From cronut (croissant-donut) and duffin (donut-muffin), food hybrids have already made the headlines but experimentation along the theme continues. Indeed, the trend appears to have spread to pizza too with Pizzaburger from Dr. Oetker in Germany, extending on from the fast food blurring theme seen recently in the category. As the name suggests, the product is a hybrid of pizza and burger. The two halves of crusty rolls with pizza toppings are designed first to be baked separately in the oven and then to be folded to a burger.
The product is a novelty in the German frozen retail market and in this form (two halves to be combined) also appears to be new to the global retail market. Interestingly, Japanese food service chain Pizza Little Party made the news by launching a limited edition “Megaburgerpizza” in their restaurants in Kyoto in September 2013. Furthermore, Canadian pizza chain Boston Pizza has launched a Pizzaburger which is more burger than pizza, comprising a half-pound burger patty wrapped in a pizza/a burger-stuffed pizza pocket.
Dr. Oetker’s Pizzaburger is positioned to be conveniently eaten by hand without the use of cutlery, which makes it a possible alternative to the much-loved pizza baguette in Germany. It is likely to engage younger consumers, the core frozen pizza-consuming demographic and obvious target group.
Across Europe, younger consumers are the most experimental. A third (29%) of 25-34 year old German and the same amount of French consumers show interest in pizza recipes influenced by other types of cuisine, eg Tex Mex or Turkish. What’s more, 33% of 16-24 French, 29% of German and 27% of of Italian consumers agree that there are not enough exciting flavours available.
The Dr. Oetker product might seem like a novelty but such experimental formats are increasingly likely to become the norm as frozen pizza manufacturers look to compete in a food market that is continuing to be driven by the snacking and meal blurring habits of younger consumers. Further innovation in the format of pizza can be expected. The highlighting of the Hasta La Pizza branded pizza on a stick product (pizza in the form of an ice cream bar), as one of the stand-out innovations from the recent Anuga exhibition, for example, suggests that the boundaries of the category are being stretched further.
