How you can ride on consumer surveys to increase your sales

Shoppers at a local supermarket. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA 

By QUEEN MUNGUTI

Global consumer products manufacturer Procter and Gamble (P&G) last week released a survey on the Kenyan retail sector highlighting consumer shopping habits, in a ‘white paper’ marketing strategy that has been proven to generate extra sales leads.
“The consumers and retail landscape in this country is one of the most advanced in the region with high penetration in many product categories. Kenya was reclassified as a middle-income economy in 2015 and this is clearly being evidenced by the shopping habits and rising consumerism. Although traditional retail stores still dominate the fast moving consumer goods sector, supermarkets and hypermarkets are catching up fast,” said Vivek Sunder, P&G managing director.

The report also highlighted that laundry, a sector in which P&G has a vested interest based on its product range, which includes Ariel washing powder and Downy fabric softener, is the biggest and most developed category within the household care segment, with 90 per cent of Kenyans using bar soap while 85 per cent now use powder detergents.

Such insights serve to educate customers, SMEs and policy makers, alike, on the Kenyan retail sector, but they also reinforce P&G’s position as an expert in the industry, thereby building its rapport with consumers and increasing sales.

“White paper marketing works in two ways: it educates the buyer and increases lead generation. The buyer education has two benefits: it builds customer loyalty (they will buy from you instead of your competitors because you are their trusted advisor) and it sets the specification for products in your category,” said Robert W. Bly in his book The White Paper Marketing Handbook.

Besides establishing brand expertise and consumer loyalty in the industry, it also presents an opportunity for brands to improve on their product offering following the findings of the research.

Distinctive

An example of a company that used this strategy successfully is Danish plastic brick manufacturer, LEGO. In 2006 it conducted a study on how boys and girls play with toys. It found out that its market was 90 per cent boys, with only nine per cent of its toys played with by girls.

The reason was that while boys preferred to build a model from beginning to end and play with it once it was completed, girls preferred to pause mid-build and play with their toys as they go.

With this information, LEGO conducted another study on what would make its products more interesting to girls and in January 2012 launched a girls’ line called Friends. It featured five dolls with distinctive names and a storyline with sets that encouraged girls to build karate studios, beauty parlours and veterinary offices.

“The LEGO Friends concept development spanned four years and involved more than 3,500 girls and their mothers around the world to understand what girls who had previously not been attracted to LEGO play, would expect from a construction toy,” said Nanna Ulrich Gudum the LEGO Group vice president, in a statement on its website.

“They let us understand what they really wanted in a LEGO offering that mirrors what the boys experience, but in a way that fulfils their unique desire for redesign and details and combined with realistic themes in community and friendship.”
In the first six months after the LEGO Friends launch, the group’s net profit rose 35 per cent to £213 million and sales rose 24 per cent, with the new toys selling at twice the rate that was expected.

Shifting focus

In the case of P&G, its report revealed that the majority of Kenyan consumers are shifting from using solely bar soap while doing laundry to also using powder detergents because they are available in affordable smaller sachets. With this information, it, too, can increase its product offering to meet the demands of a wider market.

-African Laughter