Pricing a new product is tough: Charge too much and it won’t sell. Charge too little and forgo revenue or undermine brand equity. […]
Manufacturers regularly use different pack sizes to meet a variety of needs. It’s easy to imagine drinking a can of coke for lunch, […]
Brand manufacturers and retailers are eager to meet consumers’ variety needs. Given the diversity of consumers’ tastes and preferences, offering a wide assortment […]
It is not a secret that smaller pack sizes are usually more expensive per gram or liter than larger ones. Examples of brands […]
Brand manufacturers provide choice not only via variety of assortment but also variety of pack sizes. Recently, smaller pack sizes have become fashionable […]
About 30% of families in New York only have one child1. Imagine that: no competition between you and your siblings, but with it, […]
Today, consumers have various concerns when choosing food and these considerations can often be overwhelming; too much fat, too much sugar, not convenient, […]
Across Europe* shoppers are visiting FMCG retailers less frequently, with the average number of visits per shopper declining by 2.2%between 2012 and 2015. […]
FMCG brands struggle to keep more than 50% of last year’s buyers – especially if they are small and compete in rarely purchased […]
We have previously shown that the most effective way to drive brand growth is by attracting additional buyers (i.e. foster penetration), but fundamentally, […]
For a brand, the launch of new products can have many benefits, such as exciting consumers, outplaying competitors, keeping brand image dynamic, satisfying […]
Across categories and brands, innovations are seen as a vital requirement to remain relevant, increase sales and gain new buyers. However, not all […]
How do new products impact growth and decline of brands? At first glance, it seems they don’t: The 15% fastest growing brands get […]
Retailer and manufacturer battles have been in the news lately across Europe, with some high profile cases making it difficult for some consumers […]
It probably won’t come as a surprise that categories that are purchased at least 20 times per year are also categories that are […]
Earlier this year we identified three ingredients for brand size: Penetration – How many consumers purchase a brand? Frequency – How often do […]
High distribution (i.e. the share of all relevant outlets where a brand is on sale) plays a major role in determining a brand’s […]
Consumer churn is a major challenge for FMCG brands: The average top ten brand loses about half of its buyers from year to […]
Assortment variety is essential for retailer listings and, as we have shown before, for brand penetration. At the same time, choice overload is […]
Consumers increasingly shop via click and collect, a blended retailer format that combines online ordering and collecting goods at a pick-up point. A […]
Recently we showed that even leading brands struggle to attract a majority of category buyers (see “The top brands don’t get all the […]
There are three components that explain high or low brand sales: 1. Penetration – How many consumers purchase a brand? 2. Frequency – […]
Even leading brands struggle to attract a majority of category buyers. Across 13 countries and over 80 categories, the top brand, on average, […]
“Premium brands command higher loyalty and are predominantly bought by affluent consumers” – these are two popular beliefs on brand premiumization, a branding […]
Consumers are often confronted with product categories within a fixed space (e.g. freezer or check-out) that are not connected with their planned purchase. […]
How much market share can the number one national brand in a category claim? Across 17 markets and 79 categories we find that […]
You would expect popular everyday brands to be chosen frequently by most of its buyers. Let’s take a look at a popular brand […]
“Innovate or die” is a frequently used statement to emphasize the importance of launching new products. Some recent trends show that FMCG products […]
“Spend a little – live a lot” – is Aldi’s value proposition for consumers looking for superior product quality for a low price. […]
Our last blog entry showed that across eight European countries the top ten manufacturers are responsible for just below half of total value […]
“Tummy in, chest out” – a saying which reminds us to correct our body position to signal increased self-confidence. For several years, academic […]
Green (reusable) shopping bags not only offer peace of mind, but also influence consumer in-store behaviour. An analysis of 936,232 purchases by 5,987 […]
Complaints about retailer concentration in FMCG are omnipresent. The top 5 banners in many European markets sell 50% or more of total FMCG […]
In our last blog we investigated how category penetration and purchase frequency impact the variety shoppers encounter in that category (see April 16). […]
How do category purchase frequency and category penetration impact the variety shoppers encounter? To answer this question, we investigate category assortments across 8 […]
Retail prices usually show a price per package, let’s say €1.50 for a 500g pack of Barilla spaghetti. Shoppers may additionally check the unit price […]
Do some categories have more star performers than others? We analyzed the value sales coming from the average SKU in food, beverage, household […]
The increasing reliance on price promotions to boost sales is a frequently discussed and often lamented topic. With good reason. One thousand categories […]
The smaller your brand and the lower the purchase frequency of your category the more you rely on light brand buyers. This is […]
Does it matter whether a product’s price (when spoken) shares letters with a consumer’s name or numbers of their birthday date? Why should […]
A few years ago we confirmed academic studies* showing that the relationship between a household’s PL share at a given retailer and the […]
Brand managers and academics agree that strong brand equity is a key to brand success. A recent study empirically links two prominent perspectives […]
Where do we find more share growth: among big or small brands? Looking at some 5000 brands across many markets for which we […]
Total FMCG growth has been modest over the past five years. However, this observation hides substantial category differences. We examined whether innovations are […]
Retailer-initiated price wars are a popular strategy to battle for market share. When in October 2003 Dutch retailer Albert Heijn announced price cuts […]
The Turkish retail landscape is characterised by a mix of traditional open bazars, specialist shops, small grocery shops and modern supermarkets. Traditional retail […]
Innovation is an essential growth strategy for both brand manufacturers and retailers. New products allow companies to charge higher prices and create differentiation […]
New products serve many functions for a brand – to introduce technological/functional changes, to attract non-buyers or to enhance positioning. They may also […]
Many people struggle with percentage calculations. One of the challenges arises from a phenomenon called base value neglect (BVN), the tendency to ignore […]
Brand anthropomorphization is the association of a brand with human-like characteristics, motivations, and behaviours to enable closer relationships between consumers and brands. A […]
Looking at over 13000 brands (all of which are in the top 10) in 79 categories across 14 countries, there are substantial differences […]
Less than 10% of all category leaders have market shares of more than 50% whereas more than one third has less than 20% […]
The average brand in a frequently purchased category (more than ten times per year) is sold on promotion by at least one of […]
Grocery E-Commerce reach differs widely between countries in comparable stages of their retail development. While 6 out of 10 South Koreans purchases online […]
A recent trend among manufacturers and retailers are exclusive deals limiting the brand’s availability to only one retailer. A study investigates an exclusive […]
A substantial percentage of a brand’s buyers this year will not buy it in the next year (see our previous newsletter how brand […]
FMCG boasts a balanced mixture of local, regional and global brands. Investigating the presence of some 750 Top 3 share brands across 30 […]
Growth is about penetration: retaining and increasing the number of shoppers choosing the brand. Combining how many households around the world are buying […]
There are two types of repeat customers: One group repeats choice based on habit and another group repeats choice because of brand preference. […]
To maintain a brand’s sales level it needs to continuously attract new buyers. Why? Because for the average brand more than half its […]
The increasing reliance of brands on price promotions to influence consumer choice is widely reported. While we do not see much difference between […]
A recent study covering 36 brands in 15 categories compares online metrics with attitude survey metrics in their ability to explain sales. While […]
Double jeopardy is well documented: Compared to larger brands, smaller brands have fewer buyers that buy them slightly less often. However, these small […]
Past contributions to this newsletter have shown that bigger brands have more buyers and growing brands grow by attracting more buyers. How much […]
As online grocery shopping continues to grow, interesting regional patterns in the profile of this channel are emerging. In GB, for example, we […]
A recent study amongst UK households shows that retailer loyalty of multi-channel shoppers decreases the more experienced they are as shoppers. Initially, shoppers […]
A recent analysis covering panel data from 14 European countries, Russia and the US compares the price ratio between brands and private labels […]
Identifying the category leader in 79 categories across 16 countries reveals vast differences regarding brand preference. In only 16 categories we find the […]
A recent study evaluates how extending into higher versus lower quality levels respectively impacts the brand image of middle-tier brands. Results show asymmetrical […]
The examination of national brand (NB) prices relative to their private label (PL) peers in 1100 categories across 16 countries reveal some surprising […]
Comparing the leading brand in a category with its followers reveals several interesting commonalities and discrepancies. Looking at some 6000 brands across Europe […]
Price promotions can lower consumers’ motivation to think rationally during the purchasing process. Because the (financial) risk of making wrong decision decreases, emotions […]
Some headlines on recent retailer developments: In the 14 Western European countries, the number of major retailer banners used per household per year […]
A recent study on willingness-to-pay for brands versus private labels in the pharmaceutical industry shows that the more consumers are educated the more […]
The positive impact of innovations on brand success is well-known: By enhancing a brand’s equity, they justify the price premium, attract buyers and […]
Across the ‘Big 6’ Western European markets, the average household shops 3 to 4 times per week, spending an average of € 20 […]
Brand range and size are related – likely reinforcing each other: Bigger brands are able to get more SKUs listed and more SKUs […]
A study of 449 FMCG categories in six European markets reveals an interesting pattern between Private Label share and category growth. Categories which […]
The discount channel has become an increasingly important channel in recent years throughout Europe, albeit at different levels in different countries. An ever […]
Many brand manufacturers strive to position their brands as premium in an attempt to achieve higher differentiation, loyalty and margins. A simple price-based […]
The average shopper passes through less than half of the aisles in a typical grocery retailer. Obviously, products in the remaining store cannot […]
Private Label (PL) success in a category is often linked to price in contradictory theories: (1) A large price gap between brands and […]
Many global brands are shifting production to sites in countries with lower manufacturing costs or share production between different sites. This may result in […]
Number 1 brands are not only big but their strength also enables them to command a price premium compared with other brands in their […]
In a previous blog we showed that the average brand loses more than half of its buyers every year. Surprisingly, this loss is […]
A recent study investigates how shoppers make sense of changes in packaging. Not surprisingly, their estimates of pack size changes are most precise […]
For regular readers of supermarket leaflets this piece of news may not come as a surprise: The percentage of FMCG sold on promotion […]
Over the past five years prices of Private Labels have increased by an average of 10% – the same change as for National […]
In a project conducted by Europanel and Roland Berger Consultants for The Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council Europe, nine emerging but poorly met shopper […]
Among some 6000 brands studied in 79 categories across 13 European countries the 500 brands with the biggest volume share gains 2008-2012 have […]
Well-stocked shelves are considered important for several reasons: orderly appearance of the aisle, lower likelihood of out-of-stocks and higher visual impact for the […]
The first quarter of 2014 shows a relatively weak trend for FMCG volume sales partly due to different seasonal timings compared with 2014. […]
Confronted with high Private Label (PL) shares in their category, brand manufacturers often blame increasing commoditization as if it was a law […]
Topics We will invite a professor from our network to present a recent piece of research – most likely in the field of […]
A study* looking at UK sales of FMCG brands around 15 major sports events shows that: Ad spend around the event increases by […]
When it comes to online shopping, the FMCG industry is still in its infancy. With the exceptions of South Korea (9% share), UK […]
Exploring 5 year trends of some 2,400 major brands in 79 FMCG categories across eight European markets reveals two very consistent patterns: Whether […]
An analysis of 2,400 large (> 2% share) brands in 79 FMCG categories reveals that the average brand loses 55% of its buyers […]
The safest way to become a category leader is to be category leader five years earlier. However, there are exceptions. In several hundred […]
A meta analysis of the impact of shelf space allocation on brand and category sales reveals that increases in shelf space have a […]
It may start feeling like groundhog day: In 2013 across Europe, we see Private Labels increase their shares by about half a percentage […]