Fast Moving Consumer Goods Categories Research Articles

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.

Identifying the leading retailer-based food waste causes in different perishable fast-moving consumer goods' categories: application of the F-LBWA methodology.

Waste in fast-moving consumer goods (FMCGs) is a tremendous economic and ethical issue for retailers and the rest of society. Due to methodological weaknesses, previous studies are inadequate in prioritizing fundamental causes and drivers of retail food waste (RFW) in this context. This research explores the peculiar causes and drivers of RFW concerning different perishable FMCG categories. This research employs the fuzzy level-based weight assessment (F-LBWA) methodology to provide a robust and effective decision-making tool to retailers responsible for preventing waste in their stores. This research categorizes the causes and drivers into different product categories giving insight into the reasons and drivers that need more attention than others for each product category. The findings reveal that inappropriate buying/delivery is the most significant cause of waste for fruit and vegetables, dairy products, fresh meat, fish and seafood, and baked products, whereas improper storage is the most critical cause of waste for frozen food. The present work ensures practical implications for developing product category-specific waste management policies to improve retailers' efficiency, competitiveness, and profitability. For a developing country like Turkey, the applicable insights of this research can also serve all supply chain members and policymakers to prevent food waste through partnership.

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.

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.

Analyzing proprietary, private label, and non-brands in fresh produce purchases

When purchasing packaged products within a supermarket, consumers choose between proprietary or private label brands. However, when purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables, non-branded produce is the dominant option—with proprietary and private label brands only recently becoming available. Previous fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) research finds that proprietary and private label brands affect consumer loyalty—however, no research exists for fresh categories. This research is the first to determine the effect of emerging brands in fresh categories on consumer buying behavior. Our research examines consumers’ loyalty toward proprietary, private label, or non-branded fresh fruits and vegetables and the level of customer sharing between these options, using analytical approaches applicable to FMCG categories. The panel data contains nearly 46,000 households making over 8 million purchases in the United States during 2015. Results show that proprietary, private label, and now non-branded fresh produce have expected loyalty levels, for their size, and consumers share their purchases across the three options (i.e., consumers are not loyal to just one option). The study analyzes and interprets purchase data in fresh categories offering marketing academics and practitioners actionable advice for working with fresh produce purchase data.

Self-indulgence and purchasing behavior toward fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) during the inflation time

Inflation is no longer a new thing to Vietnam. Vietnam was in the top ten countries in the world which had the highest inflation rate in 2011 and the threat of inflation always exists till now. Vietnamese consumers, as a result, prepared themselves to cope with the tough economic time. This study’s aim is to study the attitude and behavior of Vietnamese consumers when buying FMCG categories during the inflation time. The research classifies whether Vietnamese consumers have any change in purchase behavior during inflation versus a normal economic situation and their future purchase intention in correlation with their perception towards future macro economics’ context. The study includes the research on several aspects such as the consumers’ attitude towards economy status, needs of self-indulgence, and the change in consumers’ FMCG spending during inflation time as well as their concerns about their future FMCG purchase.

IMPULSE BUYING BEHAVIOR: A STUDY ON GROCERY ITEMS

The spontaneous or unplanned purchase of goods is the best way to define impulse buying. Impulse buying can happen in any product ranging from new product, samples to well establish products with va rious discount offers. There is limited work had been conducted to assess the impulse buying habit of customer in FMCG category. The formulated hypothesis is verified by using a selfreported questionnaire. The questionnaire contains the demographic information of respondents and 16 statements. A survey was planned and conducted on convenience basis. During survey 215 grocery items customers are approached and finally the sample size of the study is 179 by dropping the irrelevant ones. Impulsive buying is very important for grocery items. Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies and specially grocery item company should take into account what factors motivates and what factors de-motivates impulse buying, product category in grocery item which leads to maximum impulse buying and understand relationship between demographic detail and impulse buying in grocery items.

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.

Preferenciastabilitás. Vásárlói preferenciák változásának vizsgálata vásárlás előtt és vásárláskor

THE AIMS OF THE PAPER The aim of our reasearch is to measure consumer preferences in Fast Moving Consumer Goods market. METHODLOGY First we conducted an online survey to measure long-time preferences, followed by in-store questioning still on preferences. As third, eye-tracking measurment was conducted while we finished with an evaluating questionnaire with those who participated in our research. Our spot of selection focused on Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG). By those daily goods the consumer journey is rather short, kind of routine-wise. Therefore prove on stability of preferences may be difficult as underlaying preferences have stronger inpact what consumer may be not aware of. Decisions are made in-store at the self mainly, therefore in-store stimuli have a strong effect on purchase decision. Our examinded categories were: (1) carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks, (2) beer, (3) sweets, (4) dairy products, (5) toothpaste. MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS Results approved our hypothesis of having a significant difference in purcchase behaviour between male and female when doing daily grocery shopping and next to that preference stability shows a clesar differencee when different categories are examined. Our main finding is that „quality of product” preference item proved to be in top 3 by each of the 5 examined FMCG categories in case of both spontaneous open list and promted top 3 closed list – while this statement is not proved to be true for any of the other preferences included in our survey. „Taste/flavour of product” proved to be in the first 3 position in case of the examined four food categories while in case of toothpaste this preference was not nominated to the toplist. RECOMMENDATIONS In the professional business our research may help category management with practical information on how much Hungarian consumers conscious are and how much „quality of product” an absolute priority means when deciding on daily grocery shopping. In each of our 4 examined food categories „quality” is ranked as one of the top 3 preferences. The research is supported by Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (No. OTKA K 116040) of National Research, Development and Innovation Office.

Measuring on-shelf availability of FMCG products

Technological development and the process of globalization influence the increase of customers' awareness. In these circumstances they are becoming more demanding, expecting retailers to offer them the right product at the right time and at the right place. The result is one of the basic tasks of retailers, which reflects in providing an adequate level of product availability in retail stores. In order to prevent the stock-out situation, special attention should be dedicated to its identification and measurement. These operations are very important for establishing and implementing other various measures for increasing product availability and thus sales and competitiveness of retail companies. In this regard, besides theoretical considerations of product availability, we presented the basic methods for its measurement. Also, by using the sample of six Fast Moving Consumer goods categories, we applied the method based on the analysis of POS data. In addition to identifying the out-of-stock rates, we confirmed the results of other studies that product availability varies among different categories and retail stores.

PepsiCo MEA: the role of packaging in brand activation

Subject area Marketing, International Business, Strategy, Packaging, Promotion. Study level/applicability Graduate students. Case overview This case is recommended to master's students studying consumer behaviour, products strategy, brand activation and international business. Practitioners in the food industry, design and advertising industry may also find this case interesting. Policymakers looking at mobility of products across borders may also consider this case interesting. Expected learning outcomes This paper explains the role of packaging in brand and product strategy; describes how packaging can give a competitive advantage in the fast-moving consumer goods category; relates consumer insights to strategy using packaging to achieve market objectives like penetration, market share increase, engagement and loyalty. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

An Exploratory Analysis of Marketing Elements and Brand Equity in the UAE FMCG Category

Purpose: The purpose of this research is to explore the relationship between the marketing elements, brand equity (BE) dimensions and BE construct in the UAE fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) category with a view to strengthening the understanding of the relationship as postulated by Aaker (1991) and validate the scales developed to test the constructs in previous studies. Design/methodology/approach: Aaker (1991) proposed that the BE construct is built on brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality, brand associations, and other proprietary brand assets, which in turn are built by managing the elements of marketing. A priori, it is postulated that there are 10 constructs of which five are marketing elements (price, distribution intensity, advertising, price promotions, and non-price promotions) and four BE dimensions (brand awareness, brand loyalty, perceived quality, and brand associations) and a final construct—overall brand equity. Thirty-three items were carefully selected from previous studies covering all the constructs. Data were collected from 536 respondents using major brands to stimulate answers on a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis was done to identify factors and rename them to be descriptive of the factor. Scale reliability was conducted on the overall items and the individual factors and also for the individual summated scales as per the factors. Findings: The 33 items were factored into seven factors with the four marketing elements’ factors (price, distribution, advertising, and promotions price and non-price factored into one) as per the a priori assumptions. Items measuring BE and its dimensions were factored into three factors instead of the theoretical five constructs. The BE factor encompasses the BE dimensions with brand awareness with brand association (BABA) and brand image coming up as separate factors. Seven of the eight factors also showed strong scale reliability. Practical implications: This study suggests that the four marketing elements can be modeled and measured based on the items selected. BE dimensions do not factor into the assumed dimensions but the three dimensions that are factored can be renamed to be more representative and incorporated into the model. Furthermore, these items can be used to construct measurement scales for the identified constructs within the UAE and the larger Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region. Originality/value: This study, being the first of its kind in the UAE, contributes to the general body of knowledge on branding and marketing. The respondents covered are both Arabs and Asians, who constitute the majority of the population in the region. The sample size is large and covers gender, age groups, ethnic background, income group, and education level hence being highly representative of the actual consumers. The constructs identified and the items tested can be used for further studies and also used to construct measurement scales which can be used in practical business situations.

Fast Moving Consumer Goods Industry in Rural Market of India: A Case of Mutual Reinvigoration

The present study has been undertaken to make an assessment of the growing eminence of FMCG industry in the era of enriching rural market in India. The Indian Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry began to take shape during the past five decades. The FMCG sector is a keystone of the Indian economy as it touches every aspect of human life. The FMCG sector, which offers tremendous growth prospects, are food and beverage sector, health care and personal care. Presently, rural India accounts for 34% of total FMCG consumption, but it accounts for more than 40% consumption in major FMCG categories like as personal care, hot beverages, and fabric care. Moreover, 80% of FMCG categories are growing faster in rural India as against urban India (Nielson, 2011). There is a huge growth potential for all the FMCG companies as the per capita consumption of almost all products in the country is amongst the lowest in the world. In recent years, rural markets have acquired significance in countries like China and India, as the overall growth of the economy has resulted in substantial increase in the purchasing power of the rural communities. On account of the green revolution in India, the rural areas are consuming a large quantity of industrial and urban manufactured products.

Measuring Brand Choice in the Older Customer Segment in Japan

As populations around the world age, brand choice behaviour by older customers becomes an increasingly important issue for marketers. This is especially the case in Japan, which has the largest older customer segment as a proportion of the population of any country. Our study measures brand choice behaviour of the older customer segment in Japan in fast-moving consumer goods categories. We employ an 11-point purchase probability scale, the Juster, to calculate brand performance measures such as penetrations, buying frequency and sole buying for three age-based customer segments. The Juster output is used as input into a mathematical model, the Dirichlet, for benchmarking the brand performance measures. The findings here reveal new insights into the brand purchase behaviour of older customers. There are more similarities than differences between the brand purchase of younger and older customers in most categories analysed here. The results have practical implications for understanding and creating appropriate marketing strategies for the older customer segment. Our study also demonstrates a novel method for analysis of brand choice data collected via a survey instrument, as compared to the traditional consumer panel data. The research framework in our study is recommended for further empirical research in other regions where demographic changes are presenting challenges to marketers, and where panel data are often not easy to obtain.

A Study on Rural Marketing Strategy - with Special Emphasis on Selected Customer Preferences for Hindustan Uniliver Limited’s (H.U.L.) Selected Products in Valsad District

Over the past few years rural India has witnessed an increase in the buying power of consumers, accompanied by their desire to upgrade their standard of living. Rural India with its traditional perception has grown over the years, not only in terms of income, but also in terms of thinking. The Indian FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods ) sector is the fourth largest sector in the economy with a total market size in excess of US$ 20.1 billion. The FMCG sector is a corner stone of the Indian economy. This sector touches every aspect of human life. The FMCG producers now realize that there is a lot of opportunity for them to enter into the rural market. It has a strong MNC presence and is characterized by a well-established distribution network, intense competition between the organized and unorganized segments and low operational cost. At present, urban India accounts for 66% of total FMCG consumption, with rural India accounting for the remaining 34%. However, rural India accounts for more than 40% consumption in major FMCG categories such as personal care, fabric care, etc. The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of rural marketing strategy implemented by Hindustan Uniliver Limited (H.U.L.), which is having highest market share in rural market of India, and acceptance of the same by the rural customers of Valsad district of Gujarat State.

Organic food: What we know (and do not know) about consumers

AbstractThis paper reports on the latest contributions to over 20 years of research on organic food consumers. There is a general consensus in the literature on the reasons why people buy organic food. However, there is also a gap between consumers’ generally positive attitude toward organic food and their relatively low level of actual purchases. Product differentiation based on intangible features, such as credence attributes such as organic, in fast-moving consumer goods categories is enjoying rapid growth. However, there are many difficulties with research in this area, including the errors inherent in research that relies on consumer self-reporting methodologies. Further, in relation to organic food, there is a divergence between consumers’ perception of its superior health features and scientific evidence. Fresh fruits and vegetables are of vital importance to the organic sector as they are the entry point for many customers and account for one-third of sales. Further, although there is a small proportion of dedicated organic food buyers, most sales come from the majority of buyers who switch between conventional and organic food purchases. This paper identifies the practical implications for generic organic food marketing campaigns, as well as for increasing sales of specific products. It concludes with suggested priorities for further research.

Future of the brand management structure in FMCG

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the future of the brand management structure in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) by examining current managerial perceptions of the relationship between brand and category management. The paper is based on a case study of a single FMCG category in New Zealand. The research involved in-depth interviews with managerial representatives of the majority of suppliers and retailers operating in this category. The results indicate that brand management and category management structures are not perceived to be incompatible; that the traditional brand management structure still works well for certain companies; and that it is expected to continue to do so well into the future. Changing environmental factors may call for modifications, but the modification requirements are not of nature that would lead the brand management structure to be discarded.

The Double Jeopardy Phenomenon and the Mediating Effect of Brand Penetration between Advertising and Brand Loyalty

<h3>ABSTRACT</h3> In a study of the Double Jeopardy (DJ) phenomenon and the mediating effect of brand penetration between advertising and brand loyalty, we integrate a survey of 19,335 consumers on their buying behavior of 187 brands across two fast moving consumer goods categories, shampoo and detergent, and a database of advertising expenditures on these brands in four major cities in China. We find that (1) smaller brands are punished twice for being small, following the well-known DJ pattern, which says that brands with larger market penetration tend to enjoy higher repeated purchases and smaller brands attract fewer buyers who also buy less; (2) brand penetration plays a mediating role in the relationship between advertising and brand loyalty; and (3) there is an asymmetric effect of market penetration on brand loyalty for small and big brands.

In Marketing Across Cultures: Are You Enlightening the World or Are You Speaking in Tongues?

You probably understand the title of this article if you are a Christian. If you are not, you probably do not. That is how important frame-ofreference is in communication. Humans internalize communications within their frame-of-reference and experience. If communication is conceived outside of that, it often is either misunderstood or not understood at all. Yet, today in marketing, communication mostly is conceived by a small minority for a vast majority of recipients. Recipients will either understand such communication, which means that it will achieve its core objectives to sell or persuade, or they will not understand it, resulting in marketers standing little chance of achieving their objectives. The opportunity cost of marketing therefore is huge: there often is only one chance to convince a market. Despite years of talking about globalization, real global brands with significant market shares all around the world are few. In many places, notably Europe, Latin America, and South East Asia, local brands still do well in many fast-moving consumer goods categories. The implication has to be that many of these brands satisfy local needs, hence retain their local strengths. The global brands that have been dramatically successful mainly stem from the United States of America, Japan or selected European countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, or Italy. Whereas the United States and Japan, tend to dominate with mass global brands including McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Microsoft, Sony, and Toyota, Europe tends to dominate the specialist areas of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, fashion, food, wine, tourism, and luxury goods., A major caveat for globalization is how to straddle, on the one hand, the economies of scale integral to international distribution with sales and local customs, needs and peculiarities on the other hand. It is fair to say that most international brands have achieved global status through sheer trade, distribution and marketing clout, rather than through excellence in matching local needs. In the process, these brands have attained the status of global icons, becoming cultural systems in their own right that speak a universal language from Lima to Jakarta. So, the globalization of business still faces a unique challenge: namely, to successfully customize a message to a specific market in a given socio-economic and cultural context, while retaining the appeal of a global cultural icon. For most fast-moving consumer or mass-consumer goods categories, greater 1 H. McRae, The World in 2020(London: Harper Collins, 1994).