FROM THE CONSUMER
From the consumer... In a new feature, Danielle Pinnington from Shoppercentric will be telling us how consumers are spending to help you stay competitive
Hello FMCG News readers! As an integral part of being an FMCG brand is remaining competitive, I have teamed up with the magazine in order to let you know how consumers are spending so that you can make sure your company is taking advantage of customer trends.
O
ne of the more fascinating aspects of the current economic
downturn has been the way the UK population has found ways to adapt. What is intriguing is how they are inadvertently making the most of the choices available to them – in effect, personalising their response to the downturn. Take a step back, and think
about it. As a population we have never had so many opportunities to deal with a drop in our disposable income: • The choice of retailers means we can switch from a high end retailer to a discounter; • The different store formats mean we can switch from vast ‘hypermarket’ formats to less tempting small stores, perhaps saving petrol if the smaller stores are closer to home; • The range of quality and pricing among own labels means we can switch from brands to a premium own label, or from the mainstream own label to value; • And we can use the internet to find out where the best prices are – even comparing prices across our whole shopping list. The sheer choice of options
means each of us are making individual decisions about where to make savings if we need to. For some the savings come from the obvious – not having a summer holiday, not changing the car this year etc. Yet that apparently obvious decision does not necessarily
16 | FMCG News |
FMCGNews.co.uk
mean the money isn’t being spent elsewhere. It might mean the kids can still have their riding lessons, or mum can still shop at Waitrose. Other families might keep the holidays, but decide to stop buying ready meals, and start cooking from scratch instead. The fact is, spending has not
stopped – but it has changed. Businesses need to understand these changes in order to make sure their products, ranges, and marketing are as relevant today as they were in the heady days of the mid 2000’s. Over the last three years we
have been measuring the impact shoppers believe the economic downturn is having on their shopping habits. Interestingly our data (below) shows that shoppers are adopting a range of strategies to deal with any changes in their financial situations – they are not putting all their eggs in one basket and assuming there is one way to fix any financial shortfall they may be facing.
“Over the last three years we have been measuring the impact shoppers believe the economic downturn is having on their shopping habits. Interestingly our data shows that shoppers are adopting a range of strategies to deal with any changes in their financial situations - they are not putting all their eggs in one basket”
The fact that shoppers are not
reliant purely on cutting back on their spending (economising) is an important point for all FMCG businesses to consider. It means that a marketing strategy which is all about price is potentially missing the point. There are real opportunities to support shoppers in their efforts to be more prudent (making the most of what they buy, and avoiding waste). Furthermore, avoidance (avoiding being tempted) has the potential to benefit local retailers whose smaller ranges, by default, tend to be less tempting. Having a clear
strategy for ranging in small format stores has never been more important. For suppliers and retailers
the key point is to understand the needs of the shopper in these difficult times, and flex your ranging, and pricing to ensure you are the business best meeting those needs. That
is where loyalty lies.
Danielle Pinnington is the founder & owner of Shoppercentric, specialists in shopper insight and trends research. For more information, visit
www.shoppercentric.com.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52