Case Study
Face-to-Face Consumer Interviews For Havering Council
Coca-Cola has continued to ditch multibuys as it looks to satisfy shoppers’ growing thirst for everyday low prices.
The soft drinks giant, which recently revealed plans to pull Coke Life from shelves, has cut x-for-y deals to just 28% of its total featured space promotions, while ramping up ‘save’ deals by 25.7 percentage points year on year, so they now account for 65.2% of its total offers [Promodynamic Brands 4 w/e 9 April 2017].
As a result, multibuys now account for just 31.1% of all featured space promotions on Coke, down from 57.9% of deals this time last year.
“Coca-Cola has previously used the multibuy mechanic across its range, with x-for-y deals dominating as its preferred promotional format” says Assosia director Kay Staniland.
“However, following the push by both retailers and other brands, there has been a significant switch to single price point promotions.”
Coke’s position in store has also seen a change, Staniland adds. “Whilst the main promotional ‘power aisle’ still accounts for 58.3% of its promotional space, till aisle locations have been reduced to only 20.9% of space (down almost 11 percentage points year on year), with no presence in the entrance/foyer, and back aisle locations increased to 29.9%.”
Although the move away from multibuys brings Coke in line with the other major promoting brands, it actually means shoppers are saving less on Coke, with average % savings on the brand’s featured space promotions down 8.3 percentage points to 30.9%. Coke has also cut the number of deals in stores – down 24.3% year on year to 115.
This reflects a wider trend in the supermarkets, with deals on carbonated drinks accounting for a smaller share of offers than last year, and average savings in the category down 6.8 percentage points year on year. Savings were also down across other impulse categories, with crisps, nuts & snacks showing the biggest drop.
| 4 weeks to 09/04/2017 | ||||||||
| 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 | 832 | 76.65% | 85.30% | 19.3% | -7.8% | -8.2% |
| 2 | 5 | Walkers | 280 | 73.91% | 124.00% | 18.4% | -15.4% | -14.0% |
| 3 | 4 | Nestle | 273 | 13.75% | -19.71% | 28.7% | -4.9% | -2.7% |
| 4 | 2 | McVitie’s | 229 | -7.66% | -11.92% | 36.6% | 1.2% | 2.1% |
| 5 | 3 | Birds Eye | 216 | -11.11% | 0.00% | 31.7% | -1.9% | -0.2% |
| 6 | 8 | Mars | 148 | 30.97% | -18.68% | 37.0% | -2.0% | -0.3% |
| 7 | 6 | Mr Kipling | 142 | 3.65% | 25.66% | 30.6% | -3.1% | -4.3% |
| 8 | 10 | Heinz | 115 | 16.16% | 15.00% | 26.8% | -0.7% | 2.5% |
| 9 | 7 | Coca-Cola | 115 | -4.17% | -24.34% | 30.9% | 0.3% | -8.3% |
| 10 | 9 | Kellogg’s | 110 | 0.92% | -16.67% | 35.6% | -2.4% | -5.7% |
| Total o/l | 1733 | 4.02% | -4.73% | 25.4% | -0.5% | -1.1% | ||
| Total brands | 10019 | 0.99% | -2.41% | 28.9% | -2.7% | -3.6% | ||
| Total | 11752 | 1.42% | -2.76% | 28.4% | -2.4% | -3.2% |
Featured in The Grocer, 19 April 2017