Brands are more important elsewhere

Experts from PriceWaterhouse Coopers wanted to find out about the level of brand awareness in three countries of the region. Polish consumer habits are determined by the slow growth of purchasing power, the rearrangement among types of households and a trend-compliant behaviour. Average Polish families spend about 30 per cent of their income on FMCG products. Both the number of old people and young singles is increasing. Demand for instant and half-processed products is growing. Bio products are also becoming more popular. Polish customers are loyal to their small neighbourhood stores and sensitive to prices. The expanding middle class has a high level of brand awareness and feels that quality is important. They value branded products more than unbranded ones, since they think an established brand is a guarantee of quality. A third of Polish consumers prefer to buy domestic products. The population is also getting older in the Czech Republic. Purchasing power shows stable growth. The number of hyper markets is not expected to grow significantly, as the market seems to be saturated. Consumers spend 22 per cent of their income on basic foods, but different groups show very diverse habits. Modern consumers, with a high level of brand awareness go to Cash&Carry stores or hyper markets, while conservative groups prefer traditional stores. Growth in Hungary is more moderate than in the above two countries, while population loss is the most intensive. Wages are quite low even in comparison with the regional average. Hungarian consumers tend to pay far more attention to price than to quality. The level of brand awareness is far behind the Eastern European average which is reflected by the fact that the most popular brand is Tesco.