It is generally accepted that promotions help to attract new buyers of FMCG products and help to reward existing buyers. Therefore manufacturers spend yearly millions to gain and retain the consumers’ trust. On the one hand managers should consider whether all these efforts have the desired effect, especially during periods of economic downfall and increasing pressure on marketing budgets. On the other hand the wallet of the consumer is limited and promotions might just pull him over to buy a certain product or influence their future in-store decision behaviour.

“Can we influence the weather conditions?” It is a question that fascinated people through the ages. There are a lot of examples of human attempts trying to optimize the weather conditions. One of the best-known attempts to change the weather was executed by the Chinese Army during the Olympic Games of 2008 that which were organized during rainy season. The Chinese Army tried to bomb the upcoming clouds so that heavy rains could be avoided in the Beijing area. Despite the big efforts, it was proven once again that people are not able to influence the weather conditions.

The day-to-day mission of the Advanced Business Solutions (ABS) division of GfK is to support managers active in FMCG industries in their decision taking. We focus on marketing mix optimization, and answer to those questions that can’t be answered by traditional data analysis. In any project we aim to improve the ROI of our clients marketing and sales decisions. All of this based on fact based consulting. An ABS project is only successful when our findings are clear and feasible to implement.

Compared to October 2010 the FMCG market decreased by -2.1% in October 2011.

The long term evolution shows a growth of 1.5% for the total consumption by private households within FMCG retail when comparing the 2 latest MAT's. The FMCG inflation is 2,3% which means the actual evolution is a decrease with -0,8%.

Base : GfK ConsumerScan, base Till Roll database oct. 2011

All over the world, Belgium is known for its fine food and good restaurants. It is therefore not surprising that Belgians are enthusiast restaurant visitors. However, over the past years a trend towards fewer and fewer restaurant visits has developed. Where in an average week in 2008 still 23.9% of the Belgians visited a restaurant, in 2009 this shrunk to 20.3% to end on 18% in 2010.

Suppliers and retailers face similar challenges strategically and organizationally when they work with a mixed brand and private label strategy and find it difficult to balance both out. At the same time for manufacturers who are brand focused, initially, consumers bought manufacturer-endorsed brands as symbols of quality, trust and affluence. Subsequently these A-brands were consumed as symbols of aspirations, images and lifestyles, with a vast reach leading to brand loyalty, brand awareness, high perceived quality or in other words brand equity.

Knowledge about retailer’s shoppers is fundamental for growth at retailers:

“Coming together a beginning
Keeping together is progress
Working together is success”

According to the NSZ (Neutral Syndicate for independent entrepreneurs) the turnover increased only slightly during the summer sales. The turnover in the first week of the summer sales increased with 7% compared to last year, but this trend did not persist during the following 3 weeks. The NSZ did noticed some changes in our purchase behaviour. The weather conditions influenced what we bought and where we bought it. We changed our basket of purchased products with more typical spring products instead of summer products and we bought more at shopping malls.

Compared to June 2010 the FMCG+Fresh market increased by 1.3% in June 2011. Comparing 2 YTD periods, we see a similar increase of 1.2%.

The long term evolution shows a growth of 2.7% for the total consumption by private households on FMCG+fresh when comparing the 2 latest MAT's. The FMCG inflation is 2,3% which means the actual growth corrected is only 0,4%.

All too often, target groups are defined only by age, sex and income. However, a holistic view of an individual or a household demands more: also values, attitudes and emotions should be taken into account. GfK Roper lifestyles provide a multidimensional portrait of the individual or household, enabling individual target groups to be accessed and understood.