“The biggest danger for a big company like ours is to rest on our laurels, because the marketplace can always change instantly,” says Bianco, whose well-rounded work experience that includes turns at Kraft Canada’s financial, sales and marketing operations affords him a solid ‘Big Picture’ view of the company’s performance that is perfectly matched by the golfing enthusiast’s commanding physical presence and authoritative verbal delivery.
“That’s why we’re constantly working on enhancing our product portfolio with more health-and-wellness features, more emphasis on sustainability, more user-convenience and so on,” Bianco explains.
“I think that we are blessed with a great heritage and a great sable of brands,” he states, “but it’s important that we go on refreshing our brands to make them more contemporary; introducing new product innovations, such as the frozen pizza category; leveraging our North American network to take full advantage of being the second-biggest food company in the world; and continuing to invest in advertising.
“We’ve seen many companies cutting back or starting to cut back on advertising during this recession,” Bianco points out, “but we view advertising as an asset—something to help us build a stronger connection with the Canadian consumers.”
While Bianco acknowledges that the food-and-beverage industry is inherently more recession-resistant than many of the other goods-producing sectors of the economy, “it is definitely not a free ride.
“Yes, people still have to eat during the recession,” he allows, “but we still have a lot of work to do to make sure we offer the right choice of products to our [retail] customers and consumers in the current economic climate.
“It’s not just the case of the economy favoring us,” Bianco reasons. “It’s also the fact that Kraft Canada has been actively reinvesting in our business in the last few years to improve the quality of our products by adding more value to them; building up the brands that Canadian consumers can trust; giving the consumers more choice; working close with our [retail] customers on merchandising and displays; advertising our products more … we’ve been doing all that for several years now.
“But we can never take anything for granted,” stresses Bianco, explaining that even in times of economic downturn, competing on price alone is not an option for a company of Kraft’s size, reputation and brand recognition.
“In a slower economy there is a shift with people eating out less and dining at home more,” he asserts, “and because Kraft Canada is lucky to be strong in many of the product categories that benefit from this shift, we have been able to continue to do well in the marketplace.”
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