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Total-impact Marketing
The Incredible Stratagem of Stanislaus Food Products
Author: John Correll       Publisher: Correll Consulting, LLC       www.correllconcepts.com       Published: July, 2005

Recently I came across an intriguing post (July 1, 2005) on the PMQ.com Think Tank (a chat room). The post was titled STANISLAUS OR ESCALON? and it read:

The first response to the post was simply this:

“Wow!,” I thought to myself, “what incredible loyalty to a brand.”

But you know what, truth be known I happen to believe that this answer likely reflects the sentiments of a majority of pizzeria owners. And, if you ask people WHY they have such loyalty to Stanislaus, they will (I believe) reply: “Because Stanislaus has the superior products” or “Stanislaus is fresh pack, and fresh pack is better.” But is that all there is to it?

I pose this question: In a BLIND taste test, how many pizza-eaters would (or could) distinguish between pizza sauce brands AFTER the competing tomato products are mixed into a pizza sauce and then INCORPORATED AND BAKED into a pizza that includes all the usual toppings? This, of course, is the real-life situation.

So I naively ask: In the real-life situation how many pizza-eaters would prefer a pizza made with a Stanislaus-based pizza sauce over an Escalon-based pizza sauce, or a fresh-pack-based pizza sauce over a re-man-based pizza sauce? (Note: “re-man” means re-manufactured.) Frankly, I don't know the answer to this question. What's more, I believe that no one else does, either — including all the expert tomato product manufacturers and pizza-making aficionados. It strikes me as interesting that in the several decades now where the fresh-pack tomato producers have been claiming that pizza sauce made with fresh-pack makes a better pizza sauce than sauce made with re-man, we haven't yet seen a single piece of empirical data that validates the inference that pizza consumers can (a) detect a difference between fresh-pack sauce vs. re-manufactured sauce on a pizza or (b) if they can detect a difference, that they prefer the “fresh-pack taste” over the “re-man taste.” Personally, I like the taste of fresh-pack tomato product over re-manufactured tomato product when sampled straight from the can. But I've learned three simple truths in the last few years: (1) my personal taste often does NOT reflect that of others, including that of my customers; (2) the opinion of a pizza professional regarding what constitutes a great pizza is, as often as not, exactly the OPPOSITE of that of the majority of pizza consumers; and (3) the taste of a pizza ingredient AFTER it's combined with other ingredients and baked into a pizza can be altogether different from the taste BEFORE it's made into a pizza.

All this leads to a key question: Realizing that there's no empirical evidence that pizza-eaters prefer pizza made with fresh-pack pizza sauce over pizza made with re-man pizza sauce, WHAT has Stanislaus done that has enabled it to surmount all competition … and to create such unwavering, deeply-held loyalty among so many pizzeria owners? I believe that within the answer to this question is a set of marketing principles which a pizza business — or, indeed, any business — could apply for achieving the same degree of customer loyalty and marketing supremacy within its particular market as Stanislaus has achieved within its market.

Take a moment to reflect on Stanislaus's marketing over the last 15-or-so years. Recall the 2-page ad at the front of each monthly pizza industry publication, the periodic La Trattoria newsletter, the many postcards from the owner (Dino Cortopassi), the exhibit booth at Pizza Expo, and, more recently, the website. Think about the CONTENT and THEMES that have run though all this over those many years. Once you do, I believe that you'll come to this stunning conclusion: Stanislaus's marketing is one of the most powerful, endurable, and brilliant marketing stratagems within not just the pizza industry but the entire business world. Study the marketing strategy and genius of this company, and you will, I believe, learn more about how to successfully market your business than from all seminars and books combined.

HERE, AS IT APPEARS TO ME, IS THE ESSENCE OF STANISLAUS'S POWERFUL MARKETING STRATAGEM, or what it has done to create one of the most loyal, unwavering customer bases of any company in any industry. I believe that if an independent business — including any pizzeria business — were to apply this same marketing strategy that it could create a similar degree of consumer loyalty and market share results. I refer to it as Total-impact Marketing. So here are the “10 principles of Total-impact Marketing,” as practiced by Stanislaus Food Products.

PRINCIPLE 1: Premier Product Positioning — Position your product (i.e., your pizza) as being the #1 or TOP PREMIUM-QUALITY product in your market segment. Review Stanislaus's marketing of the last 15 years and you'll see that this is the core message — the central theme — around which everything else turns and toward which everything points. This is not by accident! Someone — presumably the company's CEO Dino Cortopassi — realized many years ago that the position of #1 Premium-quality Product is the STRONGEST marketing position possible (and, also, usually the most profitable). Once this position is established in the mind of customers and the overall market, it's the strongest position to have from an offensive standpoint (i.e., for capturing additional market share) and also from a defensive standpoint (i.e., for preventing competitors from taking your market share).

PRINCIPLE 2: Maintenance of Focus — Never waver from Principle 1. Do nothing to detract or diminish the focus on premium product — that is, do nothing that weakens your premium-product position within the mind of your consumers. Do not put price over quality, or couponing over quality, or speed over quality, or anything else over quality. Put the spotlight on premium-quality product … and never take it off. This isn't to say that marketing should never contain a special offer. Rather it's to say that the “special offer message” should never supersede, overshadow, or detract from the “premier product message,” and that when a special offer is included it should be fashioned to appear to be for the purpose of promoting the premier product rather than replacing it. Making this happen requires promotional creativity and ingenuity, but it can be done. Look back over Stanislaus's marketing of the last 15-or-so years and you'll discover that it has steadfastly maintained its marketing focus on establishing and maintaining its premier product positioning over every other marketing factor.

PRINCIPLE 3: Credible Rationale — Identify at least one credible rationale to serve as “validation” for your claim of #1 premium-quality product. Everyone advertises having “the best” or the “top quality” product. So merely making a claim of superior product means nothing to consumers. The key to success is to support the claim with some sort of logical-sounding validation, or credible rationale. This enables consumers to separate YOUR claim of premier product from that of your competitors, which is critical to capturing and holding the premium-product position within consumer minds and the market overall. Stanislaus's validation rationale happens to be “made from fresh tomatoes.”

PRINCIPLE 4: Product Differentiation Statement — Formulate the rationale of Principle 3 into a short memorable statement — sometimes called a differentiation statement — then iterate this statement in EVERY piece of company marketing and communication, forever. In short, pound it home unceasingly. Stanislaus's differentiation statement happens to be: Packed From Fresh Tomatoes, Not from Concentrate. It's depicted in a “logo-like” format, to pound home the point. Look back over the past years of Stanislaus marketing and you'll see this statement appears EVERYWHERE … without let-up or deviation. This is no accident. The marketing leadership at Stanislaus has realized that in order to be the winner of a market share war, in order to cut through competitors' claims, in order to capture and hold the premier product position in the consumer mind, a company must succinctly define a reason WHY its product is superior to that of the competition, and then reiterate this statement on EVERY piece of consumer communication … forever. (For more on differentiation, see the Re-discovering Differentiation article on this website.)

PRINCIPLE 5: Market the Company, Too — Market more than your premier product, also market your COMPANY. Don't assume that when a person buys your product s/he's only buying your product. In fact s/he's buying an interaction with your company and all the people in it — particularly the ownership. Realizing this fact and capitalizing on it is one of the genius dimensions of Stanislaus marketing. It's something that — as best I know — not a single one of its competitors realizes or utilizes. Others market cans of tomato sauce, Stanislaus markets Stanislaus. So when a pizzeria owner buys some other company's tomato sauce they're merely getting tomato sauce. But when they buy Full-Red™ (or whatever), they're getting STANISLAUS. Think about the power of this. Importantly, Stanislaus has apparently realized that one of the primary ways that a company markets its “self” is through the quality of its RESPONSE to human needs. Along this line, it virtually goes without saying that the company is almost reknown in the pizza industry for the speed and priority of its responses to requests from customers and would-be customers. To illustrate, one of the responses to the post referenced at the beginning of this article was this particular post (July 2, 2005, PMQ.com Think Tank) which narrated this amazing account:

PRINCIPLE 6: Company Personalization — To enact Principle 5, put a FACE on your company. The best and most credible “face” for a business is the face of the CEO or owner. Ultimately, humans don't identify with THINGS (such as a product, or a service, or a price, or a coupon, or a business name, or a slogan). Rather, humans identify with OTHER HUMANS. So to maximize consumer loyalty in your market, put a human face on your business — the face of a real person — and then include that face, that person, in every piece of company marketing. And when communicating with your customers and would-be customers, make the message come from the Owner. For the last couple decades, the face of Stanislaus has been that of owner/CEO Dino Cortopassi. When was the last time you saw a piece of company marketing that didn't have his face — and his words — upon it? More recently, now that Dino is retiring, his nephew Tom Cortopassi is taking over. Notice how the company is skillfully bringing Tom's face and words into the picture (see recent ads), while gradually moving Dino to a background position as "Coach," thereby passing the company face to the next generation, while simultaneously retaining all the credibility and goodwill that Dino has built up for the company over the last couple decades. This is brilliant.

PRINCIPLE 7: Company Elevation — To further enact Principle 5, make your company stand for SOMETHING GREATER than just another business — make it stand for something that your consumers can emotionally relate to — something that strikes a warm chord inside of them, and makes them feel good about doing business with you. Then formulate this “something greater” into a company slogan or motto, and include this slogan in combination with your company name in every piece of marketing and communication. Stanislaus's slogan happens to be: The “Real Italian” Tomato Company. This is, in effect, the company positioning statement. This statement appears everywhere the company name appears. Study it for a moment and you'll see why it's so powerful. By referencing “Italian” it builds a bridge with the many pizzeria owners of Italian heritage. It also implies a certain old world artisanship and entrepreneurship, thereby setting the company apart from all the “faceless big corporations.” By referencing “real” it implies that other tomato companies may not be real. By referencing “real Italian” together it implies that the ownership of the company is Italian and, thereby, of kinship with the many Italian-heritage pizzeria owners. And by referencing “The” it implies that Stanislaus is the ONLY “real Italian” company among all the producers of tomato products.

PRINCIPLE 8: Customer Bonding — Build a RELATIONSHIP with your customers that transcends the purchase transaction. Give your market an opportunity to “get to know you” and to feel close to you and to have a reason for liking you as a person. This requires establishing a communication bridge between you and them. It also involves well-crafted PR, community activities involvement, and, in short, DOING THINGS FOR OTHERS THAT THEY APPRECIATE. One of Stanislaus's primary vehicles for accomplishing this is its La Trattoria newsletter. Every issue includes fatherly personal words of business wisdom from Dino Cortopassi intended to help Stanislaus's customers succeed in business and life. What better way of building a bridge with customers? You'll note that Dino's messages frequently include a direct or indirect application of Principle 1, or promotion of the importance of using premium-quality ingredients in your pizza — which by implication, of course, includes Stanislaus premium-quality tomato products.

Another powerful vehicle that the company uses for building an emotional bond with customers is the periodic postcard that features a long-ago photo of Dino and/or his by-gone family members. This piece — which is brilliantly crafted — is heart-warming and powerful. It's one of the few promotional mailing pieces that I read from beginning to end every single time … and I'm not even a buyer of tomato products! Study this piece. In a single postcard it implements the entire gamut of Principles 1 through 8. It's worth noting that every single one begins with this same opening paragraph, as follows:

Wow, is that a bond-builder or what?

Further, I've heard good things about the company's website — www.stanislaus.com — which ostensibly is for restaurant/pizzeria owners only. The secret “restaurateur password” for gaining entrance is none other than freshpack. What a clever way to reinforce the company's point of product differentiation (Principle 4). Interestingly, I attempted to access the site but couldn't get past the intro page. Maybe the site has clairvoyant powers and somehow detected that I'm not a restaurateur (or maybe it just didn't like the fact that my computer won't accept cookies and, so, decided to pout).

Finally, have you ever visited the Stanislaus booth at Pizza Expo? Engage any of the company employees in a conversation and, before it ends, s/he likely will impart this message: “We're not here at the show to sell our products. We're here to say 'thanks' to all our customers, and to provide some complimentary food and drink and a comfortable place to sit and rest their feet.” In other words, they're there — at least ostensibly — to build RELATIONSHIPS … and, in so doing, further cement customer loyalty and also elevate the company above the rest of the pack (Principle 7).

PRINCIPLE 9: CEO/Owner Persona — Every CEO and owner of a business projects a PERSONA that represents the business in the eyes of the public and its customers. This happens whether the CEO/owner wants it to happen or not. As such, figure out what kind of persona best reflects the type of image that you want your customers to have of you and your company. This should be a persona that sets you apart from competitors and creates a warmer, stronger bond with consumers than that created by the persona of your competitors. Then dress the part, act the part, speak the part — at all times. I could be wrong on this, but it's my impression that the type of persona that is most appealing to most pizza buyers — particularly those that favor independent pizzerias — is the persona of the DEDICATED, CARING PIZZA CRAFTSMAN. As relates to Stanislaus, it appears — if I had to guess — that the persona that Dino Cortopassi has selected to project is that of “dedicated father of a caring, old-world family-owned tomato company.” If that's the objective, then he must be given accolades for brilliant effectiveness. Even though Stanislaus is, in fact, a huge corporation and Dino is its CEO, virtually everyone, including myself, tends to “feel” like it's a small family business. This is testimony to Dino's insight and personal marketing acumen. In short, if the CEO of a huge corporation like Stanislaus Food Products can successfully project the persona of being a caring owner of a “small” family business, there's no reason why an independent pizzeria owner cannot project the persona of being a dedicated, caring pizza craftsman.

PRINCIPLE 10: Constancy and Consistency — In everything you say and do, be consistent with the values and promises explicitly and implicitly put forth in Principles 1 through 9. One hundred percent consistent quality product is the foundation of long-term business success. And one hundred percent consistent application of Principles 1 through 9 is the marketing foundation for maximizing sales of this consistent quality product. Review every aspect of Stanislaus's marketing, communication, and customer interaction over the last 15 years, and I believe that you will see that the company has applied this principle to perfection. And what should you do if a competitor or critic challenges the authenticity of your claims and marketing statements? You do one of two things. If the criticism is from someone with little or no audience, the best course of action is usually to ignore it. Because the act of responding can sometimes direct more attention to the critic's message than what the critic originally mustered. However, if the criticism is from someone who has an audience for his or her message, then you should respond vigorously and with “righteous indignation” — discrediting the criticism and the critic with all legal means available. In short, you should defend your position, your persona, and your product claims and marketing messages with every resource and means at your disposal … because, aside from the people who work for you, this is the most valuable asset that you have.

CONCLUSION — I believe that the most important product that Stanislaus gives to the World — and, in particular, to independent pizzeria owners — is not its line of tomato goods. Rather, the most valuable thing that Stanislaus provides is its brilliantly-crafted marketing stratagem — the immensely-effective program that it has used to elevate its product and company to the #1 premier position within the minds of tomato product buyers. This, in my opinion, is the REAL message — the most important product — that Stanislaus bequeaths to independent pizzeria operators and, indeed, to businesses everywhere.

So each time you receive a shipment of Full-Red™, or view one of the 2-page Stanislaus ads in an industry mag, be reminded that Stanislaus is not merely about excellent tomato products. More than that, it's about implementing one of the most clever, brilliant, and powerful marketing stratagems in the business world — it's about Total-impact Marketing.

THEN ASK YOURSELF … What principles and tactics of this company's brilliant marketing stratagem can I adapt for use with my OWN company, for achieving similar powerful results?