御前之麵

In my previous post, I mentioned that 御前之麵 is the own brand of Park'n Shop. As it develops, it seems that Park'n shop really want to use this brand to beat 合味道 by giving 御前之麵 plenty of instore exposures and promotions. I visited Park'n Shop yesterday trying to buy my favourite 合味道海鮮麵. This picture shows what I discovered. At the shelf, 御前之麵 is put at the eye level while 合味道 is now sitting at the bottom. Since the two brands look very similar, I was just confused. It is a demonstration that confusion by imitating the market leader is the trick of private labels. Also you see the bottom left corner of the shelf is empty ? It is the space for 合味道海鮮麵, the fastest moving item and it is running out of stock. This is another trick of how retail chains de-market a brand : allocating less shelf space to the market leader. When the popular item runs out, consumers will consider alternatives, i.e. its private label. If you were 合味道, what would you do ? To defend with push strategy ? That is, giving away margins and funds to either Wellocme or Park'n Shop. Or taking the pull strategy by investing in overall branding ? I'm for the latter but either way, something has to be done.

Comments

wildcard said…
I tried 御前之麵 (free trial) and it tasted horrible.

In my opinion, I don't believe people will switch to 御前之麵 because of the lower price.

For the edible products, taste is a critical factor and 御前之麵 simply cannot match the taste of 合味道.

I suggest 合味道 should communicate to the consumers on their taste rather than the convenience (solution to hunger)
12:56 pm
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