Case Study
Face-to-Face Consumer Interviews For Havering Council
Confectionery brands have ramped up promotions ahead of Halloween and Christmas.
Six out of the top 10 brands increased featured space promotions in the major mults last month, with seasonal deals accounting for the increase in offers from Cadbury, Nestle and Mars [Promodynamic Brands 4 w/e 17 October 2016].
“Whilst Halloween period is relatively short lived, some brands continue to invest in rebranding their products to maximise the sales opportunities,” says Assosia director Kay Staniland.
McVitie’s Halloween range includes its Jaffa Orange Fantastic bars and Bonfire Toffee Cakes, while Cadbury has Screme Eggs and a range of biscuits, including Animals Halloweenies and Cadbury Crunchy Spiders.
Nestle has it Milkybar Ghosts on promotion, while Mr Kipling’s range includes Halloween Fiendish Fancies, Toffee Terror Twirls and Chocolate and Slime Slices.
Christmas lines are also already being listed in the big five, Staniland adds. “Some of the confectionery brands are maximising their spending power by dominating the featured space displays, first with a combination of Christmas and Halloween treats, which will soon switch to Christmas lines for the next two months.”
As the mults continue their drive towards everyday low prices, multibuys have fallen by 21.4 percentage points to account for just 15.6% of branded featured space promotions. Half-price deals have also been scaled back further, down 2.87 percentage points to just 4.3% of total branded offers.
As a result, average % savings have fallen again – down 1.8% year on year across branded featured space promotions.
Colgate saw the biggest drop in average % savings, down 6.9% year on year. However, McVitie’s, Coca-Cola, Mr Kipling and Kellogg’s bucked the trend by giving consumers a large average % saving compared with last year. “McVitie’s shows the biggest increase in % savings, up 5.8% year on year, says Staniland.
| 4 weeks to 17/10/2016 | ||||||||
| Ranking | Rank last month | Brand | Number of promotions | Increase / Decrease on previous month | Increase / Decrease on previous year | Average % saving | Average savings % change m-o-m | Average savings % change y-o-y |
| 1 | 1 | Cadbury | 500 | 26.90% | 7.76% | 31.4% | -0.5% | -3.1% |
| 2 | 3 | Nestle | 248 | 8.30% | 3.33% | 35.0% | 0.0% | -2.8% |
| 3 | 2 | McVitie’s | 238 | -4.03% | 0.85% | 37.6% | 0.3% | 5.8% |
| 4 | 4 | Birds Eye | 198 | 1.02% | 8.20% | 31.1% | 0.6% | -4.2% |
| 5 | 5 | Walkers | 187 | 6.86% | 9.36% | 34.4% | 0.6% | -1.3% |
| 6 | 6 | Mars | 136 | 7.94% | -55.56% | 38.7% | 1.0% | -1.2% |
| 7 | 7 | Coca-Cola | 106 | -10.92% | -44.79% | 35.3% | 0.9% | 4.1% |
| 8 | 10 | Colgate | 102 | -5.56% | -21.54% | 37.9% | -1.4% | -6.9% |
| 9 | 14 | Mr Kipling | 100 | -13.04% | -41.52% | 36.1% | 1.1% | 2.6% |
| 10 | 8 | Kellogg’s | 100 | 13.64% | -24.24% | 36.1% | 2.3% | 2.7% |
| Total o/l | 1888 | -9.06% | -3.03% | 25.0% | -0.2% | -2.7% | ||
| Total brands | 10359 | -2.32% | 1.12% | 31.4% | 0.8% | -1.8% | ||
| Total | 12247 | -1.16% | 0.46% | 30.4% | 0.7% | -1.9% |
Published in The Grocer, 27 October 2016