preparation.
Other posts on Birds Eye:
Works Cited
"Birds Eye Foods, Inc. - FORM S-1 - October 8, 2009."Internet FAQ Archives - Online Education. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
"Birds Eye Foods : Promotions." Welcome to Birds Eye Foods: Frozen vegetables to nourish your family. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
"Birds Eye Phases Out Private Label, Will Focus on Brands."Frozen Food Age 55.1 (2006): 10. Business Source Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2009. .
"Birds Eye Steamfresh Meals For Two." Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota. 10 Feb. 2009. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
"Birds Eye to Sell Frozen-Food Plants." Rural Cooperatives73.5 (2006): 35-36. Print.
"Clarence Birdseye Biography." Biography.com. Web. 13 Nov. 2009. .
Fleenor, D. Gail. "Frozen Vegetable Sales are Steaming."Progressive Grocer 88.5 (2009): 110-12. Business Source Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2009. .
Garrison, Bob. "Eyes on the Prize: A Smaller Birds Eye Foods Embraces a Fork-to-Field Approach and its New Future as a Branded Marketer." All Business. 1 May 2007. Web. 13 Nov. 2009. .
"Green Giant Fresh Brand History." Green Giant Fresh®. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
"History of Birds Eye® : Clarence Birdseye : Father of Frozen Food." Welcome to Birds Eye Foods: Frozen vegetables to nourish your family. Web. 30 Nov. 2009..
Kerin, Roger A., Eric N. Berkowitz, and Steven W. Hartley.Marketing (Mcgraw Hill/Irwin Series in Marketing). 8th ed. New York: Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.
McCarthy, Shawn P. The Art of .COMbat Ancient Wisdom for the Competitive Economy. New York: Wiley, 2001. Print.
"Morar Consulting - Brand Performa." Morar Consulting - Home page. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
Reyes, Sonia. "Birds Eye's Veggie Tales." Brandweek 42.37 (2001): 1-2. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2009. .
Riell, Howard. "Birds Eye Lines Seek to Inspire Consumers."Frozen Food Age (May 2006): 12. Business Source Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2009. .
"Snyder of Berlin : About Us : Distribution Information."Welcome to Birds Eye Foods: Frozen vegetables to nourish your family. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
"Sup: Promotions Archives." SunSentinel.com. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
Watson, Elaine. "Frozen Frustration." Food Manufacture 81 (2006): 13. Business Source Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2009. .
[1] "History of Birds Eye® : Clarence Birdseye : Father of Frozen Food."Welcome to Birds Eye Foods: Frozen vegetables to nourish your family. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
[2] "Green Giant Fresh Brand History." Green Giant Fresh®. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
[3] Fleenor, D. Gail. "Frozen Vegetable Sales are Steaming." Progressive Grocer 88.5 (2009): 110-12. Business Source Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2009..
[4] Ibid.
[5] Watson, Elaine. "Frozen Frustration." Food Manufacture 81 (2006): 13.Business Source Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2009. .
[6] "Green Giant adds new on-pack claim: 'Frozen Vegetables Are As Nutritious As Fresh'" The Free Library. Frozen Food Digest, Inc. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
[7] Watson, Elaine. "Frozen Frustration." Food Manufacture 81 (2006): 13.Business Source Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2009. .
[8] Riell, Howard. "Birds Eye Lines Seek to Inspire Consumers." Frozen Food Age (May 2006): 12. Business Source Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2009. .
[9] "Sup: Promotions Archives." SunSentinel.com. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
[10] "Birds Eye Steamfresh Meals For Two." Grand Forks Herald | Grand Forks, North Dakota. 10 Feb. 2009. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
[11] "Birds Eye Phases Out Private Label, Will Focus on Brands." Frozen Food Age 55.1 (2006): 10. Business Source Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2009. .
[12] Garrison, Bob. "Eyes on the Prize: A Smaller Birds Eye Foods Embraces a Fork-to-Field Approach and its New Future as a Branded Marketer." All Business. 1 May 2007. Web. 13 Nov. 2009. .
[13] Ibid.
[14] "Birds Eye to Sell Frozen-Food Plants." Rural Cooperatives 73.5 (2006): 35-36. Print.
[15] "Birds Eye Foods, Inc. - FORM S-1 - October 8, 2009." Internet FAQ Archives - Online Education. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
[16] "Morar Consulting - Brand Performa." Morar Consulting - Home page. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
[17] Garrison, Bob. "Eyes on the Prize: A Smaller Birds Eye Foods Embraces a Fork-to-Field Approach and its New Future as a Branded Marketer." All Business. 1 May 2007. Web. 13 Nov. 2009. .
[18] "Birds Eye Foods, Inc. - FORM S-1 - October 8, 2009." Internet FAQ Archives - Online Education. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
[19] Reyes, Sonia. "Birds Eye's Veggie Tales." Brandweek 42.37 (2001): 1-2. Academic Search Premier. Web. 18 Oct. 2009. .
[20] "Birds Eye Foods : Promotions." Welcome to Birds Eye Foods: Frozen vegetables to nourish your family. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
[21] Kerin, Roger A., Eric N. Berkowitz, and Steven W. Hartley. Marketing (Mcgraw Hill/Irwin Series in Marketing). 8th ed. New York: Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2005. Print.
[22] "Snyder of Berlin : About Us : Distribution Information." Welcome to Birds Eye Foods: Frozen vegetables to nourish your family. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .
[23] McCarthy, Shawn P. The Art of .COMbat Ancient Wisdom for the Competitive Economy. New York: Wiley, 2001. Print.
[24] "Clarence Birdseye Biography." Biography.com. Web. 13 Nov. 2009. .
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