Contrary to general opinion, consumers buy on quality, provenance and availability as well as price, according to market research.
Edward Garner, TNS director of research, said despite the supermarket fixation on lowering prices, the premium lines of all the major retailers continued to grow faster than their standard counterparts.
And the double digit year-on-year growth experienced by Waitrose demonstrates a considerable willingness among some consumers to pay for an assurance of quality, he claimed.
Garner pointed to the success of segmentation, as seen in tomatoes, as a key to attracting interest to produce categories.
“It is the premium tomatoes, the tomato-on-the-vine, for instance, that are showing the most growth and these are being sold purely on a provenance and quality platform, and not at all on price,” he said.
Garner assured the produce industry that thanks to the drive towards healthy eating, it is in a far stronger position than other grocery sectors.
“I wouldn’t want to be in crisps at the moment. One of the challenges for the future will be to plug the gaps left in the market by manufacturers of other products,” he said.
Garner said loyalty cards and customer feedback provide supermarkets with a significant insight into consumer habits and preferences. But he emphasised the need for market-wide research, such as that done by TNS, to get a clearer picture.
“Tesco doesn’t know what consumers are doing when they are not in Tesco,” he said.
