How to beat the discounters without destroying your margins
Here’s the transcript…
So you’re an FMCG brand and you know that whoever in your market is discounting to £1 sells the most. How can your marketing break this race to the bottom in store? How do you sell a load of crisps, say, at a decent profit when your competitors simply drop their prices to undercut you?
It’s a tricky one, but there’s a couple of things you can do. It’s all about driving sales through communicating value, not cheapness.
The first thing to do is ensure your products stand out in store – and be sure you’re going to stand out by proving it with data.
A solution like Visual Display Analysis applies eye tracking data to visual assets so that you can prove standout – without paying for expensive eye tracking experiments. And there’s nothing to stop you running VDA on your competitors displays, either.
Got a bigger budget and a strategically minded boss? Then maybe you can compete beyond price using strategic brand building, and activate your brand strategy in store and out.
For example, you don’t get much differentiation when it comes to buying bananas. Most people don’t even consider they’re buying a brand of bananas.
But Chiquita have rolled out a load of brand activations in store that drive consumers to their brand. By considering the consumer touchpoints of the banana buyer, they’ve made progress – using content to establish the brand in peoples’ exercise regimes, cooking, and as a food that’s good for the kids.
So, marketing in store doesn’t have to be about price, and constantly cutting your profits off at the knees.
It always come back to providing customers with value beyond just being cheap. Great content, a joined-up brand strategy and in-store standout will help you stay competitive.