Investment growth for chicken sausage

In a mature market innovation increases in importance. Consumers can only consume so much, but when a new product enters the market, the story changes.

Innovation in value added products was amongst those topics examined at this year’s World Poultry Conference, and a paper on the topic was given by Nada Krajnc, board member sales and marketing with Perutnina Ptuj Group.

Perutnina Ptuj is the leading poultry producer in Slovenia and the Balkan region, operating a vertically integrated business in four countries – Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia.

“Now is the time for ideation and innovation,” says Ms Krajnc, “for products that answer shopping desires for value, quality and pleasure.”

Forty-five percent of Perutnina Ptuj’s business comes from value added products. This is a dynamic market and one in which consumers are currently looking particularly for value for money.

Various trends are also impacting this segment of the market. Currently, consumers want health, they want low fat, low calorie, and natural ingredients. Alongside this, they want convenience. The latter is a growing trend, and the increasing move to snacking means that those products that are easy to consume and time saving are favoured.

Ms Krajnc continues that for innovation to be truly successfully it must meet a number of tests. It must meet a genuine consumer need and it must result in new products that not only make it to market but that also endure.

Innovation through new product development and branding has been applied to the company’s product Poli, a parizer sausage that first entered the market in 1974. Made purely from chicken meat, the product was initially available in the former Yugoslavian market. It contains high quality, fresh meat, has a natural/neutral taste, a perfect texture and is pink in colour.

Having achieved a dominant market position, at the beginning of this decade it was decided to carry out a brand redesign and increase promotion. An advertising campaign was developed around an “irresistible desire” for Poli.

Poli has become a product of choice, and advertising campaigns have been developed around an “irrestible desire” for the product.

The entertainment provided by advertising for the product has become an integral part of the brand, but beyond this, work on the product has resulted in a new category.

The Poli snack resulted in a new way of consuming chicken. Presented in packaging with a novel method of opening, the snack presentation also allowed the Perutnina to enter a new sales channels, and the Poli snack is sold through vending machines and at events.

The snack has been joined by a pate presentation, helping to build a family of products under the Poli brand.