When you need a little energy

According to Orsolya Varga, trade marketing manager of Energizer, growth in the market of batteries is continuous but slow, with an increasing proportion of consumers choosing quality in the shape of long-life batteries. Even simple devices like fire alarms, remote controls and clocks come with LCS displays, which means their energy consumption is higher and require long-life batteries. Alkaline batteries account for over 50 per cent of total sales in terms of quantity and 66 per cent in terms of value. The market share of cheaper carbon-zinc batteries is over 40 per cent in terms of quantity, but account for only 25 per cent of sales. As Gabriella Jungvirth, trade marketing manager of Varta has told us, the segment of rechargeable batteries shows the most dynamic growth. The Ready2Use technology of Varta offers a new product advantage, as it allows pre-charged batteries to be sold. The super premium segment plays an important role, in spite of its low market share, because margins are higher than average for these products. Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries which represent lithium technology in AA and AAA sizes are a unique example of this segment because they last up to seven times longer than alkaline batteries. Apart from the promotional leaflets of retail chains, batteries also appear in international campaigns, like that of Varta Boris Becker. Building on the success of last year’s SMS promotional campaign. Varta has recently modernised its alkaline assortment and restructured its segmentation Varta’s Digital USB charger is a unique product in the market. The two categories of Energizer batteries now have easy to identify colour codes – red and orange for alkaline batteries and blue and silver for extra high performance batteries. The peak season for batteries is Christmas. Displays can be quite effective in even small stores in this period.