Promo Dynamic – Innocent Wages War With Tropicana In NFC Promo Arena
The Grocer
Innocent’s entry into the not-from-concentrate juices market in 2010 sparked a promotional war with Tropicana that has been waged ever since. Between them, the two giants of the category now account for over 75% of featured space promotions within chilled fruit juice and smoothies [Assosia 52 w/e 31 December 2012], with Innocent overtaking Tropicana last year in terms of both number and proportion of category deals.
Rival suppliers put the percentage of Innocent chilled juice sold on deal at between 80% and 90%, and although Innocent itself suggests the figure is closer to 60% to 70%, it is unconcerned at the high level of product sold on deal.
“We’ve been using deep-cut promotions on gondola ends to drive penetration, and shallower multibuys on the fixture to drive weight of purchase,” says commercial director Dave Pickup. “All of those things have worked together to deliver growth.”
Intense promotional activity in the chiller cabinet is partly responsible for the consumer migration from ambient to chilled. But ambient suppliers have begun to hit back with deep-cut deals of their own. “In the past 12 weeks, we have driven volume sales through hard-hitting price-down activity and continued investment to educate consumers about ambient’s quality and convenience, and we are confident that this will help close this gap,” says Joanna Watling, marketing director for Princes.
Published in The Grocer, 02 March 2013