Consumers not turning to cheaper products yet, but buying less

This quarter’s meeting of the Trade Marketing Klub held on 23. April was dedicated to an assessment of the preceding period given by chief executives of Nielsen and GfK. The audience was greeted by Virág Kiss, wine trade marketing specialist from Zwack Unicum NyRt. As Dénes Dankó, sales director of KuponNet Advertising Kft. has told us, coupons and vouchers thrive in times of crisis. He also presented an integrated in-store promotion based on coupons and intended to boost consumer loyalty. Ákos Kozák, managing director of GfK spoke about the experience accumulated by GfK in connection with the crisis at national and international level. He pointed out that the crisis is basically about a radical reduction in demand, rather than soaring prices. In the last months of 2008 and the first months of 2009, households had not begun to turn to cheaper products yet, but reduced the quantity of the FMCG products bought instead. Supermarkets turned out to be the most successful distribution channel in this period. The amount spent by household in hyper markets was down by 3,5 percent in the same period. Éva Nevihostényi, marketing director of Nielsen talked about changes in shopping preferences. The Consumer Confidence Index produced a drastic drop in the first months of 2009 (to 52), with expectations regarding unemployment showing the biggest deterioration. One out of three consumers regarded their situation as bad. According to the Omnibusz survey conducted in February-March, 82 percent of consumer have no savings. Shoppers begun to visit more stores than in the past and an increasing proportion of them look for promotions and 22 percent go to new stores if there are lucrative promotions. Private labels continued to increase their market share.