Hillshire Farm and Ballpark. This carefully-nurtured culture ensures that strategies and marketing initiatives are grounded in consumer and shopper observation and feedback.
“Consumer and shopper insights drive strategies,” said Philippe Schaillee, Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for Sara Lee North America. “They drive our initiatives, and they drive all of our decisions. We consistently ask the ‘why’ question. If we cannot answer the ‘why’ question, we have to go back to the drawing board. We have to go back to the consumer. We have to go back to the shopper...
Today’s “new normal” shopping behavior is revealed in analysis of the latest coupon distribution and usage trends.
The research by Valassis provides greater insight into consumer savings habits with coupons – what they are buying, where they are shopping and how the economy is defining a new “normal” when it comes to shopping behavior.
“Consumers really have a savings mindset
now. I think that is a permanent shift in their behavior,” said Suzie Brown, chief marketing officer for Valassis, a leading media and marketing services company.
Current economic conditions are leading 94% of those surveyed to use consumer packaged good (CPG) coupons at least once in the past year, and 77% with regularity.
Consumers redeemed 23% more coupons in 2009 than the prior year – the second-highest increase in year-over-year redemption volume ever recorded, bringing the total number of coupons redeemed to 3.2 billion. As a result, consumers saved nearly $3.5 billion with coupons, an increase of $800 million (nearly 30%) over the prior year...
Shopper insights have been on the radar screen of most CPG companies for several years. But being aware of the wants, needs and motivations of shoppers is only the first step on the long road to success. Acting decisively on that information remains the key.
That’s the roadmap used by Sara Lee which credits its insights culture for building brands such as Jimmy Dean,
RETAIL TRENDS
Whole Foods Defies
Whole Paycheck Tag
"Whole Paycheck? Not anymore." That was the assessment of Whole Foods' pricing position by JPMorgan analyst Charles Grom in an interview with the New York Post.
According to Mr. Grom's firm, Whole Foods has dropped its prices on food by an average of five percent since December. Of course, even with lower prices, Whole Foods is still seen as being significantly higher priced (about 14 percent) than traditional grocery store rivals such as Harris Teeter, Kroger and Safeway.
In a separate market basket analysis, Ryan Krueger, co-founder of Krueger & Catalano in Houston, concluded that Whole Foods is -- in its way -- price competitive.
Mr. Krueger told the Minyanville website, "I spent time with a store manager putting together a basket of everyday items -- stuff like chips, bread, and peanut butter. We compared 10 average products to the closest big grocery chain and it was closer than you would think: $25 vs. $21...
Most CPG manufacturers understand which promotional tactics work effectively for their brands. They have a good idea of the right frequency of promotions and the amount of discount. But very few manufacturers understand – or even consider – the overall effect on the brand portfolio.
Understanding how spending on customer marketing interacts across the portfolio results in better portfolio management and improved ROI. This understanding is called the “Net
Brand Effect.”
In this CPG Webcast, hear more about the “Net Brand Effect” and the role that market structure plays in promotion decisions. Click on the first arrow in the control bar to listen:
Gatorade Reshapes Brand After Decline in Market Share
Gatorade is on the comeback trail.
After suffering its first-ever significant declines in U.S. sales and beverage-market share over the last couple of years, Gatorade has reshaped its brand architecture and product lines, refocused on its historical target market of athletes, and re-tailored its approach to marketing and distribution with tactics that would have been unthinkable for the PepsiCo mega-brand even as recently as two years ago.
Gatorade remains around a $5-billion brand overall, but suffered a 15.5% drop in sales last year, its first decrease ever, according to Beverage Marketing Corp. What’s more, it lost share to nearly every other type of beverage from competing sports-drink brands to tap water. Stingier consumers hurt Gatorade by opting for less expensive drinks, but also the beginning of the company’s re-branding effort under the “G” moniker a year ago at least initially came off as a badly executed flop.
“If you look at the volume we lost in 2009, about 50% of it not only left us, but went out of ‘light refreshing beverage’ segments altogether...
