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...Track your price promotions hereThis is a link to the BrandView website. Storecheck integrate sales data with their historic tracking of other products promotions to give you a picture of;
*the best discount to drive optimum volume
*the products that compete hardest for your sales (so avoid promoting when they do)
Tracking Price Promotions
Fresh fruit on the snacking menu for adults and children 18/03/10More than half of adults in the UK (55%) snack on fresh fruit in between meals, according to a new report from YouGov SixthSense on the snacking habits of adults and children in the UK.
Less healthy options are not completely dismissed however, with 45% of respondents admitting to snacking on biscuits, 43% on crisps and bagged snacks and 41% on chocolate.
Children are also keen on fresh fruit, which tops the snack league table at 69%, compared to crisps at 64% and chocolates/sweets at 61%. The fact that fresh fruit comes out on top undoubtedly reflects parental choice, with the majority of parents keen for their children to eat healthily, says YouGov.
James McCoy, research director for YouGov SixthSense, said: "Whether or not children would actually choose fresh fruit over crisps or chocolate if given the choice is irrelevant. The mere fact that fruit comes top of the list suggests a strong awareness among children of what constitutes healthy eating."
Although people can essentially snack anywhere and anytime, over three-quarters of snackers munch on their chosen product while at home.
One-third snack at work, college or school, while only 16% snack while travelling or commuting. Snacking while walking down the street is clearly still an anathema in the UK: only 2% admit to breaking this social taboo.
"Snacking occasions are often planned, with snack products forming part of the weekly shopping trip, not necessarily the impulse purchase you might think," said McCoy. "Clearly, home is not only where the heart is, but also the snacks."
The fact that home is so important to the snacking market may explain the popularity of toast, which is eaten as a snack by 27% of adults and 41% of children.
"While toast is clearly not a ready-to-eat product," said McCoy, "its prominence in the snacking arena could point towards opportunities in the catering market."
Hunger, of course, drives most people to snack, particularly men. 45% of adults and 64% of children cite this as the main driver when snacking on crisps and bagged snacks.
However, women are likely to cite more emotional drivers, such as boredom (44% vs 35% of men), coping with stress (12% vs 4% of men), and to 'cheer myself up' (14% vs 7% of men).
"While men and women are both equally likely to snack in between meals, women exhibit much less concrete motivations: their desire to snack tends to come from the mind rather than the stomach," said McCoy.
"This means that while men seek larger pack sizes, women may opt for more indulgent flavours and concepts to treat themselves or cheer themselves up."
The report also reveals that brand name a has a strong bearing on deciding what snack to choose.
For example, following the recent announcement of Kraft's takeover of Cadbury, 43% of UK adults say that they will stop buying Cadbury's products if they change in any way. 5% of respondents claim to be boycotting Cadbury's products as a result of the takeover.
Social Media to become focus for marketers in 2010 25/02/2010Today Alterian (LSE: ALN) released the results of their seventh annual survey. The sample covered 1068 marketing professionals worldwide and found that 66 percent of respondents will be investing in Social Media Marketing (SMM) in the next 12 months. Of those investing in SMM 40 percent said they would be shifting more than a fifth of their traditional direct marketing budget towards funding their SMM activities. This supports other statistics from the survey which found that the majority of respondents (67 percent) feel social media is either ‘increasingly important’ or ‘critical to success’.
Commenting on the survey results Alterian CEO, David Eldridge, said, “2010 marks the start of the digital decade for marketing. Untargeted and irrelevant marketing techniques are now redundant and the results of this survey show many in the industry recognise this. The one thing to remember, however, is that investment in Social Media Marketing is futile without adequate measurement.”
The survey found more than a third (36 percent) of respondents are investing in social media monitoring and analysis tools. This is a significant percentage considering the maturity of the channel and reflects the growing understanding that a social media marketing strategy needs to be based on listening to customers and prospects and its ROI needs to be measured. Eldridge continues, “Without the adequate investment in listening and measurement tools it renders any anticipated investment in social media ineffectual. The key to an effective social media strategy is listening.”
The survey went further to explore the extent to which organisations integrate marketing technologies across their organisation. Almost half of respondents (42 percent) said they don’t incorporate clickstream and web analytics data into their customer and email database. “This is a worrying statistic as it shows many organisations are losing any advantage that this valuable actionable insight could give them” adds Eldridge.
The research also explored the importance of customer engagement and found that over half of respondents (51 percent) are placing a ‘fair’ or ‘significant’ amount of effort on moving from a campaign-centric direct marketing model towards multichannel customer engagement – in fact only 7 percent are making no effort at all. Eldridge concludes, “Engaging with customers is becoming paramount and the yardstick by which we measure those brands that survive and those that don’t. Marketers now need to appeal to the individual and engage with customers on a one-to-one basis. The easiest way to achieve this is by investing in Social Media Marketing and Social Media Monitoring, and by embracing the web.”
To obtain a copy of the full report of the Alterian Annual Survey results visit: http://www.alterian.com/resources/research.aspx
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Colin Harper Head of Insight at the ISP commented - sucess will ultimately be measured by the number of new, loyal, users that companies generate. There is no doubt that a fusion of effective promotion techniques with this kind of approach gives a simple means of directly measuring impact.
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