Playing with categories

Biscuits have been manufactured in Hungary for over a hundred years. Sales are rising while the product range is becoming more colourful and diverse. – The categories where innovations appear are developing most dynamically – says Gabriella Pogács, trade marketing manager of Győri Keksz Kft. _ Examples are biscuits for breakfast, dipped biscuits and sponge cakes. According to Olga Pavlova, managing director of Dekti Keksz Kft., markets related to biscuits are also expanding. Having biscuits with coffee or tea is getting more popular, but our average biscuit consumption is still much lower than in England, or France, or even Slav countries. Győri Keksz as market leader is present in all segments. Their traditional products are Győri Édes, Pilóta and Vaniliás rings. – Consumers of biscuits prefer real innovations to simply getting new flavours or packages sizes. This is why the introduction of Pilóta Piskótatallér (now called Delissima) or Jó Reggelt breakfast biscuits was so successful, as both created a new category. Today, radical innovations are harder to find. Brands face intensive competition from private labels which have achieved a market share of almost 40 per cent. The only way for brands to respond is by offering true quality, because price competition is not a real option. This can be achieved by improving existing image and flavours, or by creating new categories, which are not easy to copy at a low price. Olga Pavlova sees two main directions for innovation in the field of sweet biscuits: one is developing healthier, lower calorie products, while the other is combining pleasant taste with something unconventional, like packaging simple biscuits in plastic buckets. This is why new products of Detki Keksz Kft. for this year will focus on these features. The primary objective of brands in trade marketing is to improve visibility in stores, since the number of cheap, unbranded or private label products in this environment makes it harder for customers to find their favourite brand. – Our main objective is to provide added value for customers, in the form of family packages or overfilled packages – says Gabriella Pogács. It is very important in planning our trade marketing activities to offer channel-specific benefits, instead of using a uniform system in all channels.