Consumer Goods Categories Research Articles

Are there generalizable patterns in line extension performance?

PurposeNew product introductions, particularly line extensions (LEs), are common in consumer goods categories. Despite their commonality, the success of LEs are not guaranteed. The purpose of this study is to provide brands that introduce LEs a benchmark about what success to expect.Design/methodology/approachThis study investigates the success of 36,994 LEs in each quarter for the first three years after introduction. Four indicators are calculated using consumer panel data to benchmark how long LEs survive (failure rate), how competitive they are in the category (market share) and how they are adopted by category buyers (penetration and repeat buyer rate).FindingsMost LEs survive after the first year, but many cease to exist or perform well in the long term. Around 50% of LEs fail a year after launch, but this failure rate halves once seasonal LEs are removed. Failure rates start to approach 80% after three years. Most LEs do not perform better than existing products. Around three in four LEs have a market share or penetration near or below the category norm. Although this percentage decreases the longer after launch, most LEs are still below the category norm.Practical implicationsThese new product success benchmarks provide guidelines to practitioners about what success the “typical” LE will achieve. This research can help guide new product investment decisions because it provides context on what is feasible to achieve.Originality/valueFour market success measures are used, a departure from past benchmarking research which uses practitioner evaluation on metrics seldom used in practice. The authors provide guidelines about when and how to measure LE and new product success more broadly.

Simplicity Matters: Unraveling the Impact of Minimalist Packaging on Green Trust in Daily Consumer Goods

This study delves into the complex dynamics of consumer attitudes toward sustainable products, particularly within the fast-moving consumer goods category, highlighting the significant correlation between elegant and minimalist design aesthetics and the establishment of green trust in sustainable product offerings. Interestingly, while visually complex packaging may capture visual attention, it does not generate higher levels of green trust compared to simpler alternatives within the same product category. The findings underscore the importance of simple packaging design in mitigating consumer skepticism toward manipulative intentions and enhancing trust in sustainable products. Furthermore, this research reveals that individuals with higher levels of expertise possess deeper insights in perceiving complexity as a potential form of manipulation, thereby exacerbating skepticism toward sustainable products. In summary, the research outcomes guide sustainable product packaging design, emphasizing alternative solutions to convoluted designs that may lead to confusion. The effectiveness of simple design expression in sustainable products is emphasized, fostering the transition toward sustainable business efficacy and long-term development.

Changing content plan structure of companies operating in Russia and represented on VK

The article identifies six main types of content: communication, entertainment, situational, news, sales, and reputation. The study analyzes changes in content plan structure of companies providing various categories of consumer goods in 2022. The reviewed companies operate in Russia, have official accounts VK and actively interact with users. These companies’ activity on VK has been reviewed and analyzed and trends in various types of content placement considered. The regularities in companies’ content plan change and types of prevailing content for 2022 have been highlighted. The article concludes that Russian companies are facing a serious challenge related to the vacated market niches due to a number of foreign brands market withdrawal. Companies that change their content plan in the direction of active interaction with users and effective use of available social network opportunities will have a clear advantage over those ones that continue to focus their efforts on Western resources, access to which is significantly hindered, and advertising placement and use of paid promotion tools are illegal.

EXTENDED WARRANTY AND ITS IMPACT ON PERCEPTION IN SALES PROMOTION OF DURABLES

Purpose – The aim of the paper is to determine the perception of extended warranty when communicated by retailer during the sales promotion of durable products (e.g. refrigerators). We consider perception as five signals or conceptual dimensions in retail context. The research question is: What perception creates the extended warranty? The dimensions studied can increase or decrease the value and therefore attractiveness of the product. In this sense, extended warranties are a tool that retailers can use to change customers’ attitudes towards a product. There is little primary research that shows how communication of extended warranties influences customer perception and which signals are relevant to customers and retailers. Research methodology – A survey was conducted on a sample of 180 respondents. The measurement model includes extended warranty as a construct with five observed variables related to customer sentiment (risk relief, no cost, quality, price and brand). Each sentiment signal is tested as a separate hypothesis. The model was tested with SEM and CFA was used to interpret the data. Findings – In advertising theory, the extended warranty is seen as a signal of better quality and reliability, but we have shown that it creates a sense of risk relief in the purchase decision. Research limitations – Extended warranties can give rise to perceptions other than those examined in the measurement model. For different categories of consumer goods, the warranty features can be perceived differently. Practical implications – Retailers design promotional activities by communicating extended warranty to customers. As a result, they do not perceive promoted object as a more expensive due to warranty provision, even though it offers value to customers. Originality/Value – The originality of the article lies in the different perceptions that arise when customers are confronted with an extended warranty as part of the product promotion in a store. The empirical model proposes a construct of perception of the extended warranty mediated by a unique combination of signals such as risk relief, no cost sentiment, quality, price, and brand value. Only two signals, namely risk relief and quality, influence purchase intention.

When Brands Go Dark: A Replication and Extension

The value of mass media advertising can be demonstrated by quantifying what happens when it is removed. The current study does this, extending the work of Hartnett, Gelzinis, Beal, <i>et al</i>. (2021) by documenting changes in market share for 365 U.S. brands from 22 consumer goods categories that stopped advertising for at least one year. Market shares of brands without advertising declined, on average, at a steady rate year over year. On average, market share declines were more common and substantial among small brands and those losing share before advertising ceased. That prior findings generalize to a new market and many new categories increases confidence in the results.

Autonomous Maintenance: A Case Study on Step -4 Implementation at Detergent Manufacturing Plant Under FMCG Category

This comprehensive study delves into the intricate dynamics of Autonomous Maintenance (AM), a pivotal component of the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) philosophy, as an instrumental strategy employed by companies to elevate the competitiveness of their products. Focusing specifically on the manufacturing sector, with an emphasis on plant and machinery, the research emphasizes the critical role of AM in minimizing losses attributed to breakdowns, thereby contributing to overall cost reduction. The initial stages of AM, encompassing Steps 1, 2, and 3, are dedicated to restoring the fundamental conditions of machinery. These steps involve addressing underlying issues that lead to breakdowns, thus laying the groundwork for a more robust and efficient manufacturing process. In this context, the study underscores the strategic significance of AM in not only rectifying existing problems but also in preventing future disruptions. The crux of this investigation centers on Step 4 of AM, which shifts the focus from restoration to the sustained maintenance of gains achieved in the preceding steps. This step is crucial for ensuring the longevity of improvements and for establishing a proactive approach to maintenance. The study unfolds within the specific setting of a Detergent Manufacturing Plant operating within the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) category, offering a real-world context to the theoretical underpinnings of AM. The research scrutinizes the implementation of Step 4 at the Detergent Manufacturing Plant, elucidating the methodologies employed, challenges encountered, and outcomes realized in the ongoing pursuit of minimizing costly breakdowns. By delving into the intricacies of this implementation, the study seeks to provide nuanced insights into the practical implications and effectiveness of sustaining gains in the manufacturing process through the systematic application of AM principles. Anticipated outcomes of this case study include valuable lessons and best practices that can be extrapolated to benefit companies within the FMCG sector and beyond. As industries strive for operational excellence, the findings of this research are poised to offer actionable insights into the strategic deployment of Autonomous Maintenance for enhancing manufacturing competitiveness and reducing production-related losses.

Changes in Patterns of Consumer Spending in European Households

Consumption is an important concept in economics and many social sciences. The aim of the study is to compare consumption in European households in the years 2004–2020 and to identify groups of countries with similar consumption–expenditure structures. Statistical methods were used: trend analysis, cluster analysis. Between 2004 and 2019, the consumption expenditures of European households gradually increased. In all countries, spending on categories such as food, housing maintenance, and food and accommodation rose. Most countries also saw an increase in spending on other categories of consumer goods and services, although there were also countries where some types of spending decreased during the period under study. Our research grouped countries according to their consumption structure in 2004, 2019 and 2020. In Europe, several groups of countries can be distinguished according to their consumption structure. Similarities between EU countries’ consumption change through time. Ward’s clustering and k-means methods allowed to reduce a large number of countries to a few basic groups, which can be perceived as the subject and direction of further analysis.

Reidentification Risk in Panel Data: Protecting fork-Anonymity

Market research companies collect extensive data on purchasing, travel, and app and media usage behaviors of consumers, prescriptions written by physicians, and so forth. Although the companies provide assurances of anonymity to the study participants, there is a significant concern about the vulnerability of these data. Could a motivated intruder match the pattern of purchases with the name and other personal and potentially sensitive details of an individual? We find that 17% to 94% of market research panelists in 15 frequently bought consumer goods categories are subject to high risk of reidentification through a potential record linkage attack based on their unique purchasing histories even when their identities are anonymized. We also demonstrate that the risk of reidentification in such data are vastly understated by the conventional measure, unicity, and propose a new measure, termed “sno-unicity.” To protect the privacy of panelists, we consider the well-known privacy notion of k-anonymity and develop a new approach called “graph-based minimum movement k-anonymization” that is designed especially for retaining the usefulness of panel data. We show that our approach works well in protecting participants’ privacy without substantially altering the information that marketers need for sound marketing decisions.

How do e-stores grow their market share?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify how fashion and cosmetics e-stores compete and grow to help e-commerce managers set the corresponding marketing strategy. It describes the relevance of customer acquisition and retention to market share as the essential performance metrics.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical generalization approach where patterns in data appearing across studies are described by a mathematical or graphical method is used. To do that, the authors observed real transactional data and the effect of how e-stores benefit from new and returning customers and gain a larger market share. The authors have analysed behavioural data from nearly 124,000 e-commerce customers in two highly popular product categories (fashion and cosmetics) in the size of 10,000,000 euros in sales or more.FindingsFashion and cosmetics e-stores with more market penetration tend to have a higher market share measured both by the number of total purchases and the number of sales in euro. In other words, market penetration is a solid predictor of market share in all circumstances. Interestingly, no significant difference in loyalty has been observed in relation to market share growth except in the situation where the market partition was excluded from the product category.Research limitations/implicationsThe businesses under study derived only from one country and only two product categories were observed. Thus, there is a potential limitation in generalizing the findings to the whole e-commerce market from a geographical and category perspective. The length of the observation period may also play a role as a longer period increases the chance of repeat buying.Practical implicationsE-commerce managers can gain long-term market share growth mainly via higher market penetration (acquisition of new customers) and should avoid misleading overfocus on loyalty tactics (retention of current customers). The study also provides important benchmarks for e-commerce businesses in the fashion and cosmetic categories.Originality/valueIn the market share growth literature, only a handful of studies focus on stores and not on products. Moreover, there is a dominance of fast-moving consumer goods categories. Surprisingly, studies analysing ever-growing e-commerce markets are scarce. Thus, this research is original because it describes, using empirical data, how brands online, at the store level and within the fashion and cosmetics category, grow their market share. It is also one of the few studies that work with real business transactional data.

Using the Dirichlet model to predict how fashion brands compete and grow on eBay

AbstractE‐fashion brand competition has historically been studied from an attitudinal lens, through surveys and theory‐based approaches. These studies generally examine consumer attitudes, satisfaction and loyalty; highlighting that trust, satisfaction and reputation are key e‐commerce success elements. However, the empirical consumer behaviour literature rebuts the use of attitudes to explain brand performance, criticising their subjectivity and the overall ineffectiveness of loyalty as a brand growth tool. The article presents Gerald Goodhardt and colleagues' Dirichlet model as an alternative approach to understanding e‐fashion buyer behaviour. The Dirichlet model is a robust, stochastic model that has reliably predicted well‐established law‐like patterns of buyer behaviour and brand competition. We apply Dirichlet modelling to a new, non‐fast moving consumer goods category to extend consumer behaviour research in the online environment. The study uses consumer panel data from the United Kingdom, across two consecutive years. We conclude that the Dirichlet model has an excellent fit within the eBay fashion brand market. The study also identifies that the well‐known double jeopardy pattern exists within this market, demonstrating that e‐fashion brands grow through acquisition rather than retention of customers. This provides a different viewpoint than most e‐fashion brand growth literature. In addition to this, we examine the predictive capability of the Dirichlet model. We use a holdout sample to show that the model can predict future brand performance metrics, which is an exciting new development in consumer behaviour research.

How persistent are duplication of purchase partitions?

AbstractBrands share more of their customers with bigger competitors and fewer with smaller ones. However, there are occasional deviations to this predictable Duplication of Purchase (DoP) pattern. When two or more brands share excess customers because of functional or nonfunctional differences—it is called a partition. While past research using the NBD‐Dirichlet model demonstrates partitions in annual or shorter data, there is no empirical evidence for partition persistency over the longer term, although some other NBD‐Dirichlet deviations are known to persist over time. Examining expected partitions in 10 consumer goods categories in the United Kingdom, the authors show partitions overwhelmingly persist over 3 years. The findings contribute support to Dirichlet theory, especially on market stability, boundary conditions, and provide practical implications for portfolio management.

Fostering Consumer–Brand Relationships through social media brand communities

ABSTRACT Consumer-brand identification and consumer engagement in social media brand communities (SMBC) are two of the concepts most highlighted in recent studies, as brand benefit facilitators. This study addresses the importance of these two concepts and their interaction effect on brand loyalty in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) category. The results of the quantitative study show that in FMCG, consumer engagement in SMBC is driven by information searching, brand passion, feelings of community connection, and self-expression in the community. Consumer engagement and consumer-brand identification have positive impacts on brand trust and loyalty. The moderating effect of consumer–brand identification on the relationship between consumer engagement in SMBC and brand loyalty is negative, revealing that consumer engagement in social media brand communities has a stronger impact on brand loyalty when consumer-brand identification is low. This study showed the role of SMBC as a powerful communication medium, where brands and consumers can meet, and reach a mutual understanding of common needs and aspirations.

Green Marketing, Ecolabel and Purchase Intention on Food Products during Covid-19

The Covid-19 Pandemy has increased consumer’s awareness of the health issues and what they eat on a daily basis. Within the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) category, ecolabel is used to differentiate environmental friendly food and conventional food. However, not all of the healthy products are having ecolabel. This might happened because consumers do not know about the product, the price does not fit with their budget, the promotion does not reach the consumers and many other reasons. During the Covid-19 Pandemy, food manufacturing companies may need to adjust the massage to meet their targetted market. Therefore, this study examines how green marketing, ecolabel and Covid-19 pandemic relate to consumer’s purchase intention of food products. What aspects are they considering? An online survey was conducted in May – June 2020, involving 349 valid respondents, from 34 provinces in Indonesia. This study found that green marketing mix is positively associated with consumer attitude. Interestingly, only green products and green promotion are positively associated with the green marketing mix. Green price and green place are not significantly related to the green marketing mix. Furthermore, ecolabel and Covid-19 pandemic are positively associated with consumers’attitude. This consumers attitude is then positively associated with green food products’ buying intention. The findings of this study imply the need for food producers to allocate attention to food labelling, through good products and promotion. As of Covid-19 pandemic, this study found that the respondents will continue their healthy habit to protect themselves against health issue in the future. This offers positive signals to producers and marketing communication to develop a better communication approach for consumers.

Accessibility and availability: A cross-cultural study of shopper responses to online retail stock-outs

ABSTRACT Accessibility of products in online retail is an expected part of the shopper experience journey. Frequent products are not accessible due to non-availability. Introduced by Sheth and Sisodia, the 4A’s framework articulates how success in any marketing program depends on four dimensions: Awareness, Acceptability, Affordability, and Accessibility. This article demonstrates how, like dominos fall, marketing investments can fail when the final 4A’s stage, Accessibility, is not adequately addressed in online retailing. Surveying more than 2,000 shoppers across five European and Asian countries that encountered a non-available item while shopping online for one of six fast-moving consumer goods categories, the research study examines shoppers’ switching behavior when Accessibility has been interrupted in the purchasing stage of the customer journey. The overall goal is to better understand how shoppers change their behavior, and it examines a variety of causes that drive switching behavior, whether it be to switch stores, switch brands, or switch intentions when the item they desired is unavailable. Switching behavior was found to vary greatly among the five countries, but less between categories, and switching was greatly affected by the way shoppers encountered the non-available item. The study concludes with recommendations to address Accessibility both in product availability and shoppers’ transaction costs.

Effect of Sales Promotion on Consumers Towards Fast-Moving Consumer Goods in Al-Dakhliyah Governorate.

The importance of consumer sales promotion in the marketing mix of the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) category throughout the world has increased. Companies spend considerable time in planning such activities. However, there are few studies conducted in the Middle East to find out effectiveness of promotions. This aims to investigate consumer’s perceptions regarding sales promotion. Results indicate that there is a moderate correlation between consumers’ expectations and sales promotion in Al-Dakhliyah Governorate.

The Natural Monopoly effect in brand purchasing: Do big brands really appeal to lighter category buyers?

This paper investigates the Natural Monopoly [NM] effect, which is that large brands have buyers who are on average less frequent or ‘lighter’ purchasers of the product category. The study analyzes the NM effect for brands in 28 consumer goods categories in The Netherlands. The analysis employs a multiple regression with category purchase rate as the dependent variable; and brand penetration, together with brand price, brand type, average pack size and promotion incidence as independent variables. The study finds that higher brand penetration is indeed associated with a lower rate of category purchase, controlling for the other variables in the model. The NM effect is reasonably large: the largest two brands in a category tend to have a buyer base that on average purchase the category about 25% less frequently than those of the smallest two. The study also derives an explanation for how large brands are generally purchased more frequently, even when their buyer base on average buys the category less frequently. The findings imply that a focus on heavy category buyers is inconsistent with the goal of growing a brand.

The effects of competitive context on consumer response to price changes

ABSTRACT This paper aims to understand how a brand’s price level, relative to its competitors, will affect consumers’ responses to price changes of the brand. The study uses experiments to examine brand choice responses to price increases and decreases across contexts differing in competitor brands and their respective prices. These experiments are conducted with six consumer goods categories. The research identifies three key factors that affect the size of responses to brand price changes – (1) passing a competitor brand’s price, (2) narrowing versus widening the price gaps with competitors, and (3) whether competitors are predominantly higher or lower priced brands.

Competitive Position of the Most Admired Companies 2018 in Consumer Goods Categor

The Warta Economic Intelligence Unit (WEIU) conducts research in 2018.The research team uses the desk research and quantitative research methods. This research produces the names of companies with the highest awareness and the best image based on the perceptions of respondents as the desired company. Referring to (1) the opinion of David (2016:11), obtaining and maintaining competitive advantage is very important for the long-term success of the organization. (2)Solihin's opinion (2012:25) through strategic decisions made by company management, it will ensure the maintenance of the company's competitive advantage, so the researchers suspect that the success of the Consumer Goods companies in Indonesia Most Admired Companies (IMAC-2018) is due to the right strategy decisions. Regarding IMAC-2018 Consumer Goods Category, this study aims to identify and analyze competitive positions based on financial performance in the Consumer Goods industry, 2)formulate strategies that can be carried out to improve competitive positions in the Consumer Goods industry. To achieve this goal, the research approach used is a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches with a strategic management design model. The data used in this study are secondary data, namely the financial statements of consumer goodscompany in 2016, 2017 and 2018. This research was conducted in the Top Five Indonesia Most Admired Companies 2018 in Consumer Goods Category, namely PT Garuda Food, PT GudangGaram, PT Nestlé Indonesia, PT Indofood and PT Unilever Indonesia.The results show that 1)the financial performance of PT Unilever Indonesia, shows the best position compared to the others. 2)the strategies chosen based on competitive conditions are aggressive and defensive strategies.

Extending the double jeopardy and duplication of purchase laws to the wine market

PurposeThis study aims to understand the market structure and explore the applicability of recognised generalisations to a European wine retail market. The study considers whether brands in European wine retailing follow the established double jeopardy and duplication of purchase laws, with the aim of investigating their limits so as to identify where market partitions are evident.Design/methodology/approachThe researchers conducted a cross-purchasing analysis within the wine category over a 12-month period, using a customer panel of n = 25,000 across a chain of independent retail stores in an English-speaking European country. Analysis was conducted across purchases of the top 20 wine brands.FindingsConsumer wine repurchase results confirmed a double jeopardy pattern. These consumers’ wine repurchasing behaviour from other top-20 wine brands could have generally been predicted in line with the duplication of purchase law. However, a small number of exceptions to these patterns were identified, suggesting the existence of market partitions.Research limitations/implicationsIn this study, market partitions were evident for selected brands, a wine region and a common grape variety, Sauvignon blanc. Such exceptions illustrate that consumer purchase patterns can deviate from predictions, for a small number of brands in a consumer goods category than would be expected given duplication of purchase law norms. Such anomalies to empirical generalisations help demonstrate boundary conditions and lead further research on the market conditions required for such anomalies to be evident. Implications suggest that further research should be conducted on the product features creating market partitions.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that regional wines can appeal to a more clearly partitioned customer group within the clientele, but that substitution is noted among brands within regions.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to use a large sample consumer database to determine the generalisability of two well-established empirical generalisations: the double jeopardy and duplication of purchase laws, to the wine retail market. Knowing these are applicable to the wine retail markets allows wine producers and retailers to predict expected repurchase and cross-purchasing norms.

A Study of Brand Equity Formation in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods Category

Purpose: To identify key relationships in building brand equity in the fast-moving consumer good (FMCG) category in the United Arab Emirates. Design/methodology/approach: It is postulated that marketing elements impact brand equity dimensions which in turn impact the brand equity construct. Five marketing mix elements were selected—price, distribution intensity, advertising, price promotions and non-price promotions, and four dimensions of brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality and brand associations, finally to overall brand equity. Data were collected from a broad sample. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationships among the 10 constructs. Findings: Brand loyalty and perceived quality have a significant impact on brand equity, whereas brand awareness and brand association were weak. Brand awareness has a significant influence on brand loyalty. Distribution intensity and non-price promotions have a positive relationship with all the brand equity dimensions, whereas weak support was determined for pricing and advertising. Conclusion: In the FMCG category building strong brand awareness combined with wide distribution and supported by non-price promotions are critical to building brand loyalty which in turn impacts brand equity. Originality/value: This study contributes to the general body of knowledge on branding and provides a starting point for further research in the region.