From waist belts to weight control

Nearly a hundred guests attended the fourth annual conference organised by the Trade Marketing Klub. Guests were greeted by Zsuzsanna Hermann, editor in chief of Trade Magazin. Krisztina Kovács, Consumer Tracking Manager of GFK Hungária reviewed consumer expectations in her lecture. Consumers’ willingness to purchase has declined radically. Concentration in retail trade is continuing. The success of discount stores is an obstacle for hyper markets and supermarkets. Hungarian consumers are price sensitive and do not regard discount stores as being of a lower status than other channels. There is still room for concentration to continue. The popularity of private labels is growing rapidly at the expense of “A” brands. This statement led to a heated dispute, since another market researcher recently predicted the decline of “B” brands for the same reason during another TMK conference. The topic of discussion for the next TMK meeting to be held on 19. April, will be the reliability of market information. Representatives of both GFK and ACNielsen are invited to present evidence and answer questions. Krisztina Kucsay-Ari Krisztina, trade marketing manager from the OTC division of Novartis OTC examined whether there is a similarity between trade marketing in pharmacies and other FMCG products, or not. Though there are a number of similarities, a major difference compared to other FMCG products is that pharmacists are not sales or marketing professionals and tend to communicate with customer on a more emotional basis. Pharmacies are independent units without central control which means there are more negotiations to be completed. Consumers are less sensitive to prices than in other FMCG segments. POS tools do not seem to be very effective compared to the advice given by pharmacists or doctors. Perhaps, even pharmacies will sometime in the future form chains. According to Erika Szabó, vice chairperson of the supervisory board of Libri, even good books need trade marketing. Book stores face the same problems as FMCG retailers. Chains are also publishing houses which means they are not only competitors but also clients to one another. : Dr. András Köves, sales and marketing manager of Bunge ZRt. and Alexandra Béres managing director of Súly-Kontroll held a joint lecture about their Weight Control concept. In addition to Bunge, a number of other food manufacturers like Rauch, Mary-Ker, Kaiser Food, Fortunate, Nobilis, Vitamor and Aquarius have also joined the program. The most important feature of the system is that it allows some individuality but is also feasible and accessible to many people. Food is classified according to three factors, which add up to a weight control index. More info about the concept is available on the www.beresalexandra.hu web site.