Case Study
Face-to-Face Consumer Interviews For Havering Council
Birds Eye has defied the march away from multibuys by ramping up x for y deals in supermarkets.
X for y deals accounted for 26.9% of Birds Eye’s total featured space promotions last month, up 21.25 percentage points on the same period last year [Promo Dynamic Brands 4 w/e 17th May 2017].
The brand also increased half-price deals by 3.3 percentage points to 9.5% of total offers, while save x amount deals accounted for 63.2% of its featured space promotions, down 88.3% last year.
Average savings on Birds Eye deals have “remained extremely stable” at 31.2% on average, with “no real change from last year”, says Assosia director Kay Staniland, although they are slightly below the average for frozen, which is currently 33.61%.
As a whole, the frozen category saw the biggest increase in average promotional savings (0.95%), ahead of BWS (0.34%). In contrast, average savings fell 4.8% on impulse brands, with big declines from Walkers (-12.5%) and Cadbury (-5%) in the top 10.
“Recently the frozen market has experienced the introduction of Co-op’s £5 Frozen Meal Deal, which includes a selection of frozen products and big savings,” says Staniland. “Birds Eye’s increase in multibuy promotions may be in response to that retailer’s strategy.
Products included on Birds Eye x for y promotions in the mults last month included burgers, chargrills and dippers, suggesting the brand could also be gearing up for the upcoming summer BBQ season, she adds.
Birds Eye isn’t the only brand turning back to multibuys. The mechanic accounted for 20.3% of Mr Kipling’s featured space promotions last year – a big increase for a brand that was exclusively using single price promotions this time last year.
There was also a small increase in multibuys from Walkers, which increased bogofs by 1.3 percentage points to 3.99% of its total featured space promotions. The crisp brand also almost doubled the number of deals in stores compared with last year.
| 4 weeks to 07/05/2017 | |||||||||
| Ranking | Rank last month | Brand | Number of promotions | Change m-o-m | Change y-o-y | Average % saving | Average % saving 1 year ago | Average % saving 1 month ago | Average savings % change y-o-y |
| 1 | 1 | Cadbury | 577 | 832 | 439 | 24.6% | 29.6% | 19.3% | -5.0% |
| 2 | 3 | Walkers | 274 | 279 | 150 | 20.5% | 33.0% | 18.3% | -12.5% |
| 3 | 2 | Nestle | 220 | 340 | 338 | 32.1% | 31.8% | 27.8% | 0.2% |
| 4 | 4 | McVitie’s | 219 | 229 | 253 | 34.9% | 35.0% | 36.8% | -0.1% |
| 5 | 5 | Birds Eye | 200 | 216 | 196 | 31.2% | 31.3% | 30.9% | 0.0% |
| 6 | 6 | Mars | 137 | 168 | 198 | 38.3% | 38.3% | 36.6% | 0.0% |
| 7 | 9 | Kellogg’s | 129 | 116 | 149 | 34.2% | 39.5% | 35.5% | -5.2% |
| 8 | 8 | Coca-Cola | 127 | 121 | 148 | 25.7% | 39.6% | 30.8% | -14.0% |
| 9 | 10 | Heinz | 126 | 115 | 100 | 26.7% | 24.7% | 26.8% | 2.0% |
| 10 | 7 | Mr Kipling | 123 | 145 | 137 | 30.8% | 34.6% | 30.6% | -3.8% |
| Total o/l | 1765 | 1737 | 1821 | 25.7% | 26.4% | 25.4% | -0.7% | ||
| Total brands | 9411 | 10015 | 10301 | 29.8% | 32.4% | 28.9% | -2.5% | ||
| Total | 11176 | 11752 | 12122 | 29.2% | 31.5% | 28.4% | -2.3% |
Published in The Grocer, 18 May 2017