Trade marketing and marketing professionals frequently put the question to each other whether it is worth spending on hostess promotion. They question whether the costs spent on wage of hostesses, products to be tasted, transportation of promotion devices, possible promotion gifts and supermarket permissions will be repaid. There are arguments pro and contra, but one thing is sure: this is one of the most efficient tools of gaining customers’ confidence during the introduction of a quite new product family.
Marketing managers told many times that the TV and magazine ads applied first did not brought the expected success until the customers could taste the product in several supermarkets and they themselves discovered that what they see in the ads is true. This was the basis of the decision of Master Good Ltd to aim significant resources at the popularisation of its new product family, the “Master” brand.
Based on the farmhouse chicken
The company may be known among the consumers by its farmhouse chicken since only they market such product in Hungary. (In the poultry breeding, there exist the so called “industrial” chicken grown under factory farm circumstances and the farmhouse chicken which is bred on a free range, fed exclusively with natural materials). The profitability of industrial poultry breeding and marketing is very low, we can say approximates zero, this is why the company management decided to appear on the market of the farmhouse poultry first then of the processed meat products. In spite of the strong competition in the latter field, if a company offers good quality and remains consistently faithful to it, customers will be more and more willing to pay for the quality. The frequent food industry scandals in the recent times also endeavour the customers to find such products and manufacturer in which they can permanently trust. The farmhouse chicken is such a type of product for the customers. The product of reliable quality and good taste established the customers’ confidence.
Many a little made more
The Master Good Ltd introduced the “Master” poultry Vienna sausage, ham, liver sausage and sausage into the market last September. Market researches showed that customers are open to the flavoured hams and meat products, so among other things the chicken breast ham flavoured with “Pritamin” paprika and the poultry liver sausage flavoured with chive and “Pritamin” paprika.
First they applied intensive paper and radio ads this March. It was followed by the national prize game in April. The management decided to offer numerous, but more secure gifts. Instead of choosing a jackpot worth of several million which may appear unreachable for a sceptic customer, they raffled more than one thousand gifts beyond a travel to Cyprus. Since they had not organised such promotion earlier, they did not know how much it would move the customers. During the lot held recently, the winner was drawn from 7248 envelopes sent.
The control of the Master Good cock logos and the complete organisation of the prize game were done by the company’s marketing and customer service staff of little number. Simultaneously with the prize game the tasting actions took place. All supermarkets of Cora, while the selected shops of Tesco, Auchan and Interspar networks participated, altogether thirty units. Two days were spent on the tasting in each supermarket.
Uniquely, three hostesses were working simultaneously in each supermarket: two in the selling area, one outside the cashier zone. One hostess in the selling area offered the Red Master farmhouse chicken to the customers next to the poultry cooler (without a counter, walking among the customers), while the other invited the customers to the tasting counter erected at the delicatessen counter where they could taste from six kinds of products. The third hostess handed over the gift at the counter standing outside the cashier zone. The condition of the gift was the purchase of a farmhouse chicken. The consumers received one textile shopping bag as a gift after buying one piece of farmhouse chicken, in the event of buying two pieces the customer might choose from an apron and kettle-holder gloves respectively, and after buying three farmhouse chickens they awarded the faithfulness with a towel equipped with the Master Good logo. The gifts were handed over to the customers on the condition of showing the receipts.
The tasting was not accompanied with any price allowance, although the products were sold at introduction prices.
The most products were sold in the Cora
Never is easy to define previously how many goods will be necessary, especially if six kinds of products are tasted. Master Good rather oversized the quantity for fear that customers fail to taste something. The most popular product was the liver sausage with “Pritamin” paprika.
Successfulness of the product during the period of the promotion
If the sales projected to one supermarket is considered, Cora won the first place in the sale of processed products, followed closely by the Auchan (tasting was held in seven supermarkets of Cora, while ten of Interspar and three of Auchan; in ten supermarkets of Tesco, only farmhouse chicken was promoted).
If the average on the supermarkets is considered, Tesco won in the sale of farmhouse chicken, but the Cora supermarkets showed good performance here as well. Well, the Interspar supermarkets overtook the Auchan supermarkets. Out of the data, we cannot draw a conclusion that if the promotion of processed products was successful in a supermarket, than they sold many of the farmhouse chickens as well and in reverse. It seems probable that it depended on the hostesses’ skill and personality which supermarket was more successful in a certain product group.
László Bárány managing director owner and his team thought that the tasting promotion was successful since the primary aim was to make the products known to the target groups, inform the customer about the new products, increase the repute of the Master brand, establish the binding to the brand and finally, certainly generate turnover. During the Master Good promotions, they could achieve these objectives through contacting several thousands of customers. Although we do not have any market research data for the brand reputation, we know that the hostesses sold 4557 pieces of Master product and 1816 pieces of Red Master farmhouse chicken during the two days of the promotion.
Customer inquiry for building connection
In addition to the tasting actions, Master Good participated also in the customer inquiry of CBA where the new products were shown to 45-50 shops and regional managers simultaneously. The professionals could not only taste the meat products but placed their orders as well to which price action was also attached on that actual day.
Katalin Neubauer, the commercial general manager of CBA thinks that customer inquiries are very efficient since the manufacturer can gain confidence of shop managers more quickly. They can make the new tastes known by them in a pleasant environment and warm atmosphere and certainly it is also important that they please them with a price action or gift. By this not only the good personal connections can be established but the later regular offers as well. It is also easier to agree on special shop supplies at such occasions.
Katalin Neubauer also thinks the strategy of Master Good that they gained the confidence of customers and shop managers with the good-quality farmhouse chicken and then they introduced the processed products into the market was efficient. She added that the assortment of really delicious, high-quality products is extremely wide in this field so each company has to take into account even the smallest remarks of the customers in order to maintain the highest level of quality.
As compared to other categories, the opportunity of using the trade marketing tools is narrower on the market of meat products. Beyond the above-mentioned opportunities, Master Good successfully applied the own, branded cooler for the farmhouse chicken which is introduced for the new products as well. Although the own cooler requires high investment, the turnover can be increased to three or four times as much as earlier. After being successfully convinced of forming a place for the Master Good cooler at the ends of the gondola next to the coolers, they kindly kept it in the long run as well since they realised that the turnover of the products saleable with good profit would be multiplied by the second placement.
Further advantage of the own cooler is that we can find the manufacturer‘s product in great quantity filled up continuously since the department head is also interested in that a cooler does not stand empty. Becoming aware of the good experiences, it occurred that the procurement manager of a supermarket chain initiated the Master Good coolers for its supermarkets.
From the microwave oven to the cooking oven again
The comfort products not containing any preservatives exported by Master Good which help the housewives in making a lunch or dinner of domestic taste as quick as lightning without almost any housework are less known and popular in our country for the time being. László Bárány managing director told that the dishes to be warmed up in a microwave oven are being replaced with foods ready for cooking in the oven which foods completely follow the domestic tastes and design but save the housewife from the preparation and their serving resembles the atmosphere of a family lunch. These include for example the stuffed, pickled chicken breast or the filleted, spiced whole chicken which will be known to the Hungarian consumers as well.
Such products “give back the dignity” of the role of a housewife since a dish to be warmed up in the microwave oven even can be prepared even by a child.
Trade magazine / August- September 2007 / Volume I, numbers 8-9
