Love in times of recession

Holding the “Trade Marketing My Love” conference around Valentine’s day has become a tradition. This time, we examined the triangle of consumers, retailers and brand manufacturers. The first presentation was held by Dániel Dojcsák under the title “Get to know your customer and prevail!”. The outlines of a brave new world were defined, where mass communication is based on the interaction of virtual communities formed on a voluntary basis. Eszter Melisek, client service manager of Nielsen analysed macro economic trends and those pertaining to the categories monitored by Nielsen. Enthusiasm regarding promotions is the only things which is not stagnating or declining. 47 percent of consumers actively look for promotional offers. A wide assortment and good value per price ratio are also essential consumer requirements. Éva Nevihostényi, marketing director of Nielsen spoke about changes in the market positions of retail chains and distribution channels. Csongor Lakcsik, trade marketing development manager of a BAT spoke about how a winning strategy for a tobacco product can be developed even with very limited ATL support. Tímea Mege, marketing director of Rewart shared some ideas with the audience for arousing consumer interest most easily. A good example of research yielding quantifiable results is the eye camera and fixed camera survey conducted by Heineken and GfK in the retail and HoReCa sectors. Patterns of consumer behaviour can be identified using eye cameras which record whatever consumers look at and also the time spent looking, which can help in improving the effectiveness of communication. Judit Molnár from Tesco provided a review of potential tools for reaching customers. Guy Vaughan, research director of POPAI spoke about MARI which is a method for measuring the effectiveness of in-store marketing activities and comparing these with GRP figures used in classic marketing.