Eco-Actives most critical about product labelling
Eco-Actives aim to avoid plastic waste, purchase sustainable products and seek “green” consumption. Does this behavior translate into the information these shoppers seek from manufacturers? […]
Product labelling – a critical ingredient
A large number of shoppers base their choices on an intensive examination of food labels, often using signals regarding ingredients and manufacturing to help their […]
Innovation Enablers
Many new products (NPs) share this fate: After an initial (communicative) hype they are kicked off shelves because performance is below expectations. Different reasons may […]
Eco-Actives and Retailer Choice
Out of the four segments created based on attitudes and behaviour around plastic (link to previous) the eco-actives are most concerned and it shows in […]
Plastic Behaviour Segments not as expected
Based on responses of more than 65,000 respondents in 24 countries for our #Who Cares Who Does study we derive four consumer segments based on […]
Small pack sizes are bad for you!
You may be familiar with this sequence: One small-sized chocolate bar is a justifiable and well-deserved treat because calories per serving are so much lower […]
Shoppers want industry to cut down on plastic
More pro-environmental behaviours may be the result of (un)conscious choices by consumers, government intervention or activities by industry. Regarding specific retailer or manufacturer actions, consumers* […]
Less meat – rare feat
Some weeks ago, the United Nations called for a change in human eating behaviour. Specifically, the organization stated that plant-based diets should replace meat to […]
Inspiring consumers to recycle
Do you ever think about what happens to recyclable materials after you drop them at the recycling bin? If not, please do: Current research shows […]
#WhoCaresWhoDoes?
Our #WhoCaresWhoDoes? initiative aims to support brand manufacturers and retailers to better understand consumer attitudes regarding the environment and how that translates into brand and retailer […]
How to stimulate eco-friendly engagement?
What people say and what they actually do may be entirely different. Psychologists call this phenomenon attitude-behaviour gap, which is especially prevalent for pro-environmental actions. […]
Buyer profiles: Can they be altered?
Brands have skewed success profiles for different sociodemographic groups for various reasons: The positioning of the brand within the category, the set of retailers where […]
FMCG e-commerce: Asia sets the tone
Isn’t it convenient and less time consuming to sit at home or in your office and do your shopping online? Your preferred retailer delivers your […]
Private Label lags behind Online
Private Labels (PL) have become a dominant part of the assortment of many grocery retailers. But is PL equally prominent in online as in offline […]
Baskets online still much larger than offline
Online trips on average are still infrequent and baskets typically feature lower PL shares than offline trips. But what about basket size? There are good […]
Why shoppers stick or switch
In a brand owner’s ideal world all buyers of the brand would be loyal and no one would switch to any other brand. Clearly, if […]
Brand buzz using consumer advocates
Using everyday consumers to create online buzz for brands and products is common practice in the FMCG industry. Such customer advocates (or seed agents) have […]
Categories and their ceiling
A category’s popularity in a country depends on history, cultural and consumption habits as well as marketing activities of brands and retailers. To understand the […]
Do dinosaur brands face extinction?
Big brands cannot grow their shares infinitely. Besides the obvious limit (there are only a 100 share points to distribute), new brands (and Private Label) […]
FMCG and the Environment: Lots of questions, few answers.
Reducing and recycling waste requires a systematic effort from many stakeholders. Currently, retailers and manufacturers sometimes replace plastic packaging with paper-based and biodegradable alternatives. This […]
Nutrition claims: Do they impact choice?
No sugar added. High in protein. With added vitamin C. Many products carry at least one nutrition claim emphasizing healthiness. At the shelf, shoppers often […]
Portfolio sizes differ by market
Two out of three manufacturers are single brand single category players. What about the brand portfolio size and category scope of manufacturers with a larger […]
Brand Portfolio Strategies
Brand architecture helps manufacturers to structure their different brands in a systematic way. Two main strategies exist: A Branded House strategy relies on one leading […]
House of Brands beats Branded House*
The share a brand commands is the consequence of many past actions. The decision about brand portfolios is only one of these actions. Linking share […]
The premiumization trade-off
Over the past four years about an equal number of the thousands of brands in the BG20 database has increased, decreased or not changed their […]
Premium brands – selection is key
High price brands do not prosper everywhere. Amongst top ten brands they are disproportionately frequent in Western Europe and in petfood categories: Examples of categories […]
The Size of the Price
Selling at a high price point presents opportunities as well as challenges. On the one hand a high-price strategy can pay off as brands get […]
Green packaging? Not for mainstream brands!
These days eco-friendly products hit store shelves regularly: Companies incorporate a green mind-set into their product and branding to meet many shoppers’ aspirations for sustainable […]
Small brands: More from less
Big brands are attractive for most retailers because they are able to increase shelf turnover, enjoy high equity and drawing power. Big retailers are attractive […]
Age doesn’t hinder brand growth
Is it really only young upcoming brands that thrive or are their more established peers holding up? We examined the performance of 169 top three […]
Rising Stars: Category matters
Rising brands are found more often in specific geographic areas. Besides location, do we also find sweet spots in terms of categories for such brands […]
Rising Stars and their Marketing
Europe and Latin America are promising hosts for small brands to grow, as are household categories and categories with a high PL share. We now […]
Rising Stars: How and where small brands break through
Coccolino, Fever-Tree, or La Campagnola have a common denominator: They are small brands able to increase their penetration substantially over a short period of time. […]
Brand price premium varies substantially
Private labels (PL) challenge national brands by taking away sales, eroding consumer brand equity and squeezing price levels. However, national brands (NB) continue to capitalize […]
Big brands keep more buyers
One way to assess loyalty in FMCG is the ability to keep buyers from one year to the next. Given the massive choice, abundance of […]
Brand leaders often cheaper than their peers
National brands on average manage to charge a substantial price premium compared to private labels. But do market leaders achieve this more easily than smaller […]
Want to come across more human? Use handwritten typefaces!
Manufacturers increasingly emphasize humanness in their packaging design by using typefaces that appear handwritten. Think of brands like Lindt with its Hello Chocolate bars, Rachel’s […]
Pack sizes: When offerings and preferences diverge
Besides the oft-cited examples of manufacturers reducing established pack sizes to hide price increases, several socio-economic and behavioural trends (e.g.: more single households, health consciousness, […]
Winners up their pack sizes
This blog aims to add more nuance to our understanding of pack size changes. We investigate how pack size changes are linked to a product’s […]
Share from Innovation: Not necessarily a good indicator of success!
“Share from new products” which shows how much a brand’s new offerings contribute to its total sales is often a measure of innovation success. Looking […]
New product incrementality matters to growth
Brands have to innovate and this should pay off via an increase in market share. We compare how market share winners and market share losers […]
Retail Availability and Sales
Higher distribution always pays off, but how much? A recent study investigates distribution elasticity in Systembolaget, which has a monopoly on alcohol sales in Sweden. […]
Once is not enough
Summary Duration: 01:24 Part 01: Growth Duration 04:37 Part 02: Occasions Duration: 03:38 Part 03: Levers Duration: 2:43
Top brands do better in Asia and South America than in Europe or the US
Two of the most widely used (and highly correlated) measures for a brand’s strength are market share and relative penetration (the percentage of category buyers […]
Growing penetration is hard, even for leading brands
Increasing buyer numbers is the most promising avenue for brands to achieve growth. We looked at the ability of brands to attract more buyers between […]
Category purchase frequency impacts share of leading brands and private labels
Shopping frequency for a category increases with higher consumption levels, higher storage needs, perishability or the level of impulse purchasing. It may also be the […]
Small vs. large basket trips
Missions impact the composition of shopping baskets: Consumers may shop spontaneously and buy little on a trip or alternatively plan to refill empty cupboards and […]
Promotions and popular events
Popular events like the Olympic games, Formula One, the Eurovision Song Contest or the Wimbledon Championships represent excellent occasions for brands to communicate to a […]
Physical availability and brand size
In FMCG, brands rely on retailers for their physical availability. To understand the relationship between availability and brand size we examine physical presence of national […]
Premiumisation in FMCG: Difficult to Achieve
Premiumisation is a challenging avenue for growth in FMCG given the focus on low prices in the marketing communication of both retailers and manufacturers. We […]
Private labels still selling at substantial discounts versus national brands
Retailers originally established private labels as low-priced alternatives for price-conscious shoppers. Nowadays, private labels in many categories have become very sophisticated often matching top-tier national […]
Underpriced Innovations!?
Pricing a new product is tough: Charge too much and it won’t sell. Charge too little and forgo revenue or undermine brand equity. But at […]
Do good things come with smaller packages?
Manufacturers regularly use different pack sizes to meet a variety of needs. It’s easy to imagine drinking a can of coke for lunch, a large […]
A typology of pack sizes and variety
Brand manufacturers and retailers are eager to meet consumers’ variety needs. Given the diversity of consumers’ tastes and preferences, offering a wide assortment increases the […]
Shrinkflation: Smaller packages substantially more expensive
It is not a secret that smaller pack sizes are usually more expensive per gram or liter than larger ones. Examples of brands that have […]
Downsizing: Smaller packs hurt volumes
Brand manufacturers provide choice not only via variety of assortment but also variety of pack sizes. Recently, smaller pack sizes have become fashionable to respond […]
Half of all brands face in-house competition
About 30% of families in New York only have one child1. Imagine that: no competition between you and your siblings, but with it, a loss […]
Healthy Diets – Empty Wallets
Today, consumers have various concerns when choosing food and these considerations can often be overwhelming; too much fat, too much sugar, not convenient, too expensive. […]
European consumers shop less: Do brands need to worry?
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. The resulting […]
Buyer churn: 50% does not equal half your sales
FMCG brands struggle to keep more than 50% of last year’s buyers – especially if they are small and compete in rarely purchased categories. This […]
What’s the Occasion? Brand growth!
We have previously shown that the most effective way to drive brand growth is by attracting additional buyers (i.e. foster penetration), but fundamentally, brand sales […]
Innovation, Innovation, Innovation
For a brand, the launch of new products can have many benefits, such as exciting consumers, outplaying competitors, keeping brand image dynamic, satisfying retailers and/or […]
High contribution of new products in many Personal Care categories
Across categories and brands, innovations are seen as a vital requirement to remain relevant, increase sales and gain new buyers. However, not all areas of […]
Winners Add, Losers Replace
How do new products impact growth and decline of brands? At first glance, it seems they don’t: The 15% fastest growing brands get a similar […]
In Manufacturer vs Retailer… Manufacturer Wins
Retailer and manufacturer battles have been in the news lately across Europe, with some high profile cases making it difficult for some consumers to buy […]
High Frequency Means Many Buyers!
It probably won’t come as a surprise that categories that are purchased at least 20 times per year are also categories that are purchased by […]
The usual suspect: Penetration!
Earlier this year we identified three ingredients for brand size: Penetration – How many consumers purchase a brand? Frequency – How often do consumers purchase […]
Distribution vs penetration thresholds
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 penetration (i.e., […]
Tough to keep more than 70% of last year’s buyers
Consumer churn is a major challenge for FMCG brands: The average top ten brand loses about half of its buyers from year to year. Comparing […]
Horizontal beats vertical
Assortment variety is essential for retailer listings and, as we have shown before, for brand penetration. At the same time, choice overload is frustrating and […]
In-store collection doesn’t deliver
Consumers increasingly shop via click and collect, a blended retailer format that combines online ordering and collecting goods at a pick-up point. A recent study* […]
Small brands: Less bang for the buck
Recently we showed that even leading brands struggle to attract a majority of category buyers (see “The top brands don’t get all the buyers!”). But […]
3 ingredients for brand sales success
There are three components that explain high or low brand sales: 1. Penetration – How many consumers purchase a brand? 2. Frequency – How often […]
The top brands don’t get all the buyers!
Even leading brands struggle to attract a majority of category buyers. Across 13 countries and over 80 categories, the top brand, on average, captures 24% […]
Premium brands: Are they really different?
“Premium brands command higher loyalty and are predominantly bought by affluent consumers” – these are two popular beliefs on brand premiumization, a branding strategy to […]
Bad neighbours may be other categories
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. For example, […]
Big Means 0.25
How much market share can the number one national brand in a category claim? Across 17 markets and 79 categories we find that the top […]
Real Lovers are Rare
You would expect popular everyday brands to be chosen frequently by most of its buyers. Let’s take a look at a popular brand in the […]
Tired of Innovating?!
“Innovate or die” is a frequently used statement to emphasize the importance of launching new products. Some recent trends show that FMCG products may need […]
On-Off: Aldi’s relationship with National Brands
“Spend a little – live a lot” – is Aldi’s value proposition for consumers looking for superior product quality for a low price. In delivering […]
Local and Global Heroes
Our last blog entry showed that across eight European countries the top ten manufacturers are responsible for just below half of total value sales across […]
The secret of positioning
“Tummy in, chest out” – a saying which reminds us to correct our body position to signal increased self-confidence. For several years, academic research builds […]
Cookies & Quinoa: the effect of green shopping bags
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 US households […]
10 – 47 – 20: Manufacturers, market share, brands
Complaints about retailer concentration in FMCG are omnipresent. The top 5 banners in many European markets sell 50% or more of total FMCG value, and […]
Pet care least innovative
In our last blog we investigated how category penetration and purchase frequency impact the variety shoppers encounter in that category (see April 16). This time […]
Category clutter – a result of frequency and penetration
How do category purchase frequency and category penetration impact the variety shoppers encounter? To answer this question, we investigate category assortments across 8 markets and […]
Unit pricing helps value brands
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 provided, in […]
How much to expect from a SKU
Do some categories have more star performers than others? We analyzed the value sales coming from the average SKU in food, beverage, household and personal […]
The vicious circle of sales promotions
The increasing reliance on price promotions to boost sales is a frequently discussed and often lamented topic. With good reason. One thousand categories across many […]
Small + infrequent = LIGHT
The smaller your brand and the lower the purchase frequency of your category the more you rely on light brand buyers. This is the result […]
If it sounds like me, it is mine.
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 it? – […]
Private Labels build retailer loyalty … to a point
A few years ago we confirmed academic studies* showing that the relationship between a household’s PL share at a given retailer and the share of […]
Heart, Mind and Brand Sales
Brand managers and academics agree that strong brand equity is a key to brand success. A recent study empirically links two prominent perspectives on brand […]
Tiny but mighty
Where do we find more share growth: among big or small brands? Looking at some 5000 brands across many markets for which we have at […]
Category Growth Higher where Innovations are Plenty
Total FMCG growth has been modest over the past five years. However, this observation hides substantial category differences. We examined whether innovations are a major […]
Price War – Love it or Leave it
Retailer-initiated price wars are a popular strategy to battle for market share. When in October 2003 Dutch retailer Albert Heijn announced price cuts for more […]
FMCG shopping in Turkey – Tradition vs Modernity
The Turkish retail landscape is characterised by a mix of traditional open bazars, specialist shops, small grocery shops and modern supermarkets. Traditional retail channels still […]
Innovation by Retailers: Rare, but there
Innovation is an essential growth strategy for both brand manufacturers and retailers. New products allow companies to charge higher prices and create differentiation vis-à-vis competitors. […]
The Price of New
New products serve many functions for a brand – to introduce technological/functional changes, to attract non-buyers or to enhance positioning. They may also translate into […]
Percentages are hard to grasp
Many people struggle with percentage calculations. One of the challenges arises from a phenomenon called base value neglect (BVN), the tendency to ignore the base […]
More human – less fair?
Brand anthropomorphization is the association of a brand with human-like characteristics, motivations, and behaviours to enable closer relationships between consumers and brands. A recent study, […]
Brand name leverage lower in Foods
Looking at over 13000 brands (all of which are in the top 10) in 79 categories across 14 countries, there are substantial differences in the […]
Lower shares can lead in frequent categories
Less than 10% of all category leaders have market shares of more than 50% whereas more than one third has less than 20% share. What […]
Small brands rely on promotion
The average brand in a frequently purchased category (more than ten times per year) is sold on promotion by at least one of the top […]
Wide variation in e-commerce
Grocery E-Commerce reach differs widely between countries in comparable stages of their retail development. While 6 out of 10 South Koreans purchases online at least […]
Exclusive listings don’t help
A recent trend among manufacturers and retailers are exclusive deals limiting the brand’s availability to only one retailer. A study investigates an exclusive arrangement with […]
Acquisition drives growth more than retention
A substantial percentage of a brand’s buyers this year will not buy it in the next year (see our previous newsletter how brand market share […]
Local icon or global hero?
FMCG boasts a balanced mixture of local, regional and global brands. Investigating the presence of some 750 Top 3 share brands across 30 categories in […]
Half of the world’s households buy Colgate
Growth is about penetration: retaining and increasing the number of shoppers choosing the brand. Combining how many households around the world are buying a brand […]
Don’t try changing habits
There are two types of repeat customers: One group repeats choice based on habit and another group repeats choice because of brand preference. The former […]
Leakiness less when large
To maintain a brand’s sales level it needs to continuously attract new buyers. Why? Because for the average brand more than half its buyers in […]
Appealing without promoting?
The increasing reliance of brands on price promotions to influence consumer choice is widely reported. While we do not see much difference between the promotion […]
How to seduce customers online
A recent study covering 36 brands in 15 categories compares online metrics with attitude survey metrics in their ability to explain sales. While online metrics […]
Triple whammy for small brands
Double jeopardy is well documented: Compared to larger brands, smaller brands have fewer buyers that buy them slightly less often. However, these small brands have […]
Penetration drives share – at different rates
Past contributions to this newsletter have shown that bigger brands have more buyers and growing brands grow by attracting more buyers. How much an additional […]
Online grocery shopping – many pockets for growth
As online grocery shopping continues to grow, interesting regional patterns in the profile of this channel are emerging. In GB, for example, we observe a […]
Experienced multi-channel buyers start cheating
A recent study amongst UK households shows that retailer loyalty of multi-channel shoppers decreases the more experienced they are as shoppers. Initially, shoppers tend to […]
High price and penetration can coexist
A recent analysis covering panel data from 14 European countries, Russia and the US compares the price ratio between brands and private labels across 79 […]
Truly dominant brands in FMCG exist, but rare
Identifying the category leader in 79 categories across 16 countries reveals vast differences regarding brand preference. In only 16 categories we find the same brand […]
Value extensions less damaging than expected
A recent study evaluates how extending into higher versus lower quality levels respectively impacts the brand image of middle-tier brands. Results show asymmetrical effects: Extending […]
Price Premia of Brands over Private Labels differ substantially
The examination of national brand (NB) prices relative to their private label (PL) peers in 1100 categories across 16 countries reveal some surprising insights. As […]
What it’s like being #1
Comparing the leading brand in a category with its followers reveals several interesting commonalities and discrepancies. Looking at some 6000 brands across Europe shows that […]
Price promotions reduce thinking
Price promotions can lower consumers’ motivation to think rationally during the purchasing process. Because the (financial) risk of making wrong decision decreases, emotions outweigh rational […]
Big retailers continue their growth
Some headlines on recent retailer developments: In the 14 Western European countries, the number of major retailer banners used per household per year is now […]
Beware the informed shopper
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 they prefer […]
New is not easy to do
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 help to […]
Similar but different
Across the ‘Big 6’ Western European markets, the average household shops 3 to 4 times per week, spending an average of € 20 per trip. This […]
Range matters – up to a point
Brand range and size are related – likely reinforcing each other: Bigger brands are able to get more SKUs listed and more SKUs increase the […]
Private Label hurts category volume
A study of 449 FMCG categories in six European markets reveals an interesting pattern between Private Label share and category growth. Categories which experience an […]
Discount shoppers: More upmarket than you’d expect
The discount channel has become an increasingly important channel in recent years throughout Europe, albeit at different levels in different countries. An ever increasing number […]
Where are the premium brands?
Many brand manufacturers strive to position their brands as premium in an attempt to achieve higher differentiation, loyalty and margins. A simple price-based analysis reveals […]
Distance matters: In-store travel drives impulse
The average shopper passes through less than half of the aisles in a typical grocery retailer. Obviously, products in the remaining store cannot be part […]
Brand Price Premium not related to Private Label Success
Private Label (PL) success in a category is often linked to price in contradictory theories: (1) A large price gap between brands and PL provides […]
Brand Authenticity: Manufacturing site matters
Many global brands are shifting production to sites in countries with lower manufacturing costs or share production between different sites. This may result in loss of […]
Even Heavy Buyers Will Stop buying next year
In a previous blog we showed that the average brand loses more than half of its buyers every year. Surprisingly, this loss is also true […]
The right (or wrong) of changing pack size
A recent study investigates how shoppers make sense of changes in packaging. Not surprisingly, their estimates of pack size changes are most precise if a […]
Less than 1 in 4 items sold is a brand at regular price
For regular readers of supermarket leaflets this piece of news may not come as a surprise: The percentage of FMCG sold on promotion is on […]
Price gap between Brands and Private Label widens
Over the past five years prices of Private Labels have increased by an average of 10% – the same change as for National Brands across […]
Shopper needs waiting to be addressed
In a project conducted by Europanel and Roland Berger Consultants for The Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council Europe, nine emerging but poorly met shopper needs were […]
Winning brands: Only 3% price increase over 5 years
Among some 6000 brands studied in 79 categories across 13 European countries the 500 brands with the biggest volume share gains 2008-2012 have increased prices […]
Want to increase sales? Empty your shelves!
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 brand. A […]
FMCG slows in early 2014
The first quarter of 2014 shows a relatively weak trend for FMCG volume sales partly due to different seasonal timings compared with 2014. Easter was […]
Private Label Success: Don’t blame the category!
Confronted with high Private Label (PL) shares in their category, brand manufacturers often blame increasing commoditization as if it was a law of nature. […]
Business Challenge 2
Topics We will invite a professor from our network to present a recent piece of research – most likely in the field of digital marketing. […]
Advertising around Sports Events – an own goal?
A study* looking at UK sales of FMCG brands around 15 major sports events shows that: Ad spend around the event increases by 25% as […]
E-Commerce: will the rest of Europe follow?
When it comes to online shopping, the FMCG industry is still in its infancy. With the exceptions of South Korea (9% share), UK (5%), France […]
How to grow share: get more buyers
Exploring 5 year trends of some 2,400 major brands in 79 FMCG categories across eight European markets reveals two very consistent patterns: Whether the brand […]
Most current brand buyers will not buy next year
An analysis of 2,400 large (> 2% share) brands in 79 FMCG categories reveals that the average brand loses 55% of its buyers from one […]
The safest way to become a category leader…
The safest way to become a category leader is to be category leader five years earlier. However, there are exceptions. In several hundred categories investigated, […]
Shelf space elasticities higher for increases
A meta analysis of the impact of shelf space allocation on brand and category sales reveals that increases in shelf space have a stronger sales […]
No sign of private labels slowing down
It may start feeling like groundhog day: In 2013 across Europe, we see Private Labels increase their shares by about half a percentage point. Over […]