Latest / Best of Business / Mike Lee: UOA marketing professor on Auntie Anne’s and Carvel expanding to Westfield Newmarket

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Mike Lee: UOA marketing professor on Auntie Anne’s and Carvel expanding to Westfield Newmarket · Best of Business

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  Speaker 2: We apparently love the major American fast food brands to
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  Speaker 2: the extent that two more are coming to New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: Auntie Anne's pretzels and Carvel ice cream are going to
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  Speaker 2: open their first New Zealand outlets at Westfield Newmarket in
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  Speaker 2: Auckland Saturday next week. They're being brought over by the
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  Speaker 2: same guy who set up New Zealand's first Cinnabon a
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  Speaker 2: couple of years back. Mike Lee is the marketing professor
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  Speaker 2: at Auckland University and is with us. Hi, Mike.
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  Speaker 3: Hi.
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  Speaker 2: Do you reckon this is going to be popular?
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  Speaker 3: I have a feeling that the pretzels one, the Auntie
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  Speaker 3: Annie's pretzels, is going to go gangbusters for the first
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  Speaker 3: couple of weeks it's open. And I'm not paid to
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  Speaker 3: say this, by the way. I've had a look at
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  Speaker 3: their menu and I just know the New Zealand pellets
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  Speaker 3: or the mainstream New Zealand pellets. I'm not talking about
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  Speaker 3: the carb-free health people out there. I'm just talking about
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  Speaker 3: the general mainstream New Zealand public. I think there'll be
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  Speaker 3: lines waiting to get a taste of these pretzels because
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  Speaker 3: there is no equivalent brand like that in New Zealand.
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  Speaker 3: Nobody does a branded pretzel, really. They've got bakeries that
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  Speaker 3: do them, but no branded pretzel. So I think that's
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  Speaker 3: going to be crazy popular for at least the first
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  Speaker 3: couple of months. The Carvel, I don't know. I'm a
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  Speaker 3: bit on the fence on that one. I mean, New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand ice cream is pretty good as it is. It
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  Speaker 3: is a bit overpriced in general. What does it sell for? Oh, no,
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  Speaker 3: I'm talking about New Zealand, just general New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, our ice cream. Fair enough.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, our ice cream. It's very good, but, you know,
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  Speaker 3: it's quite expensive compared to overseas. So it really depends
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  Speaker 3: on the, I guess, the pricing model that Carvel is
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  Speaker 3: going to provide. If it manages to kind of get,
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  Speaker 3: you know, under a certain amount, then it could be
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  Speaker 3: equally popular. But, yeah, that's probably going to have a
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  Speaker 3: lot tougher competition, I'd say. But I think the pretzels
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  Speaker 3: are going to go crazy.
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  Speaker 2: Now, somebody said to me, these pretzels are not the
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  Speaker 2: crunchy little pretzels that you and I know, but sort
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  Speaker 2: of like a doughy, chewy type situation, like a bagel
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  Speaker 2: or something. Is that right?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's the original pretzels, right? Like if you go
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  Speaker 3: to Germany or anything, the pretzel is kind of like
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  Speaker 3: a bagel but softer and fluffier with a nice crispy
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  Speaker 3: outside with sprinkles of salt and a very sort of
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  Speaker 3: fluffy inside. So that's kind of where the original pretzels are.
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  Speaker 3: The pretzels we're used to, which come in the plastic
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  Speaker 3: bags that you kind of have with your beer, those
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  Speaker 3: are kind of the ultra super processed form of pretzels.
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  Speaker 3: But the original pretzel is a nice soft sort of
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  Speaker 3: pastry goody.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, I always wondered what the appeal in a pretzel was,
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  Speaker 2: and now you may have answered the question for me.
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  Speaker 2: The ice cream, where does it, like, you know, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: you can obviously get, there's like a range of ice
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  Speaker 2: creams that you can get.
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  Speaker 1: Where does this sit?
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  Speaker 2: Is it on the sweeter side? Because the Americans love
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  Speaker 2: sweet stuff, eh?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the Carvel ice cream, it's just a
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  Speaker 3: typical soft serve ice cream. They've got a couple of,
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  Speaker 3: you know, their specialty is that ice cream cake, which,
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  Speaker 3: you know, you can get in New Zealand from various
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  Speaker 3: places as well. But, you know, I think the key
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  Speaker 3: will be like how quickly they can... Pump the stuff
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  Speaker 3: out and how cheap they can match it. It's designed
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  Speaker 3: to probably similar to Cinnabon. It looks like it's got
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  Speaker 3: a pretty lean operating model. Just do a couple of
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  Speaker 3: things really well, really cheap, really fast. And then just
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  Speaker 3: have sort of the people lined up where the foot
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  Speaker 3: traffic is to get more attention. The pretzels are similar
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  Speaker 3: to the Cinnabons, only they're a savory sort of thing.
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  Speaker 3: um the smell will be another thing that'll just get
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  Speaker 3: people really excited about it as they walk past and
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  Speaker 3: they'll have a sniff of a whiff of these uh
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  Speaker 3: freshly baked pretzels and they won't be able to help
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  Speaker 3: themselves i'm telling you okay so.
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  Speaker 2: What's the appeal in the american stuff is it simply
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  Speaker 2: that we see it in the movies and that that
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  Speaker 2: carries a lot of soft power yeah.
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  Speaker 3: That's kind of there's kind of a pro and con
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  Speaker 3: to that i mean there's obviously a lot if you
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  Speaker 3: look at any of the comments um to do with
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  Speaker 3: these places opening. A lot of it is kind of,
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  Speaker 3: I guess, politically charged and slightly negative towards the American brands.
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  Speaker 3: So there's obviously that group of people that will be
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  Speaker 3: totally against this, you know, kind of thinking, what are
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  Speaker 3: we doing bringing this junk food over here? But then
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  Speaker 3: there is the mainstream New Zealand market who is Not
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  Speaker 3: that fast, and actually just wants yummy food at a
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  Speaker 3: pretty quick pace and affordable price. I'm not making any
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  Speaker 3: commentary on whether or not this is going to be
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  Speaker 3: good for their health or not, but I'm just saying,
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  Speaker 3: from what I know of the New Zealand market, you
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  Speaker 3: look at how popular Cinnabon is, and you know that
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  Speaker 3: that is going to translate to the pretzels, the Auntie Annie's.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know if that's good or bad, but it
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  Speaker 3: might not be the fact that it's American. I think,
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  Speaker 3: to be honest, Kiwis don't really care about that as
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  Speaker 3: much as the business model that it brings, in that
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  Speaker 3: it's going to be fairly cheap, really fast, and kind
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  Speaker 3: of yummy to the palate.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, interesting to talk to you. Thanks very much, Mike.
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  Speaker 2: Always appreciate it. Mike Lee, Auckland University marketing professor.
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