Supermarket range reviews ‘risk alienating big-spending brand shoppers’

Sweeping range reviews such as Tesco’s Project Reset risk alienating shoppers who are prepared to spend more on brands and are attracted by promotional activity, according to a major new survey shared exclusively with The Grocer.

Consultants Shopper Intelligence, in collaboration with the British Brands Group, carried out research involving 124,000 post-shop interviews.

The data compared shoppers who bought a brand and those who bought private label across 140 categories.

The research found brand shoppers would be more willing to pay a premium in many categories, including beers, wines & spirits, ice cream and personal care for specialist brands.

Of those studied, 46% of brand buyers said they were often tempted to pay extra, compared with just 24% of own label buyers.

The survey also found the competition between brands led to promotional activity that drove traffic to stores. It found 29% of brand purchasers agreed that ‘promotions impacted my visit to the store’, compared with just 8% net agreement from own label shoppers.

Branded promotions also encouraged additional purchasing (39% vs 18%) in areas such as impulse categories.

Shopper Intelligence also claimed brand buyers were more likely to agree that their category was ‘enjoyable to shop’ (40% versus 30%).

“A common retailer action in today’s competitive environment is to look for above the normal level of range efficiency sometimes called a ‘reset’,” said Roger Jackson, CEO of Shopper Intelligence.

“Of course, a core task of category management is to identify the right range for any category to optimise return on shelf space, optimising demand from that fixture, but category management is usually conducted by treating every category in isolation and can lack sufficient focus on the overall impact.

“It can result in efficiency but in aggregate could reduce the overall effectiveness of the store.

“This isn’t because shoppers necessarily need all the options presented to them. There is another factor at work. The marketing investments of brands have other crucial impacts.”