kingsford case
Merve Tamer
Professor Glenn Pitman – MKTG 324
KINGSFORD CHARCOAL CASE STUDY
Kingsford is the leading producer of premium segment charcoal grilling products. It is a division of Clorox that sells charcoal and currently generates 9% of Clorox’s revenues. Kingsford products are available nationwide at variety of stores like food stores, mass stores and FDMs. The brand is offering two types including instant (red bag) and regular (blue bag).
The successful US leader Kingsford has faced challenges in the industry such as shrinking market for charcoal grilling and increased competition from gas grilling (see Exhibit 1). These two factors and decreased industry spending on advertising have led to a reduced rate of growth.
MARKET ANALYSIS
Barbeque is a very important part of US households and is associated with family, community, outdoor activities and informality (see Exhibit 5). Kingsford were the product leader in a market of small number of providers such as Royal Oak and Private Label brands. The company previously had 1-3% of growth in revenues each year. Charcoal sales were trending down and the grilling market is very seasonal with 60% of purchases made between May 1 and Sept 1. Success was heavily driven by sales and merchandising activities. Also, 75% of all households in America owned a barbeque grill.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
First, there is a competition at the industry level, between the traditional charcoal barbeque and gas barbeque. Both methods have a number of advantages and disadvantages (see Exhibit 3). It appears that they would prefer traditional way of charcoal barbequing. However, there are external factors such as price or convenience that can lead to the transfer to gas barbequing (see Exhibit 7). Second, Kingsford within the charcoal industry faced competition with Royal Oak and other private labels (see Exhibit 8). Private label sold for about 25-30% less than Kingsford and Royal Oak was priced a little less than Kingsford who is viewed as high
Professor Glenn Pitman – MKTG 324
KINGSFORD CHARCOAL CASE STUDY
Kingsford is the leading producer of premium segment charcoal grilling products. It is a division of Clorox that sells charcoal and currently generates 9% of Clorox’s revenues. Kingsford products are available nationwide at variety of stores like food stores, mass stores and FDMs. The brand is offering two types including instant (red bag) and regular (blue bag).
The successful US leader Kingsford has faced challenges in the industry such as shrinking market for charcoal grilling and increased competition from gas grilling (see Exhibit 1). These two factors and decreased industry spending on advertising have led to a reduced rate of growth.
MARKET ANALYSIS
Barbeque is a very important part of US households and is associated with family, community, outdoor activities and informality (see Exhibit 5). Kingsford were the product leader in a market of small number of providers such as Royal Oak and Private Label brands. The company previously had 1-3% of growth in revenues each year. Charcoal sales were trending down and the grilling market is very seasonal with 60% of purchases made between May 1 and Sept 1. Success was heavily driven by sales and merchandising activities. Also, 75% of all households in America owned a barbeque grill.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
First, there is a competition at the industry level, between the traditional charcoal barbeque and gas barbeque. Both methods have a number of advantages and disadvantages (see Exhibit 3). It appears that they would prefer traditional way of charcoal barbequing. However, there are external factors such as price or convenience that can lead to the transfer to gas barbequing (see Exhibit 7). Second, Kingsford within the charcoal industry faced competition with Royal Oak and other private labels (see Exhibit 8). Private label sold for about 25-30% less than Kingsford and Royal Oak was priced a little less than Kingsford who is viewed as high