Kostet Nutella tatsächlich überall das Gleiche? Dass Lebensmittelpreise überall bis auf den Cent identisch sind, behauptete jedenfalls das Handelsblatt – unter Bezug einer fragwürdigen Studie.
Kaufland is once again attacking the discount trade. The message that the company can also do discount cheap – this message is currently being communicated to the target groups via a current TV commercial. Over 7,000 items at discount prices, more than 300 special offers every week, plus extra discounts with the Kaufland Card: With the Kaufland price campaign “Now more than ever – Save more with Kaufland”, the Schwarz subsidiary wants to demonstrate this price competence and relies on a humorously designed TV commercial. This refers to the company’s successful discount cheap campaign, with which Kaufland humorously drew attention to its low prices as early as February of this year, writes the Lebensmittelzeitung.
Christoph Schneider, Managing Director Marketing Germany, explains that the issue of price is playing an increasingly important role for many people in the current time. “Our new campaign ‘Now more than ever’ consciously addresses this and puts the issue of cheap shopping in the spotlight. Our clear promise to our customers: At Kaufland, the customer continues to shop at a low price and can save money through particularly many offers.”
Pricing expert Hans-Christian Riekhof, Professor of International Marketing at the Private University of Göttingen, views the strategy of the Kaufland price campaign somewhat critically. “In times of rising prices, a price campaign certainly makes a lot of sense. Whether positioning against discounters is the best of all options, however, should be questioned. After all, Kaufland is making fun of itself, because in the TV spot, the young mother didn’t ‘get’ the whole issue either. It’s probably more complicated than you think.”
Links
Report on the Kaufland price campaign in the Lebensmittelzeitung (Paywall):
https://www.lebensmittelzeitung.net/handel/nachrichten/preiskampagne-kaufland-greift-erneut-den-discount-handel-an-165133?crefresh=1
Screenshot: Kaufland TV commercial
What is the real cost of food when all costs are included in the price? The grocery discounter Penny has now calculated the “true” prices of food and compares them directly with the previous prices. These include costs caused by over-fertilization, loss of biodiversity, and greenhouse gases.
The news was quickly picked up by the media. For example, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reports on the pilot project of the discounter in Berlin Spandau, where a so-called sustainability market has been opened. There, a second price is displayed next to the regular sales price on the supermarket shelf. According to the retailer, this is based on the “true costs”, on the calculation of the “True-Cost-Approach”, explains Stefan Magel, manager of the Rewe Group, to which Penny belongs.
For consumers, the newly calculated prices are probably not very pleasing. Normal minced meat, for example, would be almost three times as expensive, organic minced meat would be more than double. A liter of simple H-milk would be 1.75 euros instead of just 79 cents. Organic fresh milk would then cost 1.84 euros instead of the previous 1.09 euros.
Pricing expert Prof. Dr. Hans-Christian Riekhof from UNICconsult with expertise in retail sees this first attempt of its kind in retail as an anchor price strategy. “Our Pricing Newsletter readers know, why anchor prices should be set and how they work in the consumer’s psyche. Nothing else is the attempt by Penny from a psychological point of view to display the true costs of food on the shelf. These true costs include all ecological damages not included in the shelf price – economists would speak of external effects.”
Whether this type of anchor prices will work for consumers will show, says Riekhof. That politicians see a need for action here is probably rather unlikely. In any case, one can only congratulate Stefan Magel on this concept – a courageous step.
To the article in the SZ:
https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/einzelhandel-fleisch-dreimal-so-teuer-1.5017005
More about anchor prices and their psychological effect on consumers:
https://www.unicconsult.com/pricing-newsletter-no-27-2019-was-sind-ankerpreise/
Photo:
StockSnap, pixabay.com
Lidl is currently testing digital customer cards, with which coupons can be delivered directly to the mobile phone. In Berlin and Brandenburg, customers can use the new customer loyalty app “Lidl Plus”. With this, they receive special offers and features such as discount coupons, digital receipts or the flyer ready for every purchase. It is noteworthy that the coupons are not delivered location-based, says pricing expert Hans-Christian Riekhof.
The free app, available from the Apple and Google app stores, serves as a digital customer card. Lidl has come up with a number of “exclusive benefits” for users. For example, a 5-euro welcome coupon, new digital discount coupons for selected products and savings benefits with the so-called “Lidl Plus crackers”. Also scratch cards with further coupons and price advantages with partners, e.g. at Lidl-Photos, Lidl-Travels, FlixBus and regional, activate providers in the app.
In return, the discount giant receives valuable customer data. Lidl can thus compensate for the major disadvantage of stationary compared to online trading, where it is common to collect and evaluate customer data. Based on customer profiles created from this, the app can then make offers to the customer that Lidl assumes the customer needs at this time.
According to Lidl, customers do not see different prices based on their data. However, there is indeed a price difference in favor of the app users – compared to customers who do not use the app.
With the digital customer cards, Lidl is faster than e.g. Aldi, the main rival, says Hans Christian Riekhof. The pricing expert finds it interesting that the app is advertised on various local channels – here the example Out Of Home. Even more noteworthy is that the coupons are not delivered location-based. “You could also deliver the push notifications in front of the store, in the store and maybe even directly on the shelf. This would significantly increase the relevance – measured by opening and redemption rates – according to our project experience. Maybe this will come in the second expansion stage”, says Riekhof.
Which campaigns promise particular success can be read in the News from locandis.
By the way, the project of the digital customer card, which is currently running in around 250 Lidl markets in the pilot area Berlin and Brandenburg, is planned to be extended to all of Germany during the year 2020.
Note:
Also read our empirical Study on Digital Customer Cards in retail, system catering and tourism (Riekhof/Brinkhoff 2018).
Lidl:
https://unternehmen.lidl.de/pressreleases/190612_lidl-plus
Advertising and Selling:
https://www.wuv.de/marketing/lidl_bringt_digitale_kundenkarte_als_app
Photo at the top: Lidl Germany
Photo: UNICconsult Strategy Development GmbH
The Lebensmittelzeitung reports (Paywall) that surveys have shown that the price of more than 1000 products has been increased in the past three weeks. This applies especially to the online shop, but adjustments have also been made in some stores. This includes popular products like Balea soap, Kneipp shower gel, and Ariel detergent. The extent of this surprises, writes the Wirtschaftswoche. Although prices at dm have never been static, there have usually only been occasional shifts.
Until now, dm relied on permanently low prices. Now the drugstore market leader is changing course and raising the prices of many of its products. The background is a change in pricing strategy. In an industry dominated by fierce price competition, the price swing is causing surprise, but also irritation.
Unlike competitor Rossmann, who drastically cuts prices on branded products and own brands every week to attract customers to the stores, the drugstore giant operated with “permanently low prices”. Also, to keep other aggressively acting competitors at a distance. Aldi, Lidl and Co. have been poaching in the territory of the drugstore markets for some time and offer well-known products like Nivea, Pril, Pantene and Pampers at discount prices. Online giants like Amazon and Zalando are turning the market upside down – the fiercely contested market is becoming more difficult.
“With the new pricing policy, dm is moving away from its claim to price leadership”, explains an unnamed trade manager. The decision was made to realign the pricing strategy in-store and online, confirmed CEO Harsch to LZ. The new pricing strategy means different price levels depending on the location of the stores and the competitive situation on site. Depending on which dm store customers shop in or whether consumers order online, they will find different prices in the future. Stores that are close to discounters or other direct competitors are supposed to offer lower prices than stores that have little competition. The individual markets should decide independently about the pricing in the regional environment.
For pricing expert Professor Hans-Christian Riekhof, this is not really a surprising step. “That uniform (and thus undifferentiated) prices are economically anything but optimal, readers of our Pricing Newsletter have known for a long time. Some may also remember their own business studies, where a long time ago there might have been talk of price differentiation.
If the drugstore chain dm now moves away from the strategy of uniform prices, then obviously the realization has prevailed that the willingness to pay of customers is obviously not always the same. “Regional differences in purchasing power, temporally different preferences or even superficial product modifications can be used to implement price differentiations”, says Riekhof. “But what should be kept in mind: the increasing complexity of pricing must be reflected in internal processes and systems. Complexity to the outside is ok, to the inside rather not.”
Photo: Kettler Communication
Wirtschaftswoche:
https://www.wiwo.de/unternehmen/handel/neue-strategie-dm-verabschiedet-sich-vom-einheitspreis/24960714.html
Fokus
https://www.focus.de/finanzen/news/unternehmen/konkurrenz-koennte-nachziehen-drogeriekette-dm-aendert-preisstrategie-mehr-als-1000-produkte-werden-jetzt-teurer_id_11091617.html
Stern
https://www.stern.de/wirtschaft/news/dm-erhoeht-die-preise—das-steckt-hinter-der-neuen-strategie-8882910.html
Lebensmittel Zeitung (Paywall)
https://www.lebensmittelzeitung.net/handel/Kurswechsel-dm-aendert-Preisstrategie-142296?utm_source=%2Fmeta%2Fnewsletter%2Flzammorgen&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=nl4709-basic&utm_term=dc7d39d780fb1e3ac6d007ebfe83e0cc
On 29.11.17, Handelsblatt reported on the attack and expansion strategy of the discounters. Cheap chains like Zeeman, Rusta, Primark and Action are expanding in the German market. Why does the discount segment still seem to promise growth?
Pricing expert Professor Hans Christian Riekhof says: “Discount shopping is and remains a basic pattern of the consumer, which aims at satisfying a clearly defined need, and as simply and uncomplicatedly as possible. What we should not overlook: the same consumer buys later also in other stores, where it is about the ambience, the selection, the little luxury. And that is no contradiction at all.”