Product Position : Price and Quality

Russian caviar is an unknown product for the market. Some costumers may tried it before, while travelling or in very few Taiwanese restaurants, which serve caviar as a part of the entry dish. In the current situation, the GC “Russian Caviar House” should position itself slightly higher than in Russia. There are several reasons for that. First of all abroad, prices are always relatively higher due to logistic transportation costs and taxes. Besides that, it is a common tactics for the luxury brand to adopt a higher positioning to enforce the exclusiveness of their products. It is hard to compare Russian caviar with other producers of black caviar, because, so far only one Italian producer is introduced on the market. It’s been already told recently, that for Russians black caviar is a product for celebrations. The effect of it’s uniqueness for Taiwanese consumers should be enforced by introducing on the market the most precious type of caviar, which comes in the very limited amount and packaging.

To get the results about adequate product position of Russian Caviar in Taiwan, we decided to compare the prices with it’s competitor on the Taiwanese Market “Caviar Giavelly”. However, this comparison has some limitations in terms of the product types. As we have mentioned earlier, there are more than 27 types of sturgeons, and caviar from them will be always slightly different in taste. To conduct the research we have chosen Classic Caviar of the Siberian Sturgeon, Premium Caviar, from Red Sturgeon, and Golden Caviar, from the most rare – Royal Sturgeon . The amount of caviar is in first case is 20 gramms, in the second : 50 gramms

Name of the Brand Type Price in USD Price in Taiwan

Caviar Giavelli Classic caviar, 20 gramms

USD 42,3 51

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Table 3: Price Comparison Between Russian and Italian Producer

As we can see in the classic caviar segment Russian Caviar is more expensive than Italian. The difference is about 5 dollars. The difference is slitelly visible

Name of the Brand Type Price in USD Price in Taiwan

Table 3: Price Comparison Between Russian and Italian Producer

In the segment of “Premium Caviar” the difference between prices is more visible. Russian Caviar is more expensive here as well.

Name of the Brand Type Price in USD Price in Taiwan

Table 4: Price Comparison Between Russian and Italian Producer

In the table above we can see that Royal Caviar from GC Russian Caviar House is almost twice more expansive than caviar from the Italian producer. This fact positively effects the brand image of GC Russian Caviar House and make the product stand out from it’s Italian competitor in terms of pricing. It is hard for us to evaluate the quality of the product. But it is worldwide known that Russian caviar is a benchmark of quality. This fact is proven by many

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producing caviar brands, which use Russian slogans or the words to describe their product. In the case with Caviar Giavelli, they also refer their caviar to it’s Russian origin. Giavelli’s slogan say:

Russian Art with Italian Taste. The Italian taste of caviar is controversial. Apart from it, GC Russian Caviar House claims about its product that it is made with the traditional Russian technology and it embraces the unique traditional Russian taste.

Schematically, the position of the product by GC Russian Caviar House according to it’s price can be pictured the following way:

Figure 2:

GC “Russian Caviar House” vs. competitor on the Taiwanese market

On the table below, we have set up the potential GC Russian Caviar House price strategy in Taiwan. Since the brand will position itself higher than in the mother market, the prices have been increased up to 20%, taking into account as well the potential cost of logistics and taxes. In the table I have picked the most valuable products for the Taiwanese market, according it’s size and quality.

Type Number of Servings Price in USD Expected USD Price in NTD

Classic -. 40.63$ - 1679.58$ 48.76-2015 1560-64.495

50gramms (1,75 oz) 1-3 servings 98,04 117.648 3765

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125gramms (4,4 oz) 2-7 servings 232,46 278.952 8926

1000 gramms (35,3 oz) Up to 50 servings 1679,58 2015 64495

Premier 47,08-1959,51 56.496 -2351.412 1808-75245

20 gramms (0,7 oz) 1 serving 47,08 56.496 1808

50gramms (1,75 oz) 1-3 servings 115,45 138.54 4433.28

100 gramms (3,35 oz) 1-5 servings 223,94 268.73 8600

125gramms (4,4 oz) 2-7 servings 271,16 325.392 10412

Moskva 148.35-1419 178.02-1702.8 5696.64-54489

50 gramms (1,75 oz) 1-3 servings 148.35 178.02 5696.64

100 grams (3,35 oz) 1-5 servings 293.99 352.788 11289

125grams (4,4 oz) 2-7 servings 358.62 430.344 13771

250 grams (8,8 oz) 8-10 servings 722,9 867.48 27760

Kosmos Reserv - 223,94 268.73 8599.296

125grams(3,35 oz) 2-8 servings 223,94 268.73 8599.296

Diamond 270-1249,75 324-1499.7 10368-47990

50 gramms (1,75 oz) 1-3 servings 270 324 10368

100 grams (3,35 oz) 1-5 servings 519,87 623.844 19963

250 grams (8,8 oz) 8-10 servings 1249,75 1499.7 47990

Imperial 125 grams 2-7 servings 1212.21$ 1454.6 46548.864

Table 5: Caviar Price in Russia and Expected price in Taiwan

Quality: It is hard to accomplish the quality analysis on caviar, because to make it absolutely clear we need a chemical test. However, the producers, which are on the market are trusted and th analisis is going to be accomplish through the visual representation of the product. To conduct this analysis, through the web search we found three restaurants which serve caviar as a part of

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the entry course and did mystery dinner experiment. It was decided to do so, because it is hard to buy black caviar in Taiwan’s retail sector.

The first one is L’ ATELIER de JOEL ROBUCHON,Taipei. The restaurant is located in Belavitta mall. It is world famous French restaurant, opened by a Michelin starred chef . The price for the four set meal was 5880NTD. The dish, which include caviar was called L e Caviar Imperial – it contained Osetra Caviar. This dish was legit with a thick layer of flaky sweet crab meat topped with a fat tier of caviar separated by a thin jelly layer in between. Caviar roes were slightly grey color and slightly creamy in taste. There was no fishy smell and it looked perfectly on top of the crab. Even though that the origin of the caviar staid unknown, because the cane was by Joel Robuchon, it look and tasted the best of it.

The second restaurant, which was under investigation is ANTOINE ROOM, which is located at Sheraton Grande Hotel. The restaurant is specialized in French cuisine. The course of six entries is 4880 NTD. One of the entry dishes contained black caviar. Black caviar was served on top of smocked salmon and foi gra. The caviar roes look darkish black and didn’t have strong fishy smell. The taste was rather clear not creamy. We were not shown with the original cane of the caviar, so it was’n possible to investigate the producer. However, the waiter said that their black caviar is from France.

The third restaurant we have attended was LA ANZEL. It is a French style cuisine restaurant, which is located in Taoyuan city. The check for the six entries set was 1999NTD. Black caviar was served as a part of the Entry dish, but was rather used as a decoration for the oysters.The amount of caviar was extremely small and it was very hard to distinguish it’s texture and the taste. However, the roes look darkish grey and were quite big in the size. The waiter didn’t show the cane and coudnt say the origin of caviar. He was unsure were is it from and said that it might be French.

As a conclusion for the experiment we can say that caviar is used in Taiwan as a feature of high European cuisine. Product presentation of the first restaurant L’ ATELIER de JOEL ROBUCHON,Taipei was the best and the most informative. Even though it exist’s on the gourmet market. It’s existence is tiny and consumers generally don’t’ know anything about the product. They might try it in some French restaurants, however, we are not sure that the

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consumers persive the value of the product and don’t value it somehow. Consumers just understand that this product is expensive, but it is not special for them.

During the market penetration GC “Russian Caviar House” has to present it’s product through it’s value. The product should receive the status and be explained in terms why is it so expensive (due to it’s rarity, unfitness of taste, in terms of nutrition). In this case the consumer will become a loyal client. The educational campaign should be done through sales assistants. They will become sort of ambassadors for the brand and the educators for the product. Their knowledge and the representation of black caviar will be the key in the customers attraction.