Everything you want to know about your consumer

Career & Style held its conference on 7. September, where current issues of the consumer market and possible future changes were discussed. In her opening presentation, the managing director of Career & Style Tanácsadó Kft., Mrs. Csik dr. Klára Kovács outlined the issues focused on by the FMCG community. Companies are in the process of working out plans for 2008. She encouraged the audience to approve of plans which are 5 per cent above what sales experts regard as possible. Mrs. Szalóky Judit Tóth, managing director of AC Nielsen illustrated the market situation using numbers. One year ago, 60 per cent of the people interviewed said that they would reduce their consumption, but this is not what actually happened. In the first half of 2007, we saw stagnation, with the percentage of promotional sales reaching 38-40. One out of five HOF is spent on a private label product. Edina Avvakumovits, marketing manager of Sara Lee spoke about the international differences in motivation for drinking coffee. This consumer insight is translated by companies into action. In Hungary, the main motivation for drinking coffee is its vitalising, refreshing effect, where in the Netherlands, this is a social activity. This was the basis for the nation-wide Douwe Egberts promotion under the title “ Neighbours’ Day”. Dove has been focusing on real life consumers, since their research has revealed that their customers want real value. The “For Real Beauty” campaign was followed by the “Self-esteem Fund”, where real women had been depicted. The provocative campaign is continuing with the introduction of the Dove Pro-Age product line, targeted at ladies in the over 50 age group. The question examined by dr. Márta Töröcsik, a professor from Janus Pannonius University was “What do people think about brands? How is price and the perception of a brand related?
One of her interesting conclusions was that brand loyalty in the classical sense is on the decline and cheapness has become very important. Health and environment-conscious consumers expect companies to show socially responsible behaviour. In Hungary, 30 per cent of consumers are loyal to brands, with younger age groups showing far more opennes than older ones. Norbert Schobert spoke about the success of the Up Date brand which has 28 partners among manufacturers. It also has 6 stores, operated in a franchise system. According to Ádám Földes, sales director of Sláger Rádió, growing advertising noise makes the owners of brands look for increasingly innovative ways to convey their message to consumers. He provided two examples of how commercial radio can be a practical tool for this: Bumeráng Mosolyturné with the Procter & Gamble “elephant” promotion and the introduction of tropical Coccolino by Unilever. Zoltán Berecz, managing director of Ideonod, said that innovation is always based on new ideas which need support. Ideonod has developed a system for sharing innovative ideas between employees. At the round table discussion concluding the conference, Júlia Nagy from dm, Mihály Hardy from Tesco and Péter Boros from Coop answered questions.