the layman's guide to (not so) lay shopping
PA is over!!
now i can really devote some time to blogging abt some pointers tat i wld like to share with my dear frens. for those who do not know, my PA was at Unilever, one of the biggest MNCs ard dealing with consumers' daily necessities. google the name, and you shld noe wat i'm talking abt... if not, the following brands may help in some recall...
Dove, Lux, Lipton, Wall's, Skippy, Ben and Jerry's
but enuff of the brands. i didn't slog 10 wks at a MNC to learn nothing. actualli wat i'm abt to post are some tips for groceries shopping in any retail store u go to, supermarket chain or not. yours sincerely shld b able to address some of yr daily shopping with wat marketers are doing to get u to buy their brands.
many ppl think groceries shopping is a mindless affair. not exactly mindless, but u probably do not devote much attention to it, since it's a rather common and low-involvement activity (what's so hard with buying a bottle of shampoo compared to a new phone or laptop, where u'll be actively seeking for lowest possible prices, model comparisons etc). hence the apparent notion of mindless. this aside, hv u ever considered how u might do a better job at a seemingly easy activity - to your utmost advantage??
the following discussion is generally applicable to anywhere or any product which u shop in or for, unless stated otherwise...
foods
generally more perishable and expires faster than non-foods, smart consumers like u r v likely to check the expiry date on the item itself. human nature states that the item that you pick and check is the very first of each variant. ie in supermarkets its common to see, say, Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, on a shelf and then each item that follows is the cream of mushroom variant. human nature will also tell u tat, as prdts get picked off the shelf, and supermarket employees will stock back the empty slots.
so wat happens? prdts with earlier expiry dates will be pushed to the back of the shelf. so perhaps u say, wats the big deal? i'm getting the prdt with the latest expiry date, am i not? apparently so. not too big a concern if u plan to finish the prdt immediately or within a short period of time after opening it (incl. if u store in the fridge, but in any case the expiry date is no longer applicable since the food is exposed to air and bacteria already). so giving a gd gauge of finishing the open can in a wk after opening is gd enuff.
but wat abt the smart retailers of today? yes, they can always exchange expired prdts with the manufacturers or distributors they bought it from, but the process takes time and costs manpower and money. do it for enuff prdts, n they suffer consequences on their competitive advantage of offering everyday low prices. they nt stupid de... so, the next time u choose a food product, usually dry / canned foods, do the following:
if ever possible, get the last item rite at the back. the "rule" is tat retailers wld place prdts with earlier expiry dates at the front and later ones at the back. isn't it a big hassle? yes. but fyi, ppl who arrange the products on shelves are sometimes not the supermarket staff themselves. big companies like unilever, nestle, p&g and johnson & johnson employ wat is known as merchandisers, who help with the stocking and arrangement of prdts. heh u think the supermarket chain so nice do bao kar liao (do everything) for the companies ah? dream on...
non-foods (personal care pdts)
longer shelf life, ard 3 years or so. b4 buying, flip open the lid (except for pump containers, which u really cant, but check the expiry date) and sniff. apart from smelling if its acceptable to u, you can better check for expired pdts. i hv smelt one b4, it damn stinks. its foulness is undescribable.
general
as value-seeking consumers tat retailers hv trained us all to be, we r more willing to wait for a sale or promotion to get the prdt tat we like to hv but is nt so essential, or wld like to hv an early purchase to stock the item up and then put off buying it for a few months or so. shifting sales in time, as this is known, is wat we all do, dun we? get 5 tubes of toothpaste at a sale, then we can put off buying it until like say 2 months later, when we expect another sale.
fact is, there's always a sales promo gg on in the supermarket chains every month for a certain brand. for example, if NTUC hosts a promo for brand X (sometimes, 2 promos for X but of different natures eg bundling in wk 1, 50 cents off in wk 4) per month. and while NTUC is doing tat particular promo, say brand X pack size 50s bundle with mug in wk 1, u can be sure tat other chains will not be doing it, at least not in wk 1. u r even less likely to find such promos in Cold Storage where the tgt mkt is caucasians, who (divulge a interesting note here) are not too susceptible to sales promos. tat's y in cold storage, u find classier items and better shopping experiences but this benefit comes thru the price premium u paid for items in yr shopping cart.
in a bid to seek the best possible value, consumers tend to benchmark prices to a certain reference point. for example, if i ask u how much u paid for your bottle of green tea, u can quote me the price. not a problem. thing is, when you bought it at the store, you probably thought of the following: 1) how much you paid for this item in a previous purchase, and 2) how much it should cost (if u hv not bought it before) taking into consideration the price a bottle of green tea should be. this includes green teas of other brands. so lets say Yeo's green tea is $1 (which u bought last time) but you decide to try pokka for novelty. u will then benchmark pokka against Yeo's and see if the pokka price is wat u r willing to pay. but unless u hv a v gd memory, u r unlikely to recall much of the reference points.
u can do slightly better. nxt time, in thursday newpapers, be sure to look out for the items on promo for the chains tat advertise them. this trend began with NTUC and now major chains are following suit. so, prior to any shopping trip u might wanna consult tis piece of mkt intel b4 moving in for the kill.
no supermarket near yr place? only provision shops to boot? no worries... simply refer the prices in the papers, then compare it with the ones in the provision shops. provision shops generally benchmark their prices against that set by NTUC, and will do especially so if NTUC supermarkets are within proximity, but not so proximate until can reach by foot in less than 10 min. its sad to see such provision shops, who are often family-owned and might possibly be the lifeblood of the owner, succumb to such circumstance... but its reality, supermarket chains are the dominant ones now. even the big companies hv to cede some concessions to the retailers, the gatekeepers to consumer markets...
hmmm... so now u tell mi, you're not so brand conscious, price is more impt. true - tats the mentality of consumers today. so u walk to a aisle and pick the cheapest item? not so! the way merchandise is presented has a subtle effect on consumers. lets go thru how it works.
merchandise are placed on shelves. several shelves then form a bay. so, the "horizontal" of each shelf is a shelf, while a "vertical" of shelves is a bay. bays are clearly defined by the fact that each bay is a separate one, and this u can see from the space between each bay. merchandise are arranged, not by the principle "where there's space, just put it". its a non-scientific principle, and pure dumb. merchandise arrangement on a shelf takes into account the following:
some factors warrant deeper explanation. first 2 points are self evident. point 3 is interesting. suppose that a variant is very "hot" ie selling well. this fact is derived from past sales data. but the retailer has a mind of its own. some of u may notice that supermarkets are coming up with their own brands, house / private brands as they are called, which boasts quality comparable to major brands, is cheaper and earns the retailer more margin. given such incentives, retailers, u say, will be more tempted to stock more of their own brands. partially true. they will still devote much shelf space to major brands, but in light of stocking their own brands and trying not to show disregard for other brands, will ask u why u shld hv 3 facings instead of 2. this, then, is up to u to explain.
its gd to introduce a term called planogramming now. this is the proposed arrangement of merchandise category captains do for their retailing partners. so eg unilever is category captain for hot beverages and bread spreads, since its Lipton and Skippy brand accounts for a very very substantial mkt share in sg. the category captain will work with the retailer and propose an arrangement, which is supposedly done so for the interest of pt 6. so, category captains need to b very careful in planogramming, taking into acct the above factors, so tat they can deliver the promise of the expected increase in sales.
aesthetic appeal - how "shun yan" to the eye. many ways to do so, just need to know tat usually the way it is done is that a particular brand will hv its variants placed vertically from small size packs to larger sizes at eye-level / reachable shelves. this is where majority of sales come from. this is also part of shopper behavior, and of cos, observation studies hv been done to determine the ways shoppers pick and choose an item off a shelf. so, armed with this knowledge, hopefully u wld be less susceptible to such influence.
so in fact, merchandise arrangement is an art as it is a science. much research goes into marketing decisions... so its not exactly something anybody can do..
thats all i can think of now. any recalls, will post.
hopefully tis info makes u a smarter shopper than u alr are.
now i can really devote some time to blogging abt some pointers tat i wld like to share with my dear frens. for those who do not know, my PA was at Unilever, one of the biggest MNCs ard dealing with consumers' daily necessities. google the name, and you shld noe wat i'm talking abt... if not, the following brands may help in some recall...
Dove, Lux, Lipton, Wall's, Skippy, Ben and Jerry's
but enuff of the brands. i didn't slog 10 wks at a MNC to learn nothing. actualli wat i'm abt to post are some tips for groceries shopping in any retail store u go to, supermarket chain or not. yours sincerely shld b able to address some of yr daily shopping with wat marketers are doing to get u to buy their brands.
many ppl think groceries shopping is a mindless affair. not exactly mindless, but u probably do not devote much attention to it, since it's a rather common and low-involvement activity (what's so hard with buying a bottle of shampoo compared to a new phone or laptop, where u'll be actively seeking for lowest possible prices, model comparisons etc). hence the apparent notion of mindless. this aside, hv u ever considered how u might do a better job at a seemingly easy activity - to your utmost advantage??
the following discussion is generally applicable to anywhere or any product which u shop in or for, unless stated otherwise...
foods
generally more perishable and expires faster than non-foods, smart consumers like u r v likely to check the expiry date on the item itself. human nature states that the item that you pick and check is the very first of each variant. ie in supermarkets its common to see, say, Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup, on a shelf and then each item that follows is the cream of mushroom variant. human nature will also tell u tat, as prdts get picked off the shelf, and supermarket employees will stock back the empty slots.
so wat happens? prdts with earlier expiry dates will be pushed to the back of the shelf. so perhaps u say, wats the big deal? i'm getting the prdt with the latest expiry date, am i not? apparently so. not too big a concern if u plan to finish the prdt immediately or within a short period of time after opening it (incl. if u store in the fridge, but in any case the expiry date is no longer applicable since the food is exposed to air and bacteria already). so giving a gd gauge of finishing the open can in a wk after opening is gd enuff.
but wat abt the smart retailers of today? yes, they can always exchange expired prdts with the manufacturers or distributors they bought it from, but the process takes time and costs manpower and money. do it for enuff prdts, n they suffer consequences on their competitive advantage of offering everyday low prices. they nt stupid de... so, the next time u choose a food product, usually dry / canned foods, do the following:
if ever possible, get the last item rite at the back. the "rule" is tat retailers wld place prdts with earlier expiry dates at the front and later ones at the back. isn't it a big hassle? yes. but fyi, ppl who arrange the products on shelves are sometimes not the supermarket staff themselves. big companies like unilever, nestle, p&g and johnson & johnson employ wat is known as merchandisers, who help with the stocking and arrangement of prdts. heh u think the supermarket chain so nice do bao kar liao (do everything) for the companies ah? dream on...
non-foods (personal care pdts)
longer shelf life, ard 3 years or so. b4 buying, flip open the lid (except for pump containers, which u really cant, but check the expiry date) and sniff. apart from smelling if its acceptable to u, you can better check for expired pdts. i hv smelt one b4, it damn stinks. its foulness is undescribable.
general
as value-seeking consumers tat retailers hv trained us all to be, we r more willing to wait for a sale or promotion to get the prdt tat we like to hv but is nt so essential, or wld like to hv an early purchase to stock the item up and then put off buying it for a few months or so. shifting sales in time, as this is known, is wat we all do, dun we? get 5 tubes of toothpaste at a sale, then we can put off buying it until like say 2 months later, when we expect another sale.
fact is, there's always a sales promo gg on in the supermarket chains every month for a certain brand. for example, if NTUC hosts a promo for brand X (sometimes, 2 promos for X but of different natures eg bundling in wk 1, 50 cents off in wk 4) per month. and while NTUC is doing tat particular promo, say brand X pack size 50s bundle with mug in wk 1, u can be sure tat other chains will not be doing it, at least not in wk 1. u r even less likely to find such promos in Cold Storage where the tgt mkt is caucasians, who (divulge a interesting note here) are not too susceptible to sales promos. tat's y in cold storage, u find classier items and better shopping experiences but this benefit comes thru the price premium u paid for items in yr shopping cart.
in a bid to seek the best possible value, consumers tend to benchmark prices to a certain reference point. for example, if i ask u how much u paid for your bottle of green tea, u can quote me the price. not a problem. thing is, when you bought it at the store, you probably thought of the following: 1) how much you paid for this item in a previous purchase, and 2) how much it should cost (if u hv not bought it before) taking into consideration the price a bottle of green tea should be. this includes green teas of other brands. so lets say Yeo's green tea is $1 (which u bought last time) but you decide to try pokka for novelty. u will then benchmark pokka against Yeo's and see if the pokka price is wat u r willing to pay. but unless u hv a v gd memory, u r unlikely to recall much of the reference points.
u can do slightly better. nxt time, in thursday newpapers, be sure to look out for the items on promo for the chains tat advertise them. this trend began with NTUC and now major chains are following suit. so, prior to any shopping trip u might wanna consult tis piece of mkt intel b4 moving in for the kill.
no supermarket near yr place? only provision shops to boot? no worries... simply refer the prices in the papers, then compare it with the ones in the provision shops. provision shops generally benchmark their prices against that set by NTUC, and will do especially so if NTUC supermarkets are within proximity, but not so proximate until can reach by foot in less than 10 min. its sad to see such provision shops, who are often family-owned and might possibly be the lifeblood of the owner, succumb to such circumstance... but its reality, supermarket chains are the dominant ones now. even the big companies hv to cede some concessions to the retailers, the gatekeepers to consumer markets...
hmmm... so now u tell mi, you're not so brand conscious, price is more impt. true - tats the mentality of consumers today. so u walk to a aisle and pick the cheapest item? not so! the way merchandise is presented has a subtle effect on consumers. lets go thru how it works.
merchandise are placed on shelves. several shelves then form a bay. so, the "horizontal" of each shelf is a shelf, while a "vertical" of shelves is a bay. bays are clearly defined by the fact that each bay is a separate one, and this u can see from the space between each bay. merchandise are arranged, not by the principle "where there's space, just put it". its a non-scientific principle, and pure dumb. merchandise arrangement on a shelf takes into account the following:
- shelf measurements (ie length and depth)
- product measurements
- facings (ie how many of each variant eg Skippy Regular Creamy 500g) can u see on each shelf
- past sales data
- aesthetic appeal
- expected retailer boost in sales from adopting such arrangement
- shopper behavior
some factors warrant deeper explanation. first 2 points are self evident. point 3 is interesting. suppose that a variant is very "hot" ie selling well. this fact is derived from past sales data. but the retailer has a mind of its own. some of u may notice that supermarkets are coming up with their own brands, house / private brands as they are called, which boasts quality comparable to major brands, is cheaper and earns the retailer more margin. given such incentives, retailers, u say, will be more tempted to stock more of their own brands. partially true. they will still devote much shelf space to major brands, but in light of stocking their own brands and trying not to show disregard for other brands, will ask u why u shld hv 3 facings instead of 2. this, then, is up to u to explain.
its gd to introduce a term called planogramming now. this is the proposed arrangement of merchandise category captains do for their retailing partners. so eg unilever is category captain for hot beverages and bread spreads, since its Lipton and Skippy brand accounts for a very very substantial mkt share in sg. the category captain will work with the retailer and propose an arrangement, which is supposedly done so for the interest of pt 6. so, category captains need to b very careful in planogramming, taking into acct the above factors, so tat they can deliver the promise of the expected increase in sales.
aesthetic appeal - how "shun yan" to the eye. many ways to do so, just need to know tat usually the way it is done is that a particular brand will hv its variants placed vertically from small size packs to larger sizes at eye-level / reachable shelves. this is where majority of sales come from. this is also part of shopper behavior, and of cos, observation studies hv been done to determine the ways shoppers pick and choose an item off a shelf. so, armed with this knowledge, hopefully u wld be less susceptible to such influence.
so in fact, merchandise arrangement is an art as it is a science. much research goes into marketing decisions... so its not exactly something anybody can do..
thats all i can think of now. any recalls, will post.
hopefully tis info makes u a smarter shopper than u alr are.
posted by shicong says... at 10:34 PM
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