>>last minute christmas spending...and a lesson in marketing
Atkins advocates remain unconvincing
from Dr Tamara de Grassi, Flour Advisory Bureau, London SW1
Residue problem products withdrawn
from Ian Gillott, British Leafy Salads Association
biodegradable bags must be cheap
from Peter Yarwood, Transware Consultancy
more work needed on the decorations
from Karl McKeever, brand director, Visual Thinking
Those retailers getting a bit twitchy about Christmas will not be reassured by the exclusive research into festive shopping habits published on page 32 of this issue.
For starters, the research shows that consumers are, as always, planning to leave their main food shopping until the last possible moment. Most will do it in the two weeks leading up to Christmas Day, but an amazing 16% of those we quizzed don’t expect to do their big shop until the last few days before December 25.
We all know that this last minute rush causes huge supply chain headaches for the whole industry, but it also makes it nigh-on impossible for retailers to judge the mood of shoppers. But consumers are a canny bunch: they know to wait for retailers to lose their nerve and start slashing prices. Given the competitive state of grocery at the moment, and the way prices are now spiralling down in many key categories (booze being the obvious one), it should come as no surprise to learn that shoppers do not expect to spend any more than they did last year on their Christmas shopping. Why should they?
But I suppose the good news - for retailers and suppliers - is that consumers are still planning to have a very merry Christmas. And if their shopping spree comes late, that at least is better than never - which is the prospect facing other many other retail sectors.
This industry is rightly proud of the work it does in understanding its customers and finding new ways of meeting their needs. But my award for the year’s best piece of consumer marketing goes not to a retailer, nor to a grocery supplier, but to Tranmere Rovers. For those who don’t know, the club has just launched a limited edition shirt decorated with the names of every one of its 4,182 season ticket holders. As a marketing concept, it’s simply brilliant. It allows the club to show loyal fans how much their support is appreciated. And it’s a genuine sentiment: the players will wear the shirt against Brighton on December 20. Better still, so will most of the team’s supporters, thanks to the fact this is a unique product that most of these ‘consumers’ will want to buy. My point is this: when was the last time you saw anything as clever in our sector?
The promotional machine behind the controversial Atkins Diet is preparing to launch a range of branded products early next year using a UK-based PR agency.
Central to its marketing plans is the recruitment of nutritionists and dieticians who ‘believe in the low carbohydrate philosophy’ and are prepared to endorse the diet.
The problem is that registered nutritionists and dieticians in the UK remain unconvinced and are resolutely against the diet which has been linked to long-term health problems.
These include accelerated kidney problems, osteoporosis and the death of a 16-year-old girl in the US.
Atkins Nutritionals held a briefing in London last week to promote their limited supporting research and didn’t appear to gather much support.
This was because, earlier in the week, much of the audience had been present at the fourth Annual Nutrition and Health Conference (held on November 21-22) where they heard experts describe the Atkins diet as potentially dangerous.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) Human Nutrition Centre gave a presentation entitled ‘The Atkins Diet: pros and cons and lessons we have learnt’ in which the limited research that Atkins cites in its defence was independently reviewed in terms of study design, number of subjects, duration of study, long-term weight loss and measurement of disease risk.
The MRC concluded that the diet had no sound scientific basis. In fact the company has been trying for the past 12 months to recruit dieticians and nutritionists to provide endorsement,but no-one has come forward.
Only image-conscious celebrities have given the unhealthy Atkins diet the thumbs up.
Despite the lack of long-term research and concern expressed by the experts, it appears that Atkins Nutritionals is pushing ahead with the product launch.
It looks as if profits come before public health.
Sir; Your article on pesticide residues in winter lettuce is misleading (The Grocer, November 15, p56).
Pesticide residues historically have been a problem on winter lettuce grown under glass and not to the large quantities of lettuce grown outdoors in southern Europe and imported into the UK during the winter.
Some of the problems which have occurred have been a result of residues remaining from the use of the sterilant methyl bromide.
Alternatives are now available. The largest flat lettuce grower in the country has already stopped using methyl bromide.
I disagree with Friends of the Earth that “we need a tax on pesticides to discourage the use of the most risky products”.
Many of the products which have caused the occasional residue problems in the past have already been withdrawn.
Sir; Anne Bruce made a strong case for more efficient food and waste disposal in her article in your November 22 issue (p32).
However in the matter of food waste going for composting, the one retailer that has made an effort has found itself frustrated because, despite believing its bags were suitable for the composting process, it has been found that they are patently not.
The UK Composting Association has dismissed plastic bags that contain only traces of starch, because they break down leaving a plastic residue, which is totally unacceptable for compost.
The major waste disposal companies have also come to this conclusion. There are very few products on the market that
are truly both biodegradable and approved for composting, and they come at a greater price than plastic versions.
I have done an exhaustive study of this issue and have concluded that the market will not respond until the price of the bags is as cheap as those produced in their billions in the Far East.
Sir; Having provided visual merchandising consultancy for many of the country’s biggest retailers, I am shocked at how little attention the big four supermarkets are paying to their instore Christmas makeovers.
Shoppers will spend the largest proportion of their Christmas budget in the supermarkets, but the likes of Safeway, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda are lagging behind the high street giants when it comes to visual merchandising.
There is a lack of thinking about point of sale signage, with the supermarkets using only high level signs and shelf-level signs on specific product offers.
The supermarkets have minimal or inconsistent Christmas theming and do not use Christmas decorations to communicate the emotion of the season. The worst stores are even reusing last year’s old decorations and point of sale.
Most surprising of all is the poor non-food presentation. For an area where supermarkets claim to be challenging high street dominance, there is a worrying lack of inspiration. The same technique seems to apply to non-food products as to the Christmas turkeys - stack them high and shout out the price message.
If the supermarkets are going to effectively draw Christmas sales from high street rivals they need to offer better overall value and improve product presentation standards, rather than just offering low prices.
Better late then never
Simply brilliant
Atkins advocates remain unconvincing
from Dr Tamara de Grassi, Flour Advisory Bureau, London SW1
Residue problem products withdrawn
from Ian Gillott, British Leafy Salads Association
biodegradable bags must be cheap
from Peter Yarwood, Transware Consultancy
more work needed on the decorations
from Karl McKeever, brand director, Visual Thinking
Those retailers getting a bit twitchy about Christmas will not be reassured by the exclusive research into festive shopping habits published on page 32 of this issue.
For starters, the research shows that consumers are, as always, planning to leave their main food shopping until the last possible moment. Most will do it in the two weeks leading up to Christmas Day, but an amazing 16% of those we quizzed don’t expect to do their big shop until the last few days before December 25.
We all know that this last minute rush causes huge supply chain headaches for the whole industry, but it also makes it nigh-on impossible for retailers to judge the mood of shoppers. But consumers are a canny bunch: they know to wait for retailers to lose their nerve and start slashing prices. Given the competitive state of grocery at the moment, and the way prices are now spiralling down in many key categories (booze being the obvious one), it should come as no surprise to learn that shoppers do not expect to spend any more than they did last year on their Christmas shopping. Why should they?
But I suppose the good news - for retailers and suppliers - is that consumers are still planning to have a very merry Christmas. And if their shopping spree comes late, that at least is better than never - which is the prospect facing other many other retail sectors.
This industry is rightly proud of the work it does in understanding its customers and finding new ways of meeting their needs. But my award for the year’s best piece of consumer marketing goes not to a retailer, nor to a grocery supplier, but to Tranmere Rovers. For those who don’t know, the club has just launched a limited edition shirt decorated with the names of every one of its 4,182 season ticket holders. As a marketing concept, it’s simply brilliant. It allows the club to show loyal fans how much their support is appreciated. And it’s a genuine sentiment: the players will wear the shirt against Brighton on December 20. Better still, so will most of the team’s supporters, thanks to the fact this is a unique product that most of these ‘consumers’ will want to buy. My point is this: when was the last time you saw anything as clever in our sector?
The promotional machine behind the controversial Atkins Diet is preparing to launch a range of branded products early next year using a UK-based PR agency.
Central to its marketing plans is the recruitment of nutritionists and dieticians who ‘believe in the low carbohydrate philosophy’ and are prepared to endorse the diet.
The problem is that registered nutritionists and dieticians in the UK remain unconvinced and are resolutely against the diet which has been linked to long-term health problems.
These include accelerated kidney problems, osteoporosis and the death of a 16-year-old girl in the US.
Atkins Nutritionals held a briefing in London last week to promote their limited supporting research and didn’t appear to gather much support.
This was because, earlier in the week, much of the audience had been present at the fourth Annual Nutrition and Health Conference (held on November 21-22) where they heard experts describe the Atkins diet as potentially dangerous.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) Human Nutrition Centre gave a presentation entitled ‘The Atkins Diet: pros and cons and lessons we have learnt’ in which the limited research that Atkins cites in its defence was independently reviewed in terms of study design, number of subjects, duration of study, long-term weight loss and measurement of disease risk.
The MRC concluded that the diet had no sound scientific basis. In fact the company has been trying for the past 12 months to recruit dieticians and nutritionists to provide endorsement,but no-one has come forward.
Only image-conscious celebrities have given the unhealthy Atkins diet the thumbs up.
Despite the lack of long-term research and concern expressed by the experts, it appears that Atkins Nutritionals is pushing ahead with the product launch.
It looks as if profits come before public health.
Sir; Your article on pesticide residues in winter lettuce is misleading (The Grocer, November 15, p56).
Pesticide residues historically have been a problem on winter lettuce grown under glass and not to the large quantities of lettuce grown outdoors in southern Europe and imported into the UK during the winter.
Some of the problems which have occurred have been a result of residues remaining from the use of the sterilant methyl bromide.
Alternatives are now available. The largest flat lettuce grower in the country has already stopped using methyl bromide.
I disagree with Friends of the Earth that “we need a tax on pesticides to discourage the use of the most risky products”.
Many of the products which have caused the occasional residue problems in the past have already been withdrawn.
Sir; Anne Bruce made a strong case for more efficient food and waste disposal in her article in your November 22 issue (p32).
However in the matter of food waste going for composting, the one retailer that has made an effort has found itself frustrated because, despite believing its bags were suitable for the composting process, it has been found that they are patently not.
The UK Composting Association has dismissed plastic bags that contain only traces of starch, because they break down leaving a plastic residue, which is totally unacceptable for compost.
The major waste disposal companies have also come to this conclusion. There are very few products on the market that
are truly both biodegradable and approved for composting, and they come at a greater price than plastic versions.
I have done an exhaustive study of this issue and have concluded that the market will not respond until the price of the bags is as cheap as those produced in their billions in the Far East.
Sir; Having provided visual merchandising consultancy for many of the country’s biggest retailers, I am shocked at how little attention the big four supermarkets are paying to their instore Christmas makeovers.
Shoppers will spend the largest proportion of their Christmas budget in the supermarkets, but the likes of Safeway, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda are lagging behind the high street giants when it comes to visual merchandising.
There is a lack of thinking about point of sale signage, with the supermarkets using only high level signs and shelf-level signs on specific product offers.
The supermarkets have minimal or inconsistent Christmas theming and do not use Christmas decorations to communicate the emotion of the season. The worst stores are even reusing last year’s old decorations and point of sale.
Most surprising of all is the poor non-food presentation. For an area where supermarkets claim to be challenging high street dominance, there is a worrying lack of inspiration. The same technique seems to apply to non-food products as to the Christmas turkeys - stack them high and shout out the price message.
If the supermarkets are going to effectively draw Christmas sales from high street rivals they need to offer better overall value and improve product presentation standards, rather than just offering low prices.
Better late then never
Simply brilliant
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