‘It is ending precisely now…’ (Part 6)

This new, 6-part series by Trade magazin and GfK Hungária Market Research Institute focuses on price trends, pricing policies and consumer expectations in terms of price. Let us summarise what we concluded in the past twelve months! Domestic consumers changed their behaviour significantly. With economising in mind, they started preferring daily shopping to large shopping trips to hypermarkets. Consumers were afraid to go to hypermarkets where plenty of products are available at lower prices, instead they started buying the same products at higher prices in more expensive small shops. Another characteristic change was that an increasing number of consumers decided to try discount stores and private label products. Shoppers started to believe that cheap products can be of good quality. These days price is one of the most decisive tool in marketing communication – but in the long run also one of the most dangerous ones. Shoppers are now accustomed to always finding promotions and special offers in stores. They learned that their shopping decisions are more important to manufacturers and retailers than the product itself to them. People want to buy the same product cheaper each time. It is very difficult (impossible?) to break this cycle, even more so with the usual marketing tools. Shopper insight research focuses on those decision making factors which manufacturers or retailers might not perceive in everyday work. In the course of these projects we manage to gain insights which definitely help at the point of purchase, at the moment when a decision is made.