Case Study
Face-to-Face Consumer Interviews For Havering Council
Heinz continues to ramp up promotional activity in the mult as it looks to revive flagging sales of its soups and beans.
There were 126 featured space promotions on Heinz products in the major mults over the past month, up 43.2% compared with the same four-week period last year [Promo Dynamic Brands 4 w/e October 2017].
It comes as Heinz last week unveiled the second phase of an £8m advertising push for its soups portfolio, which saw sales plummet 16% last year, according to Kraft Heinz’s latest accounts. Sales of Heinz beans were down 5% in 2016.
Despite the latest promotional push to boost sales, average savings on Heinz products have dipped by 2% year on year to 38.5%, the lowest of the top 10 biggest promoters, as the brand continues to scale back on multibuys in favour of single-price point promotions.
X for y deals accounted for just 9.5% of total featured space promotions on Heinz products last month, down 20 percentage points year on year. Save deals were up 17.6 percentage points to account for 88.1% of the total.
Heinz isn’t the only brand to have cut the depth of savings on its deals compared with last year, with six out of the top 10 biggest-promoting brands offering lower savings, says Assosia director Kay Staniland. “Coca-Cola’s savings dropped by 7%, from 35.4% last year to just 27.5%,” she adds.
However, with Birds Eye, Walkers, Nestle and Mars all offering better savings on their products, total average savings were up by 0.5 percentage points to 30.9%.
“Mars offers the best savings of around 38%, which has remained consistent over both the past month and past year, unlike other brands, which fluctuate far more,” says Staniland.
Mars was the only brand to increase promotions in the foyer, with most of the top 10 reducing promotional activity in both the foyer and till aisles.
“The best average savings (31.6%) can still be found in the power aisle, home to 56% of offers, compared to the worst savings of 24% in the foyer,” Staniland adds.
| 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 | 520 | -5.80% | 1.56% | 30.6% | 0.9% | -0.5% |
| 2 | 2 | McVitie’s | 269 | 13.98% | 13.03% | 33.5% | 0.1% | -4.2% |
| 3 | 3 | Birds Eye | 185 | -4.15% | -8.42% | 33.3% | 1.0% | 2.1% |
| 4 | 4 | Walkers | 181 | 0.00% | -3.21% | 36.0% | 1.3% | 1.6% |
| 5 | 5 | Nestle | 144 | -8.28% | -50.00% | 36.6% | 2.3% | 2.4% |
| 6 | 7 | Coca-Cola | 128 | -2.29% | 18.52% | 28.1% | 0.6% | -7.3% |
| 7 | 6 | Kellogg’s | 127 | -9.29% | 27.00% | 35.2% | -1.1% | -0.9% |
| 8 | 8 | Heinz | 126 | 0.00% | 43.18% | 24.8% | -0.1% | -2.0% |
| 9 | 11 | Mars | 119 | 23.96% | -28.31% | 38.5% | 0.4% | 0.2% |
| 10 | 9 | Mr Kipling | 117 | 6.36% | 12.50% | 33.8% | -0.2% | -2.2% |
| Total o/l | 1690 | -0.24% | -10.49% | 26.9% | 0.5% | 1.9% | ||
| Total brands | 9765 | 0.90% | -5.73% | 31.6% | 1.0% | 0.2% | ||
| Total | 11455 | 0.73% | -6.47% | 30.9% | 0.9% | 0.5% |
Published in The Grocer, 26 October 2017