Women do not want to think about what to cook for dinner
Jan Patera
Vyšlo v časopisu Marketing Sales Media, March 2015
Pozn: česká verze rozhovoru v přiloženém pdf
She currently works as a deputy CEO in Ipsos Istanbul and is a respected expert in shopper marketing. She studied Computer science in Messachusetts, USA and MBA in Florida. She worked at Nielsen from 1996 to 2001 and since that, she has been focused on retail research. Last week, she came to Czech Republic to discuss with local clients the household panel that she already founded in Turkey. This project is based on weekly scanning of all receipts from their purchases or writing them to special the diaries. In Turkey, 14 thousands households from 19 million joined the panel and in some categories, such data gives us better information than classic retail data. The goal is to gain similar data also in the Czech Republic as an alternative to current data of Nielsen and GfK.
Women don´t want to think about what to cook for dinner
Turkey is the promised-land for shopper marketing. Top retailers have the minority here so far, says the head of the local subsidiary of Ipsos research agency.
Shopper marketing is not widely spread in the Czech Republic. I heard that the situation in Turkey is different.
Definitely, shopper marketing is our favourite discipline and we have done a lot of projects with this theme, mainly for international clients. Most of them have become case studies for other countries. Definition and methodology differ at various markets. I see shopper marketing as a highly connected with technologies, which we use in a research.
It is a different situation here. Many clients do not have or do not use so much information about in-store. They pay for POP materials and play with planograms and prices, but their strategies are not so advanced.
This has been a really huge thing in Turkey in the past seven years. However, I would say that this discipline should be even more important in the Czech Republic, because 70% of the market pertain to the modern trade. On the contrary, there are not many retailers in the Turkish market and most of the market is formed by traditional trade.
How big share should I imagine?
It is about 60%. This is very important in case of many categories. What can you measure if you do not have even proper shelves? There is also a limited space for racks and other in-store media. With growing importance of retailers, shopper marketing is a must. In addition to the retailers, we study also customers in HORECA segment, mainly for clients from beverage category. The most of the projects are realized for Carrefour, Migros a Tesco.
There is a sheer decline of Turkish currency against USD. It looks like upcoming crisis?
It is not a crisis, not for Turkey, we have gone through many situations. We are having election this year, companies are spending less on marketing, because they are not sure about upcoming future. Marketing and research are always the first in the line for cuts. This appeared mainly in automotive, bank sector and construction, less in case of FMCG.
What does in-store research include?
We analyse not only the behaviour of the consumers, but also the influence of whatever in-store promotion. It often happens that big companies make an arrangement about a specific amount of the facings, but these arrangements are not sometimes respected. And we control this. Nowadays, out of stocks can be monitored thanks to the photography. Coding of the products is sufficient and then the technology recognizes them on the photo. Our goal is to have a complex overview not only about behaviour of the customers and about their reaction to the ads, but also about the ad – if it is in the agreed form by supplier. Objective is always the same – increase of sales. Nothing else. That is why we do promotions and give more displays into the shops.
It is about length of the term in which you want to increase sales. It is not always about “hardsell”.
There is always everything in the sale in Turkey. I experienced the same in the USA, where I had lived for 10 years. People search for the offers and discounts and then, according to these offers, they purchase goods. Then we have to find out which promotion is the most effective. Both retailers and suppliers press for discounts. It is necessary to be more sensitive to in-store communication, because many displays from each site are disturbing. They told us this fact during our research in Carrefour. Experience from shopping is very important. It is not that you come and shop, it is not working this way. It is a social activity for us. The whole family with children goes shopping during the weekend. They go to the big shopping centre outside the city and they are able to spend here whole day by shopping, going to the cinema, going to the restaurants.
We may like it this few years ago, but nowadays we search more for specialities at the farmers’ markets. People do not want to spend all day in the shopping centre.
Turks love it. Development is moving to the outskirts of the city, outside the city centre. It is obvious that people shop in the smaller shops, often independent, during the working days. It is interesting that we have only local players among discounters who were inspired by a German style of the discount.
Does it mean that chains from foreign countries are not successful in Turkey?
Tesco and Carrefour are relatively successful. The Real was in a loss before it was bought by local enterprise and last year, they were in green numbers for the first time.
Is it harder to succeed when you are not local?
The retail is a very local business, it applies to everywhere in the world. Foreign chains bring their own managers, expats, who don´t understand locals very well. They are here for one or two years. In Carrefour, a lot of things changed when a Turk became its general manager. He is one of us and he knows how we are shopping. This is irreplaceable. You can implement good systems from foreign countries, but you need local management. Chains order researches, it is needed, but the interpretation can differ, there are things you simply cannot understand from a research, if you are not a local.
Where do you like to go shopping and why?
At Carrefour. It is nearby and the shopping doesn´t take me a long time, I don´t even need a shopping list. But I also try to go to discount retailers and all newly opened shops for professional reasons. I don´t have much time so I spent maximum half an hour per week by shopping. But it doesn´t mean that I don´t like shopping. What I don´t like is on-line purchasing. I really like to examine what I´m about to buy. It applies to all Turks, they for example like to taste things before purchase, especially cheese and olives.
Do you see yourself as a typical Turkish customer?
Not really. For me, the speed is the most important thing. Turks usually read leaflets first and they go to many shops, they are not loyal at all. They go to 8-10 supermarkets, but also to little traditional shops. I go just to two of them. Turks are also up to date with price reductions, a quarter of them are even “discount hunters” who buy food supplies. No one has just one preferred brand, but rather 2 or 3 and they always decide among them.
In your opinion, who is really good in shopper marketing?
In Turkey, it is for example Coca-Cola or Unilever, but also Pepsi, Ferrero, Danone. They try to understand human behaviour and they have a cross promotion based on in. I will give you a good example of Coca-Cola. The research suggested that people would like to have a Cola-Cola shelf in fruits and vegetables section of the shop. It is a fixed part of the purchase, part of the menu. And this shelf performed very well. They also offered a menu for a round price including Coca-Cola, rice and dessert, the meat was available in another section- and it was a complete lunch. The price was lower than in case of buying same things separately. Many women do not want to think about what they will cook.
They did something similar at Wallmart in the USA. It is amazing how it is spreading all over the world.
It is easy to match the relevant products. It is a sufficient to look into the content of the shopping baskets. You see the relation between what people buy and then you just ask why they buy exactly the things which they have in the basket. If they buy two products together, it is sufficient to give both of them on one display or close together and they will be selling much better. The combination of chips with beverages, meat with NA beverages, biscuits and chocolate with fruit juice or ice tea suggest themselves. For example, Pepsi does cross promotion during Ramadan holiday with the producers of rise or beans selling the combination of products for one price.
How much do the Turkish companies invest in in-store marketing?
It is so much. It is the second most important item in the budget after TV advertising. They invest much more into the planograms and assortment in the stores then into other media types. This is why shopper marketing has become so important. When they invest, they want to measure and change their strategies according to the results. It is a normal cycle: you do something in the store, measure if it is right and then adjust it or try something else if it will be necessary.
Příloha: Článek z časopisu Marketing Sales Media Women don´t want to think about what to cook for dinner
