IT'S SHOPPING BY COLOURS Independent research carried out by Dairy Crest for the Clover brand, suggests that yellow fats are in 99% of UK households. Richard Tolley, senior marketing controller, said they had identified three types of consumer: - The traditional user enjoys butter, but may only indulge at weekends.Tolley believes this could lead to a spreadable variant cannibalising packet butter sales - The taste and convenience user buys spreadable brands and is a potential Clover customer, if not already a weekend traditionalist looking for a weekday staple line. Against expectations, Tolley says spreadables are not yet in families. "We are looking at a lot of pre- and post-family households in this category," he says - The health-conscious consumer is a low-fat' shopper or a positive health consumer, but brands in this sector are under pressure. The fact that a spread is low in fat is no longer enough to persuade many shoppers to buy. "They want it to taste good, too," says Tolley. The survey showed that within the brand identities, consumers have a strong sense of colour coding. They associate traditional brands with gold and orange packaging; dairy spreads with bright yellow; and health brands white or blue. This means that merchandising a case according to how consumers view yellow fats brings a degree of colour coherence to the fixture, according to Tolley. His ideas on fixture presentation are being trialled in 20 stores of a major multiple. {{FOCUS SPECIALS }}

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