Is Heinz your fave?

Hello my blog readers,

A time ago I made a focus group on product testing were ketchup was tested. I chose 3 different types of Ketchup – Heinz (just the original one), Sainsbury's owned brand and a random brand (Daddy's) from Poundland. I put the samples in 3 small bowls for the testers to not have any clue which brand is what. If I compare this product testing with the chocolate one (previous blog post) then it was a little bit easier for me to take notes but harder for people to understand which product is what. Because each of the chocolates had different textures, even logo on the actual chocolate square were the participants actually could have guest what is what. But as the ketchup is in similar consistency then it is harder.  

The participants said that the most popular ketchup in UK is Heinz. Those participants who were from other countries said that their favorite ketchups are the ones which are made in their countries but they also like Heinz. 3 of 5 respondents picked Heinz ketchup when they were asked to pick their most favorite. One girl picked Sainsbury's but another picked the cheapest Poundland version.  When the same person who picked the Sainsbury's one got asked to choose in her opinion the most expensive one she chose the Heinz sample. She could have been influenced by other because 3 other participants chose the Heinz sample. 4 of 5 participants chose the same sample they did not like which was the Poundland one. 3 of the 5participants said that Heinz is replicable by other brands but i need to add that these people were from other countries. The other two said mostly not, but if there is no choice and a ketchup is needed (depending on the occasion) then it can be replaced. Two of the 5 participants were surprised about the Sainsbury's brand, 'it tasted more expensive' they said. 

This test once again reveled the power of marketing. When two of 5 participants chose other ketchups over Heinz, one person thinking they are choosing Heinz no other brands.  The price difference is big enough – Heinz, roughly about £1,50 per bottle, Sainsbury's roughly about £1,25 and the Daddy's Poundland ketchup - £1. This shows that people are being loyal to the brand even though they might like cheaper alternatives. Heinz is the ketchup which will be found mostly in all UK food shops, starting from the local corner shops to the big department stores.  

Personally I do not like ketchup and I do not actually care about the taste because I rarely eat it. Ketchup must be one of those things to which people will stick to brand wise. As the focus group reveals, it is hard to replace Heinz in the market because everyone is familiar with it. The same as Kellog's cornflakes or Cadburry's chocolate almost taking over the specified categories. In for example Latvia, there are few brands which are fighting for the space. Because demographically high percentage of population are Russian they tend to choose Russian makes which are available at almost every store. One thing i know now that British people are crazy for Vinegar and Heinz Ketchup.

Thank you for reading and i hope you have a saucy day! 

And what is your favoite colour?

Let's open this blog post with a question, what is your favorite colour? My favorite one is purple, but I would not say that in my wardrobe I would find a lot of purple clothing or that my flat is decorated in purple. This is the colour I like to see the most. My favorite colour for clothing is black or peach. I like these two colours because they are simple to wear, easy to combine and looks good on me. I personally find it hard to combine bright colours and to even wear them. The lifestyle that I am having just now is fast and organized, it means that I want to make quick decisions and spend less time on for example, picking what am I going to wear. Some people might say that black is quite depressive colour but according to color-wheel-pro.com it is also a colour which denotes strength and authority. If to take a look at the big sports brands, most of them have logos in black. Nike can appear in orange as well. This colour is symbol of strength and endurance. Even the boxes for trainers are in different colours – orange for sport trainers, black for Jordans or exclusive shoes, brown shade ones for casual trainers. There is also green coloured boxes but these are for skateboard trainers like Janovski range. Adidas have blue, black and green boxes. Blue for the originals range, black for sport professionals and green for the Neo range. According to mandalupasaule.lv blue colour symbolizes creativity and stability which are the main things of Adidas Originals range. Adidas originals is known by its creative designs and well established brand. The most expensive and exclusive range of both Nike and Adidas will be in black boxes or with black tags. As mentioned before black is the colour of authority and strength as well as elegance and prestigiousness, so the black colour in this case is symbolizing exclusivity. So you know, if you will buy something from the 'black' range you might pay more than for other range trainers but you will have the best or the exclusive items.

Many restaurant chains or food companies choose to put red colour in their logos or even design of the store. For example Pizza Hut, Burger King, KFC and Nando's have red colour in their visuals. According to colour-wheel-pro.com red and orange colours stimulates hunger. So whoever wants to paint their kitchen in red should think again (could make you to look in the fridge more often). Red colour is a powerful colour. It makes items, text and signs to stand out. This is a colour which is hard not to notice especially in combination with other colours like black and white. It is commonly used in advertising to promote the 'sexuality' of a product. For example red lipstick on a women's lips or a bright red dress. It kind of shows that the item would make the customer look more attractive and sexual.

My physiotherapist once suggested not to wear black coloured training clothing because it would take my energy away but suggested to wear vivid colours especially in red and orange tones because these colours would help to release energy. Believe it or not but when I was wearing overall black then I felt more tired. It feels like when I am wearing bright red tones then I am able to do more. I don’t know what to believe. Is it like an placebo effect when it is a psychological factor that I believe it working or it actually works?! Imagine the world in black and white, like watching an old TV. World would be boring, it would be hard for us to recognize places, items even brands. I do not know why do people see colours but I believe they influence us how we perceive and fell about things around us. And marketers take an advantage of it by making us to see things the way they want us to see.

Lift Your Hand For A Bargain

When going through a supermarket there are thousands of items 'staring' at us, asking to be lifted up and put in the basket. But how to know which item is for you and which would suit your expectations? Marketers in now a days have various ways how to make people to put an item in a basket.

My first realization and a point I should be aware of - don’t go shopping when your belly is not full. When people are hungry they tend to pick up more stuff than they actually need. There is a saying in Latvia "you have big eyes" which means you want more than actually needed. Have you noticed that sometimes when you walk in a grocery shop a smell of bakery can be noticed, but the bakery normally is in the end of the store. This is on purpose, this is to make people feel hungry (who doesn’t love a pastry?) and to go through all the store till the end to get your basics like milk, bread, meat etc. On the way you would pick up some more items because you are hungry.

One of the hilarious things I have seen in Aberdeen is that in Kittybrewster (region) there is a retail park and in the retail park there is Pure Gym. And all of a sudden McDonalds decided to make their drive through just next to the gym. I would say – a smart move. Athletes after a gym sessions are really hungry, i know it for myself and the temptations are in a high level when there is no prepped meals done. There have been times that I went to Mac's straight after to get my chicken nuggets, making myself believe that I am getting protein and that’s ok, right?

Second point – bargains. As Easters are over now and we are back to our daily routine with some extra weight on after having all those chocolate eggs and Easter dinner. For some reason I am excited just after Christmas or Easter, why? Because all the chocolate figures are on 60-70% off sale. It is really hard to be focused on your main reason, why did I go into the store, when all i see is sale on chocolate. My suggestion – follow my point one, have a list of items what you want to purchase, that will make you to get out of the store faster. It will also save your money because no extra cash will be spent on things which are not needed. But if you like chocolate and a bargain, it is a great time for you to shop.

One of the craziest times for a baragain is 'Black Friday', it is also created by marketers to make people spend as much money as possible. Black Friday is especially brutal in USA when people previously got hospitalised because they were fighting over a sales offer. People take things what they don't need. They just take it because it is cheap, thinking 'oh maybe someday i will need it'.

From my survey analysis which was made for my Industrial investigation 48,6% of respondents said that they take time to consider different options and see what kind of offers are available in store. People like to search for a bargain, especially students when their income is small. 33 respondents have said they believe that expensive goods are not always better, sometimes it is the same quality. The main reason though, why people choose the cheap option is because of money issues. 40 respondents have said that they chose the cheaper option to save money. More than half of the repondents have said that quality and taste of the product is very important. Almost 1/3 of the respondents have said that they do not care about companies values like Fairtrade, against animal testing or organic ingredients used in making a product. Personally I try to buy organic and healthy products but they're not always accessible or affordable. Few respondents have said that they would rather chose organic food but it is too expensive in UK. I Think this is where the Government should look into. 55,6% replied that the most appealing thing when purchasing a product is it's price, only 10% said that it is the quality of the packaging. It only means that promotions and marketing are effective to affect people purchasing decisions. This survey received 182 responses.


This just shows how complicated is marketing and every aspect of our lives is considered for a marketing strategy. Marketers are trying to find new ways on how to target their audiences and how to change their behaviors and attitudes. It is complicated but it is interesting at the same time. The ironic thing is that even the marketers are 'tricked' into their nets of strategy...

'I just love the taste of Chocolate'

Hello my blog visitors,

As said before, I will post all the results of investigation process on the blog, so far I have completed one survey and two focus groups. Today I will reveal the results of my second focus group and In future blog posts – results of other.

Most of the people like sweets and especially chocolate, so I decided to make a focus group of product (chocolate) testing. There were 5 people in different age groups (17-25; 26-35; 36-50)- who took a part in the focus group. There were four different milk chocolate brands chosen for the focus group – Cadbury's, Sainsbury's, Galaxy and Malka. For the test I took 5 bowls to put the chocolate in, broke apart the chocolate bar in irregular pieces and flipped them over, facing down because some of the chocolates had brand name on them. That was done so the participants don't have a clue what the brand is. The participants were invited to try out all chocolate samples and take time to assess them, after that there were questions asked.

The participants had to choose their favorite from all samples, the opinions split in half. Younger audience preferred Milka and the older ones preferred Cadbury's chocolate, but at that moment they did not know what were the brands. Four of five people said that they did not like the sample of Sainsbury's chocolate although one person pointed at Galaxy. Another person said that they love chocolate in general and the person doesn't have a least favorite one. The reasons why people disliked Sainsbury's sample was because it felt like it stuck to teeth and gums indicating for a poor quality and another reason was that the chocolate tasted too dark for a milk chocolate. Four of five people said that Cadbury's sample seemed to be more expensive because it had more flavor, was soft, smoth and chunkier than other samples. One participant said that they like Milka more than others because it was the smoothest of all the samples.

One question asked the participants to name their favorite brands. Only two participants (from the older audience) have said that their favorite brand is Cadbury's, knowing that it has one of the biggest chocolate range in supermarkets hovever one of the reason why they liked it is because the chocolate brand is well known and trusted. Another reason was because it reminds them of childhood, their family members used to buy it. This only means that this participant was influenced by their family on their purchasing decisions and the fact that the brand has been around for a while. One participant mentioned Milka as they like the packaging and Bounty because they like coconut mixed with chocolate. Another participant mentioned more expensive Lindlt chocolate saying that they like the flavor. One said that they actually do not know the brand but the chocolate contains alcohol, the person would recognize the chocolate by the chocolate's packaging. This means that maybe the brand has not advertised themselves too much in UK if the consumer can't even tell the brand. If the brand would do a re-branding and change the packaging, there is a big chance that the consumer would not recognize the product and potentially not purchase it.

As there were two samples of the same chocolate I asked the participants if any of the samples tasted similar. 3 participants (younger audience) answered correctly pointing at the right samples. The older audience pointed at two different – Sainsbury's and Galaxy; Galaxy and Cadbury's. A reason why they did not get it right might be because with age people are starting to lose the sense of taste as well as other senses. Or the participants did not take the time to actually analyze the samples. One of the questions asked the participants to recognize the products – which of the samples is galaxy and which one is Cadbury's. The trick was that two of the five samples were Galaxy. Three of five participants pointed out correctly where two people pointed out at Sainsbury's chocolate. Interesting is the fact that the same people disliked Sainsbury's chocolate sample and said their favorite one is Cadbury's. It means that the experiment worked as they did not recognize the flavor of their favorite chocolate bar.

This Focus group test analysis shows that the experiment has worked and people got fooled by the many options of chocolate. Few of the participants thought they like a brand but in real life they preferred other. The only thing I hoped for was that someone would chose Sainsbury's as their favorite choice over other brands as it is a budget chocolate. As the experiment shows sometimes it is cheap because of the quality of the product and those extra 30 pennies do matter. The participants said that they would not buy budget chocolate over big brands. Some of the participants who are students said that sometimes they chose the cheap option if they have a restricted budget and if they are craving for a treat. So even one pound for a chocolate bar sometimes is expensive. To be quite honest if I compare the pries for a chocolate bar in Latvia, where I am originally from – they are more expensive than in UK. Milka would cost around the same as in UK but other brands are roughly about £1,20 for a chocolate bar when in UK the average is £1.

I love the taste of chocolate on a 'cheat day', what about yourself, what do you have for your 'cheat day'?

Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed the post!

Have a wonderful day!

Justine

Survey is awaiting for your answers!!!

Hello readers,
Here is a survey which is a part of my incestigation project, please don't be shy and go on it. It will take maximum 2 minutes of your time to complete the survey! As promised - results of the analysis will be published on the blog. Thank you very very much! You can see the survey down below:

SURVEY

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https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe4jlhV6tTD0ozeeZeQ7UkE3U3hxIqEHA15kccw5d_om1xmDg/viewform

Loyalty- is it a myth or reality?

Hello to my readers and thank you for following,

This time I wanted to look at a theme called 'loyalty'. What does loyalty stand for in English?! According to dictionary.com loyalty as a noun, plural is:

1.The state or quality of being loyal; faithfulness to commitments or obligations
2. Faithful adherence to a sovereign, government, leader, cause, etc.

Loyalty, allegiance, fidelity all imply sense of duty or of devoted attachment to something or someone. Loyalty connotes sentiment and the feeling of devotion that one holds for one's country, creed, family, friends, etc. I would mark the two words – devoted attachment. If we are looking at the previous blog post which was about branding, one of the keys of successful brand is positive customer experience with the brand. Customers will become loyal to a brand if their previous experience has been positive. Customer loyalty encourages people to shop more often therefore spend more money. With the positive experience customers spread the word and might potentially encourage other people to brand switch.

There are two types of brand loyalty – Monogamous and Polygamous loyalty. Lets take a deeper look in these terms. Monogamous loyalty: for example a person shops in Asda, Farmfoods and Savers unfailingly shop at all three. The person who shops in these 3 shops is then loyal to them but not to others and yet 100% loyal to none. A customer could purchase brand 'A' 70% of a time, brand 'B' 20% of the time and Brand 'C' 10% of time. In the real life to find 100% loyal customer is hard. The studies show that in majority of cases to make customers completely loyal is unrealistic. Polygamous loyalty is a better description of actual consumer behavior than either brand switching or promiscuity. Many researches think that a definition of loyalty is a summary of history of actions, feelings and intentions towards the brand or commercial relationship.

Now, this makes me think, is there no 100% loyalty to a brand? But how about the "I'' geeks, who will stand in a 12h que for a brand new IPhone, what about Xbox or PlayStation fans? I am sure that you have at least two friends who are either Xbox or PlayStation fans and they will never brand switch but what makes them stay with the brands if even the technologies are at the same level, even the pricing for games are at the same level. I do understand for example loyalty towards food shops, personally I would shop at a store which is affordable and close to my location. Sainsbury's is not my favorite store but I shop there the most because I live 2 minutes away from the store, I would rather shop at Asda but it is too far away and I do not have a car. Speaking about cars, my family is loyal to Audi car brand, from my Grandpa to my sister and if I would need to chose one I would go for Audi as well. My explanation is simple, I have grown up with this brand and my family haven't said anything bad about it, so my experience (without even driving the car) has been positive and the influence of my family plays a big role in my decisions – their opinion is important. You could ask yourself few questions as well, are you a loyal customer, to what brands and why?! This post is just an insight of the term 'loyalty', further instigations will show more in depth detail.

I will be carrying out an Investigation on loyalty by making a market research. In the next blog posts you will able to see the results of the investigation. If you are interested to take a part in the investigation you can get in touch with me to discuss details.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!

Justine


Resources:
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/loyalty
http://prloyaltymarketing.com/customer-loyalty/what-is-customer-loyalty/

Hello My Readers,

Today i wanted to look at a theme called 'Branding' as in now days branding has a bigger meaning as it was historically, a brand can be a company as well as a person or a country. Brand is not just a logo or a name it also represents a personality of a company, also how a company connects with their audience and how the company is being perceived and seen by the audience.
Recently on the news there was a scandal in between two Kylie's – Kylie Minogue and Kylie Jenner. These both were arguing about – who owns the 'Kylie' Trademark.  After a legal battle Kylie Minogue, an Australian  popstar and charity activist has won the case but despite to the arguments with Kylie Minogue, Kylie Jenner who is known as a TV star from 'Keeping up with the Kardashians' is still planning on producing cosmetic products under the brand 'Kylie'.  Another funny case study -  a South Korean fried chicken restaurant lost a case to a fashion brand Louis Vuitton as the court agreed that the name of the restaurant was too similar to the big fashion brand. The name was Louis Vuitton Dak, obviously similar and totally not in the same direction as the fashion brand. As well as the name, the logo was similar to the fashion brand and even the packaging had the famous imagery. The chicken restaurant was fined for 14,5 million dollars for non compliance, I think that was a good lesion not to 'copy-paste' a brands ID. By looking at the differences, companies still could invest in not common direction products or services for example an internationally known brand called TATA produces cars and lorries as well as mineral water and owns a hotel business.

Did you know that a well know British sandwich shop 'Pret a Manger' is owned by Mc Donald's big chain company? First of all the name of the sandwich shop does not sound British at all, the first thought that comes in mind is French. By looking at the dictionary it's meaning is 'ready to eat' which is an adaptation from French expression prêt à porter (ready to wear), the name was inspired by French delicatessen Rees. Secondly the brand values include freshness and quality but a lot of people know the reputation of Mc Donald's – unhealthy, cheap frozen food which is full of fats and bad ingredients. Pret A Manger is the opposite direction of Mc Donald's chain. Mc Donald's itself recently started a re-branding process, changing the look and values of the company, promoting themselves as a healthier brand and with modern looks. The healthiness is tied in the packaging - offering customers more organic, recycled packaging and even the design of the new restaurants has a more 'nature' kind of look tying in the greens with the yellows. Even few adverts which I have seen was Mc Donald's promoting their food as healthy because it is coming form natural British sources and they are starting to offer deli meals which are more expensive and more exclusive.  In the big burger competition in now days Mc Donald's has to change their ways or their loyal customers could turn to other brands with better offers. It's good to see the changes already but they will need to work and invest a lot to improve their brand image.

My personal opinion about branding is to be creative. There is no need of copying others, the originality and the idea are  the main things in business. Copying others will just cause trouble, lawsuits and money loss. As many would say 'any kind of reputation is good reputation' is not always true because for example Mc Donald's had to invest a lot of money just to change customers perceptions about their brand by trying to look more natural and more as a restaurant by even considering to improve table service.
  
Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed this post and at last -  have great day!
Justine

 Sources:  1. https://www.trademarknow.com/blog/9-nasty-trademark-infringement-cases-and-how-to-avoid-them
2.https://www.marketingweek.com/2015/11/04/how-mcdonalds-is-shifting-quality-perceptions-with-its-premium-burger-launch/
3. Book:  Melissa Davis "The Fundimentals of Branding"