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Barilla’s Melissa Tendick on the Brand’s Latin Marketing Strategy

Content

Pasta maker Barilla’s strategy has an important Latin marketing component, both multicultural in the U.S. as well as in Latin America, as the recent partnership of Barilla with television personality and restaurateur Ingrid Hoffman shows. We talked to Melissa Tendick, VP of Marketing at Barilla Group about the company’s marketing and media strategy.

Barilla’s marketing strategy has substantially evolved over the last few years, Tendick notes. “Our marketing mix continues to evolve as digital is – and always will be – at the core of our consumer’s lives – it is ingrained in how they shop, where they find / share recipe inspiration, and where they search for new information about our products so it is important for us to be there at each stage along the journey.”

Targeting Latina Moms

“Our main target for the Latino Italian Fusion campaign is Latina moms who take pride in cooking a healthy and satisfying meal for their families.” They put in the time, energy and even add a little of their own sazón to each dish to delight their families. This campaign is meant to inspire them to use pasta as a blank slate and continue their creativity when using Barilla pastas and infusing unique Latin flavors.

Content Marketing Initiatives

Content Marketing is a key marketing strategy element for the Parma, Italy, headquartered pasta maker. Perhaps the venue that most brings to life Barilla’s passion for all things pasta is Academia Barilla, a restaurant in Midtown New York City. According to Tendick, “Barilla does have owned social properties including barilla.com, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. “In fact, there will be some exciting changes ahead for our content marketing sites in 2016, so stay tuned, “Tendick notes. The company also owns a Spanish-website called pasta tu estilo geared toward the Hispanic community that we know has incorporated pasta as part of family meals for a long time. ”

Ingrid Hoffman Partnership With Cross Over Appeal

One expression of Barilla’s bet on content marketing is the partnership with Ingrid Hoffmann, which also includes traditional media buys in addition to product integrations. “We are excited about the partnership with Ingrid to pair authentic Latina flavors, recipes and inspiration with the Barilla portfolio of pasta, ” says Tendick. “She is not only a household name in the Hispanic community but her crossover appeal as a culinary figure made her the perfect choice to bridge the fusion of two different cuisines. Working in collaboration with Ingrid we created four videos showcasing unique meals solutions using Latin-inspired flavors with traditional pasta ingredients. We decided to place them on siempremujer.com because we know that this is a destination for Hispanics, primarily Latinas, searching for recipes and cooking tips that are in-culture and in-language.”

Latin America Strategy: Mexico and Brazil

Barilla has also a developed strategy for south of the border market expansion. “We started our expansion in Latin America more than a decade ago, through the partnership we established in Mexico with HERDEZ Company. Our portfolio of Brands, made of Barilla, Yemina and Vesta, is accounting for almost 30% of the Dry Pasta market in this country.” Three years ago, we further accelerated our expansion in South America, by building a Team in Brazil, and developing a product offer aiming at meeting the local Consumer needs. We are pleased to report a double-digit growth of our business in Brazil year-on-year since 2012. We will continue to invest there, both in product development and communication, as there are major opportunities to create more value for the Consumers and Customers in this country. In the other countries, we are still operating with local Distributors. We continuously evaluate potential partnerships options to accelerate our business there.”[ctahcb]

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