Case Study
Face-to-Face Consumer Interviews For Havering Council
Shoppers with healthy eating aspirations would do well to avoid a trip to the supermarkets this month. Featured space promotions in the most recent four-week period analysed by promotion experts Assosia were dominated by chocolate, cakes and fizzy drinks, with fewer deals on fruit this January than last year.
Confectionery deals made up 6.38% of featured space promotions, with cakes and pastries 3.42%, fizzy drinks 2.96% and biscuits 3.3%. Deals on fruit accounted for 2.81% of featured space promotions, down from 3.27% last year. Vegetable deals were flat at just 2% (Assosia 4 w/e 24 January 2016).
“It comes back to the impulse categories still being the ones with the money who can pay to be off fixture,” says Assosia MD Kay Staniland.
A snapshot of all deals on 25 January shows the picture is similar in the aisles. Confectionery deals alone outstripped fruit and vegetables by a third, with 1,895 confectionery promotions compared with 1,156 discounts on fruit and veg. Confectionery deals are also creeping back into the foyer. Some 14.81% of Mars’ promotions and 3.69% of Nestles were in this space, compared with none a year ago.
Till aisles were also targeted by confectionery brands. Some 14.48% of Cadbury promotions were here (2015: 7.14%) and 14.81% of Mars’ (2015: 14.81%).
Other brands showed new preference for the back aisle. Birds Eye, Kellogg’s and Walkers all pulled back from the power aisle in favour of this.
within the brands, Cadbury retained the number one position, with 366 featured space promotions in the mults with an average saving of 30%. This was an almost identical number of promotions compared with last year, but a 17.4% reduction on the previous four weeks, which included Christmas.
McVitie’s ran more promotions than last year, climbing to number two, while third-placed Nestle scaled back by 13.9% month on month.
Two new suppliers entered the top 10 this month: Kellogg’s and Hardys.
| 4 weeks to 24/01/2016 | ||||||||
| 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 | 366 | -17.38% | 0.55% | 30.01% | -1.7% | -0.3% |
| 2 | 3 | McVitie’s | 236 | 7.27% | -3.28% | 34.49% | 0.7% | 1.8% |
| 3 | 2 | Nestle | 217 | -13.89% | 3.83% | 35.49% | 0.8% | -1.6% |
| 4 | 4 | Birds Eye | 201 | -5.19% | 2.03% | 33.15% | 0.4% | -1.9% |
| 5 | 6 | Coca-Cola | 161 | -8.00% | 11.03% | 36.49% | 7.2% | 8.0% |
| 6 | 7 | Walkers | 127 | -13.61% | -28.65% | 35.70% | -0.2% | -1.6% |
| 7 | 15 | Kellogg’s | 125 | 56.25% | 20.19% | 40.99% | 5.6% | 1.0% |
| 8 | 5 | Mars | 135 | -23.73% | 60.71% | 36.79% | 0.9% | 1.3% |
| 9 | 8 | Mr Kipling | 119 | -10.53% | 27.96% | 32.87% | 0.0% | 1.2% |
| 10 | 18 | Hardy’s | 86 | 13.16% | -23.21% | 32.53% | -5.0% | -6.6% |
| Total o/l | 1931 | -6.17% | 8.36% | 27.3% | 0.5% | 0.2% | ||
| Total brands | 10241 | -6.07% | 9.48% | 31.68% | 0.4% | -0.5% | ||
| Total | 12172 | -6.09% | 9.30% | 32.51% | 1.9% | -0.7% |
Published in The Grocer, 01 February 2016